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MR. ALLEN S AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 
MB. ALLEN'S AGRICULTTJRAL ADDRESS. 
We subjoin some extracts from the valuable ad- 
dress of L. F. Allen, Esq., President of the New- 
York State Agricultural Society, alluded to in our 
last number. They are important truths, strongly 
enforced, -which we hope our readers will not fail 
to heed. 
In speaking of the slow and hesitating advances 
of our state legislatures, in aiding our agricultural 
societies, he says : " In viewing the progress of 
this great measure through its first feeble efforts at 
existence, until its final consummation by law, and 
its rapid advancement since, an acknowledgment 
of deep gratitude is due to the liberality which has 
pervaded the ranks of those professions and occu- 
pations in our community not agricultural. The 
most formidable obstacles which the promoters of 
this institution have met in all their efforts, were 
either the determined inaction, or direct opposition 
of the mass of the farmers themselves. I speak 
this more in sorrow than in anger, that they who 
were to be most benefitted by its results, should be 
the slowest in yielding it their support ; while 
those of the learned professions, the mechanics, 
artisans, and merchants generally, both in and out 
of the legislature, and throughout the state, gave 
to our efforts a general and hearty concurrence. 
The comparatively few practical farmers whose 
zeal and co-operation would take no denial until 
success had crowned their efforts, represented, with 
but few exceptions, an inactive and thankless con- 
stituency at home. It is, however, most conso- 
latory to remark, that the practical operations of 
this, and the county societies, have awakened a 
spirit of emulation and inquiry among the mass 
of our farmers, which, although slow in its 
growth, must ultimately be crowned with the most 
gratifying results. 
" Nor is the inactivity complained of, perhaps, 
unnatural on the part of the agricultural class. 
Engaged in a retired and domestic occupation — un- 
used to habits of professional association, of which 
they have not been taught the necessity, nor felt 
the stimulating influence, they have neglected to 
adopt that combined action which distinguishes the 
other professions, and is the mainspring to their 
success in the improvement which they so rapidly 
accomplish. But we are ascertaining that this sys- 
tem of association, in order to advance to any high 
degree of improvement also, we must effectually 
practice ; for, it is only to the habits of inquiry 
and examination of whatever subject he may have 
in hand, that gives success to the master of any 
occupation whatever. Why is it the fact — and 
fact it is — that many of the best and most success- 
ful farmers in our country are those, who, bred to 
other pursuits and toiled in them to middle age — 
and many far beyond it — till, from inclination or 
necessity, they have embraced agriculture as an 
occupation, with a determination to succeed ? It 
is because investigation has been the habit of their 
lives. They do nothing without a good and satis- 
factory reason for doing it. They bend every 
faculty of the mind to acquire success in this, as 
they did in their previous pursuits; and the appli- 
cation of the same intelligence upon the farm, 
that had there been exerted, produced the same re- 
sults, although their early education and subse- 
quent labors had kept them in profound ignorance 
of the simplest rules of practical agriculture. The 
most gratifying success has been thus accomplish- 
ed, while he, who has from childhood tilled his 
paternal acres in obstinate and persevering igno- 
rance of the true principles of his art, although 
scorning in the pride of his own fancied supe- 
riority, the more timid efforts of his thoughtful 
neighbor, delves on through life, a wretched and 
unsuccessful farmer, and, in time, leaves the world 
no better, so far as his own labors were concerned, 
than he found it ; and is finally buried beneath a 
soil over which he plodded for three score years, 
and never knew a single part of its composition ! 
" This, though perhaps an extreme, and certain- 
ly not a flattering picture, is still a type of agri- 
cultural life, in its way, existing in every one of 
the United States. In what profession throughout 
the length and breadth of our land, is there so lit- 
tle progress — nay, such determined opposition to 
progress, as in the ranks of agriculture'? I would 
not assert that numerous eminent examples of im- 
provement have not existed among those of purely 
agricultural occupation. But they are rare as 
compared with men of other pursuits, when ap- 
plied with all their research and intelligence, to 
agriculture alone. 
" And it may well be inquired, why is this so ? 
Agriculture occupies four fifths of the laboring 
population of the country. From the agricultural 
ranks have sprung many of the most illustrious 
names, whose services have adorned and honored 
their country. From its ranks, too, have, perhaps, 
a majority of the most successful among those en- 
gaged in the various other pursuits and occupations 
of life, arisen. In short, there can be no class of 
our population which affords so sure a basis on 
which to rely for an infusion into all other pursuits 
to the durable prosperity of a state, as the agricul- 
tural. Such is the gratifying truth; and it is to 
the health-giving influences of the soil itself — the 
free, wild air of heaven that he breathes — cheer- 
ful exercise and occupation — contentment — and 
the full, unrestrained enjoyment of man's first 
estate, bestowed by God himself, that thus consti- 
tutes in him who tills the soil, the full development 
of his faculties in all the admirable proportions of 
body and of mind, that his Creator intended. Not- 
withstanding all this, the question still recurs, and 
may be variously answered. The very ease and 
contentment of condition in the farmer, is one 
probable cause of his inactivity in improvement. 
The quietude of his avocations prevents that con- 
stant attrition of mind inseparable from the bust- 
ling activity of most other pursuits ; and the 
certainty with which the soil yields its annual 
tribute to his labor, dispels that spirit of investi- 
gation common to classes, the result of whose 
labors is contingent or uncertain. Nor yet is the 
farmer an ignorant or a slothful man. In the 
great responsibilities of life — in domestic duty — in 
love of country — in the orderly support of the 
institutions of the land — in stern watchfulness 
over the acts of those he has placed in authority, 
and in that exalted patriotism which is ever ready 
for the heaviest sacrifice to the benefit of his race, 
he, as a class, stands without a rival. And yet, 
possessed of all these qualities, and enjoying all 
