

Xa^ 



octavo pages, for circulation among farmers, who have fully appreciated its value with gratitude ; 

 for the effect produced is far beyond the most sanguine expectation previously entertained from 

 official information of this kind. From time immemorial the American farmers have enjoyed the 

 benefits of State and county societies — cattle, implement, and produce shows — with plowing 

 matches and such like machinery, the same as English farmers have done — besides companies for 

 the importation of English cattle. But such was found insufficient, never having produced in half 

 a century the effect which tlie Patent Office has done in one season ; because through it the progress 

 of chemical and mechanical science is brought to bear upon the different branches of agriculture 

 with a different force and a different interest to the farmer. 



The Union has justly been termed "a nation of farmers," farmers forming "a large majority of 

 the voters," so that they have themselves to blame if their interests are neglected, either in Con- 

 gress or State Legislatures. Hence, however, they may have hitherto under-estimated the advice of 

 Washington, who was himself a farmer, and strongly advocated tlie cultivation of agricultural 

 science, they have now caught the true spirit of their great president, and are exerting every nerve 

 to reduce it to practice without fear of opposition, and the progress they are making is only equalled 

 by the magnitude of the work before tliem. Complaints are no doubt yet many, but no sooner 

 established than the necessary steps are taken to have them redressed. The rights of American 

 laborers have hitherto been sadly neglected ; for half their number are slaves, while the domestic 

 hajipiness of the other half has been little cared for I The plight of the poor emigrant, who has 

 hitherto arrived in the Union with an empty pocket, was sober indeed. In this country our large 

 manufacturers — a class ever alive to their own interest — are beginning to descry a short supply in 

 the labor market. Hence cottages and gardens for their operatives are fast being built, and every 

 other prudent means used which the circumstances of the case demand; but in America, although 

 labor has been scarce, no such effort has been made to induce the sin-plus rustics of our overflowing 

 provinces to emigrate; for to them the threshhold of colonial life has been truly purgatorial: 

 indeed, such was its barbarous character, that few penniless laborers, however indifferent they might 

 be to civilized life, ventured to cross the Atlantic unless they had either a friend or relative before 

 them. Happily, however, the American Patent Office has at length succeeded in removing the 

 farmers' canflle from under the bushel. Chemical and mechanical science, involving the proper 

 application of labor to the soil, is now becoming better understood, so that tlie domestic comforts 

 of the laborer are beginning to be cultivated. Hence the stimulus which it has given to the 

 "exodus" at home. 



Sucli are a few desultory observations on the means now being used by the Americans to improve 

 their agriculture. In the language of the Patent Office Report, "To compete with Englishmen in 

 feeding people at their own doors, while Americans have to transport their breadstuffs and pro- 

 visions from 3,000 to 4,000 miles to reach the consumer, is obviously a hard business for our 

 farmers." It is one, however, which the American is strenuously and sueeessAiily pui-suing; and 

 let us, therefore, not be found sleeping at our posts in the conflict, since we cannot avoid joining 

 issue in it. 



We hope that we may say without egotism, that the Patent Office Report so favorably 

 noticed abroad, and especially all the facts and figures quoted therefrom, were from the 

 pen of the person named therein, who has often brought the great subject of Agricutural 

 Statistics before the American public. The bill (which became a law) for taking the 

 census of the State of New York in 1845, as well as the blank schedules for agricultural 

 statistics, by which the yield per acre was ascertained, originated with the proprietor of 

 this paper, as chairman of the committee on Agriculture ; but so little has been accom- 

 plished compared with what ought to have been done, both at Albany and Washington, 

 that we have more reason for regret than to be proud of the result. It has long been 

 a source of deep pain to us, that it is not possible to obtain a patient hearing of the 

 important facts relating to agriculture in this country. Our countrymen are most 

 unwilling to have the fact demonstrated before their eyes that " Human toil i-s often 

 praised for being highly proc/itciiw, when, were the whole truth known, it would be 

 fsund highly destructive^ 



If the Legislature had adopted the statistical policy which we recommended in 1844, 

 after years of patient observation and study, all would now know in this State who are 

 dealing justly by the soil they cultivate, and who are not. We complained in the Patent 

 Office Report for 1849 that "good and bad farming are now so blended that delinquents 

 escape nearly all exposure, while such as do well are denied that distinction which is 

 the just reward of merit." Is not this true? and does' it not servo to repress im])rove- 

 ment in tillage and husbandry ? In our humble opinion, agricultural statistics should 

 be collected every year to be of essential value to agriculture. Assessors, or tax-col- 



