legislative Duties in regard to Agriculture—December Notes from Buffalo toNew York. ggggg 
duction of such articles as can be made profitable in 
their cultivation, but which the uncertainty of success, 
and the difficulties of introducing new objects of atten¬ 
tion to a class so proverbially cautious of innovation as 
our farmers, render of remote and uncertain and par¬ 
tial introduction. Such are water-rotted hemp in the 
western states; wheat in the northern; perhaps indigo 
and other products in the southern; and reeled and 
manufactured silk every where. 
That you would stimulate the formation of county 
agricultural societies in every county of every State in 
this republic; that you would aid them by liberal do¬ 
nations of money, to be appropriated for premiums; 
and require from their officers such reports, in return, 
as will elicit important information, and be promotive 
of a general improvement in the subject. 
That you would encourage and aid the formation of 
primary agricultural cabinets and libraries in every 
school district, that the minds of our youth shall first 
dawn upon those objects we wish to make most useful 
and enduring in their impressions. When these pre¬ 
liminary steps have been taken, and well organized, 
we will consider what next to bring to the attention of 
your honorable bodies. 
But to be somewhat intrusive, let us turn to our own 
State, and see what she has done, and subtracting this 
from the programme laid down, we can readily see 
what remains to be accomplished. And surely we 
shall expect great things from the Empire State, with 
its 2,500,000 of free and intelligent citizens; the cen¬ 
tre of commerce and manufactures, enterprize and 
activity, literature and science; and not far behind 
hand in the financial and political proficiency of the 
day. With one arm resting on the ocean, and the other 
grasping the father of rivers, as it now lies in majestic 
repose, in the deep and cerulean beds of Erie and On¬ 
tario, or rushes on to its destination through the 
Niagara and St. Lawrence; with an uninterrupted 
navigation stretching from our metropolis through the 
Hudson, the Northern Canal and Lake Champlain to 
the utmost borders of the State ; with her magnificent 
Erie Canal, tapping this highway at the centre and 
passing off at right angles 365 miles to grasp the pro¬ 
duets of the mighty west; and other canals and rail 
roads almost too numerous to mention ; with commer¬ 
cial and manufacturing, mineral and agricultural re¬ 
sources unequalled in their richness, variety and extent 
by any other portion of the globe; what has this Em¬ 
pire done for the great cause we plead ? Answer. She 
has made a Geological survey, the results of which we 
shall have made public soon, which will be an honor 
to her and the age. For this we give her all due 
praise. What more ? She has granted $8,000 an¬ 
nually for five years, to be distributed among the 
county agricultural societies through the State, for pre¬ 
miums, which is less than one-third of a cent each to 
every man, woman and child of the State. Surely we 
cannot be overstepping the modesty of our position to 
ask our conscript fathers, to give us something over and 
beyond this small donation. They have also given us 
a bounty of 15 cents per pound on all silk cocoons 
raised in the State, and 50 cents per pound on all 
reeled silk. We ask no more for this item. But we 
do sincerely and most earnestly call on them to scan 
over carefully their obligations to the great agricultural 
community, and at once make up to them the arrears 
so long and so unjustly withheld from them. But the 
farmers have no right to complain so long as they send 
so many mere politicians to their legislative halls, 
whose only claims to their favor is to be found in their 
loud mouthed professions. If they will delegate to 
these what one of their own sound-headed body would 
much more effectually accomplish, they must be con¬ 
tent to see their interests neglected, and other affairs 
not one-tenth part of their importance or utility, take 
precedence over agriculture. 
DECEMBER NOTES FROM BUFFALO TO 
NEW YORK. 
Mr. Prentice’s Short Horns. —We left Auburn to¬ 
wards night amidst a violent snow storm, and as we 
got into the ears and commenced our route, we could 
not but console ourselves under the circumstances of 
the journey, and contrast them with what they would 
have been, had we passed here three years ago. Then 
we should have been obliged to have toiled along in 
the deep snow, in a sleigh coach, at the rate of 2! or 3 
miles an hour, half froze to death; now we were whirl¬ 
ed off at seven times this rate of speed, and how com¬ 
fortable we found it! An elegant roomy car, in which 
we could repose at full length if we chose; with soft 
cushioned seats, and cushioned backs, and cushioned 
sides, and the air within delightfully tempered by heated, 
pipes. We never had much of a fancy for sleigh-rid¬ 
ing. Jack Frost nips rather too sharply to suit our 
taste, especially since our cheeks have been fanned in 
the soft air of the luxuriant winters of the sunny south. 
So we gazed through the windows triumphantly at 
Master Jack’s doings without, snapped our fingers in 
his face, and congratulating ourselves upon the warmth 
and comfort of our traveling quarters, abandoned our¬ 
selves to the enjoyment of the night; and with a car¬ 
pet-bag for a pillow, and a wide thick Macintosh for a 
blanket, at once forgot the cares of the world, and 
were soon lost in forgetfulness, in that philosophic, un- 
discoverable country—the land of Nod. 
How we got on in the spirit of our dream, we can¬ 
not say; but certain it is, in due time we found our¬ 
selves at Albany, with a heavy silver tea-pot in our 
capacious pocket, a Short Horn prize, won by, and be¬ 
longing to Col. Sherwood, (for no editor need ever 
dream of possessing such a treasure, unless by some 
lucky wind-fall it should happen to come to him by 
way of dowery with his better half,) which we were 
bound to deliver for a model for some other matters, to 
the Treasurer of the State Agricultural Society, Mr. 
Prentice. But we did not find him at his Fur ware¬ 
house, though all know that the weather was cold 
enough at that time to ensure heavy sales; so we post¬ 
ed away for his fine farm at Mount Hope, 2 miles be¬ 
low, where sure enough he was, and right glad were 
we to see him, and not to be invidious, almost as 
much rejoiced to see his cattle too. For there was 
Fairfax standing out in all his noble proportions before 
us, with his Macintosh on as well as ourselves; but 
gentle reader, no caoutchouc about it, mind you; on the 
contrary, it was of the softest silky hair, and as pure 
and white in color, as the new fallen snow around him. 
We wish we had him here in a true picture to talk for 
himself, but we have not, and therefore we must tell the 
public a little about him ourselves. He was imported 
by his spirited owner some three years since, in his 
dam Splendor, and was got by Sir Thomas Fairfax, 
who took the highest prize in Class I, at the late an¬ 
nual meeting of the English Royal Agricultural Society, 
at Bristol; besides prizes at different times at several 
other agricultural shows in England, and was never 
beaten. 
Mr. Prentice’s Fairfax was the first in his class of 
2 year olds, at the Annual Show of the New York State 
Agricultural Society, for 1842, and also at that of the 
American Institute, in this city, which is no small 
honor, considering his numerous competitors. He was 
two years old only last May, and has a good deep bris¬ 
ket, loin, and quarters, with a round barrel, and han 
