AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 9 



seen tlio lialls crowded with women and children. The scene of 

 horror that would have ensued in the hist contingency, exceeds 

 all imagination. 



The exhibition of fat beeves, sheep, swine, and poultry, inten- 

 ded to have been held in the Crystal Palace in the month of 

 December, was necessarily transferred to a place of less conveni- 

 ence, known as " The New York Tattersalls."' The exhibition 

 was, notwithstanding, fine and interesting, although it did not 

 entirely fulfill the anticipations of the board of managers and the 

 committee of agriculture. 



Severe as has been the double loss inflicted upon the Institute, 

 in tlie funds expended in preparation, and in a place of exhibi- 

 tion, it is not destitute of resources. By an economic use of these 

 it hopes to be able to resume its regular exhibitions. In the 

 meantime, it continues its labors in other directions. A Commit- 

 tee on Manufactures, Science and Arts, and a Committee of Agri- 

 culture, are ready at all times to investigate and report upon all 

 discoveries and improvements which may be presented to them. 



The Farmers' Club of the Institute, continues its useful labors, 

 and the Polytechnic Association discusses the processes of the 

 mechanical and chemical arts. 



A library, now consisting of 9,000 volumes, is open to the mem- 

 bers of the Institute, and to strangers, while the admission to 

 membership is so easy, that no resident of the city can be said to 

 be excluded from its privileges. The right of taking out volumes 

 for more careful study is not denied ; and the daily, weekly and 

 monthly publications, lie upon the tables. 



The American Institute has, in its previous annual reports, con- 

 fined itself to a simple exposition of its acts. It has left to the 

 public the task of developing, from its simple and unpretending 

 statements, the amount of benefit it has conferred upon the city 

 and upon the State, 



Crippled in its resources, by an unavoidable misfortune, it may 

 not be improper that it should urge its desires to public aid. 



Leaving out of view all general subjects, it is believed that the 

 Institute may, with confidence, claim that through its fairs it has 

 been the chief instrument l)y which the great wholesale trade in 

 domestic manufactures has been centered in New York; that, by 

 the hundreds of thousands of strangers it has attracted to its 

 exhibitions, it has increased the value of real estate, promoted 

 many branches of industry, and increased the receipts upon all 

 converging lines of internal communication. 



