EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 

 OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



JVcMJ-YbrA;, Jan. 7, 1850. 

 The Trustees of the American Institute of the city of New- York, 

 herewith present to the New-York State Agricultural Society, a report 

 of their proceedings for the past year, in conformity to the law passed 

 May 5, 1841, which constituted the Institute, the Agricultural Society 

 of the county of New- York. 



Th€ Annual Transactions of the American Institute cover an ex- 

 tended field, in which our fellow citizens throughout the country, 

 who are engaged in agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and the 

 arts, to a greater or less extent, are interested. It seems, therefore, 

 necessary to embody in this report, every thing of interest, coming 

 within the purview of the Institute, for the general information of all 

 who are engaged in those great pursuits. Agriculture and manufac^ 

 tures are the parents of commerce ; the ingenuity of the mechanic 

 is indispensable to them. How essentially necessary to agriculture 

 is the labor which is applied in originating and perfecting labor-saving 

 machines for its use ; and in improving the numerous implements it 

 has already received from the hands of the artizan. Any attempt to 

 separate these interests, must be injurious, and should at once be dis- 

 countenanced. Let the intercourse of classes, mutually dependant, 

 be as free as air ; the benefits resulting will be great, and as mutual 

 as the intercourse is free. 



The American Institute, located as it is in the metropolis of the 

 Union, and embracing the great objects contained in its charter, we 

 believe affords greater facilities for observation, enquiry, comparison, 

 and the diffusion of important facts, pertaining to the industrial pursuit! 



