170 
THE CULTIVATOR 
committee on cattle, were a beautiful Ayrshire cow and 
calf, lately imported by Judge Van Bergen, and of¬ 
fered by him, there being no one present to call the at¬ 
tention of the committee to her. These fine animals 
were purchased by Mr. Rathbone of Albany, and will 
add to the valuable stock already collected in this vi¬ 
cinity. 
Not the least interesting or novel part of the exhibi¬ 
tion, was the herd of some thirty Buffaloes, from the 
foot of the Rocky Mountains and the sources of the Mis¬ 
souri. Their shaggy forms and uncouth figures present¬ 
ed a striking contrast to the beautiful forms of the Dur- 
hams and Herefords on the ground. 
Among the objects which attracted no little attention, 
was a fine specimen of the sugar and the syrup produced 
from the corn stalk, made by Mr. Webb, and presented 
by Dr. Thompson, president of the Newcastle Ag. So¬ 
ciety of that state. 
M. Bommer, proprietor of the patent for manufactur¬ 
ing manures in a speedy and economical manner, had 
commenced his process a short time before the Fair on 
the grounds of the society, and the result was of the 
most satisfactory kind. From a mass of straw, corn¬ 
stalks, weeds, litter, and other refuse matters, he had 
formed, in the course of a few days, a compost heap of 
the richest fermented manure, ready for application to 
the soil or to crops. There is no mistake that the me¬ 
thod of M. Bommer will, when properly carried out, 
fullfil all he promises in the preparation of manure. 
The fineness of the weather during the whole of the 
Fair, contributed in no small degree to the pleasure 
which seemed to be experienced by the tens of thou¬ 
sands that flocked to the place of exhibition; and the 
smiles of cloudless skies were reflected from the beam¬ 
ing eyes of the beautiful and the fair, who honored the 
society and the exhibition by their presence. 
The number of gentlemen, farmers and others, from 
our own and other states, was very great; and all re¬ 
ceived a most hearty welcome. That noble association, 
the New-York Institute, sent up a delegation of twelve, 
headed by that veteran in the great cause of American 
industry, General Tallmadge. Large anil respectable 
delegations were also present from several of the Agri¬ 
cultural Societies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, 
Penn., N. Jersey, Delaware, &c. The agricultural press 
of other states was also very well represented. From 
Maine, Mr. Lincoln of the Maine Cultivator, and Mr. 
Drew of the Plow Boy. From Boston, Mr. Merriam of 
the Boston Cultivator, and Mr. Cole of the Farmer. 
From Virginia, Messrs. Botts and Burfoot of the South¬ 
ern Planter. It was gratifying to witness the presence 
of so many of the staunch friends of the farmer and the 
agricultural interests from distant parts of this slate, from 
the neighboring states, and from Canada. Of these, did 
our limits permit, we should be glad to give a numerous 
list; but it is needless to particularize; for here the free¬ 
born independent tiller of the soil, the horticulturist 
and gardener, the mechanic and manufacturer, the ama¬ 
teur farmer, the grain grower, and the breeder of im¬ 
proved animals, were all present to interchange their 
greetings with one another, and freely communicate 
their opinions, or the rich results of their observation and 
experience. 
On the 27th, the examination and trial of the plows 
offered for competition took place. Of the great variety 
on the ground, no less than 30 were entered for trial; 
the most of them beautiful implements, and finished in 
the neatest manner. Notwithstanding the ceaseless labor 
of the committee on this and the two following days, it 
was found impossible to investigate the respective me¬ 
rits of each, in the time alloted, so as to give a satisfac¬ 
tory decision; and with the unanimous consent of the 
competitors, they concluded to refer the whole matter 
back to the society, with the results of their investiga¬ 
tions, to be followed up more fully at the next meeting 
of the society. The committee also recommend that 
the sums offered in premiums on plows be increased. 
Wednesday the 26th, was devoted to an examination, 
by the several committees, of the several kinds of stock 
offered for competition and premiums. Mr. Prentice’s 
herd, and particularly the family of Short Horns, from 
his cow Matilda—thirteen in number, cows and calves— 
received much attention, as did also Messrs. Corning & 
Sotham’s beautiful and extensive herd of Herefords, from 
the assembled thousands. The imported bull, “His 
Grace,” brought on the ground by Paschal Morris, Esq. 
of Chester county, Pennsylvania, was much admired; and 
added much to the value of the exhibition, as enabling- 
breeders to compare the merits of different families of 
Short Horns. The same may be said of the beautiful 
cows, “ Rocket,” and “ Strawberry,” exhibited by Mr. 
Whitney of New-Haven, Connecticut. The Norman 
horse, Diligence, imported from France, and brought on 
the ground by Mr. Harris of New-Jersey, was much no¬ 
ticed by the amateurs of good horses; and by most, con¬ 
sidered as the proper animal, by a cross of which with 
the lighter horses of this country, a better breed of farm 
horses might be produced. The fat cattle offered for 
premiums, presented a truly magnificent sight. The ox 
shown by Mr. Rust of Syracuse, the pair by Mr. God¬ 
frey of Geneva, those by Mr. Jones of Oneida, and the 
Durham cow of Mr. Schuyler of Watervliet were, par¬ 
ticularly the first, literally mountains of flesh. Those 
who have not seen this animal, will have some difficulty 
in conceiving an ox weighing 4,200 pounds. The show 
of sheep was very superior, embracing as it did speci¬ 
mens of the best flocks in the state—Long wooled from 
Messrs. Clift of Putnam, Morrison of Orange, Corning & 
Sotham, McIntyre, Dunn and others—South Downs from 
Messrs. Rotch of Otsego, Waite of Orange, Bement and 
McIntyre of Albany—Saxonys fx-om Messrs. Grove of 
Hosick and Hull of New-Lebanon, &c. &c. 
At two o’clock on Thursday afternoon the society con¬ 
vened at the Assembly Chamber of the Capitol, the Presi¬ 
dent in the chair, when a large and highly respectable 
audience, a large part of which was composed of practi- 
cal farmers, and intelligent agriculturists from all parts 
of our country, listened with much interest to an address 
from Governor Seward. The address was in the high¬ 
est degree honorable to the head and heart of the Go¬ 
vernor, and was received with marked applause. The 
thanks of the Society were tendered to his Excellency 
upon the conclusion of the address, and a committee ap¬ 
pointed to request a copy for publication. This able 
production, the more creditable for the very limited 
time allowed for its preparation, we have the plea¬ 
sure of presenting to our readers. 
GOV. SEWARD’S ADDRESS. 
Fellow Citizens 'The display of animal and vegetable pro¬ 
ductions, the expositions of culture and the trial of implements 
of tillage, under the patronage of the New-York State Agricul¬ 
tural Society, are completed ; and it only remains to confer the 
civic prizes which have been so honorably won. Shall scenes 
so animating though so peaceful, so instructive though so sim¬ 
ple, pass without comment? 
If our country has a citizen imbued with the philanthropy, and 
learned in the philosophy of agriculture, eminent in political 
wisdom and transcendant in eloquence, here are his forum and 
his theme. Such a citizen you have expected to hear. Let my 
temerity in assuming the place he has left vacant, and others 
have declined, find an apology in the gratitude which the abun¬ 
dant kindness of my fellow citizens has inspired.* 
In that time-worn Tower which tells many a deed of treachery 
and of tyranny, the British Government exhibits the armor and 
arms of Kings, Nobles, Knights, Soldiers and Seamen, who have 
borne the standard of St. George around the circumference of 
the globe. France, with pride more relined, displays in the gal¬ 
leries of the Louvre, the chef3 d’ouvre of her artists with what 
she yet retains of the productions of the pencil and the chisel of 
which Napoleon despoiled the nations of Europe. These monu¬ 
ments excite admiration, but they leave generous and grateful 
sympathies unmoved, while the benevolent mind recognizes in 
the axe, the plow and the loom, agents of civilization and hu¬ 
manity, and exalts them above all the weapons that ambition 
and rapine have torged, and even above all the embellishments 
of social life that arts merely ornamental have ever produced. 
Nor need we overvalue our agricultural inventions, or bestow 
exaggerated praise upon their authors. Admitting the inferiori¬ 
ty ot our schools to the Universities of Europe, and the deficien¬ 
cy of our ariisans in learning and experience, we may yet main¬ 
tain that all scientific acquirements here, and all inventions, 
pass immediately to the general use and contribute directly to 
the general welfare. Such are now our means of diffusing and 
preserving knowledge, that no really useful invention can either 
be lost or fail to be employed in every region of our country. 
Let this festival, 
- “ Pastorally sweet 
And rurally magnificent,” 
be preserved, and the increasing emulation of our yeomanry and 
mechanics maintained, and the effect will be seen not only in 
the improvement of Agriculture, but in the amelioration of the 
character of the people. Thirty years before the revolutionary 
war, at a celebration in Massachusetts, the Matrons and Maid¬ 
ens of Boston, appeared on the Mall, each industriously plying 
the busy spinning wheel. Need it then excite surprise that our 
sister State now excels with the shuttle, and extorts wealth 
from the floods, the ice and the rocks ! The character of a peo¬ 
ple may be studied in their amusements. The warlike Greeks 
fixed their epochs on the recurrence of the Olympic games. The 
husbandmen of Switzerland at stated periods celebrate the in¬ 
troduction of the vine. Well may we then, continue ovations in 
honor of agriculture, which, while they give expression to na¬ 
tionalrejoicing, promote the welfare of our country, and the 
good of mankind. 
Farmers of New-York—You do wisely in collecting from eve¬ 
ry district and every region, the various species of plants, and 
adopting such as find our soil and climate most congenial; in 
introducing new branches of culture and mechanic industry ; in 
choosing out of domestic and foreign stock, the animals which 
propagate most rapidly, with the least expense of subsistence, 
and yield the largest returns for the husbandman’s care ; in sti¬ 
mulating invention to the discovery of new principles of tillage, 
machines and implements, for increasing the fertility of the 
soil and the productiveness of human labor. But these efforts 
alone, well conceived and beneficent as they are, do not fullfil 
the responsibilities of the American Farmer. 
Similar exertions, though less effective, have been made by the 
tillers of the earth in every age, however benighted, and in eve¬ 
ry country, however subjected. The God of nature has given 
us a territory stretching through fifty degrees of longitude wish 
almost the breadth of the temperate zone, embosoming nume¬ 
rous lakes, and traversed by capacious rivers. Every variety of 
soil north of the tropics, and every mineral resource, with moun¬ 
tain, forest and plain, are abundantly supplied. We stand in re¬ 
lation to this wide territory not unlike the progenitor of our 
race in regard to ihe earth over which he received dominion 
from the Almighty. He has permitted us to learn wisdom from 
the rugged experience of almost sixty centuries, and establish a 
system of government new and peculiar, which, while it effectu¬ 
ally secures personal rights and domestic tranquility, does not 
favor war, and is not adapted to aggression, which chastens 
avarice, and repressesambition, which favors equality, subdues 
individual power, and stimulates, strengthens and combines the 
power of the masses—a system resting on the consent and kept 
in action only by the agency of the governed. To these advan¬ 
tages is added a social organization which rejects in every 
form the principles of'involuntary or reluctant labor and grada¬ 
tion among the members of the state, and by offering equal re¬ 
wards, calls forth the equal industry and enterprise of every 
citizen. These peculiarities of ourpolitical and social condition 
indicate an era in civilization, and inspire a generous confidence 
that it may be our privilege to open for our race the way to a 
brighter and better destiny than has yet been attained. 
Hitherto, civilized men, enslaved or oppressed, have doubted 
whether advancement from the savage state of existence was a 
blessing, and have struggled for liberty as if mere liberty was 
the end of human achievement. But we have learned that civil 
liberty is only one of the conditions of human happiness, and is 
desirable chiefly because it favors that social advancement 
which is the ever fulfiling destiny of mankind. In every stage 
of that advancement hitherto, Agricultural improvement has 
been last, though it should always be first. By Agriculture, na¬ 
tions exist; it supports and clothes mankind; it furnishes the 
resources for protection and defence, and the means even of mo¬ 
ral improvement and intellectual cultivation. Portions of a 
community, cities, and even states, may exist by exercising the 
* The Hon. Daniel Webster was expected to deliver the Ad¬ 
dress. 
mechanic arts, or by going down to the sea in ships, but there 
must nevertheless be somewhere, some larger Agricultural com¬ 
munity to furnish the productions and fabrics indispensable even 
in such forms of society. The necessary minerals, iron, lead, 
copper, and others, are beneficial only because they are em¬ 
ployed m aid of Agricul ure, or in preparing its productions for 
our use, and even the metals which by conseni of mankind are 
called precious, have no value except as representatives of the 
fruits ol industry. Other interests may rise and fall, and other 
masses may combine, dissolve and re-combine, and the agricul¬ 
tural mass be scarcely affected, but the whole body politic sym¬ 
pathise when this interest is depressed and this class suffers. 
“ Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, 
A breath can make them, as breath has made : 
But a bold peasantry, their countiy’s pride,— 
When once destroyed, can never be supplied.” 
It is an obvious responsibility of the American People to re¬ 
store the natural and proper order of social improvement, by 
renovating Agriculture—for this is the tendency of our institu¬ 
tions. It is a maxim in other countries that society necessarily 
consists of two classes—the ruling few and the governed many. 
Ihe latter are designated under the most liberal forms of go¬ 
vernment as “ the laboring poor;” in the polished countries of 
the South as “Peasantry,” and in the ruder North as “ Serfs.” 
Here we know not as a class, Serfs, Peasantry or Poor; and 
the laboring many constitute society. Whether designedly 
or not, they who apply to our condition, analogies derived from 
monarchical or aristocratic States, wouldmislead us, and these 
deceive themselves who expect that our government will ope- 
rate otherwise than for the securiiy and benefit of the masses. 
1 he legislators of our country are its citizens; and since the 
predominating mass of citizens consist of tillers of the soil, the 
American Farmer is the American Statesman. The government, 
thereTore, necessarily tends to sustain and promote Agriculture. 
In Europe, the cost ot land fit for tillage is twice or three 
times greater than here; the price of labor here is more than 
double that in Europe. Our land is therefore cultivated imper¬ 
fectly, and its productions are seldom equal to one-half its 
capacity. Thus one of our great advantages is counterbalanced 
by 11 deficiency of physical force. Notwithstanding our popula¬ 
tion augments withunprecedented rapidity,by domestic increase 
and immigration—yet sued is the demand for labor and service 
in commercial towns, and in the improvement of roads and ri¬ 
vers, and so attractive are our new settlements in the West, 
that the deficiency of labor continues the same, and its value, 
under ordinary circumstances, constantly increases. Immigra- 
tipn, therefore, is an auxiliary to Agriculture. The condition 
of society in Europe favors emigration. The nations are repos¬ 
ing after li ng and exhausting wars. The masses increase in 
disproportion to their territory and subsistence; and although 
a democratic spirit is abroad, slowly renovating their institu¬ 
tions, there is still a. restless desire to participate in our social 
advantages and enjoy our perfect liberty. But with the sturdy, 
enterprising and virtuous immigrants, there will also arrive on 
our shores, the infirm, the indolent and the depraved, while a 
change of home arid country is always liable to be attended by 
accident and misfortune. These circumstances increase the 
charges for public.charity and justice in our populous cities, and 
hence their inhabitants often regard immigration as itself a ca¬ 
lamity. 
. But, aside from all questions of humanity—if we compare this 
incidental misfortune with the addition to the national wealth 
and strength derived from the one hundred thousand emigrants 
who annually disperse themselves over the country, and take 
into consideration the increase of our physical strength by their 
descendants, we find every principle of political economy sanc¬ 
tioning the policy of ourancestors, which freely openeu our ports 
and offered an asylum to the exiles ol every land. Nor need I 
urge before, such an enlightened assembly, that prejudices 
against emigrants, and apprehensions of danger from their as¬ 
sociation, are as unwise as they are ungenerous. The experi¬ 
ence of mankind has proved that mutual intercourse and the 
most intimate relations between the various branches of the 
human family are indispensable to the progress of civilization 
and humanity. 
The Agricultural Interest, though the last to suffer, is always 
slowest in recovering from any national calamity. Associa¬ 
tions in other departments deranged, may be renewed. Capital 
destroyed may be supplied, and masses overborne may recover. 
But Agriculture, once embarrassed, is with difficulty restored. 
War, however justifiable or necessary, or however it may sti¬ 
mulate production for a season, is always a national evil, and in 
its least desolating form is destructive of agricultural prospe¬ 
rity. To cultivate the disposition and the aris of peace, and to 
guard against domestic disturbance and civil discord, are im¬ 
portant therefore, not merely to the improvement, but to the 
prosperity of Agriculture 
Agriculture can never flourish where its rewards are preca¬ 
rious, or inferior in value to those obtained in other depart¬ 
ments of industry. _ Perpetual care is necessary to diminish the 
burthens to which it may be subjected. Hence t.he necessity of 
an economical conduct of public affairs—of improving those in¬ 
land communications which serve for the conveyance of agri¬ 
cultural productions to places of exchange and consumption, 
and of such commercial regulations as secure advantageous 
markets either at home or abroad. But these considerations 
are so familiar that they need not he dwelt upon, notwithstand¬ 
ing their acknowledged importance. 
The preservation of equality among the people in regard to 
constitutional and legal rights, and perpetual adherence to 
the policy which by laws regulating descents, devises, anil 
trusts, prevents the undue accumulation of estates, are in¬ 
dispensable to agricultural prosperity. It is this policy, co-ope¬ 
rating with the natural advantages of our position, which has 
made the Agricultural class here a community of freeholders, 
in contrast with the systems of other countries, under which 
lands are cultivated by tenants, the rewards of whose labor 
pass to the benefit of landlords. 
Not only was the “ primal curse” oflabor universal, but ac¬ 
quiescence in it was wisely made a condition of health, happi¬ 
ness, wisdom, and virtue. This condition, however, implies 
that equal rewards are allowed to mankind, while equal labor 
is exacted from them. Whatever institution, then, on any pre¬ 
text, relieves any portion of a community of the necessity of la¬ 
bor, or .withholds its incentives or excludes ihem from equal 
competition for its rewards, not only is unequal and unjust, but 
by diminishing the whole amount of social labsr, ncrcases the 
burthens of those on whom the subsistence of society depends. 
We are all accustomed to recognise this important truth in the 
operation of domestic servitude. But every form of unequal le¬ 
gislation, every custom and every prejudice which causes any 
mass or any portion of amass to abate their efforts to secure in¬ 
dependence and wealth, operates in the same manner, although 
to a less extent. 
While the patrons of Agriculture wall keep steadily in view 
these principles, their most strenuous efforts must be exerted 
for the diffusion of knowledge. To knowledge we are indebted 
for whatever of ease or security we enjoy ; and the safety and 
happiness of every civilized community not overborne by foreign 
oppression, are exactly in proportion to its intellectual cultiva 
tiou. So also, as a general proposition, individuals prosper and 
exert influence according to the standard of (heir attainments. 
This truth applies also to masses in a community. The Agri 
cultural class here, as well a3 in every other country, notwith’ 
standing their numbers, enjoy comparatively inadequate com¬ 
pensation and abated influence, because they have a lower 
standard of education than other classes. There is not,. as is 
