MONTHLY 



JOURNAL OF AaRICULTURE. 



DECEMBER, 1847. NO. 6. 



THE STATE OF NEW-YORK: 



ITS EXTENT AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE, WITH OTHER STATISTICS, AND 

 EDITORIAL REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY A VIEW OF THEM. 



Here, again, it may be alleged that there is nothing " practical " — by which 

 is usually meant, nothing exactly and directly money-making — in the knowledge 

 to be derived from a view of such facts as these ; yet what intelligent reader, 

 imbued with a spark of that State pride which is the beginning of patriotism, 

 does not wish that provision could be made for ascertaining, in like manner, the 

 resources and productive power of the State to which he belongs ? What young 

 lad should leave school, indeed, without having even there become familiar with 

 such facts, as far as the means exist for learning them ? How much more 

 " practical," even, would it be to be made thus acquainted with the sources of 

 wealth existing in every part of his own country ; and how much in each State is 

 the aggregate amount, and average acreable produce of all its great staples, than 

 to be learning, parrot-like, by rote, the speeches of savage or civilized warriors be- 

 fore or since the Flood, as they are taught in our country schools ? How — yet more 

 emphatically may we demand — can enlightened legislation be enacted for any 

 State, without such knowledge of her natural and artificial capabilities, and the 

 progress making for their development ? Alas ! in the scuffles of party for power, 

 and the watchfulness of demagogues who stand ready to use it, when acquired, 

 for selfish and party ends, the great, substantial interests of the community, and 

 all the great and legitimate purposes of enlightened government, are too often 

 lost sight of. 



In Hunt's invaluable Magazine, where the facts contained in the Census of 

 the Federal and State Governments have been clearly tabularized, it is well said 

 in some preliminary remarks that " the earth is the fruitful mother of the 

 other great industrial interests of the State ; and the products of Agriculture fur- 

 nish the manufactures with the raw material out of which the skill and indus- 

 try of the artisan produce the ' goods, wares and merchandise ' that supply 

 Commerce with its commodities of traffic and transport." 



From the United States in 1840, the agricultural exports amounted in value to 

 $78,673,515, while that of all besides, united — of the sea, the forests, wood in 

 all shapes, as staves, masts and spars ; naval stores, pot and pearl ashes, and 

 manufactures of every kind — in short, the produce of every other branch of in- 

 dustry — amounted only to .^22,408, 378, being about $A of national wealth pro- 

 duced by the plow, to $1 from all other employments. Yet who ever heard of 

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