Vol 6. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



153 



through the instrumentality of your valuable yet 

 unassuming journal, together with the countenance 

 bestowed by the State, the gubj^ct of agriculture is 

 acquiring a more prominent position among the sub- 

 jects of national interest than formerly* 



Our county Fairs arc tolerably well attended, and 

 the number of competitors at our plowing matches 

 is respectable, and in addition, I understand that the 

 towns of Pavilion and Covington, are forming an Ag- 

 ricultural Society, auxiliary to the county Society, 

 which I have no doubt the enterprizing inhabitants 

 of these sister towns will make both pleasing and 

 profitable. 



And I further hope that you will from time to 

 time publish the fruits of your labor, in your valua- 

 ble journal, through which medium your humane 

 exertions are beginning to be extensively realized. 

 It is my opinion as a practical farmer, that the more 

 immediate your approach, owing to your position, 

 the greater "the effect : and were it within your pow- 

 er to spend in each neighborhood, time, sufficient 

 to ascertain the nature of the soil, their crops, til- 

 lage, and treatment of their animals, it would very 

 much increase your usefulness, as your advice might 

 be the means of placing many in a better track. 



When in our county, I hope you will not forg,°t, 

 to visit Mr. Beck, of Sheldon. We consider him an 

 honor and a great acquisition to this county; he is 

 from Scotland, and brought with him the practical 

 experience of that country, and has, with his judi- 

 cious management, more than doubled the products 

 of his farm in seven years. 



I am convinced that you, with all lovers of beauty 

 and synmietry, will be delighted to see his splendid 

 stock of Devon Cattle: they are so uniform in color 

 and appearance, that it is difficult to distinguish the 

 one from the other. I think a sight of his stock will 

 convince the unbiased, that the complaint of "dimin- 

 utive size and poor milkers," has been niade for etfect. 



On Tuesday the 10th inst., his splendid bull 

 " Wallace," three years old, with two heifers, pass- 

 ed through Buffalo on their way to Michigan, and 

 ■were very much admired by all who saw them, and 

 it was admitted b}' some of the best judges of stock, 

 that they could not be surpassed by any in the Union. 



That beautiful cow and calf which our distin- 

 guished fellow laborer in the good cause, L. F. Allen, 

 exhibited at the State fair at Poughkeepsie in 1844, 

 and which he sold to D. W. Colt, Es^i. of New Jer- 

 sey, were from Mr. Beck's stock. 



It is to be hoped the time will soon come when 

 every farmer in Western New-York at least, will 

 become convinced of his true int rest and his duty to 

 posterity, and become a supporter and a contributor 

 to our Agricultural journals; we will then advance 

 with rapid strides. Your most obt. servant, 



AGRICULTOR. 



Wyoming County, June 17, 1845. 



CHAIR OF AGRICULTURE. 



The officers of the Agricultural Society for this 

 District, have determined upon petitioning the Leg- 

 islature for the insertion of a clause, in the new 

 University Bill, for the establishment of a Profess- 

 orship of Agricultural Chemistry ; and also for an 

 apportionment of funds to be applied in procuring a 

 Model Farm in each district. Seeing that the suc- 

 cessful cultivation of the soil is a matter of para- 

 mount interest to all, inasmuch as its products are 

 necessarily looked upon as a permanent means of 

 meeting our imports, and being as well the employ- 



ment of the bulk of our population, a denial of the first 

 request can scarcely be anticipated ; should not the 

 Legislature accede to the second, the Model Farms 

 will have to be established by the exertions of the 

 individual societies— -for instance, as joint stock af- 

 fairs ; there are surely a sufficient number of individ- 

 uals in each district willing to subscribe £5 or £10 

 each for such a purpose. — St. Catharine's {C. Jf.,) 

 Journal. 



The project for starting a model farm, combining 

 a school for teaching all important branches of an 

 English education, together with a sufficient knowl- 

 edge of the inductive sciences to enable the youth in- 

 tended for farmers to investigate all the principles of 

 the vegetable and animal economy of nature, and the 

 actual experimental application of their knowledge 

 to the business of their calling, has long been a sub- 

 ject of intense interest with many enlightened agri- 

 cultural gentlemen of this State. Our talented 

 friend, Doct. Dan'l. Lee, has several times brought 

 the subject before the Legislature of this State, 

 and an act was passed, authorizing the constitu- 

 tion of such an establishment ; but it proved but a 

 "barren sceptre," as no funds were provided for 

 sustaining or commencing such an Institution. 



A project is now on foot to make a joint stock 

 concern for Western New York, the shares to be 

 $100, and the dividends to be 20 per cent annually, 

 payable in tuition. If properly managed, I can con- 

 ceive of no course more desirable for our youth, than 

 the combination of study with actual experiments in 

 preparing and cropping the soil. One half of the 

 time devoted to study, and the other to the cares 

 and management of certain portions of land, and its 

 crops set off to his charge, and the experimental ap- 

 plications of manures, and the difTerent manner of 

 the various processes of tillage, actually testing all 

 the projects and nostrums which are so rife in these 

 go-a-head times. If, Mr. Editor, some energetic and 

 intelligent person would undertake this project in 

 earnest, I think it could not fail of success, and it 

 must result in becominsr an agent of great and last- 

 ing benefit to that trade of all trades the 



FARMER. 



For the Genesee Farmer. 



THE AGRICULTURAL STATE FAIR AT 

 UTICA. 



Not having heard the premiums declared off, I can 

 only give a hasty improvisation of what I saw and 

 heard at the great fair at Utica. 



Arrived Wednesday, at 3 A. M., went with sun- 

 dry others, male and female, to M'Gregor's, a fine 

 house near the Rail Road; at this time filled with 

 sleepers, from garret to basement story ; some on 

 beds, some on carpets, others on the painted canvass 

 covered floor of the dining room : the landlord had 

 gone to bed, f&gged ; his poUte sub regretted that 

 he could not give, even the ladisB, a place to sleep. 

 As is generally the case, the ladies made less ado 

 at their fate than their male friends. Being used to 

 all sorts of life, T had only to lean back in a chair to 

 forget all sympathy for the spoiled ones, of what fools 

 call good fortune. 



A good breakfast, with a very large, and s^'arp set 

 company here, was not, as the Spaniard says, "(fos 

 sopas," but two breads, denoting the Yankee char- 

 acter of the house, such jonneycake as even a Rhode 

 Islander might envy, and coiTee that was not roast- 

 ed under the burning ruins of Broad street; but such 

 was the paucity of waiters, that the over modest got 



