CONCLUDING REMARKS. In submitting to the society and the public the foregoing reports and other proceedings, it is proper to say that the committee labored under some difficulty for the want of that complete arrangement and classification so essential to a correct understanding and statement of the numerous and varied details. But it will be remembered, doubtless, that this was the first attempt ever made in Bradford county to hold an agricultural fair; due allowance, therefore, will be made for all errors. In concluding their duties the committee would congratulate the Society upon its exceedingly fair prospects for future advancement and success. The result of our late exhibition affords us great encouragement and promise. In the midst of unexpected success, we are invited, nay urged forward to renewed exertion. We cannot for a moment believe that an enterprise commenced under auspices so full of hope to the great industrial pursuits of our county, will be suffered to languish for want of appreciation commensurate with its clearly manifest importance. Every consideration of interest, personal and general, clearly points out the path of duty. Shall we pursue it and thus reach our proper position in the great march for agricultural and mechanical honors? Or shall we content ourselves with plodding along in the same old and long beaten paths of ignorance and prejudice, utterly disregarding the spirit of progress which is rapidly carrying our sister counties to wealth and importance? EMANUEL GUYER, Executive Committee. ANNUAL MEETING FOR 1854. ANNUAL MEETING of the Society, held at the Borough of Towanda, February 6, 1854. The following gentlemen were chosen Officers for the present year: President-COL. G. F. MASON. Vice Presidents-DARIUS BULLOCK, HARRY ACKLEY, ROGERS FOWLER, JESSE EDSALL, JOHN N. GRIFFIN; Corresponding and Recording Secretary—W. . C. BOGART; Treasurer-WILLIAM ELWELL; Managers-EMANUEL GUYER, M. C. MERCUR, M. H. LANING, G. F. REDINGTON, ZEBULON FRISBIE, C. N. SHIPMAN, JOSEPH TOWNER, J. F. MEANS, B. LAPORte. CHESTER AND DELAWARE COUNTIES. REPLY TO INTERROGATORIES FROM THE DISTRICT COMPOSED OF CHESTER AND DELAWARE. SEPTEMBER 17, 1853. - The agriculture of this district is of a mixed character a portion of most farms being devoted to grazing, either for fattening cattle or the dairy. The principal crops are corn, oats and wheat; and the surplus produce of the district goes chiefly to Philadelphia market. The land is generally of good quality, and in a high state of cultivation. Lime, which abounds in the Great Valley of Chester county, and other detached deposits, is very generally used as a manure, and mostly with marked effect. Gypsum is also much used for clover and corn; and guano and super-phosphate of lime are used to some extent, and, when properly applied, give a fair return. Three hundred pounds of Peruvian guano are found to be quite equal, as a dressing for wheat, to the ordinary quantity of barn-yard manure. The latter, however, is the main dependence of the farmer - the quantity and quality of which engage much attention. The most improved implements are in common use, except reaping and mowing machines. The latter was partially tested during the late harvest, and will, no doubt, grow in favor, as its merits become better known. Horses and oxen are chiefly used for farming purposes; mules very rarely; but there is little doubt but that they might be advantageously substituted for horses, in many cases. The high prices of horses and cattle of late have induced farmers to devote more attention to the rearing of stock. It is estimated that from forty to fifty thousand cattle are fattened annually for market, in the county of Chester alone. An Agricultural and Horticultural society has been in successful operation in Delaware county for many years; and much good has resulted from it. In Chester there has been a very flourishing Horticultural society in operation for several years, which has been attended with very flattering results; and this season an Agricultural society has been formed, which promises likė success. The first exhibition was held at West Chester on the sixteenth and seventeenth instant, (September,) and the display of stock was remarkably large and fine. A wheat drill was exhibited, for the first time, with an attachment for distributing, with the seed, concentrated fertilizers. This attachment was suggested by Dr. Emmerson, of Philadelphia, and applied by Rogers, machinist, of that city. It appears well worthy the attention of farmers. There are some other implements, though not entirely "new," which are, perhaps, in more general use in this district than any where else; of which are the Double Shovel Plow, for dressing corn, and the Horse Hay Fork, for unloading hay. The former is by far the most efficient implement for dressing corn in use here, and the latter transfers to the horse the most laborious part of the hay harvest. Very respectfully, HON. FREDERICK WATTS, Pres. State Ag. Soc. A. R. M'ILVAINE. L WEST CHESTER, CHESTER COUNTY, PA. November 30, 1853. To Frederick Watts, President of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society: The Chester County Agricultural Society held its first annual Fair at West Chester, on the sixteenth and seventeenth days of September last, which more than realized the expectations of its most zealous friends. The society numbers about seven hundred members. The several committees awarded premiums to the amount of about two hundred dollars. The officers are- President, ISAAC W. VAN LEER; Vice Presidents, PASCHALL WORTH, JOHN D. EVANS, DR. E. V. DICKEY, LEWIS BRINTON; Corresponding Secretary, J. LACEY DARLINGTON; Recording Secretaries, Alexander MARSHALL and JAMES H. BULL; Treasurer, Dr. GEORGE THOMAS. The president's post office is "Wallace;" that of the secretaries, "West Chester." All of which is respectfully submitted, ? A. MARSHALL, Secretaries. J. H. BUELL, S I. W. VAN LEER, President. ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF CHESTER COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA, SEPTEMBER 17, 1853, BY GOUVERNEUR EMERSON, M. D. Ladies and Gentlemen : : American husbandry may be divided into two systems. The first exists where the farms consist of recently cleared lands, upon which vegetation has flourished for ages, decaying and leaving beds of decomposed organic matter, rich in the elements adapted to foster the growth of plants. Under such circumstances, the task of the farmer, though laborious, is comparatively simple, as he has merely to turn under the natural prairie sward, or clear away the forest, burn off the litter, scratch the surface with a brush-harrow, sow the seed, and wait for luxuriant harvests. This primative system of agriculture, in which tillage and the securing of crops constitute almost the only branches of husbandry called into requisition, continues for a longer or shorter period, according to the natural richness of the soil. But on lands where the products of the soil, instead of decaying upon the ground, are annually removed and sent away to market, time brings about a different state of things. All the crops removed abstract certain elements from the soil, the possession of which constitute its fertility, so that impoverishment must ultimately ensue where no means have been adopted calculated to counteract the exhaustion. The trial is constantly making, in our older settlements, of increasing the extent of worn-down lands under cultivation, in order to make up for the diminished products under the scathing system. But although the same number of bushels may thus be annually raised, the expenses, in labor, seed, &c., are greatly increased, and, in the end, ruinous consequences ensue; the poor farmers, after all their hard work, finding themselves sinking deeper and deeper into poverty and debt, until often reduced to hopeless bankruptcy. These causes have long been forcing the members of families to separate, and go to the right and to the left; not, however, for the same reason which brought about the memorable separation of Abraham and his brother Lot, the increase of their flocks, but the reverse, the decrease of their cattle, and unremunerating harvests. Whilst our lands in this section of the country retained their natural fertility, the costs of labor being low and prices of produce high, farmers had need of little brain-work to enable them to get along prosperously. But now a far less favorable condition of things exists, the fertility of the soil being reduced so as to require great expense to keep it up, the prices of most kinds of produce being comparatively low, and the cost of labor, taxes, and almost all other things increased. The great facilities now existing for transporting to our seabaord markets the products of the virgin soils of the almost boundless West, creates a competition which compels us, in the eastern section of the Union, to call in the aid of more skill, to give increased productiveness to the labor of our hands; and the most advantageous modes of enriching the soil, with the adoption of every improved implement and labor-saving machine, are subjects which our farmers are called upon to study diligently. Thus a new order of things is brought about, constituting what I designate the second or improved system of husbandry, that system which immediately interests those who are here on the present occasion. Most of you are aware that science has of late years done wonders in advancing the useful arts in almost every department of human industry.Those branches in which the subjects or materials dealt with appealed most directly to the external senses, and could be most readily examined by measure and weight, were the first to be brought to high perfection. But many substances by which we are surrounded, and which exert the most active influences upon living animals and plants, as well as chemical effects upon all the various forms of dead matter, are either entirely invisible, like air, or so slightly apparent to the eye and external senses as to be beyond the reach of common modes of examination. When modern chemists first directed their attention to finding out the different elements entering into the constitution of plants, the primary step was to burn them and examine the ashes, which, it must be remembered, constitute a very inconsiderable proportion of their bulk or weight. These were found to consist of various matters, differing essentially from each other in their nature and properties, and representing what the tree or plant received from the soil, during its growth, comprising the two fixed alkalies, potash and soda, lime, silica or flint, phosphoric, sulphuric, and carbonic acids, and chlorine. More or less of each of these are removed from the soil in every crop. As the ash remaining after burning constitutes only about six or eight parts in a hundred, and often a much smaller amount, of the substance burnt, it was still to be ascertained what became of those volatile parts dissipated in the flame and smoke, and forming much the largest proportion of the original bulk or weight. And this has been perfectly accomplished, chemists having contrived to catch those substances eliminated during combustion, and, by exact analytical processes, separate them into their elements, which prove to be the four gases-oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and carbonic acid. Wonderful to relate, these four gaseous elements are found capable, through infinite combinations and changes wrought by subtile natural agents and vital processes, to form the innumerable products exhibited in different plants, such as saccharine juices, gums, jellies, oils, starch, perfumes, flavors, etc. The results of the varied combinations of a few primary elements are here vastly multiplied, like the countless numbers formed from a few arithmetical figures, the infinitely varied strains composed out of a few musical notes, or the numberless hues produced from the few primitive colors. Science has thus made us acquainted with all the elementary constituents' which plants require during their growth and development. With the knowledge of what plants need for their nourishment, we can readily infer what elements must be present in soils, in order to supply each crop with the fertilizers best adapted to its wants. Among the substances most extensively applied to land, in order to increase its fertility is lime, which alone might furnish a profitable theme for such occasions as the present; and I do not think I can go amiss in employing some of the time allotted to me in directing your attention to certain of its properties, which, if more generally understood, would insure its more advantageous and economical use, and tend to lessen its waste and abuse. I do not propose extending my observations over the wide field which the topic presents, but shall limit them to the plainest exposition I can make of the nature and practical bearings of a few simple principles. This valuable mineral fertilizer has been much misused in agriculture;' depended upon alone where the want of fertility was owing to the absence of some other essential element, used in forms not at all adapted to the exigencies to be met, and applied with manures, the good qualities of which it neutralized or dispelled; in all such cases thrown away, first cost and labor of every kind included. If this Society had the amount annually lost by the misapplication |