SECRETAKY'S REPORT. ^99 



necessity of having a timely warning of future wants. Further, 

 that it is a measure both expedient and necessary to the legislators 

 to ascertain and study the wants, the resources and the productive 

 forces of the State whose helm they bear — to the jurist and moralist 

 to ponder over those moral phenomena so powerfully developed by 

 abundance or indigence, by the prevalence or declension of agrarian 

 crimes and offences against persons or property — to the merchant, 

 to appreciate the extent of the field he is to operate, to be prompt, 

 energetic and calculating in his speculation, or to be slow in giving 

 credence to vague fears and apprehensions — and to the farmer him- 

 self, to regulate his dealing with his farm and in the market, to 

 learn the productive capabilities of the soil, and to establish the 

 true basis for the adaptation and connection of science with agricul- 

 ture." 



It seems impossible to doubt that an examination into the charac- 

 ter and results of statistical inquiries, will reveal a very great 

 degree of importance as attaching to them, which has thus far been 

 overlooked. Lacking the only reliable basis of action, how can 

 individuals be sure that labor is applied in the best direction, or the 

 State be sure of the most enlightened and correct legislation ? 



Suggestions. — Before concluding this report, (perhaps already 

 too extended,) the opportunity is embraced to offer a few suggestions 

 which it is hoped may serve as a clue to means by which our exist- 

 ing agencies for the elevation and promotion of agriculture may be 

 rendered more efficient ; and first, with regard to the style of offering 

 2}remiiims by agricultural societies. These are sometimes offered for 

 the largest crop — for the fattest animal, &c., and may consequently 

 be awarded to the competitor presenting such, irrespective of the 

 cost at which the result was obtained, and of any valuable result to 

 the public. Might it not be more for the general good to give the 

 premium to one who grows a fair crop at least expense ; say to one 

 who makes sixty bushels of corn, at sixty cents per bushel, rather 

 than to another who makes seventy-five bushels, at eighty cents per 

 bushel ? This course has already been adopted by a number of our 

 societies, and they offer at present more in the following manner : 



