Vol. XIII. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y., NOVEMBER, 1852. 



No. XL 



THE FUTURE OF THE GENESEE FARMER. 



One more number completes the present volume of tlie Genesee Farmer, and ends our 

 labors for the year 1852. AVe have spared neither labor nor expense to make the 

 monthly visits of our journal interesting and profitable to our numerous readers. 

 Grateful to its numerous friends for the unparalleled fevor with which it has been every- 

 where received, our devotion to their best interests shall prove how sincerely we thank 

 them, and appreciate all their kindness. We never had any private business to promote 

 by writing for the agricultural press, either north, south, or at the federal metropolis ; 

 and therefore we may say with equal truth and sincerity, that the interests of our 

 readers are our interests ; and that we desire no other. 



Agriculture and Horticulture are great and enduring interests ; they are susceptible 

 of large anJ indefinite improvement. To effect this, we have sought to unite the advo- 

 cates of agricultural progress in all the States into one national body, that something 

 may be done in our lifetime in behalf of agricultural text-books, experimental farms, 

 schools, and rui-al science, worthy of a republic in which farmers constitute the ruling 

 majority. But every step we have taken that appeared likely to improve anything, has 

 encountered opposition from the ignorant, the selfish, and the prejudiced. If public 

 opinion be not yet ripe to sustain a national agricultural Society, nor one experimental 

 farm, agricultural or horticultural school, in America, the fault is not ours ; nor shall 

 we abate our humble efibrts to bring public opinion up to that degree of enlightenment 

 which will regard the science of agriculture as not less worthy of colleges, museums, 

 professional libraries, laboratories, and lecture rooms, than the science of medicine. 



In a field so broad as the United States, it is not always easy to determine at what 

 point one's services will be most useful to an interest that employs over five thousand 

 million dollars capital, and labor in proportion. Such an interest demands a very com- 

 prehensive and perfect organization, having its head at Washington, and its working 

 associates in every State and Territory in the Union, for the collection and difi'usion of 

 useful knowledge. Our sympathies are with all sincere and active friends of improve- 

 ment, no matter where they reside ; and we can not but believe that these noble spirits 

 vnW ere long co-operate most effectively in all the States, to increase the learning, culti- 

 vate the taste, improve the practice, and enlarge the views and science of American 

 farmers. As a medium of communication between those who believe in rural instruc- 

 tion, and desire to improve, the Genesee Farmer oflfers many and peculiar advantages. 

 It is published in a farming region sufficiently advanced to sustain an agricultural jour- 

 nal years before the Albany Cultivator was started, at twenty-five cents per annum. In 

 successful agriculture, horticulture, and nurseries. Western New York has attained a 

 desfree of maturitv and excellence which we have souMit in vain elsewhere on this con- 



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