veral county societies, on the ratio of one hundred and fifty dollars to each member of the Assembly; to be expended in premiams for practical and experimental improvements in agriculture, horticulture and manufactures; and the residue, (being nearly six thousand dollars,) appropriated for the funds of the State society, to be expended in procuring choice, select, rare and useful animals, vegetables, seeds, implements and essays on agriculture, for public distribution."

Your committee are persuaded that our agricultural population exercise a highly imposing influence upon the character and prosperity of the State. They create, by their labor, the bulk of our wealth; they control, by their numbers, our civil and political institutions; and they give the impress, by their habits and understanding, to our moral and social character; and, to use the appropriate language of the Governor in his message, "it must be regarded as a matter of some surprise, that an employment in which so great a number of the human family are directly engaged, to which all look for their daily bread, and upon which commerce, manufactures and the mechanic arts-indeed all the various pursuits of mankind-so necessarily depend, should not have risen to a still higher consideration than it has yet attained, and received from those entrusted with the power of legislation more liberal aids." Exercising, therefore, as the agriculturist does, such a controlling influence in all our affairs, it manifestly becomes our interest, as it seems to be our duty, to place within the reach of this numerous class of citizens, all the aids which science and skill have brought, or can bring, to benefit their labors—to stimulate them to enterprise and usefulness, by liberal encouragements and rewards; and to qualify them for the high and responsible duties of freemen, by extending to them, as we have already done to the patrician and professional classes, the commanding influence of education.

Science has produced a wonderful revolution within a few years in the manufacturing and mechanic arts; abridged human labor, and given an accuracy and certainty to its manipulations before unknown. Its principles are believed to be still more extensively applicable and useful in the labors of husbandry: and no branch of industry can long prosper amid the competitions of the world, unless it keeps pace with the improvements of the age.

Nor are political considerations unworthy of being taken into account.. Civil liberty has no where imposed stronger responsibilities

than upon the yeomanry—the political sovereigns of these States; and from none does she expect a more rigid fulfilment of the trust. We are as a light elevated to the view of the world, and every flickering is watched with deep solicitude, by good men of every nation and country. Without wishing to make invidious distinctions in society, or derogating from the well-carned fame of our literary and professional men, we beg leave to remark, that in this, more than in any other country, the agricultural is the most important class; and if it is not equally honorable, it is only because it s the least enlightened. Give to this class the facilities of a higher education, and we shall not disappoint the world's best hope; we shall elevate the character of its agriculturists with that of the State, and augment our resources and happiness. But your committee forbear to enlarge upon the advantages of education to agriculturists, inasmuch as an able report upon this subject, accompanied by a bill to establish an agricultural school, is already upon our files.

The proposition for a State agricultural institution, with branches in the several counties, and the appropration of an annual sum from the State treasury, to be awarded in premiums for practical and experimental improvements in agriculture, horticulture and manufactures, has also the undivided approbation of your committee. Experience has ever been held to be the school of wisdom; and whenever lessons have been taken upon this subject, the result has fully confirmed the most sanguine hopes of their utility.

We are informed that when Mr. Coke, the distinguished English farmer, came into possession of his extensive estate, the condition of farming upon it was wretched, and much of the land so sterile and barren as to rent for three shillings an acre, tithe free. Through the enterprise and example of this distinguished individual, and the liberal distribution, for forty successive years, of premiums for skill and excellence in husbandry, the condition of these same lands became so improved as to be classed among the most productive in Great Britain, and were worth an annual rent of thirty shillings an acre. Nor was the influence of example and reward more remarkable upon the soil, than upon those who tilled it.

The tenants became intelligent, enterprising and wealthy, and the habits of all so improved that pauperism was hardly known: and although in a country where one-seventh of the population receive public charity, the poor-house belonging to these parishes be

came useless, and was actually pulled down. The premiums awarded annually by this enterprising landholder amounted to about seven hundred dollars. The income of the estate was more than quadrupled, and its population trebled. These facts, so full of instruction to those who are charged with the supervision of the public interests, are given on the authority of Mr. Rigby, and were noted down by him at Halkham sheep-shearing, in 1816.

But your committee need not search abroad, they think, for facts to show the economy of liberal appropriations for the improvement of our agriculture, Our adjoining sister State affords a happy and instructive illustration; and we may safely assert, that no State in our confederacy fosters with better care her true interests than Massachusetts; and no State exhibits a more industrious, intelligent and thriving population, We may profit by her example in this as in many other cases. She has for years appropriated public moneys to be distributed in premiums for improve ments in rural labor; and she continues the appropriation with increasing prospects of usefulness. Your committee are not apprised of the amount of these appropriations; but understand that the county of Berkshire, which borders on this State, receives annually three hundred dollars as her share of the bounty. Her population is 37,000. An appropriation in New-York in a like ratio to population, would make an aggregate of about 17,000 dollars per annum, And shall the great, the wealthy, and the powerful "empire State" of New-York, fall behind her sister State, in the rapid march of liberality, science and improvements; or in aught that can advance the true interests of her citizens, and render them more intelligent, independent and happy? We trust

not.

Your committee now beg leave to advert to the act of this State, of 1819, appropriating forty thousand dollars for agricul tural purposes; and although its results were not as beneficial as its most sanguine friends anticipated, yet they have furnished to those who have had the opportunity of noticing our late improve ments in husbandry, ample proofs of the utility and importance of public appropriations for such purposes. And we are well satisfied that the forty thousand dollars appropriated by our Legisture in 1819, to stimulate to improvements in agriculture, have been refunded, amply refunded, to our treasury, principal and interest, in the increased amount of our canal revenue alone, to say

nothing of the moral and intellectual improvement which the impetus that law gave to skill and industry, wrought in our population. Wherever the spirit of improvement went forth, which that law called into action, every branch of husbandry has been rendered more productive; more labor has been applied, and better applied than before; and the impulse which it gave to mind and body, has not even yet lost its force. How many farmers are there at this day, who can say that that much abused law gave the first stimulus to a course of improvements in their business, which has subsequently rendered them more wealthy, more useful, and more happy.

Agriculture is not capable of suddenly developing its improvements like the common arts of life. Hers are the progressive operations of years. Choice seed must be sought and sown, and their produce distributed; improved stock must be introduced and multiplied; knowledge must be diffused, competition awakened, and the soil fertilized by a judicious course of crops, and a new economy in manures. The improvements of Bakewell, the wonder and admiration of his age, were not fully developed and appreciated, till he was in his grave. Those of Coke were progressive for forty years. We cannot expect ever to gather the harvest until we have sown the seed, and nurtured the plants.

We allude with pride and satisfaction to the rich and flourishing county of Jefferson, which alone has had spirit and enterprise to sustain her agricultural society, unaided by the public treasury; and she affords another happy illustration of the good effects of awakening competition and industry by proffered rewards. In no county of the State have improvements in husbandry been so great as in this; and it is within the personal knowledge of some of your committee, and has also been remarked, by gentlemen who are competent judges, that since the establishment of her agricultural society, her farm stock has improved fifty per cent; and that her horses in particular are surpassed by none.

Your committee, after deliberate consideration, have come to the conclusion, that the prayers of the petitioners ought to be granted; and, in conformity with the wishes of the petitioners from the counties of Monroe and Onondaga, they have prepared a bill, and directed their chairman to ask leave to introduce the same. Yet, as the subject is of great importance, and involves a large expenditure of money, your committee do not deem it advisable to "-

a hasty decision; but would recommend that

copies of

this report and accompanying bill, together with the report and bill presented in the Senate, in relation to an agricultural school, be printed, and distributed in the several counties, through the general committee of the State Agricultural Society, with the view of bringing the subjects before the people, that they may discuss their merits, and be enabled to instruct their representatives on a future occasion.

In conclusion; your committee deem it an incumbent duty, at the suggestion of some distinguished individuals, to call the attention of the public to the rapidly increasing growth, and extensive spread of that most noxious of all weeds, called the Canada thistle, which is making alarming inroads upon the country, spreading in all directions, and threatening to overrun, in a short time, our whole State. Invited by the richness and fertility of our soil, they have already established their dominion over a large portion of our territory; and unless their rapid progress is soon arrested by the strong arm of law, their innovations cannot be checked; their ascendency will be complete, and their dominion universal. It is a well known fact among all agriculturists, that where these mischievous intruders once gain a foothold in soil congenial to their growth, which is always of the best quality, they cannot be eradicated without many years of close attention, trouble, and expense; and if neglected and suffered to go to seed, such is the buoyant appendage of their seed that they are wafted on the wings of the wind" to an almost incredible distance, and spread over the country with astonishing rapidity. The alarming increase of this baneful weed, your committee believes, is a growing evil, which calls loudly for legislative enactments. We are well persuaded that nothing can successfully arrest its progress, short of an act of the Legislature, guarded by a strong penalty, making it the imperative duty of every town in the State, to adopt some mode or plan, by which means they can be subdued, and the dissemination of their seed prevented. In order to accomplish this, we know of but one sure and efficacious mode. The plants must be cut several times in the course of the season, and not one should be suffered to come to maturity, or to propagate its seed.

Your committee need not enlarge on the mischievous nature, and evil tendency of this much dreaded and most noxious weed, nor use further arguments to show the nececsity of taking legal