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THE GENESEE FAKMEK. 



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Xew Yokk State Agricxjltural Society. — Wo 

 have received many communications complaining 

 of certain acts of the State Agricultural Society, 

 which we have not published, but wa now give 

 one below from one of the oldest and best farmers 

 in Western New Ycrt. Among the things com- 

 plained of is" that those who have premiums 

 awarded them must send to Albany for them, in- 

 stead of receiving payment where the Fair is 

 held. "We think this is good ground for com- 

 plaint. For a month or two after the last Fair 

 not a day passed but from one to half a dozen 

 persons called at our ofSce to know where they 

 could obtain their premiums. These claims were 

 small, ranging from one to five dollars, others 

 were entitled to a copy of Trasisactions. "When 

 informed that they must apply at Albany for their 

 awards, and that the Transactions must be sent to 

 the care of some one on the Express route, and 

 the Express charges paid, a general dissatisfaction 

 was expressed — some declaring they would take 

 no further trouble, but abandon their premiums. 

 We are sorry it is so ; yet we believe that until 

 the present feeling is entirely changed, the State 

 Fair will receive very httle countenance or sup- 

 port from this section of the State. 



Pekmtt me, through the pages of yoiu" useful joiunal, to 

 express my views relative to the management of the New 

 York State Agricultural Society. It appears to me that it 

 does not give the encouragement and patronage to the pro- 

 ducers, that was intended that it should demand which it is 

 capable of doing, provided that it is properly conducted. 



An agricultural society is an r.ssocistion of the producing 

 community, embracing all the productions that are usefuj, 

 •rnameutal, or ingenious; and the primary object of the 

 society is to ehcit facts tested by experience, and circulate 

 practical and useful information, to encourage and stimulate 

 the practical operators to iraprovement, so as to enable 

 them to produce more and a better quality of the earth's 

 productions and all the various articles and commodities 

 produced, so as to lessen their cost and increase their use- 

 fulness to the consumer; and the premiums are for the 

 express puipose of encouraging and stimulating the opera- 

 tors to perfect these great objects. 



The Fair is for the purpose of exhibiting all the multifari- 

 ous productions of industry, art, and skill, in their greatest 

 perfection ; so that all who examine them may judge of 

 their value, and learn by the united experience of the past 

 how to improve and increase then- productions. And it 

 was expected that the statesman, the scientific, the profes- 

 sional, and the wealthy members of community, who wished 

 to promote useful improvement and advance the interests 

 of society, would aUcnd the Eau and unite with the pro- 

 ducers on true principks of equality, so as to exhibit by 

 their actions that the cultivator of the soil, the mechanic, 

 and the artizan, are the bone and sinew, and the supporters 

 of society, — the most useful, and ought to be the most hon- 

 ored portion of community ; — and also to exhibit to the 



active and enterprising youth, that to be a practical opera- 

 tor in any of the useful vocations of life is as l^'norable as 

 any of the heretofore dignified callings. But it was not so 

 at the Stale Fair of 1S51. The most of those dignitaries who 

 attciuled were a privileged order-— invited giu fits and hon- 

 orary officers of the Society. Tbey were provided for and 

 accommodated in extravagant style, at the expense of the 

 Society and the citizens of Kochester ; and were decorated 

 with badges of estimation, as though thoy were of aristo- 

 cratic blood, which spoke in language plainer than tonga« 

 could express, that they, the honored few, were the digni, 

 taries of the realm, and that the producers were inferior 

 beings : and the young men were compelled to see, that to 

 be a practical operator is not the road to honor and dis- 

 tinction. 



It never was intended that the State Fair should be a 

 profiUible festival to a few, at the expense of the producers ; 

 and it is a new principle in the nianagement of agricultural 

 societies, that the ofHccrs and wealthy citizens must be hired 

 to attend the exhibition; and if such must be the case, in 

 future we had better do without them, and appropriate the 

 money that they cost to the encouragement of useful up 

 provement. 



It was not much of an encomium on th« intelligence of 

 our culfivators, that the Society had to send to Illintiis and 

 get a polilician to preach poUtics for the improvement 

 of agi-iculture iu the Empire State. And how much it cost 

 the Society, is best known to those who handle the money. 

 There were a hundred men on the ground, that could have 

 given a better and more practical agricultiu-al address. A 

 Plow-Holueb. 



Trial of Iivn?LEMEyTS. — We call particular at- 

 tention to the Trial of Implements by the N. Y. 

 State Ag. Society, at Geneva, in July, the partic- 

 ulars of which will be found in advertisement. 



Tobacco. — In the March and April numbers of your paper 

 vpu gave directions for the cultivation of tobacco. .As I have 

 always considered the Farmer devoted to the improvement 

 of the soil and the mind, I am at a loss to know how the cul- 

 tivation of tobacco is to improve either, when we see that 

 those who do not use the weed have the best health, to say 

 nothing about the tilth connected with its use, and the 

 number of tobacco users that lament the day they ever 

 learned to use it All this is an unanswerable argument 

 against the use of tobacco as a luxury for man. Then why 

 cultivate it? Why impoverish the sou to reproduce that 

 which makes man filthy and diseased? I am surprised 

 that the Farmer, which for years has been laboring to 

 improve the taste, and induce its readers to engage in the 

 culUire of wholesome and refreshing fruits, beautiful and 

 sweet smelling flowers, should ever have polluted its pages 

 with a description of the culture of tobacco. Had you 

 recommended the culture of Canada thistles or pigeon 

 weed, I could have pardoned you ; for, great as the injuiy 

 of these weeds is to the ftirmer, they can be turned to some 

 use in the end. Sheep ^^ill eat the young thistle when cut 

 and dried as hay, and oil is extracted from the seed of the 

 pigeon weed. I know that a great number of asses use 

 tobacco, but I never knew one that grew fat on it. 



But if you or your correspondent recommends its culture, 

 then give us some directions for its use. Let us know how 

 largo a chew of tobacco'a boy may take without killing him ; 

 or how long he may suck a cigar before it will puke him. 

 Let us have the picture of a pipe and the outline of a tobacco 

 box, to place by the side of an outline of fruit in the Farmer. 



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