690 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



part of natural histor}^ that relates to vegetables, 

 that we may ascertain their different uses, discrimi- 

 nate the exhausting plants from those which are not 

 so much so — the locations most favorable to their 

 growth — the seasons lor their production and re- 

 production — their laws of generation — the alterna- 

 tion that ought to be observed lor the best devel- 

 opment of their powers, so that whatever plant we 

 cultivate, it will be the most perlect and valuable 

 of its kind. Entamology, or more properly, v;rub- 

 ology — to ascertain the kind, nature and variety of 

 insects that prey upon, destroy or injure our corn, 

 wheat, turnips, fr-uit, &c. with a view to their pro- 

 tection and destruction. 'Ilie principles of indus- 

 try are to be instilled, and the most regular and sj's- 

 tematic manner of farming practised. A correct 

 moral deportment inculcated both by e.xample and 

 precept — early rising and cleanliness promoted — 

 in short, the practice of every virtue insisted upon 

 and most sedulously maintained, whilst idleness and 

 vice must receive no countenance. So, th:it when 

 young men graduate li-om this institution, their 

 minds shall be .well stored with all the information 

 that relates to the peculiar business of farming — 

 their hands taught to ffive cfljcienc}^ to the know- 

 ledge they have acquired, and their habits formed 

 to give stability to their characters, and make 

 them most useful members of society. In enu- 

 merating the studies to be pursued, I may not 

 have been sufficiently select or particular — my ob- 

 ject is to give only a general outline of the plan, 

 which, when hereafter put in practice, will be 

 more carelially and systematically arranged. 



Suppose such an institution to contain two hun- 

 dred students, and a course of studies to last three 

 years. It would send each year near seventy 

 young men, so educated, into the difftrent sections 

 of our stale. Their knowledge of theoretical and 

 praciical f u-ming would be L'enerally diffused ; and 

 continue this number lor many successive years, 

 it would iiive thousands of the best farmers, scat- 

 tering them through every portion of the state. 

 And here let me ask, who is so much of a skeptic 

 as not to believe that agricultural knowledge 

 would not be increased by so great an accession, 

 and in consequence, agricultural products be pro- 

 digiously multiplied? Bur, this is not all; our 

 school would not only send her missionaries of 

 intelligence and industry through this state, but all 

 her operations, so far as competent professors could 

 discharge their duty of instructing or experiment- 

 ing — of collecting, comparing and examining — 

 of all that was most familiar or rare — ornamental, 

 useful or profitable, in each of their peculiar de- 

 partments — in a short time we would have a farm 

 and collection, which would vie in extent and ap- 

 pearance, and much exceed in usefulness, the fiir- 

 I'amed gardens of London or Paris. Probably, at 

 no time, in the history of our state, could an agri- 

 cultural school be Ibunded under belter auspices 

 for ultimate success, than at present. By the estab- 

 lifibment of agricultural journals, a taste for that 

 kind of reading has been created ; our citizens are 

 alive to liirlher improvements, for they have here- 

 tofore felt the want of any. The efforts made and 

 making to give a more tliorough school education 

 to our population— the ability of our citizens to 

 contribute whatever may be required to carry the 

 object into effect — the easy transmission of pro- 

 duce through every portion of our state by our 

 rivars, roads, canals and railways— the fUcility of 



communication with New York, one of the best 

 markets in the world, all are so many aids to the 

 successful completion of the plan. Should this 

 school go into operation, and carry out the great 

 principles of its founders, the time will, mvst come, 

 when every citizen will be proud of it as a state 

 institution; when those who have been its friends, 

 will gladly come forward and claim the honors to 

 which they will he enutled, and the present state 

 authorities will take a pride to dale its commence- 

 ment as coeval wiili their administration of pow- 

 er; for, besides being a test fiirm systematically 

 managed, its manulacture and collection of the 

 various farm implements, its specimens of geology, 

 mineralogy and botany, the exhibition of its ani- 

 mals, the order and regularity of all its operations 

 in husbandry, the circulation among our farmers 

 of useful intelligence collected there, either fi-om 

 practice or experiment, the aids it will give to our 

 airricultural journals, and above all, the young 

 men it will yearly send out to every portion of our 

 country to vivify by their intelligence, and fructify 

 by their industry, whatever place they settle in, 

 will be so many claims to popular favor, for they 

 will be constant and living evidences of its great 

 usefulness. 



I remain your friend, &c. 



J. p. BEEKMAN. 



Kindcrhook, Jan. 26, 1837. 



P. S. — We have called a meeting of the com- 

 missioners lor the 14th of February, to organize, 

 if the subscription warrants, and take the prelimi- 

 nary steps towards the formation of the agricultu- 

 ral school. 



AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE NEW YORK 

 STATE, AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL. 



[Passed, May 6, 1836.] 



The People of the State nf New York, represented 

 in Senate and jjlssembhj, do enact as follows : 



1. William L. Marcy, John Tracv, Jesse Buel, 

 Stephen Van Rensselaer, Henry Yates, Gideon 

 Lee, Joab Center, John P. Beekman, Cornelius 

 VV. Lawrence, Philip Hone, Benjamin Knower, 

 Gouverneur Ogden, Erastus Corning, James 

 Wadsworth, David E. Evans, Hiram Pratt, Wal- 

 ter Cunningham, Gilbert O. Fowler, Nathaniel 

 P. Tallmadge, Nicholas Devereux, Anthony Van 

 Bergen, Garrit Wendell, Archibald M'Intyre, 

 Thomas D. Burrall, John Greig, Thomas W. Ol- 

 cott, Ziba A. Leland, George P. Oakley, John 

 Delafield, Edward P. Livingston, John Towns- 

 end, Lewis F. Allen, and all such persons as now 

 are, or may hereafter become associated with 

 them, are hereby constituted a body corporate, by 

 the name of "The New York State Agricultural 

 School," for the purposes of instruction in litera- 

 ture and science, and improvement in scientific 

 and practical agriculture and the mechanic arts. 



2. The capital stock of the said corporation, 

 shall be one hundred thousand dollars, with liberty 

 to increase it to two hundred thousand dollars, to 

 be divided into shares of twenty-five dollars each, 

 which shall be considered as personal property, 

 and be assignable in such manner as the said cor- 

 poration may, in its by-laws, li'oin time to time, 

 provide : which said capital stock shall be exclu- 

 sively devoted to the purposes and objects of the 



