mill. 



Vol. 9, 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. — OCTOBER, 1848, 



No. 10. 



THE GENESEE FARJEER: 



Issued on the first of each month, at Rochester, N. K, by 

 D. D, T. MOORE, PROPRIETOR. 



DANIEL LEE & D. D. T. MOORE, Editors, 



p. BARRY, Conductor of Horticultural Department. 



FIFTY CENTS A YEAR: 

 Five copies for $2. and any larger number at the same rate, 

 if directed to individuals. Eight copies for $.3, if only directed 

 to one person — and any larger number, addressed in like man- 

 ner, at the same rate. All subscriptions payable in advance, 

 and to commence with the volume. {^Q^ Back numbers sup- 

 plied to new subscribers. 



Fair of the State Agricultural Society. 



The e.xertions of the officers of the Society, 

 of the citizens of Buffalo, and of the fanners, 

 horticulturists and mechanics of the State, to 

 render the late rural Festival the largest of any 

 ever held in America, were eminently success- 

 ful. Where many thousands have* cordially 

 united to achieve a common purpose, it is im- 

 possible to particularise without doing apparent 

 injustice to others equally worthy of notice 

 and Commendation. We have attended a good 

 many agricultural fairs in our time, and made it 

 a business to be tolerably well informed in regard 

 to the excellencies and defects of domestic ani- 

 mals, farm implements, and other matters per- 

 taining to our chosen and much loved profession. 

 The Shov/ of neat cattle and horses has never 

 been equalled in this country ; nor was there 

 ever so large a display of superior labor-saving 

 machines and highly finished implements, ad- 

 mirably adapted to all the various operations of 

 rural industry. Its improvement and progress 

 were stamped on a thousand articles, both ani- 

 mate and inanimate, evincing that the intellects 

 of American farmers and mechanics have been 

 successfully cultivated, as well as the earth, 

 during the last year. 



Intellectual activity and improvement must 

 precede all advancement in the arts and sciences 

 which contribule to the elevation of the great 

 agricultural interest of the Union. Mind lies at 

 the bottom, and bears upward and onward all 

 meliorations in the form and organic structure 

 of horses, cattle, sheep, swine and poultry, as 

 witnessed at the Show ; and of all discoveries 

 and inventions which impart a ten-fold mechani- 

 cal and productive power to the strong muscles 

 of the husbandman. Conceding, as the intelli- 

 gent reader will, the truth of these remarks, 

 does the rich State Agricultural Society do all 

 that it reasonably can to aid in cultivating the 

 Intellect devoted to rural affairs? It has ap- 



peared to us that it is infinitely more important 

 to produce one "thorough bred" practical and 

 scientific farmer, than one hundred improved 

 bulls, boars or rams. In the hands of ignorant 

 owners, experience demonstrates that these rap- 

 idly degenerate. Without a considerable de- 

 gree of professional skill, applied in propagating 

 and feeding all highly changed conditions of 

 living beings, whether animal or vegetable, they 

 manifest a strong tendency to return, not merely 

 to their primitive or normal state, but they go 

 as far below it, as they have been elevated by 

 artificial means above their natural level. There 

 is no blood in any race of animals from man 

 down to the zoophite, so pure and fixed, as not 

 to be liable to deterioration. The most favored 

 of the nobility of England, families that for cen- 

 centuries have enjoyed every advantage wealth 

 and civilization can bestow, have not only dete- 

 riorated, but in many instances run out at the 

 little end of the horn. Whatever the genius, 

 reason and industry of man have changed and 

 improved, may change back again, and will do 

 so, unless sustained by equal genius, reason and 

 industry. 



The great subject of human elevation has 

 driven sleep from our pillow for many a night, 

 for our heart is in the cause. The tendency to 

 retrogression is a serious stumbling block. How 

 is this adverse influence to be universally met, 

 and counteracted at every point ? How shall 

 the community make sure of the advantages of 

 all changes for the better in all time to come, 

 and prevent all relapses through ignorance, in- 

 dolence or any other agency ? The keen good 

 sense and patient labor which bring both wealth 

 and honor to the father, too often induce mental 

 and moral obtuseness, and downright laziness in 

 the son. The parent toils intensely to remove 

 the seeming necessity for his offspring to make 

 any honorable effort in the world, either with 

 his hands or intellect, so kindly bestowed by the 

 Creator of all. 



In the science of improvement we have all 

 much to learn. Our own opinion is that intel- 

 lectual and social culture can only be enduringly 

 and unceasingly advanced, by uniting them with 

 a reasonable degree of physical labor. The 

 latter is too much despised, and too generally 

 degraded, even in this country. We saw some- 

 thing of the exclusiveness and ill-timed arro- 

 gance of a quasi aristocracy, in the getting up 

 of an agricultural dinner at BufKilo. The affaij- 

 gave great offence, and was any thing but cred- 

 itable to the high character of the State Society, 



