No. 149.] 177 



tile region a desert. Tlieir influence requires to be husbanded 

 and controlled by turns, and to do this, their influence requires 

 to be studied. 



The " balance of nature," as it is now termed, deserves the 

 anxious attention of the agriculturist : the relations which earth 

 and air, light and heat, water and electricity, bear to the growth 

 of esculents, the rearing of stock, and the support of man, are 

 the great points requiring attention and investigation to be pushed 

 further than heretofore. 



This the agriculturist cannot do ; he has neither the time nor 

 the means at his disposal. It requires the co-operation of ex- 

 perimental science ; and it is too much to expect the physicist, 

 the chemist, and the geologist to devote their time to aid in the 

 solution of questions, which however interesting in the abstract, 

 yet from their occupying considerable time, draw away from the 

 means of subsistence. 



These questions of importance to the agriculturist, will be 

 neglected, or their prosecution deferred, unless an institution be 

 set apart for the special purpose. The endowment of an Agri- 

 cultural College, with an Experimental Farm annexed, is the 

 great means of supplying these wants. In such an institution, 

 the points alluded to might be satisfactorily resolved, and their 

 bearing extended. The relations between the soil and the plant 

 here be truly determined, as far as regards this State. 



The establishment of an Agricultural Bureau at Washington, 

 as recommended by the President, by no means would diminish 

 the necessity for an educational Agricultural College and an 

 Experimental Farm for the State of New- York. The business 

 conducted in the latter, should have for its object solely the de- 

 velopment of the agricultural resources of this State. The New- 

 York farmer is now almost placed between Scylla and Charybdis ; 

 he has to compete with the south and the west : with the early 

 vegetation of the former, and the cheap production of the latter. 

 Competition he cannot escape ; and the only means he has to 

 oppose his antagonists is to stimulate the productiveness of his 



[Assembly, No. 149.J M 



