64 NEW YORK 



soils : the seasons for planting the rotation of crops, and the 

 vast mass of practical information which enables man to trans 

 form a wilderness into a paradise, is worthy the pursuit of the 

 richest as well as the humblest of the land. 



&quot; Again, the importance of procuring, at all times and at 

 fair prices, prime stock, of the best breeds of cattle, ought not 

 to be omitted, either as an inducement to the Legislature, or 

 as of the first importance to the people. 



&quot; The question is, shall we endow a school, to which many 

 would desire to send their children for the purpose of prepar 

 ing them to depend in future life on one of the most certain, 

 and therefore the most happy of human pursuits ; combining 

 in itself all the elements of constant, regular, and sagacious 

 employment ; and freed from the cares and corroding recol 

 lections, present or past, of the pursuits of a political life ? 



&quot;It is evident that law, divinity, and physic, are over 

 stocked. The pursuits of commerce are laborious, and do 

 not very often yield a return to persons of a moderate fortune 

 and liberal education : as now educated, they are not fitted 

 for farmers ; so tenaciously do those early habits adhere to 

 them, that the attempt at agriculture is generally a failure. 

 Your committee propose to give them a school, to which 

 resort may be had for the cultivation of the mind, and the 

 improvement of the person : Laying the foundation for future 

 toils and pleasures, (for toils in agriculture are pleasures, when 

 conducted to a successful result,) for future health and happi 

 ness, and preparing them to rear up a race, fit to transmit to 

 posterity the liberties we so highly cherish. 



&quot; Your committee do not, in this report, enter into a de 

 tail of the expenditure necessary for this school. That is so 

 fully treated of in the annexed report to the Agricultural So 

 ciety, that they could only repeat what is there stated. But 

 they cannot close without remarking what must be obvious to 

 all, how much skill and science may effect in agricultural 

 pursuits. 



&quot; Is there one of our body who has not seen, and remarked, 

 the difference in adjoining farms, where nature had made no 

 difference in the soil ? It is this practical skill, this science, 

 combined with labour, that they desire, (most anxiously 



