HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 81 



old home in New York. He preached the gospel of 

 under-drainage in the new country then and later in 

 his capacity as a professor of agriculture in the new 

 State College of Agriculture at Ames, Iowa. 



During the depression in agriculture in the last 

 quarter of the nineteenth century, Xew York fell be- 

 hind the Middle West in the practice of tile drainage 

 and is Just now actively resuming the art. 



THE RISE OF AGRICULTURAL I^TSTITUTIONS 



The institutions and educational movements that 

 have so large a part in the agricultural progress and 

 prosperity of the State have been of slow growth. 

 The antecedents of these were the societies for the 

 promotion of agriculture, both local and state. In 

 February, 1791, The New York State Society for 

 the Promotion of Agriculture was organized, and at 

 once became a potent force in the discussion of agri- 

 cultural matters. The movement by which exhibits 

 of agricultural products were held, with prizes for the 

 best, had its rise between 1800 and 1810, in which 

 latter year Elkanah Watson conducted a cattle show 

 at Pittsfield, ^lassachusetts, that led to the organiza- 

 tion of the Berkshire Agricultural Society. In 1817 

 an agricultural fair was held at Eed Hook, Dutchess 

 County, and in 1818 a similar one at Auburn. In 

 January of that same year, Governor De Witt Clinton 

 made a notable address to the state legislature in 

 which he set forth the need of more attention to the 

 practical and educational needs of agriculture and 

 recommended the formation of a Board of Agricul- 



