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THE GENESEE FARMER. 



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India trade. It was on his father's estate, at 

 Newton, Long Island, that, at a later period, he 

 fir t exhibited that fondness for agricultural pur- 

 suits wliich distinguished him through life. 



Shortly before the commencement of the last 

 war, he was sent, under a commission of the 

 United States Government, to command a fleet 

 of merchant vessels. Soon after hostilities com- 

 menced, he was prisoner on parole, in Englan^^ 

 having been wrecked on the British coast. — 

 During the war he was allowed to visit the agri- 

 cultural districts, and became acquainted with 

 several eiiiinent agriculturists. After peace was 

 established, he was induced to remain in England, 

 and for eight or nine years was well known in 

 the London Exchange as the American Banker. 

 By the influence which he thus acquired among 

 capitalists, he was enabled to spread foreign 

 money over the country, especially in the South- 

 ern and Western States. 



It was in 1839 that he efi'ected the loan for the 

 State of Illinois, but the failure of payment and 

 non-fulfilment of agreements by that State nearly 

 proved his ruin. . Although for twenty years he 

 had conducted one of the most successful bank- 

 ing-houses in New York, he never lost sight of his 

 favorite science. Agriculture; and annoyed by 

 the failure of his mouetany speculations, he re- 

 solved to withdraw from active life in the cities, 

 and to turn farmer in earnest. In 1842 he re- 

 moved to a farm which he had purchased at Rose 

 Hill, Seneca county, near Geneva, where he gave 

 his attention especially to the rearing of live 

 stock. In 1851 he was elected President of the 

 New York State Agricxiltural Society, and at the 

 time of his death was President elect of the new 

 Agricultural College, 



We had the pleasure of hearing him deliver an 

 address before the Monroe County Agricultural 

 Society, in Rochester, a few weeks ago ; and also of 

 learning his plans for raising the funds necessary 

 to place the Agricultural College on a firm basis. 

 Alas, that sudden death (by a disease of the heart) 

 should threaten to destroy this institution in its 

 embi-yo state! It has never received a dollar 

 from the Legislature ; and it can not be ade- 

 quately endowed by donations from individuals, 

 without great personal efforts on the part of its 

 friends. Whether such efforts will now be made, 

 we are unable to say. We had consented to go 

 out with Mr. Delafield and address meetings of 

 farmers and others, in Monroe and the adjoining 

 counties, to obtain subscriptions for the College. 

 He was confident of success ; one gentleman in 

 Missouri offered him a thousand dollars. It is 

 now thirty-two years since Judge Boel obtained 



the first charter for an Agricultural School, or 

 College, in this State ; but death has made sad 

 inroads upon the devoted friends of this branch 

 of useful knowledge. Buel, Gaylokd, Downing, 

 and Delafield, have been cut down in the midst 

 of their great and patriotic labors; and five 

 hundred thousand farmers remain in the Em- 

 pire State without a single school, or an acre of 

 land, devoted to the advancement of rural arts 

 and sciences. 



Knglish and American Horses. — Among all the 

 speeches made by Governors, Ex-Governors, 

 Honorable?, and amateur farmers at the Spring- 

 field Horse Exhibition, no one but that of Chaun- 

 CEY P. HoLCOMB, Esq., of Delaware, (a sensible 

 Philadelphia lawyer turned farmer), discussed 

 topics pertinent to the occasion. Mr. H. said 

 that he had recently visited England, and partly 

 for the purpose of buying a good horse, provided 

 he could find one for sale that would be likely to 

 improve the stock in his section of country. He 

 returned without purchasing any, and thus com- 

 ments on the English system of breeding this 

 noble animal • 



He wished to tell his brother farmers what the course of 

 breeding was in England, and to show the result ui)on the 

 stock, that no American farmer need go further in Ihesame 

 direction. They were aware that when the Knglish breed- 

 ers united the blood of the Barb with the Turk and the 

 Arab, no better horses were to be found in the world. They 

 would then run four miles and repeat in 1.40 and 1.24. 

 Now, instead of running four miles and repeating, they only 

 ran two or three, and did not repeat at all. It was a single 

 dash of two, two and a lialf, and, at the Derby, of three 

 miles, and that was all. He liad told eminent breeders 

 there that the horses in tliis country ran four miles and re- 

 peated^repeatiug, sometimes, two or three times. They 

 did not doubt the' fact. They said they had formerly such 

 breeds there, but it was not so now. In corroboration of 

 his statements, Mr. H. mentioned that, in a conversation he 

 recently had with his friend from Virginia (Mr. Botts). he 

 assured him that some horses of the Boston blood ran. the 

 oilier dav. at Richmond, four miles in i.46, T.40X. and 7.49. 

 They would see in what remarkable time the last heat was 

 run— about three seconds longer than the first. They had 

 not got any horses like these in England ; they would bo 

 very proud of them if they had. 



Why was this degeneracy? In the first place, he was 

 very much surprised, on visiting England, to find that horse- 

 raci'ng, if it was not the business of the nation, was a very 

 great amusement. In every city, town, and village, they 

 had betting-houses, where all the members of the commu- 

 nity, the serving-maid as well as the noblemen, entered 

 their bets, through the whole year, to be decided when the 

 races came off. So great had this evil become, that a bill 

 was passed at the last session of Parliament, designed to 

 put these beiting-houses down. Now, the result of this 

 was, that every attention was paid to getting he<^h. He 

 had stood by tlie side of two year old colts, fifteen hands 

 high and he asked his friend, Mr. Jon?f Day. how it was 

 possible to make up those colts in that way. Mr. Day told 

 him that thev were entered to run at two years old, three 

 years old, aiid they were entered shortly after they were 

 foaled, to run at a certain time. The dam was kept as high 

 as possible, and in the paddock there was a little box, into 

 which the colt could run, where oat meal was placed, and 

 oat.s were always before him. They were stuffed with all 

 the oats they could bo induced to eat. The consequence 

 was, that it was quite impossible that they should have any 

 bone. They run at two, three, and four years old ; but at 

 all the races which he attended, he saw but one or two en 

 tered to run even at five years old, for by that time they 

 were broken down. 



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