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Agriculture is the most Healthy and Honorable, as it is the most Natural and Useful pursuit of Man. 



VOL. X. 



ROCHESTER, N. T. — JANUARY, 1849. 



NO. I. 



THE FARMER TO ITS PATRONS AND FRI. Sh DS. 



In presenting the first number of our tenth 

 volume, dressed in a New Year's suit, we extend the 

 congratulations of the season to all who have contrib- 

 uted toward furnishing us with an outfit so elegant 

 and becoming. Gratefully appreciating the favor 

 bestowed upon our labors during the past year, we 

 enter upon the duties of the present with increased 

 means and facilities, and a firm determination to 

 render the Genesee Farmer sufficiently valuable to 

 MKRtT an augmentation of its already unparalleled 

 patronage. We desire to render it useful to all who 

 may make its acquaintance — and to extend its useful- 

 ness by increasing the number of its patrons and 

 readers. With this object in view, we have been 

 more liberal in our expenditures than many deem 

 prudent, in order to present a volume eminently 

 worthy of support. The reader can best decide 

 whether we have succeeded, after examining the 

 appearance and contents of this issue, which however 

 is not so complete as we intend to make future num- 

 bers of the volume. 



Relying upon the generosity of that shrewd and 

 well informed portion of the Rural Population of 

 America who read and think as well as work for 

 themselves, we present the Farmer to its friends at 

 the East and West, North and South — not unmindful 

 of the fart that, whatever merit it may possess, or 

 however worthy the cause it seeks to advance, its 

 mission will be comparatively useless without the 

 approval and influence of those who possess clear 

 heads and energetic spirits. It has heretofore been 

 our good .fortune to receive substantial assistance 

 from almost every section of our widely extended 

 country — and may we not bespeak a continuance of 

 the kind offices of our friends, at home and abroad, 

 now that we are using every proper effort to enhance 

 the interest and value of this journal ? We respect- 

 fully solicit all into whose hands this number may 

 fall, — whether subscribers, casual readers or borrow- 

 ers, — to lend us their aid in behalf of its objects, 

 cither by extending its circulation or furnishing 

 appropriate matter for publication in its pages. 



This No. of the Farmer is sent to many persons 

 who are not subscribers. May we not confidently 

 ask those who approve of the character and objects of 

 the work, to lend their kind offices toward giving it a 

 general circulation in their respective localities ? 



OUR COUNTRY -ITS AREA AND RESOURCES. 



As a New Year's Salutation to thee, kind Reader, 

 we desire to hold a little pleasant talk touching the 

 present area, resources and prospects of our common 

 Country ; and indicate some of the interests of Amer- 

 ican Farmers, in shaping and controlling the d • 

 of this young and magnificent Republic. 



A wise and good Providence has imposed on the 

 Freeholders of the United States responsibilities and 

 duties, and conferred corresponding blessings and 

 advantages, which stand out in this the latest age of 

 the world, wholly without a parallel in its long 

 history. We can not rightly judge of the future by 

 the past ; because Human Progress and ever Expand- 

 ing Intellect have made discoveries and inventions, 

 infused into Society a thousand new elements and 

 potent influences, the like of which were i 

 before felt or known. New agents and new causes, 

 as subtile as thought, as diffusive as steam and elec- 

 tricity,, must work out results alike unknown and 

 incomprehensible, to our defective knowledge of men 

 and things. Blind and ignorant as we are, and 

 incapable of looking far into futurity, yet Gfed has 

 made us not only the parents, but the guardians of 

 all woman-bom, who are to succeed us on this planet. 



It is a great thought, a happy discov^rv that a two 

 legged, talking animal has anxj duty to" perform. — 

 But having made the discovery, no matter by what 

 means, its solemn requirements will permit no eva- 

 sion. It is a wonderful and curious fact, that every 

 year's advancement of civilized, christian nations, 

 increases the power of Morality to punish wrong- 

 doers. Witness what is transpiring in the > 

 cultivated nations of Europe. Below all these popu- 

 lar upheavings — this vast intellectual volcano — 

 (In re is an unseen Providence silently evolving some 

 mighty problem in which the tillers of American 

 soil are destined to perform a most honorable and 

 distinguished part. 



Including Texas, New. Mexico, California and 

 Oregon, the United States dow '-over an area ol 

 3,252,574 square miles. Estimated in acres, our 

 freehold estate measures, according to tBe most 

 careful estimates at the Genera) Land Office in 

 Washington, 2.081, 647.:i<i<>. Allow one half for 

 forests and waste lands, and the other moiety will, 

 with skilful tillage, feed and clothe a population two 

 or three times larger than the whole number of 

 human beings now on the globe. What a platform 

 for a republican theatre ! 



