1847. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
321 
competent judge. Several of them are certainly very 
superior animaJs, both as to shape of carcass and quality 
of wool. They will be an acquisition to the flocks of 
this country. 
Mr. J. N, Blakeslee, of Watertown, Ct., had on 
the ground some specimens of his noted Merinos. His 
flock appears to sustain its reputation. 
Mr; Hines, of Brandon, Vt., showed a yearling 
Merino, and five yearling ewes of the same stock, which 
were well shaped, remarkably similar in their appear¬ 
ance, and had good fleeces as to weight and quality. 
Mr. Chapman, of Middlebury, Vt., who was on his 
way to Kentucky with about one thousand Merinos, 
exhibited a few of his flock, among which we observed 
some very good rams. 
The above were all we saw from out of the State. 
The show of sheep within the State was by no means 
equal to former years—it ffras inferior both in numbers 
and general quality. Of Saxons and Merinos, Messrs. 
Blackslee, of North Salem. Westchester county, 
Wilcox & Holmes, of Saratoga, had a few good sheep. 
Of South Downs, Messrs. McIntyre, of Albany, and 
Wakeman, of Herkimer, showed several ewes which 
were highly creditable to their flocks. The rams, with 
the exception of one or two, we thought hardly as good 
as those gentlemen have generally exhibited at our 
shows. Mr. McIntyre’s cross-bred South Down and 
Cotswold fat sheep, were first rate. 
There was one pen of very fair Leicester sheep, but 
we did not succeed in finding the name of the owner. 
The show of swine was the most inferior we ever 
saw at any agricultural exhibition. We did not see 
one first-rate hog, and excepting Mr. Ireland’s Span¬ 
ish boar, so called, it would have puzzled us to pick 
out a good one. 
The 'poultry were but a trifling show. Mr. Henry 
Vail, of Troy, showed some very good Dorking fowls. 
There was a coop of very pretty white fowls presented 
byJ. A. Brackett, of Saratoga. Messrs. Mesier, of 
Dutchess county, presented two pair of their Chinese 
geese. This handsome variety has been exhibited and 
noticed at former shows. 
The plowing match took place near the show ground 
on the third day. The ground had but a thin sward, 
and was altogether too light, to afford a fair trial of 
plows. Many plows will make fair work in loose sandy 
land, that would be nearly useless on compact soils. 
The number of competitors was twelve. The plowing 
was for the most part such as might not be considered 
objectionable for such a soil, but we must say that we 
noticed but one or two lands that could be considered 
suitable examples for general plowing. The land 
marked No. 8. plowed with a Scotch plow, was done 
handsomely. The furrows were straight, uniform in 
thickness, level at the bottom, and laid in such a man¬ 
ner that the harrow would operate on them to the best 
advantage—not thrown over to a dead level, but the 
corners left highest. Most of the plowing was decid¬ 
edly too wide in the furrow for common soils. 
There was an example of double plowing, given by 
Mr. Bronson, which in many cases might be adapted 
advantageously. The mode consists in first plowing 
off the turf by a furrow about two inches in thickness, 
and then by a simple alteration of the draught, by mov-, 
ing the chain upwards on the clevis, the'same plow is 
run in the same furrow to the depth of six or seven 
inches, throwing up the soil and leaving it very light 
and friable-—in excellent condition for crops. 
The attendance at the fair of gentlemen from abroad 
was unusually large, and it was a matter of regret that 
the show did not come nearer to their expectations. 
Among the company were Ex-Presidents Van Buren 
and Tyler, Gov. Young, of New York, Judge Baker, 
of Louisiana, Hon. Mr. McKay, of North Carolina, 
Col. AllsTon. of South Carolina, Hon. Mr. Jones,- 
and Mr. BolliWg, of Virginia, Col. Capron, of Mary¬ 
land, Maj. Reybold, of Delaware, Prof. Hare, Mr. 
WiTherelL, and others of Pennsylvania, Mr. New- 
bould, of New Jersey, ex-Governor HilL, of New 
Hampshire, Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, of Indiana, Hon. 
Messrs. pAPiNEAtf, Watts, and Hayes of Canada, 
besides a numerous delegation of intelligent farmers 
from the New England States. 
At 12 o*clock on Thursday, a large and imposing 
audience assembled to listen to the address prepared by 
Gov. Wright, which, according to the announcement, 
was to be read by the Hon. John A. Dix. The stage 
erected for the purpose under large tent in the centre 
of the grounds, was occupied by the officers of the 
Society, the Ladies composing the Committee upon 
household productions, the Governor, State Officers, 
and such distinguished strangers as were present, 
among whom were Ex-Presidents Van Buren andi 
Tyler, Gov. Hill, of New Hampshire, and other 
gentlemen from various sections of the Union. 
After an impressive and solemn address to the 
Throne of Grace, by the Rev. Mr. Chester, the Pre¬ 
sident of the Society introduced Gen. Dix, who pre¬ 
faced the reading of Gov. Wright s Address with the 
following remarks 
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Society —I have come here, at 
your request, to perform a melancholy duty—to read to you and to 
this assembly, the Annual Address prepared for the occasion by 
Sila.s Weight. In the order of your proceedings, it was to have 
been delivered by himself. The providence of God has overruled 
your arrangements. The voice which was to have been heard by 
the thousands assembled here, is silenced forever. He. who was to 
have stood before you, where I now stand, and to have borne a pro¬ 
minent part in your proceedings, has gone down, in the fullness of 
health and strength, to the tomb. The large space which Mr. 
Wright filled in the public eye, his great talents, and the moral ele¬ 
vation of his character, render this bereavement a National cala¬ 
mity. The general gloom, which the intelligence of his death 
carried with it, attests the profound respect, in which he was held 
by his countrymen, and the strong impression which his character 
and services had wrought in the public mind. 
The admonition contained in these sudden dispensations of Provi¬ 
dence is the more solemn, when those, who ?re conspicuous for their 
intellect and their virtue, are called from the field of their labor, 
while they are yet fresh,and vigorous, and when the path they tread 
seems but an avenue to higher distinction. It is thus that the career 
of Mr. Wright has been terminated, while his faculties were in full 
vigor, and while much of the high promise of his life was yet to be 
fulfilled. His death is the more impressive at this time, and in this 
place, from the peculiar circumstances, by which his name is con¬ 
nected with the proceedings of the day. The intellectual labor in 
which he had been engaged, at the invitation of the Society, was 
performed.' The address he was to have delivered was completed 
during the very last hours of his life. Thus, the accomplishment 
of the task he had undertaken for the Society, may be said to have 
been coincident with the termination of his earthly career. 
I am not here, Mr. President and gentlemen, to pronounce a. 
eulogy on the character or public services of Mr. Wright; but to 
perform the more-humble part of reading to you the address which 
lies before me—the last labor of his life—and which seems to come 
as a legacy to the Society, to his friends, and to his countrypien. 
At the same time, I have thought it might not be inappropriate or 
unsatisfactory to refer briefly to some of the circumstances attend¬ 
ing his decease. 
It is well known that Mr. Wright for the last twenty years has 
held, without interruption, various public trusts requiring incessant 
mental labor and leading to a habitually sedentary life. In the in¬ 
tervals of his service in the Senate of the United States, from 1833 
to 1845, a portion of his lime was devoted to the cultivation of his 
garden and a few acres of land, by his own hands. While Gov¬ 
ernor of the State, he purchased an additional quantity of land, and 
when relieved from the duties of the Executive office, he applied 
himself with great diligence and zeal to the improvement of it. His 
labor was not merely that of superintendence. He was himself a 
principal laborer in all ,1ns agricultural operations. He hired an 
able-bodied, hard-working man, and went with him into the field, 
plowing, mowing and harvesting, performing himself a full share or 
labor; and after the fatigues of the day, retiring to his study and pass¬ 
ing his evenings in reading and in correspondence. To these exces¬ 
sive exertions of body and of mind, and to thetoo rapid transition from 
a life of comparative bodily inactivity to one of severe manual labor, 
is doubtless to bt traced the sudden attack, Winch terminated his 
existence. I need not dwell upon details, which have been so 
widely circulated, and are now so generally known. Suffice it to 
say. that on the'morning after lie had revised the address, which I 
am about to read, and after having made a few corrections, leaving 
if Word for word as it now is, and probably precisely What it would 
have been if he had lived to deliver it himself, he was seized with a 
