

Agriculture is the most Healthy and Honorable, as it is the most Natural and Useful pursuit of Man. 



VOL. XI. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y.— NOVEMBER, 1850. 



NO. 11. 



AGRICULTrTEAl SOOEETIES AND EXHIBITIONS. 



If any one had doubts as to the fact \ifhether agri- 

 culture was advancino; in the United States or not, 

 they would soon be removed by attending a few such 

 rural exhibitions as have been recently witnessed at 

 at Atlanta in Georgia, Cincinnati, Albany, Baltimore, 

 in Michigan, Massachusetts, and other States. — 

 County Societies have everywhere evinced the spirit 

 of progress and improvement. The number of farm- 

 ers in attendance has been large beyond all prece- 

 dent, and the receipts from the free contributions of 

 the public, such as to impart renewed strength and 

 interest to the premiums awarded by these useful 

 associations. Speaking of the Fair in Seneca county, 

 the Ovid Bee says that it "not only surpassed all 

 former exhibitions, but exceeded the expectations of 

 its most zealous friends. The address of Prof. Nor- 

 ton was a perfect gem, and worth thousands of dol- 

 lars to this county — provided its practical truths are 

 heeded. When we iirst read the 'Prize Essay' of 

 Prof. Norton, we never dreamed that he could be 

 less than forty years of age, and the Address he de- 

 livered here has not lessened our estimation of his 

 good sense, and industry, and talent. The fact that 

 he is a young man, adds wonder to our increased 

 admiration. The race of scholars and gentlemen 

 such as he — may it never become extinct." 



The addresses of this gentleman in Ontario and 

 other counties in Western New York, have elicited 

 applause from all that heard them ; and no one is 

 more competent to scatter broad-cast over the land 

 the good seed of agricultural science. 



In Livingston county the number attending the 

 Fair was variously estimated at from five to seven 

 thousand, and the show of domestic animals worthy 

 of so large a gathering of the people. In Chautau- 

 que the receipts for membership and admittance were 

 several hundred dollars larger than ever before. 

 Tney were also unusually large in Monroe county. 

 In Erie, Niagara, Genesee, and Orleans, our accounts 

 are equally favorable. Tliirty thousand persons at- 

 tended the Provincial Fair held at Niagara in Canada 

 West. Forty thousand attended the State Fair held 

 near Cincinnati, and the receipts were some ^10,000. 

 This is starting, not from the ground, but high up 

 the ladder, in the Buck-Eye State. May her enter- 

 prising farmers continue to improve for a thousand 

 years at each annual exhibition ! 



It is pertinent to inquire in this connection, in 

 what way these rapidly increasing Societies can 



confer the greatest amount of good on the community 

 at large. Usefulness should be blended with amuse- 

 ment, and we ought to increase in knowledge with 

 the advancement of years. To attain this desirable 

 result in an eminent degree, more care must be taken 

 to establish and maintain a system of experiments in 

 practical farming, with a view to disclose new and 

 valuable truths. Thus, suppose twenty bushels of 

 corn be fed to hogs, sheep, or neat cattle, and all the 

 manure formed from the grain, both solid and liquid, 

 be saved ; how much corn at the next harvest, more 

 than would grow without the manure, will the fer- 

 tilizers derived from twenty bushels produce ? We 

 have searched all the works on rural afiairs written 

 in this country, of any note, to find a satisfactory 

 answer to the above question ; but without success. 

 No one appears to know how many pounds of corn 

 the manure derived from 100 or 1000 will add to a 

 crop, under common treatment and circumstances. 

 Obviously, the manure is as much the food of grow- 

 ing plants as the corn is the food of growing pigs. 

 If, then, four or five hundred pounds of corn will 

 make 100 of pork, how much manure, estimating it 

 by the quantity and quality of the substances con- 

 sumed to form it, will it take to yield 100 or 500 

 pounds of corn '! 



Again ; who can say on wrhat kind of soil the fer- 

 tilizers derived from a ton of clover or timothy hay, 

 a ton of potatoes, oats, or corn, will give the best 

 return to the husbandman ? What County or State 

 Society has fairly tested by experiments duly authen- 

 ticated, the exact returns realized from a given quan- 

 tity of know fertilizers ? Who can say, from evi- 

 dence satisfactory to a knowledge-seeking mind, how 

 much wheat the fertilizers contained in a barrel of 

 flour consumed by the genus homo, (man,) will add 

 to the harvest of an acre of that grain ? Will 100 

 pounds of wheat produce a like weight again ? Will 

 it give more ? and if so, how much 1 



Why should not our numerous agricultural associ- 

 ations use a part of their funds to determine the 

 economical value of the different kinds of manure 

 produced, or producible on the farm ? If that obtained 

 from 20 bushels of oats and 1000 pounds of timothy, 

 clover, or mixed hay, is worth something ; why not 

 let the millions of cultivators in the country know how 

 much it is worth, and under what circumstances 1 

 How is it possible to advance the art or science of 

 rural economy, unless we labor to develop now and 

 useful facts pertaining to the same ? How few of 

 these have been elicited by all the agricultural soei- 



