benefits of his past perfected labors, and who may soon reap other benefits from more recent experiments now just consummated, will acknowledge a debt of gratitude not only, but also of pecuniary obligation, whose liberal discharge would place his old age and feeble health above pressing pecuniary want.

10. We, therefore, propose the following resolution :

Resolved, That $100 be awarded for his valuable investigation and experience in the propagation of the potato. Adopted.

B. P. JOHNSON, Secretary.

HISTORY OF THE AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF NEW YORK FROM 1791 TO 1862.

BY WILLIAM BACON.

The State of New York lies between forty degrees thirty minutes and forty-five degrees north latitude, and between five degrees five minutes east, and two degrees fifty-five minutes west longitude from Washington. Its length from east to west, including Long Island, is four hundred and eight miles; exclusive of that island, it is three hundred and forty miles. From north to south its greatest length is three hundred and ten miles.

Its northern boundary is through Lake Ontario, the River St. Lawrence and Canada line; on the east it has Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut; south the Atlantic ocean, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and west Lake Erie and Niagara river. It contains 45,658 square miles, exclusive of lakes, with which it is pleasantly interspersed. Its elevation of surface embraces every altitude from the low water-mark of the ocean to the frowning head of Mount Marcy, nearly five and a half thousand feet above tide-water; with these variations of surface and soil, it necessarily possesses rare facilities for agricultural purposes.

On the first discovery of this State it was covered with a heavy growth of timber, which indicated the depth and fertility of its soil; in common with the early settlers of the other eastern States of America, it appears that great dependence was placed on the capacity of the soil to sustain itself, even under the influence of severe and incessant cropping. No particular value was placed on manure in many districts, while in some portions, in early days, it was considered a nuisance. We have heard it from the elderly men of a generation now passed away, that in their day they had known manure from adjacent farmers' yards drawn and deposited on the ice of the Hudson, that it might be borne away on the opening of the river in the spring. We cannot, however, believe that this was a very common practice or one of long continuance, and if such a state of wastefulness did exist in the earlier days of our country, the farmers of the State of New York were not the only ones guilty of the practice of throwing away the strength and wealth of the lands; it extended into other states. More than a century and a half from the commencement of the settlement of the State had passed, before much attention appears to have been given to the improvement of its agriculture.

The earliest account of united effort leading to this improvement, we find in the following proceedings, dating in 1791:

"At a meeting of a respectable number of citizens at the Senate chamber, in the city of New York, for the purpose of instituting a society for

the promotion of agriculture and manufactures, the Hon. Ezra L'Hommedieu, Esq., in the chair,

"Resolved, That Mr. Chancellor Livingston, Mr. Simeon De Witt and Mr. Samuel L. Mitchell, be a committee to prepare and report rules and regula tions for the government of the Society.

"At a meeting of the Society, in Senate chamber, on Saturday, the 26th day of February, 1791, the Hon. John Sloss Hobart, Esq., in the chair, the rules and regulations reported by the committee, having been read and considered by paragraphs, were amended and agreed to, and were in words following, viz:

"Rules and regulations of the society for the advancement of agricul ture, manufactures and the arts."

These rules were, in substance, as follows: The officers of the society should consist of a president, vice-president, two secretaries and treasurer; that the society shall meet annually at the place where the Legislature meets, on the Tuesday next after the convening of both houses, and continue, by adjournment, during the session of the Legislature. That the officers should be elected on the first day of each annual meeting of the Society. Candidates for membership must be nominated seven days previ ous to their admission, and must be elected by a majority of members convened. Each member was to pay two dollars on admission, and one dollar each successive year while he remained a member; that the subjects for investigation of the Society shall be Agriculture, Manufactures and Arts, with subjects connected with them. The Society should parcel the State into districts, and at the annual election of officers elect a secretary for each district, to reside in the same, whose business was to convene the members of his district, inquire into the state of agriculture and manufactures in the same, to receive communications relative to the objects of the institution, collect, arrange and transmit them to the president for the action of the Society. Honorary members were admitted in the manner prescribed for the election of ordinary members, from among persons residing in the State, whose talents and character might add to the respecta bility of the Society. No member could be entitled to the privileges of the Society until he had paid all dues to the Society.

At this meeting the following were elected officers: Hon. Robert R. Liv ingston, President; John Sloss Hobart, Vice-President; Alexander McComb, Esq., Treasurer; Jno. McKesson, Esq., Secretary.

On the 12th of March, 1793, an act was passed in the Legislature of the State of New York, incorporating Robert R. Livingston and seventy-two others named in the act of incorporation, with such others as might from time to time join themselves into a body politic and corporate, in deed, fact and name, under the name of the Society for the promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures, which act was to continue in force until 1804, the society to hold all the rights and privileges usually granted to corporate bodies.

In the intervening time from the organization of the society, it appears from the published transactions that the machinery performing its labors had been kept in so good running order, that some excellent results had followed. The farmers through the State had been requested, through the

circulars, to send in the results of their experience on the following subjects, to wit:

Manures, marl, plaster, lime, leached ashes; making and collecting manures in the farmers' barn-yard.

Soils, the nature and character of those on which experiments are tried. Tillage.--Depth of plowing; should the sub-soil be stirred; destruction of weeds and grasses in fallows; is land best made mellow for the reception of seed?

Stock. Is keeping many horses profitable-are not oxen preferablecomparative expense between keeping horses and oxen and mules-do horses draw best by harners or collars-will oxen perform most labor to draw by the horns or withers-how are sheep best managed, &c., &c?

Grains. The best varieties, and soil best adapted to different varieties. Grasses. The best for pastures, for meadows; best pasturage for sheep, neat cattle, horses, swine.

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Fruit. The best apples for cider-grafting, inoculating and planting orchards-to what extent ought pear trees to be cultivated for fruit and liquor obtained from them-the best method of cultivating other fruits.

Forest Trees.-The locust, white mulberry; raising forest trees in nursery; transplanting forest trees; hedges.

Insects. Their habits; the best method of preventing their depredations, &c.

Bees, silkworm, their habits and culture; manufactures.

The series of essays called in by these interrogations, as published in the society's transactions, constitute a valuable collection, and show much close and reliable observation on the part of the contributors, residing in different parts of the State.

In one of these essays Chancellor Livingston gives the result of various experiments with plaster, which then (in 1792,) he had used more or less for three years. In one made in 1789, he says, after my buckwheat came up, I dressed one-fourth of an acre with a bushel and a half of plaster, sowing three pounds of clover seed. It appeared to me the buckwheat was somewhat better for it, but a very heavy rain lodged it when in full blossom. I could make no accurate experiment. Soil a poor worn out sand.

The farmer of the present day would think it no marvel if his buckwheat fell down even without rain, if he applied a like quantity of plaster. This seemed to have been about the average quantity applied to an acre in those days.

In 1793-4, a correspondence took place between Robert R. Livingston and the President of the Chamber of Commerce in New York, on the subject of introducing plants and animals from foreign places, which resulted in instructions to the captains of vessels visiting foreign lands, to procure in such countries small quantities of seeds of such plants as promised to be useful here; to remark the difference that may distinguish cattle, either used for food or for the draught, and report difference to the President and Secretary of the Agricultural Society.

"To be particularly attentive to the breeds of sheep, and whenever they shall appear superior to those of this State, either in size or fineness of [AG. TRANS.]

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fleece, or quantity of wool, to import if possible a pair of them, a ram at least.

"If any land or water fowl, not known in this country, should be domesticated in the country you visit, you will procure a few of them, amongst which may be remembered the Hoco of the Brazils and Cayenne. It is nearly of the size of a turkey, and black."

From 1794 to 1808, the operations of the Society appear to have been limited to the annual meeting in February, and the collection of essays on various subjects, giving the results of experiments, or the observations of the essayists. Their published transactions are so limited that they leave us ignorant of the names of those who held the offices of trust during this period.

In 1808, we find the association acting under the name of the society for the promotion of useful arts. The board of officers then consisted of a president, two vice-presidents, three secretaries, a treasurer, and a board of nine counsellors. Robert R. Livingston was elected president that year, and held the office under successive appointments until the time of his death in 1813, and was succeeded in 1814 by Simeon De Witt, who for the six years previous had held the office of vice-president of the society.

Agriculture now held but a minor place in the proceedings of the society, which was intently bent on investigating the arts.

In 1808, the Legislature passed an act giving bounties or premiums on the manufacture of woolen cloths. The premiums were of liberal amount. They were awarded by the judges of the several county courts, and appear to have awakened competition in all parts of the State. The first awards were to individuals in twenty-five counties; the amount paid out was $2,000 in premiums of $80 each. In 1810 competitors appeared in thirty-two counties, and the amount paid was $2,560.

In the Legislature of 1810, a law establishing a new scale of premiums was passed, making the largest $40, the second $35, and a third premium of $39. That year competition arose in thirty-nine counties, and the premiums were divided between 109 competitors, no person receiving more than one premium.

In June, 1812, in view of the success which had attended the liberality of the State in bestowing those bounties on domestic cloth, a new law was passed extending the bounty to manufacturers of broadcloth, the cloth to be manufactured in the State, from wool raised in the State.

The other conditions were, that the quantity must be one hundred yards of cloth, six quarters wide. The merits of the cloth were to be decided at meetings of the Society in Albany, on or before the third Wednesday in February in each year. The premiums on household manufacture were continued as before. This and the following year mark a falling off of compe tition.

The number of yards of woolen cloth entered for premium in ten counties in January, 1814, was 1,877. Of this, the largest quantity, ten specimens of 273 yards, was from Rensselaer county; the smallest was one from Oneida of 36 yards. The amount given by the State and the Society for these premiums in five years was $15,210. In 1814, the Society passed laws defining the objects of the Society as follows: