532 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW- YORK 



confidence to all those Societies who are considering the subject : 

 go forward and the good sense of the community will sustain 

 you. As one inducement for Agricultural Societies to hold land 

 for permanent show grounds, the Legislature, at its last session 

 passed a law, at the instance of the officers of this Society, to 

 exempt such land from taxation, so long as held for that purpose. 



WILLARD HODGES, President. 



ADDRESS. 



Gov. Hunt apologised to the Society for his inability to pre- 

 pare a written address. After accepting the invitation of the 

 President to appear on this occasion, other engagements had occu- 

 pied his time, and he was compelled to speak without the study 

 and preparation which he would have desired, and which he con- 

 sidered due to the importance of the subject he intended to discuss. 

 He then proceeded to address the Society, and presented a clear 

 exposition of the value and dignity of the agricultural pursuit, 

 in its various aspects and relations. In this connection he traced 

 the moral, intellectual and social condition of the human family, 

 through its successive graduations, from the hunter state to the 

 advanced position that has been reached in modern times, through 

 a wise appropriation, subdivision and cultivation of the soil, upon 

 principles which secure to man the best gifts of nature, as the 

 reward for his industry. In this review it was demonstrated that 

 agriculture is the primary source, not only of the public wealth 

 and prosperity, but of social progress and civilization; that the 

 cultivation of the earth is the pursuit most favorable to the har- 

 monious development of the intellectual faculties; most congenial 

 to the diffusion and sway of pure moral influences. The inves- 

 tigation of nature's laws, as unfolded by the physical sciences 

 and illustrated in the daily experience of the husbandman, imparts 

 vigor and activity to the mind, while the wonderful bounties of 

 the Creator, displayed in all the operations of the vegetable and 

 animal kingdoms, can scarcely fail to warm the heart and inspire 

 exalted sentiments of religious devotion. 



In support of the proposition that agricultural communities 

 are the chosen abode of the family and domestic virtues, a com- 

 parison was drawn between the engrossing cares, the artificial 

 excitements and intense passion for gain, which affects the social 

 condition of our large cities, and the moderate desires, the calm. 



