560 [Assembly 



It is not fifty years since this remarkable conversation occurred, 

 yet what a change of truth — how altered, how great, how magnifi- 

 cent the scene! Who can fathom it ? Who can realize it ? The 

 axe of the pioneer has fallen in silence from his grasp; the wilder- 

 ness has disappeared before the might of peopled cities, and not only 

 that rich landscape which leaves the line of the Cayuga bridge un- 

 til it meets at the shores of Lake Ontario, but yet onward, and still 

 beyond. State after State is linked with the destiny of a prosperous 

 country, and the beams of civilization are still spreading to the west, 

 driving before it the wild beasts of the prairie, and making the rough 

 places plain And if the light of the fire which warmed the native 

 children of the forest is gradually growing dim, the echo of the sett- 

 ler's rifle, and the shrill whistle of the locomotive may be heard as 

 they advance to the shores of the Pacific. 



To what, then, is this attributable? To what main-spring of ac- 

 tion do we owe it? To commerce and manufactures alone? Not so; 

 although these are balance-wheels in the society of civilized life, it 

 is the farmer who sets them all in motion, and who finally settles the 

 entire reckoning. 



The great business of America is agriculture. With honor for 

 its guide, and independence as its conductor, it has been the power- 

 ful lever, aided by the administration of wise and generous laws, 

 which has mainly assisted in elevating ojr country to a rank with the 

 foremost nations of the earth. 



But we have already imposed on your indulgence, yet before sep- 

 arating allow me to state — that we live in a progressive era, and the 

 privilege allotted to mankind for benejiting the soil and rendering 

 it more easy of culture is deserving a more universal notice. 



The American Institute are now asking the attention of farmers to 

 tlie feasibility of establishing an experimental school in this branch 

 of science, and we leave you to decide how far their efforts are en- 

 titled to a favorable hearing. It requires no depth of penetration 

 to observe, that to keep pace with the improvements in steam and 

 electricity, we must endeavor to keep ether things quite as indispen- 

 sable on an equal footing. 



The medical virtues of a garden plant or the hidden fruit of a for- 

 est tree, by grafting, budding or manuring, must be searched for and 

 brought into use. W^e are aware that much has been told within the 



