STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 515 



what it ought to be, an occupation not only healthful and enno- 

 bling, but pleasant and attractive to the young; not without its 

 days and hours of recreation and leisure — of opportunities for 

 moral and mental culture. Thus shall your children gather 

 around you to love and honor the' calling of their fathers. 



Your Committee regret that so few farms were entered for pre- 

 miums. Among those entered there are none which, in our 

 judgment, are worthy of the first prize. So long as we have within 

 our bounds numbers of farms every way worthy of the first pre- 

 mium, we are unwilling to award it to a farm falling in any 

 respect short of a very high standard of excellence in thrift, cul- 

 tivation and legitimate improvements. 



We are sorry to say that in our travels we found no farmer who, 

 by a general system of experiments, had developed facts decidedly 

 new or interesting in agricultural science. We say carefully con- 

 ducted experiments — experiments such as housing manure and 

 proving its comparative value over that which goes through tlie 

 usual leaching process — of saving and applying liquid manures, 

 &c., — of testing by experiment certain theories in reference to the 

 manufacture and keeping qualities of butter and cheese. 



What agricultural science needs, are facts and experiments in 

 contradistinction to mere theories. 



The farm to which we have awarded the second premium, Wm. 

 P. Babcock, Champion, is finely situated along the base of the 

 Cliam])ion hills — lias a tasteful and substantial dwelling house, 

 fronted by a beautiful grove of 25 acres, containing a sugar 

 orchard of 500 to 700 trees. The dwelling house is what a farm 

 house should be, of moderate size, simple and convenient in its 

 arrangement, finished and painted throughout. Tlie ceHar is espe- 

 cially worthy of mention. It is divided into two large rooms, 

 neatly plastered, and with a lloor of solid cement, and seemed 

 entirely free from those noisome vapors so common in underground 

 rooms. The farm is largely provided with out-houses, suoli as 

 cheese house, ashery, ice house, shop and tool house, horse barn, 

 grain and cattle barns, &c., all in first-rate repair and neatly and 

 tidily kept. It has a well k<'pt garden and yard, and the grounds 

 are remarkably Ircu fn^ni the unsightly rubbish which is so apt to 

 accumulate about a farmer's door. It is fenced with 280 rods post 

 and rail fence, 680 rods stone wall, and the balance staked and 



