ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 67 



ing them to be fixed by a general law. i'hey urged that by this 

 means the people would become acquainted with their own manu- 

 factures, that it would open a wide field for competition, and ulti- 

 mately lead to the production of articles of a superior kind. 

 That in connection with the incentive of rewards and pre- 

 mium, they would gradually advance both agriculture and man- 

 ufacture, while a protective law to restrain foreign importation 

 and force the progress of native manufactures, would in the general 

 efi'ect tend to the injury of the community. This suggestion was 

 made in consequence of the results of the industrial exhibition in 

 Massachusetts, which the Society declared had vastly promoted 

 agriculture, manufactures and internal commerce, but it Avas 

 evident that they did not understand that these were simply exhi- 

 bitions and not markets, and that their project of restoring the old 

 system of market fairs in every county was absurd in a State 

 throughout which towns and villages existed at convenient distan- 

 ces, and where the farmer could supply himself at all times with 

 what he wanted, without the necessity of a fair, by simply going 

 to the country store. Watson's plan embraced all that was 

 practically useful, and when he afterwands introduced it in 

 1817 it was so successful and popular as to lead, in ten years, 

 3'-ears to a very important enactment on the part of the State. In 

 1819 the Legislature passed an act which was continued in force 

 for six years, appropriating $10,000 annually for the promotion of 

 agriculture and domestic family manufactures. A proportionate 

 sum was fixed for each county, upon the express condition that an 

 agricultural society was formed there, which society was to receive 

 within the amount limited a sum equal to such sum as the society 

 should annually raise by voluntary subscription. 



It was made the specific duty of the officers of these societies to 

 award premiums, annually, for such productions as in their judg- 

 ment were best calculated to promote the agricultural and manu- 

 facturing interest of the State, The President, or a delegate from 

 each society, composed a Board of Agriculture, and to this body 

 the society was required to transmit annually a report of its pro- 

 ceedings. The board was authorized to publish, at the expense of 

 the State, such of their reports, or such other essays, as they might 

 deem advisable, of which they published three volumes, under 

 the title of the Memoirs of the New York Board of Agri- 

 culture, the last of which appeared in 1825. At the first meet- 

 ing of this board twenty-three counties were represented, in 

 all of which societies had been formed. The result of this mea- 

 sure is quaintly told by a cotemporary writer, who says that the 



