LIST OF PREMIUMS FOR 1847." 555 



occasioa that it can be given, the countenance instead of the ban of associations, 

 gotten up under the influence, be it said, of those very journals, and patronized 

 by the State, expressly for the promotion of the very industry to which they are 

 devoted? For all that is done by the Society of the State, the public would 

 not know that there are men and journals within its limits that have been giv- 

 ing all their time and influence for the cause of Agriculture bciore these Soci- 

 eties came (under their influence) into existence. It is seen that there are some 

 works distributed by the Society, and we doubt not selected with the best intea- 

 tions ; but would not the periodicals we have named above, as premiums, be also 

 quite as useful in the whole cyclopedia of agricultural knowledge which they 

 embrace, as any single work confined to a particular branch or subject — merito- 

 rious and valuable as these works doubtless are ? What have Agricultural Soci- 

 eties in other States a right to infer, when they see the great State Society of 

 New- York carefully excepting to and excluding all agricultural journals from 

 their patronage ? Everybody knows the vast influence of the press, and the incal- 

 culable advantages to all human pursuits, of having cast upon them, by the Press, 

 all the lights that science and experience are constantly bringing forth ; and who 

 can wonder at the comparative advance and prosperity of all other pursuits, oa 

 which so many papers are shedding their light and knowledge, while so few are 

 dedicated to the cause of Agriculture .' Is it not, then, inexplicable that where 

 a State Society, organized for the express purpose of concentrating and difl'usino- 

 a knowledge of all useful facts and discoveries in Agriculture, and while it is, 

 in fact, in other ways and forms, exerting itself to that end — using its funds in 

 the distribution of books published on speculation — should yet^nterdict all pat- 

 ronage to journals got up and conducted at great cost, expressly to collect and 

 publish periodically, exactly and exclusively, the very matter which is supposed 

 to be most precisely adapted to the very ends for which the Society itself was 

 instituted ? — interdicted at least so far as that may be implied by passing them by 

 and refusing them its countenance ? Let it not be supposed that we are seekino- 

 to propitiate support for this journal. If, having liberal publishers at our back, 

 and unrestricted command of whatever can throw light on American husbandry, 

 and thirty years of constant devotion of time and pen, we cannot put forth a work 

 that shall deserve the patronage of the friends of Agriculture, and particularly 

 of Associations with funds to promote it, we shall never complain of its beino- 

 withheld. What we have a right to ask is, that we may escape all hostility, 

 as we sincerely and honestly endeavor not to give cause for it, in any quarter. 

 We take pride in the consciousness that we aim at something higher than the 

 little money that might be made by success at the expense of our colleagues in 

 the good cause. 



In this great " Empire State" the produce of Agriculture is valued at $108,000,- 

 000, while that of her manufactures, commerce, mining, forests and fisheries, 

 united, do not equal that sum. For the benefit of the landed interest, with an 

 aggregate population in the State of near three millions, there are not more 

 than some half dozen agricultural journals published at the cheapest rate, while 

 for other pursuits, all combined less numerous and productive, there are not less 

 than two hundred papers published ; and yet the State Agricultural Society deems 

 it inexpedient to give one dollar of the funds at its command for the distribution 

 of any agricultural knowledge which may happen to take the form of a peri- 

 odical the especial province of which is to watch for and proclaim all valuable 

 discoveries in agricultural philosophy, machinery and practice I 



