€06 [Assembly 



mand for them will be universal. Taking away at once the base 

 practices of trade in old, worthless wretched seeds and plants. And 

 let me remind the club of Van Houtte's garden in Belgium, who ten 

 years ago took a barren spot, of which he has now made a magni- 

 ficent garden, where young men crowd for admission, where the 

 scholars learn every useful science and labor in the garden too, where 

 the seed department is managed with the accuracy of a bank, and 

 which is utterly unable to supply the overwhelming demand for its 

 authentic seeds and plants too. 



Dr. Underbill, of Croton Point. And in the proposed school, the 

 diseases of the domestic animals will be studied and taught by the 

 veterinary professors. There are millions of our domestic animals, 

 constituting an incalculable amount of wealth, and among them pro- 

 digious losses from diseases little understood for want of proper 

 study. The milk disease is one affecting some of our western cattle. 

 Animals in certain localities are subject to many of the diseases of 

 our race, strikingly manifest in the fever districts of the west, where 

 disease of the liver in cattle is so prevalent, that this part of the an- 

 imal is rejected as unfit for the table. Similar to the human diseased 

 liver, producing heavy losses, all of which may be alleviated or ex- 

 terminated by due study and care. All this will be appropriate to 

 the new school of agriculture. Establish the plan proposed by the 

 American Institute, and the State of New-York will be benefited to 

 ten times the amount of cost of the establishment. There are a hun- 

 dred thousand acres in New-Jersey and Long Island, which will feel 

 the renovating power. Is the proper adaptation of crops to soils 

 well understood? Not at all. One field not 100 yards from another 

 field, requires very different treatment, from difference in the soil, re- 

 quiring another plan of manuring, &c. Many farms are nearly bar- 

 ren for lack of proper knowledge of their respective soils and capa- 

 bilities, and much capital thrown away for want of a correct system. 

 The subject of choice seeds is of the highest importance, and so is a 

 general knowledge of all the great improvements in agriculture, in 

 all parts of the world. Begin this agricultural school as it is pro- 

 posed, and you will soon see many more of them established. You 

 could not stop their formation any more than you can stop the fall of 

 Niagara. Institutions of this kind would enhance the wealth, pro- 

 mote the independence and glory of our country. 



Chairman. Observations might be multiplied without end on the 

 benefits to be derived from such schools. The plan should be tried 

 first near this city, there is so great facility for obtaining seeds and 



