1852. 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
383 
The world has never been so highly Commercial as it 
is at this time; never has intercourse between the na¬ 
tions of the Earth been on so vast a scale; and the far¬ 
mers of New-York, by the instrumentality of railroads, 
canals and steamships, are brought within its vortex. 
The tendency of this is not only to disseminate intelli¬ 
gence, but it Tenders varied information indispensable. 
The affairs of the whole commercial world blend them¬ 
selves with our Agriculture and give to this pursuit a 
scope and relationship that demand and produce varied 
intelligence; men enlarge their capacities and improve 
with their pursuits. The circle of the farmer’s dealings 
is not now limited to his neighbors and the next mer¬ 
chant; it is extending itself into all quarters of the globe. 
“ In the great struggle which is going on among the na¬ 
tions of the earth for commercial supremacy, the far¬ 
mers of this country are to bear an important part. They 
furnish the freights which send our vessels into every 
quarter of the globe; their pursuit is of the highest and 
first necessity to all other departments of business; if it 
languishes they suffer; and if it prosper, they are success¬ 
ful. The increased intercourse among nations, the modi¬ 
fications of revenue laws, and improvement of ships, and 
the introduction of steam upon the ocean, have brought 
us into close competition with Europe. Interest, pride 
and patriotism make us view the result with deep solici¬ 
tude. How are we prepared for the contest? In esti¬ 
mating ourselves we must not fall into the common error 
of comparing ourselves with what we were. 
“ The world will not permit us to be judged by such 
standards. We have arrived at that condition when we 
cannot, with self-respect, ask any allowances in our favor. 
The stern question now to be met is not what we are, or 
shall be, in comparison with the past; but what we ought 
to be with our present opportunities. 
“ General prosperity, or that of classes, is the result 
wrought out by the efforts of the people, directed by an 
intelligent public sentiment. Yet we all influence this 
sentiment, and the workings of each individual mind con¬ 
stitutes a part of its volume. It has frequently been 
changed by one man’s efforts. It is constantly influenced 
by those who boldly and manfully address themselves to 
the duty of advocating truth or combatting errors. En¬ 
gaged in designs of usefulness or benevolence, we may 
all, by the exercise of energy and perseverance, wield it 
as an instrument to effect our ends. Would you render 
your beautiful hills and valleys still more attractive and 
productive, clothing them with a rich verdure and orna¬ 
menting them with tasteful abodes and sylvan adornments 
of shrubs and trees, animate your agriculturist by holding 
his manly and noble pursuit in proper estimation. Would 
you become a wealthy community, and do you desire to 
introduce among you the products of mechanical skill ? 
Arouse the public interest and put forth the efforts, and 
the living streams of your hills, converted to means of 
service, will in the morning leap forth to their labors, and 
in the evening glide on to their rest. Does a more lofty 
ambition influence you ? Would you diffuse around you 
the blessings of Education? Would you fill the mind of 
Man with constant objects of thought and reflection ; 
would you give a new interest to everything around him, 
(for when you educate a man, you open the eyes of the 
blind) by calling his attention to all the wonders and 
beauties of the vegetable world, and teaching to investi¬ 
gate and ponder over Nature’s endless variety and strange 
processes; or arouse his faculties to the utmost stretch 
of their powers by calling upon him to measure the or- 
bits of other worlds to compute their distances and to con¬ 
ceive their sizes; or startle him by pointing out the traces 
in your hills and mountains inclosed within the strata of 
enduring rocks as within the leaves of a mighty record, 
showing the former convulsions of our earth; that it has 
been moulten with raging fires, swept with great floods, 
and has been the abode of monsters more vast than the 
most morbid imagination had conceived? Would you 
store his mind with all these wonders, elevate his concep¬ 
tions, endow him with wealth not subject to fickle For¬ 
tune’s changes? Give to Learning its appropriate hon- 
ors. Let the value of education and learning be pro- 
ptely estimated, and we shall not regard them merely 
as means by which we shall be rendered successful as 
farmers, mechanics or professional men; but while they 
will render these pursuits successful, they will lead us to 
regard them as means, not endsj as paths which we 
tread in compliance with the divine fiat which makes the 
journey of life one of labor, but which we also may 
make a road of self-improvement and public usefulness. 
If we reflect upon the prospects of our own great State, 
we shall see that the present is an era in the history of 
its progress; a point of time from which we shall have 
to contend with intelligent zeal for the preservation of 
present advantages, and for the promotion of its great 
interests.” 
Referring to the bearing of science on Agriculture, he 
makes the following just remarks: 
I think the advances which are made, are much greater 
than we suppose. Scientific knowledge, when it comes 
forth from the laboratory or study, is clothed with a no¬ 
menclature so stiff and forbidding that it is somewhat re¬ 
pulsive; but by the aid of popular discourses, Agricultu¬ 
ral Societies, and, above all, of the Press, it is gradually 
popularized, expressed in more familiar terms, and be¬ 
comes a part of that general intelligence we all possess. 
After speaking of the natural advantages of the State 
of New-York, the necessity for increased skill and atten¬ 
tion on the part of the farmer, and the importance of the 
diffusion of learning, he concluded with the following; 
“ However great our natural or acquired advantages, 
they alone will not sustain us against foreign or domestic 
competition; but reliance must be placed only upon the 
intelligence and industry .of the cultivators of the soil, 
and, above all, that success in this pursuit, as in all others, 
depends, in a great degree, upon the estimation in which 
this most noble and important occupation is held by them¬ 
selves and the community at large. It is this last con¬ 
sideration that has iuduced the officers and members of 
the Society to devote themselves to its concerns, and to 
the toil incident to such exhibitions as those we see 
around us. They feel that it has been true at all times, 
in all conditions of society, that those pursuits are suc¬ 
cessfully prosecuted which are held in high esteem by 
society at large. It is to manifest this regard that the 
Executive of our State, its public officers, and other 
distinguished men from all parts of our country, 
try, have attended on this occasion It is this consider¬ 
ation that has induced me to appear before you to-day, 
conscious of my inability to instruct this audience on the 
processes of farming, although I am somewhat engaged 
in its concerns, to make the remarks I have submitted to 
you. 
• ‘ They may be unsound and valueless, but they are of¬ 
fered as a tribute to the importance, the dignity and value 
of the Farmer’s occupation.” 
Points of a good Hog. 
I could caution the reader against being led away by 
a mere name, in his selection of a hog. A hog may bo 
called a Berkshire or a Suffolk, or any other breed 
most in estimation, and yet may in reality possess none of 
this valuable blood. The only sure mode by which the 
buyer will be able to avoid impositions is, to make name 
always secondary to points. If you find a hog possessed 
of such points of form as are calculated to insure early 
maturity, and facility of taking flesh, you need care 
little what it has seemed good to the seller to call him; 
and remember that no name can bestow value upon an 
animal deficient in the qualities to which I have alluded. 
The true Berkshire—that possesses a dash of the Chi¬ 
nese and Neapolitan varieties—comes, perhaps, nearer 
to the desired standard than any other. The chief 
points which characterize such a hog are the following: 
In the first place, sufficient depth of carcass, and such 
an elongation of body as will insure a sufficient lateral 
expansion. Let the loin and chest be broad. The 
breadth of the former denotes good room for the play 
of the lungs, and a consequent free and healthy circula¬ 
tion, essential to the thriving or fattening of any ani- 
