260 



NEW ENGLANt) FARMER. 



[March 11, 



^arCcultural SltJUrcss. 



The following extracts from an Address delivered be- 

 fore the Jefferson county (N.Y.) Agricultural Society, 

 at their Annual Fair in 1824, are worthy cf the at- 

 tion of American farmers. They were written by a 

 gentleman, James Le Ray De Chaumont, who is, 

 we believe, a native of France, but seems solicitous 

 for the prosperity of his adopted country. His inform- 

 ation is derived from the husbandry of Europe as well 

 as that of the United States. But he has been a resi- 

 dent in this country long enough to know how to 

 adapt his knowledge and his remarks to our country, 

 and the best interests of its inhabitants. 



My first object, and I must in canJor say the 

 one which appears to me the most important 

 and the most urgent, is not only to slate to you 

 a part of the great benefits which have been 

 received from the institution of Ai;r)cultural 

 Societies: but to persuade you tliat if the Slate 

 was not to continue the bounties granted by its 

 former act to Agricultural Societies, it is never- 

 theless liighly your interest to continue our as- 

 sociation. Religion, morality, honour, your wel- 

 fare require it. Indeed the multi|ilied and 

 most valuable advantages resulting from our 

 Agricultural Society are so evident and so much 

 under your own eyes, that I would deem it al- 

 most an injury ofl'ered to your understiiiuling to 

 descant at large upon tliem, did ! not cous-ider 

 how great must be the influence produced by 

 the apparent indifference of the majority of the 

 representatives of the Slate towards encourag- 

 ing the Agricultural Societies, and that many 

 modestly conclude that they must follow such an 

 example. But consider that a much greater in- 

 difference, nay a real, steady, and poiverful op- 

 position has been made, and continued for years 

 to the most glorious and beneficial undertaking 

 that any country could adopt. Depositors of the 

 treasures and of the most important interests of 

 the State, the Legislalure wanted a great deal ol 

 conviction to sanction a meas\ire which, though 

 recommended and supported by some of the most 

 distinguished characters of the Slate, required 

 such immense sums that before authorising the 

 great work, It appeared necessary to have years 

 to examine and reflect upon it. The patriotism 

 and good sense of the people triumphed at last, 

 and now few Indeed are those who are not per- 

 suaded Ihat nothing more advantageous to its 

 present ami future interests, and at the same 

 time more redundant to the honor of the state, 

 could have been undertaken. They are far 

 from regretting, they rejoice and glory in the 

 expenditure of 5 or 6,000,000 of dollars. 



What a sum, gentlemen, compared with the 

 small appropriation of a few thousand dollars 

 for the encouragement of the .Agricultural and 

 manufacturing interests ! And 1 do not hesitate 

 to say that proportionally the annual and constant 

 employment of that sum, with proper restric- 

 tions and regulations will be more profitable to 

 the state in a financial point of view than thai 

 of the live or six millions. Neither will it yield 

 to Ibis in the promotion and improvement of 

 moral habits and virtues, which are the most 

 solid basis of the welfare and happiness of the 

 inhabitants of any state. 



Let us then be patient and persevering, and 

 not prove to the legislature the usefulness of our 

 Society by the evils which might result from our 



abandonment of it, but by the success of the con- 

 tinuation. We began without the help of the 

 State, and we are certainly more able to do with- 

 out it for continuing, than we were for estab- 

 lishing the Society. 



However, it must be hoped Ihat the enlight- 

 ened people of New York will not suffer one of 

 the most advantageous, one of the most honora- 

 ble bills ever enacted by their Representatives, 

 to die by its own limitation. If you grant that 

 any, even the smallest advantage, lias resulted 

 from this appropriation, consider how trifling, 

 how very diminutive, is the burden to every 

 individual. If you take this county for example, 

 you will find that the annual raising of g200, 

 which is allotled to it, would not tax each in- 

 habitant with much more than one half a cent ! 

 And are we so near the miseralile condition of 

 some countries, whose beggars make a grer.t 

 j)roportion of lh<<:r population, that we speak 

 seriously of an economy of live mills a year on 

 each member of this great slate for a useful and 

 vast purpose ? 



Moreover, it would not be diflicult with a 

 candid investigation of the effects of those So- 

 cieties upon the increase of taxable property, 

 either landed or personal, to find that the Stale 

 receives from that very source more than it 

 gives to it, and of course that it costs nothing in 

 the last rusiilt to the inhabitants; but, on the 

 contrary, produces to the whole community a 

 benefit which cannot but increase greatly wilh 

 proper ma:::i<]ement. 



Bill it will be said, where is the utility ol 

 these Societies ? Where is the good they hare 



done ? 



Where is llie good they have done ! ! Gen- 

 tlemen, take a ride through this county. Ask 

 your viewing committee, — ask any intelligenl 

 and observing farmer. They will tell you thai 

 although much remains to be done, a great deal 

 has already been effected. Indec-d such is the 

 moral influence of an institution like this, which 

 operates upon such vast masses of people and ol 

 property, that when yon come to set down coolly 

 and attempt to reduce to calculation sone of the 

 benefits resulting to the community, with all the 

 allowances you can make, you arrive it a con- 

 clusion which baffles even the efforts o;' imagi- 

 nation, whether we look to the improvement 

 on agricultural or the manufacturing imple- 

 ments, on the different breeds of animals, seeds, 

 machines, &c. 



Even the advantages which may be called 

 collateral are immense, but they are much more 

 difficult to calculate. For instance, your late 

 first Vice President, who has been so nset'ul to 

 this Society, and whose prolonged absence we 

 have to lament, has made a calculation in his 

 address, which 1 have not heard contradicted. 

 He computes ihat in thg space of 50 years the 

 saving lo this county in erecting stone instead 

 of wooden buildings could amount to 10,000,000 

 of dollars. We cannot doubt that the excite- 

 ment, the emulation, llie increase of properly 

 produced by our Agricultural Societies will be 

 one of the causes which will promote and help 

 such an improvement, yet how can we form an 

 estimate of what is lo be justly attributed lo the 

 Society. You could not help admiring such a 

 result and similar ones if the probable benefits 

 could be brought correctly to the test of calcu- 

 lation. Indeed you will already find them im- 



mense, if you admit for the basis of them only 

 one half of the benefit procured by some of the 

 Societies as you will soon notice in the extracts 

 of letters which will be read to you. The 

 characters of their authors claim certainly from 

 us a great confidence. Really, the benefits of 

 such an institution as this are so varied, its dis- 

 advantages are so lew, if there are any which 

 with proper attention can properly be called so, 

 that a part of these benefits alone would be 

 sufiicient to recommend it to the wisdom of an 

 enlightened people. I believe I should not go 

 too far if I should say that if it had no other 

 good than to unite us, as we are here, one day 

 in the year, the institution ought to subsist. As 

 this proposition may appear at first sight exag- 

 gerated, let us consider our social condition and 

 the influence upon it of such a meeting. We 

 are in this county divided, and I am sorry to say, 

 sometimes widely and strongly, by political par- 

 ties; we are divided also, but thanks to a hea- 

 venly liberality, mostly by forms, by a multi- 

 plicity of religious creeds. 



This Agricultural meeting is the only onf> in 

 which the people of this county can unite »vilh 

 one interest and one heart. Is this not a sufli- 

 cienl reason for its continuance ? Who has not 

 I'ell here a pleasure at seeing an old friend (rom 

 whim distance or business had separated him 

 perhaps a whole year ; or making an acquaintance 

 which will be a source of comfort hereafter ; or 

 lia\ingan opportunity, and perchance an obliga- 

 tion, to sjieak to oiie whom ?ome reason, per- 

 haps after all very foolish, had alienated. I 

 liave here considered this meeting only under 

 ||s social benefits, and they alone would be suf- 

 ficient. 'The others have, 1 believe, been al- 

 ready remarked ; and every one ofyou will, for 

 instance, admit that tha communication of in- 

 formation and results of experiments which it 

 permits, are among the greatest of those. For 

 my part, gentlemen, the pleasure, the benefit 

 which 1 have derived from these national jubi- 

 lees are such, that in the hope they may have 

 the same effect u[)on others, I would not regret 

 all my exertions m this cause, and would still 

 continue lo do all in ray power, if no other re- 

 sult should be obtained. ij 

 If it is said that faults exist in tiie consti- • 

 tution, or at least in the management of these 

 Societies, I grant the fact, the more willingly as 

 I draw from it one of the strong proofs of their 

 usefulness. For as neither these delects nor 

 the great benefits of the Societies can reasona- 

 bly be denied, and Ihat the first are very easily 

 remedied, it fallows that our Societies would 

 greatly augment in their usefulness. I appeal 

 to the people of the United Slates at large, and 

 ask them wliat would be their condition, if be- 

 fore the adoption of their constitution, which 

 has so rapidly elevated this country to its pres- 

 ent stale of glorious independence and prosperi- 

 ty, the defects of the old system had led them 

 into disgust and discouragement ? 



To ascertain positively whether the benefits 

 1 had remarked, as well as those I have met 

 with, either here or in my travels, had exten- 

 ded generally throughout the slate, and out of its 

 boundaries, 1 addressed several questions to dif- 

 ferent persons in and out of the state. The 

 time when 1 was requested lo assume this Ad- 

 dress upon me, did not permit me to write to 

 many whose opinions would have been also ex- 

 tremely interesting^, nor has it permitled all those 



