BBSBsnsnsss 
THE CULTIVATOR 
27 
the legislature, for as many copies as they may see fit to 
grant, of the Natural History of the State, now in course 
of publication, to be distributed in Premiums by the Ex¬ 
ecutive Committee. 
A committee consisting of Messrs. Hungerford, Van 
Bergen, Prentice, Sherwood, and Tucker, was appointed 
for the object specified in the above resolution. 
Several resolutions of much interest in relation to the 
objects of the Society, and the mariner in which they 
could be best carried into effect, were introduced, ^d 
excited an animated and interesting discussion, in which 
the President, Messrs. Botch, Nott, Leland, Colman, 
Grove, Walsh, Denniston, Van Bergen, Sherwood, Pren¬ 
tice, and others, took part; when the several resolutions 
were referred to the Executive Committee. 
On motion of Mr. Colman, 
Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be presented 
to the President, Secretaries and Treasurer of the Socie¬ 
ty, for the efficient and able manner in which they have 
discharged their duties during the past year. 
On motion of Judge Van Bekgen, 
Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be presented 
to the Young Men’s Association of Albany, for the use 
of their Lecture Boom. 
The Society then adjourned to meet at the Assembly 
Chamber, at 7 o’clock, P. M. 
At 7 o’clock, the Society met in the Assemblj'- Cham¬ 
ber, where a large audience were in attendance to hear 
the annual Address of the President. 
On the conclusion of the Address, Vice President Den¬ 
niston in the chair, the following resolution, on motion 
of Mr. Colman, was unanimously adopted: 
Resolved, That the thanks of this Society, be presented 
to their President, James S. Wadsworth, Esq. for his 
interesting, instructive, and useful Address, and that a 
committee be appointed to request a copy for the press. 
Messrs. Colman, Beekman, and Van Bergen, were ap¬ 
pointed the committee. 
MB. WADSWOBTH’S ADDBESS, 
Before the New-York State Agricultural Society, 
January 18, 1843. 
Gentlemen ;—In complying with the request of the 
Executive Committee of the Society, to address you upon 
its progress and pi’ospects, I find the embarrassment, 
which, under any circumstances, would on my part at¬ 
tend the performance of this duty, greatly enhanced by 
the recollection that the task which now devolves upon 
me, was, on the occasion of our recent annual Fair, so 
happily and eloquently performed by the late distinguish¬ 
ed chief magistrate of our state. I cannot but regard 
that event as one of the auspicious incidents in the his- 
toiy of our society. I trust that the appeal which we 
then listened to in behalf of the dignity and utility of 
our avocation, breathing as it did throughout, a high pa¬ 
triotism, and a deep solicitude for the objects which 
this society is intended to promote, was not lost upon 
any who had the happiness to hear it. I believe that 
few of us left the capitol on that occasion, without a high¬ 
er sense of the importance of self-cultivation as well as 
agricultural progress, and a renewed determination to 
improve not only the farm, but the farmer. 
The annual Fair of the Society, was indeed, in all its 
main incidents, deemed by its friends eminently suc¬ 
cessful. The large collection of those animals, the do¬ 
mestication of which seems so intimately connected with 
the prosperity of the human race, marked the progress 
of agricultural improvement, and the great concourse 
of observing spectators bore testimony to a widely dif¬ 
fused interest in the objects of the association. 
A large portion of the improved breeds of farm stock 
known in this country, or in Europe, were represented 
on the occasion referred to, by animals of the highest or¬ 
der. 
In the collection of Agricultural Implements and Do¬ 
mestic Manufactures, the exhibition was rich in the evi¬ 
dences of the ingenuity and skill of American mechanics. 
In the distribution of premiums, the society called to 
its aid as far as possible, eminent agriculturists of other 
states, and it is gratifying to know their decisions were 
almost universally received with the deference due to 
their acknowledged competence and impartiality. 
I find great pleasure, in referring to these indications 
that the society is, slowly perhaps, but certainly, accom¬ 
plishing the objects for which it was established, and by 
the liberality of the legislature endowed. You will, 
gentlemen, have seen enough, within your own observa¬ 
tion, to satisfy you that j^our particular labors are not 
barren of the happiest results. 
It may well add to the gratification, and to the hope¬ 
ful anticipations with which we regard these evidences 
of progress, so unequivocal and so universal, that they 
are achieved in spite of the most depressing embarrass¬ 
ments. 
The condition of the farming interests of our country, 
is indeed truly remarkable. The price of agricultural 
products has fallen to less than half the range of prices 
obtained during a period of years so long that they had 
come to be regarded as settled and permanent. Under 
this impression farms were bought, contracts made, im¬ 
provements undertaken, habits of expenditure acquired, 
which, under the present range of prices, cause difficul¬ 
ties as extensive as they are in many cases unfortunately, 
irremediable. 
Few of us are aware of the amount of individual suf¬ 
fering, the sacrifice of property accumulated by years of 
patient toil and frugality, the disappointment of honest 
hopes, of independence and comfort in advancing years, 
effected by this revolution in prices. It is no uncommon 
spectacle to see men now far advanced in life, who in 
their earlier years have been successful pioneers, com¬ 
pelled to abandon the comfortable homes and broad 
fields, which they have carved out of the wilderness, and 
seek again, amidst the hardships and privations of a fo¬ 
rest life, the re covery of their fortunes. 
If none had been swept away by this whirlwind, but 
those who sowed the storm, there would be slight ground 
for our sympathies; but unfortunately the cause was as 
universal and all powerful, as it was concealed and si¬ 
nister. 
It would be foreign to our present purpose to inquire 
into the origin, the history, and the remedy for these 
evils, and I fear that we could not enter upon the task 
without trespassing upon those political questions from 
which I hope this society will ever keep aloof. 
The pain which these wide spread disasters must in¬ 
flict upon every philanthropic mind, will be greatly re¬ 
lieved by the fact that they are so universally met in the 
right spirit. Benewed industry and greater economy, are 
every where the order of the day. But the fact to which 
I wish especially to invite your attention, as the advo¬ 
cates of agricultural improvement, is that it has not es¬ 
caped the reflection of the great body of farmers, that 
the best way to encounter low prices is by improved 
cultivation. New agricultural implements, new modes 
of cultivation, improved breeds of farm stock, were ne¬ 
ver more readily adopted than at this moment of extreme 
depression of the agricultural interests. There is in fact, 
every where depression, but no where apathy. We 
meet in every direction the most serious difficulties, the 
most extensive embarrassments, but we find too—thanks 
to the influence of our free institutions, and the acknowl¬ 
edged energy of our race, every where at work, the per¬ 
severance, the patience, and the versatility of expedient, 
before which all obstacles of human creation must give 
way. Such emphatically, are the difficulties with which 
we have to contend. They are the work of men’s hands. 
They come not from the great Dispenser of good and 
and evil, for never were the bounties of Providence more 
marked in our country than at this moment. Our har¬ 
vests have been almost universally abundant. Pestilence 
and famine are no where to be found. 
We may thus rely with a Avell grounded confidence 
upon the energy of a people at once educated and labo¬ 
rious, to overcome embarrassments which now so se¬ 
verely oppress the whole community. If we turn to the 
condition of other civilized nations, we shall find that in 
the comparison, we have rather cause for self-congratu¬ 
lation than despondency. Widely different is the situa¬ 
tion of that people, where the wages of labor are so high, 
that the capitalist finds it difficult to procure an adequate 
return for his investments, and the situation of a nation 
in which the wages of labor are so low, that the laborer 
finds it difficult to supply the daily requirements of his 
half clothed, half fed family. 
What are all the pecuniary difficulties so unii’ersally 
felt here, compared with the sufferings of a people of 
which no small proportion close the toils of the day with 
barely enough to supply its wants, and without knowing 
where, in case of sickness or loss of employment, they 
are to find the food which will keep them alive the next 
forty-eight hours ? 
I do not point to these comparisons to gratify the im¬ 
pulses of national vanity, but to show how much more 
ground we hav^e for renewed and hopeful effort, than for 
that despondency wich seldom seizes but upon feeble un¬ 
cultivated intellects. 
We have, gentlemen, other reasons for confidence in 
the future; even for the most sanguine anticipations of 
the developments of coming years. 
The application of science, the most profound which 
has yet been attained by the far reaching efforts of the 
human mind, to all the products of our industry, to the 
soil, the crop, the animal, has been reserved for the age 
in which we live. It is not claiming too much, to say 
that more progress has been made in this direction within 
the last twenty years than in any previous century. Our 
own countrymen, it is gratifying to perceive, are secur¬ 
ing their share of this abundant harvest. Our chemists 
and geologists will not, we may be sure, rest contented 
as industrious gleaners after the Davies, Liebigs and 
Johnstons of other countries, but will push forward into 
the arhple domains, which even those accute discoverers 
have not penetrated. 
From the origin of our race almost to the present time, 
the path of the husbandman has been clouded in darkness 
and doubt. From the sowing of the seed to the gather¬ 
ing of the harvest, mystery attended every step. The 
first link in the great chain of cause and effect was hid¬ 
den in uncertainty. The precepts of tradition, the re¬ 
sult of a multitude of experiments, were founded mostly 
in wisdom; but they were as inexplicable as they were 
sound. Not so now. The scientific analysis of soils, 
of manures, and of vegetable products, explains not only 
the workings of nature and the practices of art, but opens 
an inexhaustible field of new combinations and novel 
results. To spread far and wide this new light in the 
galaxy of human knowledge, is one of the objects,—I 
think it will be conceded to be the first object of this 
association. 
I will not attempt to enforce by any argument or il¬ 
lustration of mine, the high importance of this trust. If 
other nations in the vigor of maturity, with more leisure 
and more means than we possess, have out-stripped us in 
the race of philosophical discovery, let it be our boast, 
that we have spread these discoveries iriiier, and made 
them at once available by making them paid of the cur¬ 
rent knowledge of the nation. Let it be oui\first aim to 
difibse knowledge, where the constitution has rightly 
given power, to the whole people. 
It is not, gentlemen, the sole object of our Society, to 
reward those who bring to our Fairs the finest animals, 
or to remunerate those who, with skill and industry, 
raise the best crops. These are but the means, and part 
of the means, by which it is hoped to achieve higher 
and wider ends. We wish, by association, by compari¬ 
son of ideas, and by a generous emulation, to diffuse 
among ourselves and the mass of the agricultural com¬ 
munity the results of experience, the lights of science, 
and the productions of art. 
Of the incalculable power, for good and evil, of asso¬ 
ciation and combined effort, the present age abounds in 
illustrations. That this great element of man’s power 
has often been wielded to trample upon the equal rights, 
the peace and happiness of society, cannot be denied. 
Of the many instances in which, with widely different 
and higher aims, it has effected the noblest achievments, 
I shall only refer to one. With what language can we 
describe, with what powers of calculation estimate the 
wide spread good accomplished, the deep misery warded 
off, by temperance associations ? What individual, 
wielding even a despot’s sceptre—what government, 
monarchial or democratic—what law—what armed 
force, could have achieved the great results brought 
about in our day, within our own observation, by these 
efforts ? With this signal illustration before us, we can 
not lack confidence in any efforts wisely directed to a 
good end. With motives which cannot be impeached, 
with objects which can no where be condemned, asking 
no special privileges, requiring no exclusive immunities, 
seeking only to elevate and render more effective that 
labor from which man is destined never to be exempt, 
we may surely here, if any where, call to our aid the 
great power of association and combination. With this 
element of strength we wish to aivaken the public mind 
to a sense of the importance of our avocation, and to 
dispel whatever may be left of that ancient prejudice, 
that the tiller of the soil is the drudge of the human race. 
It is strange that it should have been overlooked, even 
in the darkest days of despotism and ignorance and su. 
perstition, that he who sows the seed and reaps the har¬ 
vest, works not only with the plow and with the hoe and 
with the scythe, but that he wields, far beyond the la¬ 
borer in any other branch of industry or art, the elements 
and powers of nature. There is certainly no pursuit in 
which so many of the laws of nature must be consulted 
and understood, as in the cultivation of the earth. Every 
change of the season, every change even of the winds, 
every fall of rain, must affect some of the manifold ope¬ 
rations of the farmer. In the improvement of our vari¬ 
ous domestic animals, some of the most abstruse princi¬ 
ples of physiology must be consulted. 
Is it to be supposed that men thus called upon to studj', 
or to observe the laws of nature, and labor in conjunc¬ 
tion with its powers, require less of the light of the 
highest science, than the merchant or manufacturer ? 
Or is it to be believed, that men who go weekly, almost 
daily, to different occupations, changing Avith the almost 
unceasing changes of the seasons, and whose business is 
to bring to maturity such a multiplicity of products, ex¬ 
ercise less the highest intellectual faculties of man, than 
the laborer who, day after day, and year after year, fol¬ 
lows the unchanging manipulations of art 1 
Happily for the interests of the farmer, the history of 
our country abounds in evidence that this great miscon¬ 
ception of the nature and tendency of agricultural labor, 
no longer exists. I can not, gentlemen, allow this occa¬ 
sion to pass without referring to a recent event, which, 
with ^'hatever diversities of opinion we may regard the 
great political questions which agitate our country, we, 
as farmers, cannot dwell upon without emotions of pride 
and pleasure. When the people of a great state, which, 
in population, in wealth, in power, if it had not volun¬ 
tarily surrendered its immunities, might stand up among 
the independent empires of the earth, without fear and 
without reproach—of a state, which, in achievments of 
industry, of genius, of enterprise, we may search the 
history of the world, and search in vain for a rival—• 
when the people of such a state turn to the ranks of its 
practical farmers for the unimpeachable integrity, the 
enlightened wisdom requisite to administer their highest 
trust, we may well claim that agricultural labor is not 
inconsistent with the highest intellectual cultivation and 
moral power. 
It is not alone in the brilliant results of scientific in¬ 
vestigation, nor in the fertility of the soil, nor in the ge¬ 
neral salubrity of the climate, that the American farmer 
finds the ground of his brightest anticipations for the fu¬ 
ture. There are other and higher elements in the com¬ 
position of his fate. The government which watches 
over him is the government of his choice—a government 
in which the permanent interests of the great mass of the 
people are secured by placing the power in their own 
hands. Under such institutions the pendulum of public 
justice may sometimes vibrate between dangerous ex¬ 
tremes, but it must eventually repose where justice and 
the interests of the many, require that it should rest. 
Such are the hopes of the farmers of our country. It is 
not to be denied that their interests have been sometimes 
neglected, and their rights sacrificed to the sinister aspi¬ 
rations of classes more favorably situated for political 
combinations; but if there is any foundation for oui 
faith, thaUa free government is the fountain of equal 
justice, their abberrations must be cori-ected in the slow 
but certain progress of truth and right. 
I trust that American agriculture Avill illustrate find 
confirm the striking remark of t!:e author of the “Esprit 
