Annual Address. 



5 



sophic tastes, or his interest in agriculture, natural science 

 and the mechanic arts. Our records bear witness to the zeal 

 and intelligence with which he labored for these objects. 

 He maintained an active correspondence on these subjects, 

 with men of science, in other countries ; he kept himself 

 acquainted with all the foreign publications of the time ; 

 he was unwearied in his agricultural experiments on his 

 own farm, and the results of all these investigations were 

 constantly communicated to the public through this society. 

 During his four years' residence and travels in Europe, no 

 member was more constant in contributions to our journals ; 

 nothing that could benefit the interests of agriculture or the 

 arts at home escaped his attention — the nature, treatment 

 and productions of various soils, the succession of crops, the 

 peculiarities and effects of climate, the modes of tillage, 

 the qualities of different kinds of stock — in fact, everything 

 that could be serviceable to the agricultural or economic 

 interests of his own country was observed, with quick and 

 practised eye, and the results communicated to the public 

 through our Transactions. To him the country owes the 

 introduction of the merino breed of sheep; and also a 

 treatise on sheep, which appeared in our Transactions, and 

 was long a standard work on the subject. He was also 

 the first to introduce in this state, and establish by a course 

 of experiments, the use of gypsum as a restorative to the 

 exhausted soils of some of the older parts of the state. He 

 was also the founder of the old Academy of the Fine Arts 

 in the city of New York ; and through his influence, he 

 procured from Napoleon, then first consul, an admirable 

 collection of casts from the masterpieces of ancient sculp- 

 ture, which the conqueror of Italy had brought as his 

 trophies for the glory and adornment of Paris. I know 

 not whether this collection be still preserved, but it was, 

 at that day, one of great value as a means of art education 

 in this country, and I well remember the pleasure and 



