professional discourse should be the burthen of his valedictory. 

 Such certainly cannot be that of mine ; and I shall intrude no fur- 

 ther on the important proceedings before you, than to give such pass- 

 ing notice as the subject may demand, to the practical objects connec- 

 ted with your institution. 



A period of seven years, since the present organization of our So- 

 ciety, has passed, and it may be not without interest, and instruction 

 to review the history of the efforts which have been made to attain 

 our present position, and to advert slightly to the progress we have 

 accomplished, as the result of well directed and systematic action to 

 promote organization and improvement in the most neglected, yet 

 most important of all the arts of civilized life. 



Passing unnoticed the occasional efforts of eminent individuals 

 in the last century to excite public attention to agricultural improve- 

 ment, the late transactions of the " Board of Agriculture " of this 

 State are the most prominent, previous to the action of the present 

 Society. In the month of April, 1819, the Legislature passed a law 

 distributing $10,000 per annum to the several counties for the term 

 of two years, for the improvement of agriculture, and confided the 

 trust to a Board of Managers ; and in March, 1820, the Legislature 

 extended the act to a further term of four years. The results of 

 this beneficent measure were immediately felt throughout the entire 

 State, most of the counties forming agricultural societies, and many 

 individuals making spirited exertions in the improvement of their 

 farms, crops, domestic animals, and household manufactures. Under 

 the awakened influence of this law, an agricultural paper was com- 

 menced in the city of Albany, patronized and recommended by the 

 Board of Agriculture, and a considerable circulation in this and the 

 neighboring States obtained. A biennial volume of " Memoirs of the 

 Board of Agriculture," amounting to three in number, was published 



