No. 244. J 263 



soil of the Union, and still, under scientific cultivation, it could af- 

 ford bread to a continent as large as Europe. Such is the fact, for 

 it is estimated on good authority that the harvest of the United 

 States, this season, is sufficient to feed half the people on the globe. 

 With scarcely one exception, every species of grain, fruit, and vege- 

 table, is yielding throughout the country an extraordinary crop. 

 Of beef, pork, butter, cheese, &c., there is the same plenty ; and 

 while our population are secure of every comfort and luxury in the 

 way of food, we shall have a surplus sufficient to meet all the famine 

 that may occur in the known world." 



Nor has the American Agriculturist, we may safely say, reached 

 the ultimatum of his intellectual destiny, for we are, in fact, but in 

 the dmvn of the scientific Agricultural day. 



It is but one hundred and seventy-four years since, that the site 

 of the present village of White Plains was the hunting-ground of 

 the Indian Chief, Orawapum, and his warriors.* Now, behold what 

 a change has taken place ; how altered is the scene ! mighty forests 

 have been swept away — fields have been cultivated — ^a thriving vil- 

 lage takes the place of the rude wigwams of Quaroppas, and the 

 shrill whistle of the locomotive has superseded the Indian war- 

 whoop. Wonderful transformation, who can realize it ! 



Farmers of Westchester ! to you has Providence assigned this 

 portion of the EMPIRE STATE, whose proud motto is " EXCEL« 

 SIOR." Be it your first and last duty, therefore, to assist in ex- 

 tending, by every means in your power, the bounds of Agricultural 

 science ; for should you prove untrue to your profession, depend upon 

 it, the loss of wealth will come upon you ; and what is worse, shame 

 will cover your faces when you hear of the success of agriculture in 

 other lands. 



It is a remarkable fact, well deserving of notice, that notwithstand 

 ing the rapid strides which agriculture has made, both here and in 

 Europe, within the last fifty years, no science has been slower in its 

 progress towards perfection. The reason of this is, there has been, 

 and there still is, a great want of that practical knowledge by which 



• Upon the 22d of November, 1683, the inhabitants of Rye purchased of the In- 

 dians " all that tract of land commonly called, by the English, the White Plaines, 

 and by the Indians, Qmroppas."— History of iVestchester County, vol. II. p. 339. 



