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from your lofty hills; and line in beautiful relief your canals and tho- 

 roughfares spectacles of home bred comfort, and independence, illus- 

 trative of true American character. But instead of these, are seen 

 the fantastic villas, and ephemeral erections, which perk up in ambi- 

 tious pretension on the elevated knolls of your noble Hudson, the 

 summer abodes of " fancy farming," only to be abandoned after a 

 few brief occupations in a round of ennui killing pastimes, and voted 

 a bore. Such empty essay at Agricultural life usually ends in the 

 squander of what would, if judiciously invested in a useful farm,, have 

 been a handsome estate, and is sold, perhaps, under the hammer, at a 

 tithe of its cost to some man of better sense, who pulls down the 

 bauble, or changes it into an appearance of propriety, and appropri- 

 ates the soil to useful purposes 



It may be said that these pictures are of extreme cases. So they 

 are. And also that they are subject to many proper exceptions. 

 Very true. But they do exist, and that in far too great numbers, and 

 scarce one of us but knows an instance of their just application 

 Still there is a great class left: the substantial middle class of our 

 farmers, who require for their sons, destined to follow in their own 

 steady course, that necessary kind of education at present unattaina- 

 ble in our country, and which can only be properly given in agricul- 

 tural schools. The young farmer painfully feels the want of advan- 

 tages which these would confer, and the aid of which, he vainly seeks 

 elsewhere; and the question, how are we to accomplish the object, 

 remains to be answered. 



Although keenly alive to the necessity, I, for one, am not prepared 

 to submit to you a definite plan; yet am prepared for prompt, vigor- 

 ous, and decisive action. In the first place, I believe a trial of some 

 kind an experiment, if you please should be made. Our State has 

 not been fearful to make experiments in the establishment of any work, 



