252 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



and lectures on the sound principles of political 

 justice, contribute and inure to the value of the 

 very property taxed, far beyond the amount of 

 these exactions? If, for example, after the 

 long-sighted policy which has made Paris the 

 queen city and gi-eat atti'action of the world, 

 New-York were, (in addition to the purchase 

 of extensive grounds in the upper suburbs of 

 the city, and the erection there of capacious 

 building for these periodical exhibitions of art 

 and industry,) to engage on liberal salaries, the 

 ablest lecturers (the most profound men that 

 high pay could command) on the fine arts — on 

 medicine and law — on the natural sciences, and 

 the science of Agriculture and mechanical 

 philosophy, and make these lectures free for all 

 who might choose to come and whet (for they 

 could never satiate) theirappetite for knowledge; 

 such a course of proceeding, and such expend- 

 iture, would contribute more than any thing that 

 has ever yet done to the ornament and glory — 

 ay, and to the growth and prosperity of the 

 City ; nor is there a property holder within its 

 precincts who would not have occasion to ap- 

 plaud such measures as contributing more than 

 any individual investment to the value of liis 

 estate. 



It is as much the duty of those entrasted with 

 the municipal administration of a great city to 

 watch over its renown, and to build up for it a 

 character, as it is to guard against fires and rob- 

 beries. 



Instruction profound and gi-atuitous, and the 

 periodical distribution by enlightened and im- 

 partial authoritj', of suitable honors and rewards 

 for excellence in the Arts and Sciences and in 

 Manufactures and the products of Agriculture 

 and Horticulture, would draw within its wall 

 men the most distinguished for learning, and 

 men of redundant wealth from all quarters of 

 the world, just as they are now attracted to ex- 

 pend millions in Paris, until it would come to 

 be esteemed as the surest passport to success, 

 that a man .should have learned his profession 

 or trade in New-York — to have won distinction 

 and prizes in her Schools and Lyceums and ex- 

 hibitions would be accounted and prove in fact 

 a substantial honor. 



IsTot only for the purpose of illustrating our 

 own views, in this particular case, but to give 

 what may convey hints worthy of regard to 

 State and even County Agricultural Societies, 

 we will take room here, once for all, to give a 

 list of the prizes offered in 1845, and 1846, by 

 the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scot- 

 land. We do not give them, in any idea, that 

 precisely the same premiums should be offered 

 here, by the State Agricultural Society, or by 

 the American Institute. Our design is to im- 

 press upon the mind of the reader, and of all 

 enlightened friends of Agriculture, who go for 

 (.'■lO-l 



its improvement and elevation as an intellectual 

 pursuit, ho^v much more conducive to that 

 end, must be the developmentof principles, and 

 tlie information which such piizes must elicit, 

 than a mere spectacle, or congregatiou of things 

 fat or beautiful, without being new, in them- 

 selves, or the fruit of any new discoveiy m science 

 or practice. Of how much more value would 

 be a description of Professor Mapes's discov- 

 eries in the manufacture of a great sta]'le of the 

 country, or a dissertation from Doctor Gardner 

 or Hallowell on the connection of Chemistry 

 with Agriculture, or of Muse on Entomology, 

 or Doctor G. B. Smith on the capacitj' and readi- 

 ness of the country for the production of Silk, 

 or Bogardus on Mechanics, or Uuderhill on the 

 Grape and Wine-making, or French or XVilder 

 on Horticulture, than the mere exhibition of 

 sleek horses or fat swine, with the sight of 

 which all are familiar, and which illustrate no 

 new principle, nor new^ application of old ones 

 — nor imply any extraordinaiy skill in thoir 

 production. 



In giving preference to measui*es which shall 

 be calculated at once to stimulate and provide 

 food for the mind, and thus lead to economical 

 Improvements and useful Inventions, we do 

 not propose by any means to undervalue the ef- 

 fect ofpublic exhibitions of the best resiiHs that 

 have already been obtained in Arts and Manu- 

 factures, or in practical culture. Too many days, 

 and weeks, and years have we devoted to their 

 encouragement — getting them up, we may ven- 

 ture to say, in some places where it had never 

 been attempted, and was deemed impracticable. 

 No! No! We shall make ourselves justly ob- 

 noxious to no such insinuation. We well know 

 that these Annual Exhibitions of a few of the best 

 yet attained of Grains, and Vegetables, and 

 Fowls, and Animals, and Implements, and ^lanu- 

 factures, serve as models for instruction to young 

 Farmers and Mechanics, and to spixr their am- 

 bition to rival them ; but the great desideratum, 

 is to have the 'tnind at work to discover what 

 new means can be brought into play, or how 

 Labor and Materials at command can be more 

 skillfully applied to obtain greater products from 

 given resources. This is the direction, too, which 

 it behooves us to give to the thoughts and the 

 minds of the young American Fanners. Let 

 them be stimulated to think— to think, for exam- 

 ple, as the men must do who bear off the prizes 

 for best Essays on the .subjects here below enu- 

 merated. Butfirstletus aotetheorder inwhich 

 these Premiums are classified by the Highland 

 Agricultural Society of Scotland, unsurpassed 

 perhaps m the world for practical intelligence. 

 There, ihe frst Class is Essays and Reports 



ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE SCIENCE 



AND Practice of Agriculture : II. Agri- 

 cultural Machinery; IIL Improvement 



