INTRODUCTION. 125 



^istaHt from their respective capitals, and there exhibited the spectacle, no less 

 subUme than novel, of the governments of two communities, represented by their 

 executive and legislative authorities, uniting in mass to exchange felicitations 

 upon the completion of w^oiks which guaranteed domestic tranquillity, ensured 

 their safety from external aggression, and bound their citizens, already allied by 

 <3ommon blood and common language, in perpetual bonds of commercial, polki- 

 cal and social union- 

 Agricultural Improvement did not engage public attention until after the revo- 

 lution. An association was instituted in 1791, for the promotion of agriculture, 

 arts and manufactures, and was incorporated in 1793. Among the founders 

 were John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, George Clinton, Samuel L. Mitchill, Ezra 

 L'Hommedieu, Egbert Benson, John McKesson, Samuel Jones, Thomas Tillot- 

 son, Aquila Giles, Philip Van Cortland, Edward Livingston, John Thurman, 

 Simeon De Witt, Horatio Gates and Richard Varick. The name of De Witt 

 •Clinton appears in the catalogue of 1798. The transactions of the society con- 

 tain many excellent papers, and exhibit the then condition of agriculture. The 

 society found the art of culture without method. No sufficient means of diffus- 

 ing proper intelligence existed. Although the publications of the society had a 

 limited circulation, yet they stimulated inquiry. The low condition in which 

 agriculture was found, when these efforts commenced, may be learned from a 

 report to the British board of agriculture, made by William Strickland, in 1794, 

 after extensive travel in this state. " The course of crops," says he, " is as fol- 

 lows : First year, maize or Indian corn ; second, rye or wheat, succeeded im- 

 mediately by buckwheat, which stands for seed ; third, flax or oats, or a mixed 

 crop ; then a repetition of the same thing, as long as the land will bear any thing, 

 after which it is laid by without seed for old field : Or, burn the woods, (that is, 

 clear the land from timber;) then, first, wheat, second, rye, then, maize for four or 

 five years, or as long as it will grow ; then, lay it by, and begin on fresh wood 

 land ; Or, burn the woods ; then wheat four or five years ; then one or two of 

 maize, or as long as it will grow ; then lay by four or five years for old field, 



