to an inclination and course of thought ill adapted to the practical operations of the farm. But a school for the education of Farmers may be so organized as to avoid these objections. It is not proposed so thoroughly to educate young men, as to fit them for the professional pursuit of scientific subjects; but to teach them that which is valuable for a farmer to know. They should be taught the English language, mathematics, geography, chemistry, botany, astromomy and such other kindred subjects as are practically useful; and with. these, the art of farming. Certain hours of every day should be devoted to, the manual labor of the farm, and to the construction and use of implements.. This labor, well directed, would be productive, and thus the institution would be in a measure self-sustaining. Such an institution is loudly called for.-. Kany farmers throughout the State would be glad to educate a son, if it were not at the risk of destroying his usefulness for active life. A few figures will best illustrate how this project can be achieved. Adopting that spirit of caution and economy which characterizes the habit of thought and action of the farmer, it is deemed most expedient that such an institution should grow from a small beginning, that its value may be tested, and its growth strengthened by confidence in its practical usefulness. A farm of 300 acres, having a variety of soil and ordinary house and barn, can be purchased at $60 an acre. Additional buildings for the accommodation of boys, &c. . Stock, implements, &c. .. ..... Furniture, books, instruments, &c. Contingencies of organization.. $18,000 00 10,000 00 3,000 00 Salary of principal professor... This puts the institution upon its feet; then how is it to be supported? It will require for the support of the professors and pupils, anannually..... $10,000 00 2,000 00 Do..of two other professors... 3,000 00 Do..of one other professor.. 1,000 00 to be appropriated to extend the capacity of the institution for the accommodation of a greater number Graduates of other colleges, competent to teach the several branches of Natural Science, would seek an opportunity to become tutors, that they might learn and fit themselves for professors of such an institution, of whom, it must be admitted, there are now so few. When it shall be understood that a farmer may educate his son in that business of life in which he most confides, at an entire expense of seventy-five dollars a year, the only question will be who shall be admitted and who excluded for the time; for it may be most confidently expected, that the applicants will be far greater in number then can be at first accommodated. It may be safely estimated, however, that when the institution shall have been built and properly established, the contribution which the State Society may annu ally make, the product of the labor of the pupils, and the sum of seventy-five dollars paid by each of them, will be amply sufficient for its maintainance. It may, with some degree of plausibility, be said, this project is too limited and parsimonious for the great State of Pennsylvania. Perhaps it is; but it is not proposed that the beginning shall be the end; but that a great, extensive and useful institution shall grow out of a beginning that shall be felt and tried, and have the confidence which experience always begets. This view accords with the genius and habits of that class of our people which is intended to be benefited. If the influence of such an institution were added to that of the State Agricultural Society, and the various county societies throughout the Commonwealth, the benefit to be derived from it could not be estimated. In view of the political economy of the project, we should not hesitate a moment. By the fifth section of the act of incorporation of the State Agricultural Society, the Legislature contemplates, that, through the medium of the county societies, the agricultural knowledge and experience of their individual members, shall be preserved and transmitted to the State Society, manifestly that the agricultural transactions of our State shall not be lost, but published, and placed in the hands of every farmer, that he may examine, judge and improve himself. The advantage of such a publication can not be questioned. Some pains have been taken to collect this information, and with some degree of success, as much so, indeed, as the newness of the project would permit us to anticipate. But as soon as the value of such information shall be universally known, and the system by which it may be collected and diffused shall be understood, we will not be without a volume of annual transactions, such as will redound to the credit of the State and its agricultural history. We propose to include within this, our first volume, a brief of all the transactions of the society, from its origin to this time, so that no part of its history shall be lost. FRED'K. WATTS, President of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society. JANUARY 20, 1854. Transactions of the Society From May 15, 1850, to January 17, 1854, inclusive. ADDRESS TO THE FARMERS OF PENNSYLVANIA. The Agricultural Society of Philadelphia, in its anxiety to promote the objects of its founders, and the advancement of the great interests for which it was instituted, desires respectfully to call your attention towards the founding of a State Agricultural Society, and to ask your aid in furtherance of the measure. While it is a matter of surprise among the enlightened Farmers of other States, who have formed or projected State Societies, it is cause of regret to many of our own citizens, that Pennsylvania, essentially Agricultural, cannot yet boast of a State institution, combining the skill and experience of her intelligent Agriculturalists, to be made available in diffusing a general knowledge of improved systems of husbandry and tillage, and imparting energy and vigor to the most important of all her industrial pursuits. In times past, with a comparatively sparse population, when means of intercommunication were limited and difficult, there was reasonable excuse for not having a State organization; but now, with our present facilities in the increase of population, with cities and towns dotting every portion of the State, and canals and railroads intersecting every quarter and running to every point, should the formation of a State Society be longer delayed, Pennsylvania will justly incur the reproach of culpable apathy, in standing listlessly still, while in this progressive age so many of our sister States, less favored by natural resources, are keeping pace with the times, in the advancement of their Agriculture. Though the project of a State Agricultural Society commends itself especially to the Farmers themselves, yet it is not without claims upon the consideration of others, appealing as it does to their State pride, if not directly to their interests. Can the merchant or trader be indifferent to the main source from whence his warehouses and ships are filled and freighted? Can the manufacturer or mechanic thrive without an abundant supply of the staff of life? Or can the capitalist who embarks in railroad and canal stocks, expect remunerating dividends on his investments, unless the products of Agriculture contribute to the tolls, especially on such lines as the Central railroad? And can the State ever expect to be relieved of the heavy debt under which she now staggers, if her waste and unproductive lands are not brought under profitable culture, and the Farmers stimulated to increased exertion, to create active capital out of matter now inert and valueless? It needs no argument to prove, that if the Farming interest is permitted to languish, every other industrial pursuit will exhibit corresponding signs of decay. It behooves, then, every citizen who regards his interests, as well as the Farmer, to lend his aid feasible plan that will impart hope and energy to the Tillers of the Soil. The first practical step, in furtherance of this object is, to establish a State Institution, through the medium of which Farmers can have a free interchange of opinion with each other upon the best means of promoting improvement in the theory and practice of Agriculture, and the opportunity of exhibiting annually, at designated localities, their stock and implements, with the products of their fields and orchards. This is the desideratum, if attained, that will make Pittsburgh, Chambersburg, Harrisburg, York, Lancaster, Reading and Easton as famous in the annals of Agricultural Fairs and Cattle Shows in Pennsylvania, as Rochester, Buffalo, Utica, Albany, &c., are in New York. to any Among the causes that have led to the unexampled prosperity of New York, of late years, none is more striking than the encouragement wisely bestowed upon her Agriculture, by the Legislature of that State incorporating a State Society, and granting some eight to ten thousand dollars annually to its auxiliary societies, which has stirred up the energies of her Farmers to compete successfully for the palm of distinction, even with her mercantile community. The great bulk of her western lands, but a few years back a wilderness, is now equal in value to the earliest cultivated lands of the State, and thickly settled with a wealthy, enterprising yeomanry, able and willing to contribute their quota of taxes to supply the treasury, by which the State is enabled to maintain her character and credit. It must, however, be admitted that her great canal did much towards the wonderful progress of New York, but without the impulse given to the Farming interest, which secured to the canal an independent and increasing trade from within her own domain, that great public work would to this day have been comparatively profitless. The canal was indeed a noble work-the patronage bestowed upon her Agriculture was a stroke of policy, as just as it was politic, and will ever redound to the credit of her statesmen and legislators. The example of New York has not been lost on Ohio; the Legislature of this State has, within the last three or four years, established an Agricultural State Board, and incorporated an Agricultural State Society, and has made such liberal provisions for the county societies, that it would not surprise if ere long she out-rivals New York in Agricultural spirit and enterprise. No one who reads the Ohio Cultivator, containing reports of the Agricultural Board, with other manifestations to be found in that spirited paper, can fail to be impressed with the high destiny that is in store for Ohio, if she but persevere in the good work she has so nobly begun. Maryland, too, has taken the initiative in the noble cause, and with a commendable zeal on the part of some of her distinguished Agriculturists, has recently not only invoked her own Legislature, but Congress also, to do something for this too long neglected branch of the national industry. Their appeal to the State Legislature was not in vain, for that body, pending its last session, chartered the Maryland State Agricultural Society. So of Virginia, who has recently organized a State Society at Richmond. With such examples before her, and such incentives to action, is it possible that Pennsylvania will not shake off the apathy, that like a blighting mildew seems to paralyze her energies and her progress? The subject of a State Agricultural Society has for a series of years been adverted to and discussed by the members of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture as a consummation devoutly to be wished, but every effort was checked by forebodings that the Legislature would do nothing in aid of the undertaking. It is to be regretted that those fears were not wholly groundless, for on a review of the little that has been done for Agriculture by the representatives of Farming Pennsylvania, the apprehensions that nothing would be done, cannot be considered as altogether gratuitous or imaginary. Unfortunately for the landed interest, the Legislature has so generally been absorbed in other interests, which connected themselves with the politics of the day, that it had no time to look into the condition of the patient and unobtrusive Farmer, upon whose drudgery much of the pay and maintenance of the Legislature itself necessarily depend. In the congregated wisdom of the State, at Harrisburg assembled, the injunction "to unmuzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn" found no place in its councils, or on its statute book. That the importance, claims and calling of so large a body of citizens as the Farmers of Pennsylvania should so long be neglected, is not only paradoxical, but discreditable. In extenuation of this charge of neglect, it may be adduced, that there is annually, at the opening of every session, a committee on Agriculture appointed by both branches of the Legislature, but so far from this lessening the charge, it only aggravates the neglect to perform a duty of which the Assembly is every year reminded by the composition of a committee, significant that something is to be done, or should be done; for surely it could not have been intended at first, that this committee should be raised and kept standing nominally only, or in mockery to the interests it professed to subserve. However obnoxious the Legislature may be to the charge of remissness in this important matter, it applies with tenfold force to the Farmers themselves |