FARMERS' REGISTER 



17S 



a law to organise a Board of Agriculture, to con- 

 sist oC eigfit memberg, one from each Senate 

 District, with an appropriation of ,^5,000, Tor the 

 use ofsuch Board, to be expended in such manner 

 as it may deem most iil<ely to advance the interests 

 ofagriculture. 



Messrs. Duane, Walsh, Van Bergen, Beekman 

 and Tiiclvcr, were appointed a committee to me- 

 morialize the Legislature, pursuant to the above 

 resolution. 



On motion ofJVlr. C. Bergen, of Kings, 



Hesolvcd,, Thnt as nutnerous and incontrovertible 

 evidence has been given the past year, of the 

 practicability in tliis country to produce silk, to 

 a great and advantageous extent, as evidenced by 

 exhibitions at the American Institute, in the city 

 of New- York, as well as elsewhere; and as the 

 importations for the past, in that article, clearly 

 exhibit that it is one of the greatest drains of our 

 wealth and probably the greatest means of ex- 

 tracting specie from our country — and as it is hiiihly 

 important for the American people to prevent these 

 evils, it is therefore recommended that some action 

 should be had by the Legislature now in session, 

 to do something more efl'ectually to encourage the 

 production of this elegant article, either by directly 

 otliering a proper stimulus to exertion, or bypass- 

 ing resolutions requesting congress to impose 

 suitable duties, that will afford ample protection to 

 those engaged in this branch of agriculture. 



/?eso/i'ed. That as the American Institute, of the 

 city of New- York, has, ever since its existence, 

 greatly evinced its usefulness and benefits to the 

 interest of agriculture, as well as to mechanical skill 

 and the arts, it is thereibre recommended that this 

 convention respectiully suggest to the Legislature 

 the propriety of making, at least, a small appro- 

 priation to that very useful institution — without 

 which its existence must either be abandoned, or 

 its benefits and usefulne^ very much diminished. 



Mr. JVlorris, of Westchester, from the committee 

 to whom was referred the resolution relative to the 

 Smithsonian bequest, reported the following resolu- 

 tion, which was adopted : 



Resolved, That a committee be appointed to 

 procure the passage of a resolution by the senate 

 and assembly of this state, requesting congress to 

 appropriate a portion of the Smithsonian bequest 

 to the establishment of an agricultural school, in 

 the city of Washington. 



Messrs. J. B. Nott and C. E. Clarke, were ap- 

 pointed said committee. 



Mr. Bergen, of Kings, offered the following 

 resolution, which was adopted, and Messrs. T. B. 

 Wakeman of New- York, C. Bergen and Gen. 

 .lohnson of Kings, P. Potter of Dutchess J. J. 

 V^iele of Rensselaer, and A. Van Bergen of Greene 

 were appointed a committee to prepare the report, 

 Resolved, That a committee of six be appointed 

 to prepare a report on the future prospects of agri- 

 culture, manufactures and the mechanic arts of 

 this state, to be illustrated by such statistics as the 

 committee may deem appropriate, and that the 

 report, when completed, he published in the Culti- 

 vator and the Journal of the American Institute. 



THE EXTItRPATION OF WEEDS. 



Frnra tlic Cultivator. 



It may be doubted if any branch of agriculture, 

 is more indifferently conducted in this land, than 

 the extirpation of loeeds. In the corn field and in 

 the potato patch indeed, the hoe may perform its 

 part tolerably well ; and in the summer fallow, 

 the plough turns over and smothers these noxious 

 incumbrances ; hut traces of that vigilance which 

 should mark their first encroachment, and of that 

 perseverance which should return to its task 

 till the work of destruction is completed — are too 

 rare amongst us. How many honorable excep- 

 tions to this charge of negligence, can be found on 

 a hundred adjoining fi^rms'? We put this ques- 

 tion vvithout rigidly insisting on the rule, that 

 " good farmers suffer nothing to grow but their 

 crops." 



Let a careful observer traverse the country in 

 sunnner, and he will find, in many places, the St. 

 John's wort extending its yellow bloom over the 

 fields and meadows without one effort to check its 

 progress. Here the 'wild teasel is slowly advan- 

 cing without interruption li-om the road side into 

 the pastures ; and there the sulphur blossoms of the 

 field mustard amongst the oats and barley, show 

 it already m possession, far and wide. The quitch 

 gross, the dock, the ox-eye daisy, the hxtrse-thistle, 

 the mullein, the milk weed, the yarrow, and others of 

 less importance — if they do not, like a neighbor's 

 pigs and geese, devour the pasture, at least they oc- 

 cupy the space where grass ought to grow, and 

 rob it of the nutriment which ought to increase its 

 growth. We are mistaken, if more loss is not 

 sustained from vegetable, then from animal, intru- 

 ders. 



The above list is long, but we have not yet done. 

 The bvrdoc, ihe tory weed, and the cockle bur, are 

 most injurious to wool ; and the stein kraut, (red 

 root, or pigeon weed,) and biennial chamomile 

 seem to poison the growing wheat. The two last 

 of those weeds come in so slily, or rather without 

 observation, that the farmer is sometimes taken by 

 surprise when he beholds the ruin of his crop. 



There is one weed, however, so formidable, that 

 all others, bad as they are, seem to shrink into in- 

 significance before it. This is the Canada tliistle 

 -^"the cursed thistle" of England, and if any 

 plant can deserve such a name, this is the one. It 

 is in a fair way to cost us more than the Florida 

 war — but description would be useless to those 

 who have marked its progress in spreading over 

 the fields, or whose fingers have been pricked by- 

 it when securing their crops. 



The Canada thistle effijcted a lodgement in this 

 town, more than 35 years ago ; but its progress 

 within the last five years has been more rapid 

 than at any former period. Fields that bad 

 not been previously encumbered with it, have had 

 of late so many new seedlings, that the land is 

 rendered almost unfit to be sown with wheat ; and 

 without much perseverance it will be entirely so in 

 a few years. 



In pastures and meadows, indeed, the progress 

 of th.is thistle is comparatively slow, being checked 

 by the grass and the compactness of the soil ; but 

 when the ground has been ploughed for oats, spring 

 wheat, and barley, or even for a summer fallow, 

 if not more than three times it spreads out in every 

 1 direction ; :ind a patch, that might be covered with 



