8 [Assembly 



David J. Millard, from the Paris Furnace Co., Clayville, Onei- 

 da county, N. Y., exhibited a large assortment of scythes, cutters, 

 hay and manure forks of various kinds, &c., ^vhich for beauty of 

 workmanship and finish stand unequalled. Mr. II. L. Emery, 

 from his agricultural warehouse in Alba;iy, exhibited the greatest 

 variety of implements, all of excellent quality. 



The exhibition of cattle and other farm stock, which took 

 place on the 15th, 16th and 17th days of October, at Madison 

 Cottage, was unusually full and attractive, and deemed by a 

 large concourse of agricultural men who attended, to be the best 

 exhibition ever held by the Institute, the details of which will be 

 found in the report of our agricultural committee. 



It is an admitted truth that at the close of our revolutionary 

 war, the knowleds;e and practice of agriculture, the arts and manu- 

 fectures in the United States, were extremely deficient and unpro- 

 ductive. The agricultural societies of Boston and Philadelphia 

 kept alive a spirit of inquiry, but for practical purposes, their 

 doings did not reach the doors of the working farmer. In 1791 

 a few patriotic men, influenced by motives of public utility, in- 

 stituted in the city of New- York a society for the advancement 

 of agriculture, the arts, and manufactures. To the efforts of 

 Robert R. Livingston, E. L'Hommedieu, Samuel L. Mitchell, 

 James Kent, Simeon DeWitt, J. S. Ilobart, John Jay, Richard Va- 

 rick, and a few associates, we are indebted for this organization, 

 probably the first which appears on record in the State of New- 

 York. In 1794 it was incorporated by the Legislature, to con- 

 tinue until 1804. The efforts of these gentlemen undoubtedly 

 gave rise to very important investigations in regard to tillage, the 

 rearing of stock, &c., and laid a foundation for the organizations 

 which have succeeded it. 



No effort of a public character, designed to aid agriculture, ap- 

 pears to have been made from 1804 until 1819, when the act of OTir 

 Legislature for the advancement of agriculture, arts and manu- 

 factures, was passed. This act appropriated $10,000 per annum 

 for two years, to be distributed to the respective counties of the 

 State, pro rata ; depending, however, on the raising and expend- 

 ing a like sum by the count> for the same purposes. The act 



