14 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Jan. 



costs of litigation ; — and this incident with its 

 hardships determined Col. Pratt never to have any 

 thing to do with leaseholds and litigation. Removing 

 in 1803 to Windham, (now Lexington,) he helped 

 his father clear six acres of land for a crop, where 

 there has since grown up a fine grove of young 

 timber. Here during the proper season he was 

 employed in that pleasant occupation, now well 

 understood and successfully practiced, in many parts 

 of the"country, of making maple sugar ; an article 

 then used in the new settlements, and almost the 

 only sugar used in the majority of families. There 

 is still upon the old homestead a stone wall of some 

 fifty rods in length, which Col. P. feels a little pride 

 in having assisted his father to build when quite 

 a boy. 



In a newly settled country, the advantages of 

 of schooling were very few, and Col. Pratt gained 

 part of his education by working out of school for 

 his board. Beginning life by working out upon the 

 farm and in the shop, or tannery — for several seasons 

 in the summer months engaged in mowing at seventy- 

 five cents per day, and in the harvest - field at J|l a 

 day — lie had few of the advantages which young 

 men of the present generation have ; but he mas- 

 tered enough of the English branches to be thorough 

 in business, and his success in life is the - best possible 

 commentary upon the value of his judgment and 

 acquirements. 



From the commencement of his tanning operations 

 in the village which now bears his name, all his 

 energies were necessarily directed to the success of 

 that great enterprise. He saw, however, the impor- 

 tance, in a pecuniary view of using none but the 

 best teams in his multifarious operations of hauling 

 bark and transport of hides and leather to and from 

 the Hudson ; and very soon commenced and steadily 

 improved a fine farm in the outskirts of his village. 

 Here he gave great attention to rearing and improving 

 the best breeds of cattle, and introducing into that 

 region of country the very best bloods of that noble 

 animal, the horse. He has had during some years 

 upon his farm nearly a hundred head of cattle, and 

 }}n< taken a deep interest in all the improvements 

 in the business of farming, believing that upon its 

 success depends in a great degree our national 

 prosperity.. In one single season he erected upon 

 his farm in Greene county, nearly five miles of 

 substantial stone wall. On one of his farms, by a 

 judicious system of draining and manuring, lands 

 which yielded when he took possession of them, 

 only one ton of hay per acre, were brought to an 

 average yield of three tons. This, too, under his 

 own personal labor and direction. Many other 

 improvements of a like character have been the 

 results of his labor as a farmer. And it may be 

 said tiiat in his extensive tanning and building ope- 

 rations he has been indirectly the greatest clearer of 

 lands in this country — having consumed the bark 

 from 1 0,000 acres of forest land, which caused some 

 7.000 acres to be cleared. 



As success crowned his industry in mechanical 

 pursuits, he turned his attention to the improvement 

 of the village which had begun to grow under his 

 liberal auspices. He was successful, and both friends 

 and neighbors also flourished. More than one 

 hundred of tho houses were erected by Col. Pratt 

 himself, and the churches and other public edifices, 

 are evidences of his liberality, all of which received 

 liberal contributions from his own funds, and are 



still as liberally sustained. In the disposition of 

 building lots, he was always liberal to the poor, 

 frequently aiding them in the erection of their 

 dwellings. 



He became early a member of the Greene County 

 Agricultural Society, and boldly advocated the ele- 

 vation of that important class of the community 

 engaged in agriculture — the bone and sinew of our 

 population. His fellow citizens having witnessed 

 his energy, perseverance and public spirit, called him 

 from his retirement to the councils of the nation. 

 His election to Congress took place in 1836, by a 

 majority of more than 2700. While in Congress, 

 he did not forget the interests of the farmer. He 

 originated the proposition which was adopted by 

 Congress, providing for the introduction, through 

 our Consuls and Naval Officers of seeds and plants 

 from foreign countries for gratuitous distribution, and 

 which if carried out, as it deserves to be, will benefit 

 largely our country. Already, through the attention 

 of the Commissioner of Patents, through whose office 

 the distribution takes place, the most salutary results 

 have been secured. 



While in Congress he moved a bill directing that 

 a portion of the Smithsonian Fund be appropriated 

 for the improvement of Agriculture and the Mechanic 

 Arts. To what nobler end could this magnificent 

 gift have been devoted and in what manner could 

 the great mass of our population have been so much 

 benefitted as by this disposition of these funds ? 



In 1845 Col. Pratt, on his election as President 

 of the Agricultural Society of his count}-, delivered 

 an address which evidences the same good sense 

 which marks his career in every other station he has 

 been called upon to occupy. As a plain, practical, 

 useful man, where can we find his superior ? A few 

 extracts from his addresses are the best comments 

 we can give of his peculiar fitness for the station to 

 which he had been called : — 



Gentlemen : — You have chosen for your President one 

 who does not boast the graces of eloquence, and you cannot, 

 and do not expect from him, on this occasion, a display of 

 fine words and happy fancies, but rather a plain statement 

 of true and practical ideas. You are working men, and 

 you have chosen a working man : and it is on this account 

 that your choice confers honor upon me. It was in Congress, 

 where my strength has always been given to the protei 

 and advancement of American labor, that I heard of this 

 new evidence of your kindness and confidence ; and I 

 thank you for it, and for thus affording me another oppor- 

 tunity, and a more honorable place than the Halls of 

 Legislation, to express my high sense of the dignity of those 

 occupations, the interests of which this Society is so happily 

 designed to promote. I need not say to those who know 

 me, that through life I have practiced and encouraged in- 

 dustry, and exerted my influence in every sphere, (according 

 to my ability,) in promoting the true welfare of my fellow 

 men. I have acted upon the principle, and so have you, 

 that it is not mere physical or mental structure that makes 

 the man, in the best sense of the word, but the mode of 

 life. It is not to have a head — a heart — an arm — a human 

 body and soul, that makes one worthy of so noble a name ; 

 but to give the wisdom of that head — the strength of that 

 arm — the combined energy of all the powers to constant 

 and useful industry. The hardworking formers and me- 

 chanics of our country are its glory and strength, their 

 labors have produced wealth ; their honesty, their patriotism 

 and its faithfulness to the institutions of liberty, have given 

 it its standing among nations ; and in times of danger, their 

 strong arms and firm hearts are its safeguard. He is not the 

 Lord of the soil who calls so many acres his own, yet has 

 no power to use them ; but he, rather, who plows and sous, 

 and reaps, and scatters abroad over the country the produi is 

 of the glorious harvest, to feed the hungry and clothe the 

 naked, lie is not master over earth's treasures who has the 

 hare title to a nun? ; hut rather he whose skill and industry 



