"There is very little for me to say, ladies and gentlemen, after 

 the able addresses that have been made, except perhaps to add em- 

 phasis to one feature of the address of the Secretary of Agriculture; 

 namely, that the soils of New York are as well fitted for occupation 

 for intensive farming under modern intensive methods as they were 

 for general agricultude under the pioneer methods of the past. 



"It has taken four centuries to settle this country. The settle- 

 ment has been accomplished in the past decade. All our lands vir- 

 tually are now under agricultural occupation. The crop yields have 

 been phenomenally large; prices have been phenomenally high. We 

 have settled the country; settled the country in four centuries as 

 much as all of Europe. We have passed one era of pioneer agricul- 

 ture; we are entering on a new era of intensive agriculture, with 

 more suitable conditions than have been possible in the past. The 

 State of New York led in the pioneer movement in agriculture in this 

 country, with Virginia and the other Eastern States ; it has been a 

 severe tax to all of those Eastern States, the settling of the country. 

 With the West now settled and the surplus going into Canada and 

 into the Southern States, at the beginning of a new, era of intensive 

 agriculture that is before us] New York, with its magnificent mar- 

 kets, should certainly take the lead. And I can assure you, gentle- 

 men, from the investigations of the Department of Agriculture, from 

 the best knowledge that science has been able to bring to bear upon 

 the subject, that the soils of New York, although sadly abused in 

 many ways, as is common with the soils of the Eastern States, is 

 in as good condition now for this new era of intensive agriculture 

 as it was when it was first settled for the pioneer methods that to-day 

 have gone." 



MR. W. H. SWITZER, President of the Salisbury Steel & Iron Com- 

 pany, of Utica, N. Y., said: 



"Mr Chairman and gentlemen: I appreciate the honor which 

 is conferred in asking me to make a few remarks, which was entirely 

 unexpected on my part until this morning. There is no question 

 as to the importance of this gathering, and the discussion of ways 

 and means for greater development of the farm lands of the State 

 of New York. Neither is there any question as to the result of 

 crop cultivation, in reclaiming the wild or so-called abandoned lands of 

 New York State, provided scientific methods of cultivation are adopted. 

 In my own experience, and that is why I am called to speak to you 

 this afternoon, I have learned much of great value in reclaiming 

 several hundred acres of waste or abandoned land in Herkimer 



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