1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



767 



hereby apprO[)riatecl, as its iipportance may seem to 

 justify. 



^ 13. That the treasurer of the state shall annually 

 pay on the warrant ol" the' comptroller to the said State 

 Board of AgricuUnre, tlie sum of five thousand dollars, 

 to enable them lo pay the aforesaid premiums; to pur- 

 Gli.ise and distribute such useful seeds as they may 

 doem proper; to publish an annual v-.lume; and to de- 

 fray such other necessary expenses to promote the ob- 

 ject of this act, as are not otherwise provided for; and 

 the said board shall annually account with the comp- 

 ti'oller for the expenditure of this money. 



§ 14. That the presidents of the several county so- 

 cieties, or delegates to be chosen by them annually for 

 the purpose, shall be ex-officio members of the New 

 York State Agricultural Society. 



§ 15. The Board of Agriculture, constituted as afore- 

 said, shall have the ahtiiority in their discretion, to 

 award premiums ibr the production of extraordinary 

 and valuable crops o. grain; beet root, and sugar manu- 

 factured from tne same; mulberry orchards, and silk 

 manufactured therefrom; or any other agricultural or 

 horticultural productions or household manufactures, 

 which ill their view sliall by such encouragement add 

 to the productive wealth of the country; not exceeding, 

 however, in amount, the sum of five thousand dollars 

 hereby placed in their hands. 



§ 16. The collectors of taxes in the several towns 

 in the state of New York are hereby required, while 

 collecting the same, to ascertain, as near as may be 

 in their power, the number of bushels of grain of dif- 

 ferent kinds, of esculent roots, and of hay produced 

 during the current year in their respective towns, and 

 the number of horses, cattle, sheep and swine then in 

 existence, and report such amount to the Board of Ag- 

 ric!i!ture, in the city of Albany, on or before the first 

 day of January in each and every year hereafter. 

 Such report to be directed to "The State Board of Ag- 

 riculture, Albany." 



§ 17, The sum of twenty-five thousand dollars ap- 

 propriated by this act shall be taken from the income 

 of the surplus fund deposited with the state of New- 

 York by the United- States. 



§ 18. The first Board of Agriculture shall consist of 

 who are hereby appointed for the 

 term of five years aforesaid, and all vacancies that' 

 may occur in said board shall be filled by joint ballot 

 oi both houses of the legislature at their annual session, 

 to be held by the incumbents for the same period of 

 time. 



§ 19. The State Board of Agriculture shall procure of 

 the agricultural periodicals entitled 'The Cultivator,' 

 and 'The Montlily Genesee Farmer,' as many copies 

 of each, commencing with the current volumes, as 

 there are common school districts in the state, and shall 

 cause as many copies of each to be addressed to the 

 school commissioners of each town as there shall be such 

 school districts in the same; and it shall be the duty of 

 school commissioners to cause the said papers to be 

 promptly distributed, one copy of each to the several 

 ■schools, and of the trustees of said school districts to 

 have the same properly taken care of, and to be used 

 as occasional class books in said schools. 



§ 20. The comptroller shall, on the requisition of the 

 said Board of Agriculture, draw his warrant on the 

 treasury of the state for the payment to each of the 

 proprietors of the said agricultural papers for the num- 

 ber of copies so delivered, estimating each of them at 

 fifty cents per copy; such payment to be made from the 

 common school fund. 



For the Farmers' Register. 

 COr/IMERCIAIj REPORT. 



We cannot felicitate our readers on a prosper- 

 •OU3 state of commercial art'air.s. The. diificultier' 

 which have long prevailed in internal exchanges 



and money mtitters j;eneraliy, are not alleviated. 

 The couniry is, infiict, without acurrency. There 

 is, to be sure, a local ami very diminished circula- 

 tion of the noies of slate baniss, which is circum- 

 scribed within llie liniils of each stale; but even 

 this local currency has been so much contracted 

 sincethe suspension of specie payments, as to be 

 inadequate 10 ihe trade of the couniry; and proof 

 of the actual deficiency of a circulatiiio- meilium, 

 may be found in the present state of i(>reio-n ex- 

 changes. Bills on London can be purchased at 

 so low a rale, (;I;H.70 per £ sterling;) as to leave 

 a profit on ihe importation of specie, ahhough the 

 very bank notes with which the hills arc purchas- 

 ed, are 2 to 4 [)er cent belitio the value of specie. 

 It is said that some of the northern banks are re- 

 mitting hilis of exchange, lor the purpose of filling 

 their vaults by importation of the precious meiais; 

 and this course will facilitate the resimipiion of 

 specie payuienls, if the general government will 

 remove the obstacles which its measures have 

 created. 



The space in our circulation vvhii-h silver for- 

 merly occupied, is now filled with an il!eo;al emis- 

 sion of private bills of various small denomina- 

 tions, down to "six cents," issued by whoever 

 chooses to take the responsibility; and the neces- 

 sities^f the community compel them ro aid in this 

 violation of the law, by giving free circulation to 

 these "shin-plasters," because there is no other 

 medium. The legislature may continue to enact 

 penal statutes, but will find that "necessity has no 

 law." It is by a repeal of unwise statutes, and 

 not by the enactment of others, that the evil is to 

 be remedied. So long as the general government 

 requires her debtors to pay in specie, even when 

 unable to pay her creditors in the same coin, there 

 is little hope of our affairs being restored to order. 



Exchangt^s between New York and other places, 

 are at the tblfbwinfr rales of discount, viz :•— Bos- 

 ton, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Virginia, 2| per 

 cent: North and South Carolina, and Georgia, 3^; 

 Nevv Orleans, 4i; Mobile, 10. 



Bank notes of the same states (as being of more 

 hazardous transmission than bills of exchange,) 

 are at a still greater discount. Those of Tennes- 

 see at 15, and of Mississippi, at 20 per cent.; an 

 equalization of the currency which has not existed 

 since 1816 ! 



The staple products of the country have de- 

 clined since the commencement of the year. 

 Cotton may now be quoted (in Petershnr<.',) 8-^- to 

 10 cents, dull, which is nearly as high as the New- 

 York market for similar qualities. Flour, ^7^ to 

 ^7i Tobacco, $3 to ^7^ 



The receipts and exports of cotton since the 1st 

 of January, have been larire beyond precedent. 

 The following is a comparative statement in round 

 numbers: 



Receipts. Jan\i 1, 1838. Febr\j 20, 1838 



N. Orleans, 1(59,000 bales 360,000 



Mobile, 60,200 186,000 



Florida, 10,000 37,000 



Geor^Tia, 97,800 170,000 



S. Carolina, 100,000 167,000 



N. Carolina, 3,700 10,000 



Viro-inia, 9.300 20.000 



4.50,000 



Same dates mlR37,f.55,000 



950,000 

 735,000 



