Address delivered at the annual meeting of the N.Y. state agriculture society

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DELIVERED BEFORE THE

At the Annual Meeting, Albany, February 10, 1859,
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BY WILLIAM T. McCOUN.

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DELIVERED AT THE

ANNUAL MEETING

OF THE

N.Y. SPATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY,

ALBANY, FEBRUARY 10, 1859,

By WILLIAM T. McCOUN, Preswenn,

ADDRESS OF ABRAHAM. B. CONGER,

ON TAKING THE CHAIR AS PRESIDENT ELECT.

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PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.

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PRINTED BY CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN.
1859.

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ADDRESS.

GENTLEMEN OF THE Soctnty — Aware that there
is due to this occasion something beyond the mere
form of leave taking, with expressions of personal
respect and regard for the members of the Society,
with whom it has been my happiness to associate,
in the management of its affairs, during the year
past; yet I fear that what I have to offer, may
somewhat tax your courtesy.

We are now at the close of another year’s
transactions of this Society, and I congratulate
you that nothing has occurred to lessen our inter-
est in its prosperity, or to impair the public
confidence it has hitherto inspired. Steadily the
Society has continued its onward march towards
the great objects of its institution, ‘the improve-
ment of the condition of Agriculture, Horticul-
ture, and the Household Arts.”

It has constantly stood by the requirements of

its charter, and has ministered to the wants of

4

these paramount interests, by collecting and dif-
fusing knowledge, and by encouragement given
to all classes in these various useful pursuits.
Excellence in the productions of all departments
of the farm, the garden, and the household, has
been liberally rewarded.

Improvement in the farm itself, the soil, the
best method of cultivation, including the best
time and manner of applying manures, and the
growing of the largest crops, has met with simi-
lar encouragement. So has the inventive genius
of the country, when devising new agricultural
implements and machinery, or when improving
upon the old, to facilitate the labors of the farm.
In all these directions, the influence of the Society
has been exerted, and with good effect, as our last
annual fair, like those which preceded it, abun-
bantly proved. I need only to refer to the Report
of the Executive Committee, prepared by the
Secretary, with his wonted ability and accuracy,
for all the information that can be desired on the
subject.

The constantly growing necessity for increasing
the productiveness of the soil, in order to meet
the demands of human wants, must naturally lead

to improvements in the art of Husbandry, through-

5

out its various departments. Improvement, how-
ever, in this as in every thing else, that relates
to man’s social and moral condition, depends
primarily upon the educational means provided
for the masses, and the consequent spread of
useful knowledge. The sources of knowledge are
now open to all alike; to the poor as well as to
the affluent. With the acquisition comes power,
for ‘knowledge is power,” and it is that quality
in man, derived from his physical education, as
well as from his mental and moral training, that
fits him for his laborious duties as a tiller of the
soil, in the great work set before him, “of earn-
ing his bread by the sweat of his brow.”

This subject of agricultural education, in all
its bearings upon civilization and social enjoy-
ments, has lately been presented to our considera-
tion, in the admirable address of Mr. Williams,
of Michigan, which is now before us in print.
The subject is there discussed with eminent
ability. I regard it as a production worthy of
all commendation, and one which we cannot too
highly appreciate, as a valuable contribution to
our stock of agricultural papers. |

Next to a thorough knowledge of farming, one

great means of success in its operations is, the

6

use of improved implements and labor saving
machines. The last half century has been pro-
ductive in these respects. Implements adapted
to every kind of work have been greatly multi-
plied. Those formerly in common use have been
remodeled and much improved, lessening by their
use the severity of toil, and rendering the work
of the farmer more effective and economical.
Among these enumerate the mowing machine,
the horse rake, the reaper, the thrasher and
separator, all worked by horse power, and by
successive improvements in construction, brought
to a great degree of perfection, and we have the
heavy work of the farm and the barn, hay making
and harvesting, thrashing and winnowing, per-
formed in a much shorter space of time than
formerly, and at a greater saving of expense and
manual labor.

But while these improvements are in progress,
there is another power greater than has ever yet
been employed upon the farm, ready, as it would
now seem, to take the field, there to do man’s bid-
ding in the cultivation of the soil, whenever his
inventive faculties shall devise the method of

rendering it there as elsewhere, subservient to
his will.

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The time for subduing this power, and bringing
it into use for certain purposes, was ushered in
with the present century; not, however, to meet
the demands of agriculture, for these were not
then thought of, but for objects, perhaps, then
deemed of more practical utility than any other.

The compressible and expansive properties of
steam had become known. It was perceived. that
its elastic power might be turned to account.
The minds of ingenious men were gradually drawn
to the subject. The engine was constructed rudely
at first; experiment after experiment was made;
improvement followed upon improvement until at
length the steam engine stood forth the giant of
the earth, perfect in its proportions and adapta-
tions, and whether as a stationary or a motive
power; whether for propelling ships or long lines
of land carriages, is now justly regarded as the
greatest achievement of human skill—of mind
over matter, that the world has ever beheld.

It is true, that some twenty-five years before
the commencement of the present century, the
steam engine was brought into use as a stationary
power, in the working of mines and the driving

of ponderous machinery.

8

James Watt, of Glasgow, though not the origi-
nator, was the first to devise improvements that
produced useful and satisfactory results. By the
united genius of Watt, and of Boulton, of Bir-
mingham, their engine was applied successfully
to an apparatus, also of their construction, for
striking off the sterling coin of England. Such
was the perfection of this combined machinery,
that four boys only ten or twelve years old, were
capable of working it, and striking off thirty
thousand guineas in an hour; the machine itself
keeping an unerring account of the number. As
yet, no-attempt was made to apply steam to the
purposes of loco motion: but Doctor Darwin (a
poet and philosopher of considerable celebrity
in his day), after describing the operations of
Watt and Boulton’s engines, thus prophecies with

regard to the future of steam power:

*“ Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam, afar
Drag the slow barge and drive the rapid car,
Or on wide waving wings, expanded, bear
The flying chariot through the fields of air.
Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above,
Shall wave their fluttering ’kerchiefs as they move,
Or warrior bands alarm the gaping crowd,

And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud.”

This was published as early as in 1782.

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The steamboat and the railroad have more than
verified the prediction of the “barge” and the
“car,” and although we have not seen ‘the fly-
ing chariot,” with its “fair crews” or “ warrior
bands,” there are those of soaring minds at this
day, sufficiently credulous to believe, that this
phenomenon may likewise happen. That immu-
table law, however, by which “the apple from
the tree falleth to the ground,” is directly opposed
to the fulfillment of such an expectation. We
must be content with the more humble and less
venturesome employment of steam. With the
portable, and the fixed or stationary engine, steam
has of late years become familiarized to the
‘indoor work of the farm, to some extent, I
believe, in this country, but to a far greater
extent in Great Britain. The economy of it in
large establishments appears to be admitted.

Under these circumstances the question is often
asked, why may not steam be employed in the
outdoor work as well? Such, for instance, as in
the draining of land and the breaking up of the
soil, preparatory to planting and sowing. This
is the great problem with respect to steam machi-
nery —its adaptation to the culture of the soil,

which remains to be solved, and which is now
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in the course of actual experiment. Under the |

encouragement held out by Agricultural Societies,
in the offer of premiums (and in some instances
to large amount ), engines differing in form and in
the manner of working, have been constructed
and exhibited for trial within the past year; one
such is mentioned in the report of our executive
committee. Another was produced by a citizen
of Pennsylvania, and taken to Illinois, for trial
upon the prairie land of that state, and has, in a
measure, proved successful. It is represented as
an engine adapted to locomotion, drawing a
gang of plows or plow shares, cutting regular

furrows, and turning with ease and precision.

(Whether the premium of the Agricultural Society

of Illinois has been awarded to this engine or
not, I have. not ascertained.) These two, I
believe, are the only instances of experiments
yet made in this country with steam power,
adapted to the work of cultivating the soil.
The newspapers, however, inform us that a num-
ber of steam plows, as they are called, are now
in the process of construction in the state of
Illinois, for the purpose of further experiments
in plowing, and in draining, and in forming the

ditch and hedge, to enclose their lands. Another

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season will probably show the results of experi-
ments in that direction with steam.

In England, during the last twenty or twenty-
five years, attempts have been often made to
cultivate the soil, by steam power, in different
ways, all passing under the general designation
of “steam plowing;” but it never has been
reduced to a perfectly successful operation, even
in that country of systematic labor, where public
spirited efforts, directed by their most enlightened
men (and where, too, the increasing scarcity of
laboring hands creates a demand for agricultural
machinery ) are constantly being made to intro-
duce improvements into their husbandry. A
‘trial of a considerable number of engines, con-
structed upon different principles, and intended
to operate in different ways, took place at the
Chester meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society
in the last summer.

The Society’s prize of £500 was awarded to a
portable engine, though fixed or stationary while
at work, having six plows, and working three
at a time alternately, by means of anchors and
pulleys, a man walking by the side of the plows
to keep them steady. This engine was found to

do the best work of any on trial, but it is said

12 :

the work was not as good as that of ordinary
plows in common use, nor such as good farmers
required from their plowmen.

The next best was a traction engine, moving
forward on a revolving endless railway of its
own, carrying six plows and turning as many
furrows at a time. An eye witness of the per-
formance of this engine, says of it, that it appeared
to be capable of performing its duty. It walked
across the field (which was level, and free from
obstructions of any kind ) with as much regularity
as a team; carried out its plows, and turned
with so much precision, as to leave but few balks,
and showed that it was not so much the fault of
the engine as it was the fault of the plows, that
the work was not more perfectly done.

Kven with the imperfect success which attended
the trials of these engines, and the qualified
praise they received, they were nevertheless
regarded as having demonstrated the practica-
bility of using steam advantageously in the cul-
tivation of the soil, and with ecohomy likewise,
when compared with animal power.

Indeed, the year 1858 is claimed as the com-
mencement of a new era in British farming, since,

by means of such engines and machinery as

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Fowler’s (the one to which the prize was awarded),
they can hereafter, almost regardless of the
weather, accomplish the autumn plowing of their
heavy soils, heretofore often very much delayed by
rains, and sometimes either impossible, or very
difficult of accomplishment with horse labor, and
the ordinary implements of the farm.

I have stated these facts in relation to the
introduction of steam culture, mainly for the
purpose of drawing your attention to one point
im connection with it, which seems to me desery-
ing of general consideration, and especially of
the consideration of those among us, whose genius
or mechanical skill may incline them to look into
the subject. Hitherto, as you may have observed,
the principal effort has been, both here and in
England, to get up steam machinery for the cul-
ture of the soil, through the medium of the
plow. The idea most prevalent is, that the
plow in some form of combination, is still to be
retained and used with the engine, and that there
is no need of any other contrivance to which the
power is to be applied or attached. Just so it
was with Ramsey’s experiment on the Potomac,
and with Fitch’s on the Delaware, when they

undertook to apply steam to the propelling of

14

boats. They thought only of the oar as the im-
plement to which the new power could be so
easily and successfully applied. So, likewise,
when machinery was first brought into use in the
thrashing of grain, the flail was retained as the
implement, fixed to the arms of a revolving shaft
or a reel, and made to strike in rapid succession
on the thrashing floor.

A short time, however, sufficed to show that
the oar and the flaz/, efficient as they were in the
hand accustomed to use them, were but ill suited
to inanimate machinery, and were soon displaced
to make room for the paddle wheel and the toothed
cylinder. In like manner the plow, as general
as is its employment in all civilized countries, as
much as it has been extolled for its usefulness in
all ages of ‘the world; reverenced for its antiquity,
and ‘crowned with wreaths,” as the symbol of
the art that “calls forth the harvests,” is never-
theless destined to be laid aside, with other primi-
tive inventions, as a thing out of place, when
attached to the farm engine. There will still be
ample employment for the plow in its proper
place, that is, in its connection with animal power,
and the horizontal draft of the ox and the horse.

In that connection we can never entirely dispense

15

with it. There is much land deserving of high
cultivation, where the steam engine cannot be
made available, and which can only be broken up
by manual labor and by the plow and the team.
- The spade in the hands of the laboring man
accustomed to its use, is a more efficient instru-
ment in respect to the quality of the work, than
the plow and its congeners are capable of doing,
but where considerable areas of land are to be
improved, spade husbandry is out of the question. -
It is too slow and expensive an operation for the
farm. Necessity compelled the resort to animal
power, forthe purpose of general tillage, and the
plow was devised as the implement best suited
to the capacity of that species of power. With
the animal for draft, the plow came into general
use; but we all know that the work which the
plow performs is always imperfect and incom-
plete ; that its operation is only the beginning —
the incipient step in the process of good cultiva-
tion, and that it requires to be followed by various
other implements to complete the work it has
begun. The plow, moreover, is objectionable
in another respect—an objection which hes deeper
and is very liable to be overlooked, indeed, too

much so by the generality of farmers. I allude

16

to the unavoidable pressure which it exerts upon
the subsoil. The wedge like ferm and action of
the share in being driven through the soil, though
splitting off and raising a portion of it to be
turned over, produces a corresponding downward
pressure, and leaves a smooth and glazed surface
beneath the sole, and to this add the trampling
in the furrow, and we have a compact and solid
substratum underlaying the whole plowed sur-
face, almost impenetrable to the roots of plants,
and unfavorable to their full development. This
can only be remedied by the subsoil plow,
loosening the earth below, but involving a double
expenditure of both time and labor in the very
first operation towards good tillage. For these
reasons, 1t appears to me that the plow share in
common use, or other implements acting upon the
same principle, should not any longer be thought
of in connection with steam power. Let that
idea be abandoned, and when steam shall be hum-_
bled to the outdoor work of the farm, let its
object be a higher and a nobler performance than
the mere drawing of the plow.

The mechanism of the engine should be such
as to possess the means of ztself, and within itself,

to accomplish such a work, and when it shall be

17

seen, ‘“‘a’ field walking like a thing of life,” let
not the indignity be put upon it, of harnessing it
to the plow. There is something about the
motions of the engine, which seems to me to
despise the labor of tugging at the plow beam,
or the pole or shafts of any mere land carriage,
but like another Hercules, it prefers to put its
shoulder to the wheel, and there to exert its
strength. It is frequently remarked of steam,
that it isa great ‘“revolutionist.” This is true
in more than a mechanical sense, but I am now
speaking of it only as a mechanical power, capa-
ble of being applied to the work of thoroughly
breaking up and comminuting the soil. For this
purpose a transverse cylindrical shaft has been
suggested, affixed to the hind part of the engine,
armed with strong steel pointed claws, to operate
upon the soil as the shaft revolves with the for-
ward motion of the engine. The skillful mechanic
may take the idea from this suggestion.

In many things nature furnishes the type or
model for man to work from, in the exercise of
his inventive faculties. She sets before him nume-
rous examples of perfect models, wrought with
great skill and beauty, from which he may take

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18

instruction. ‘Learn of the mole to plow,” is
one of the lessons she gives.

This seemingly insignificant animal; this little
earthling, is indeed an instructor and a friend of
man, though sometimes hunted and destroyed as
an enemy.

Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, speaking from the
experience and observation of thirty years, pro-
nounces the destruction of moles as having dete-
riorated sheep pastures, and to have been followed
by the pining and the foot root among sheep
stock ; and the story is told of a worthy old gen-
tleman, a sagacious observer, who to his dying
hour would not suffer a mole upon his grounds to
be harmed. He had reclaimed from a waste his
whole paternal estate, and laid it in grass fields,
and he maintained that the moles were his laborers,
yearly top dressing his lands, and adding to the
depth of the soil and fertility of the sward; and
the writer adds, that every field seemed to bear
evidence of the good effects of this species of
natural fertilizing.

In another way the mole renders an important
service to the farmer. It 1s known that he is a
very voracious feeder; he subsists on worms and

the larvee of insects which he finds under ground,

19

where no other enemy can reach them, and at
night he sallies forth and pursues his prey on the
surface. It is probable, then, that he destroys a
vast number of grubs and other creatures whose
ravages would all be felt in their season; but it
is not to his instincts, so much as to his physical
organization, that I would direct your attention.
Who has seen this little fur clad animal working
his way along beneath the surface of the earth,
as if he were in the act of tunnelling for an
“under ground railroad,’ and has not wondered
at the power he displays in his subterranean
occupation. You see the small ridge he has raised
in his progress, occasionally terminating in a little
hillock. Examine it, and you will find the parti-
cles of soil thoroughly disintegrated, and ready
for use, in the formation of a most perfect seed
bed. How has this effect been produced. The
implement used in the operation is not a spade nor
a plow; nature has provided him with a better
contrivance, perfectly adapted to his case, and
which man may use fora pattern. It is something
in shape between a foot and a hand, armed with
strong and robust claws. If perchance the creature
is thrown. on the surface, observe the effort he

instantly makes to bury himself again beneath it,

20

and how tenacious appears to be the hold which
he takes of the earth by means of these claws,
and with what speed his purpose is accomplished.

In this simple operation, guided by the unerring
instinct of the little creature, provided with the
proper implements, we have foreshadowed a
method of disintegrating the soil by steam power,
now placed at man’s disposal. Let then the
moles claw serve as the type of the implements
with which the engine shall be armed, and we
shall presently see the work of large farms greatly
accelerated, and cultivation much more efficient
and productive than by any other means.

In thus advocating the cause of steam culture
in the way suggested, I must not be understood
as supposing that it will ever be a matter of
universal adoption. It may be brought into
common use in many parts of our country, but
cannot be brought into general use. It is only
farming on a large scale that will justify the
outlay, or a number of small farmers favorably
located with respect to each other, may, perhaps
combine, to own an engine between them, yet
the old methods of cultivation must still be pur-
sued on a very large proportion of farms. Never-

theless, on the broad prairie and bottom lands of

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21

the west, on all smooth and level surfaces free
from obstructions, it will bea gratifying spectacle
which is already in our minds eye, anticipating
the event of this great improvement of our age
(the farmers steam engine ), taking the place of
the dull plodding plow, and performing its daily
rounds of toil, honoring the practice of husbandry,
man’s first and best and noblest calling.

It is claimed in behalf of the inventive talent
of Great Britain, and why may it not be in
behalf of that of our own country? that when
the steam engine shall be brought to that degree
of completeness for field work, which is now
expected of it, so that it shall prepare the soil in
the best possible manner for the reception of the
seed, it will, at the same time, be able to carry
along with it the seed drill and the roller, and
thus, unlike the hand of the sower in the parable,
the seed shall not fall by the way side, nor in
stony places, but fall in good ground, to bring
forth its fruit accordingly.

I cannot forego the pleasure which this oppor-
tunity affords me of saying a word or two here
in commendation of an author who has presented
a very conclusive argument in favor of steam

culture, unconnected with the plow. It is con-

22 f

tained in a small volume, called “Talpa, or the
chronicles of a Clay Farm,” written in a pleasing
style, abounding in practical good sense, and with
a rich vein of humor underlaying the whole
work. We have an American edition of the book
from the Buffalo press, with a handsome intro-
duction, and useful and judicious notes, by a
member of this Society. Ina new ‘Cyclopedia
of Agriculture,” recently published in Great Bri-
tain, composed entirely of original articles on the
theory, the art, and the business of farming, as
practiced there at the present day, and in the
contributions to which, the talents of more than
fifty of the most eminently practical and scienti-
fic men of that kingdom have been employed;
this same author (Mr. Hoskyns) has contributed
an article on “steam culture,” in which much of
the argument before used is reiterated and en-
forced. He remarks that the impediments steam
power, in the work of cultivation, has had to
encounter, haye been those of delay, rather than
of denial, and the delay itself has been due rather
to error than neglect; the error so long persisted
in, of regarding the plow as the sine qua non of

field cultivation, and the necessary medium through

23

which the steam engine was to be applied to that
purpose.

Again, the author says in conclusion, and I
cannot do better than quote his words, in bringing
my own remarks to a close: ‘It does not appear,
from any past experience, that the accomplish-
ment of the most difficult mechanical or other
processes, or the most surprising feats of inven-
tion, have any practical effect in removing the
distrust we still retain of future triumphs of
inventive skill; nor are there wanting minds so
singularly constituted, as to find matter of con-
gratulation that the culture of the soil has hitherto
presented an insoluble difficulty to that great
modern invention, which multiples so amazingly
the power of the human hand, and by economizing
its labor, cheapens the products which toil wrings
from nature; but fortunately, invention outruns
distrust, and surmounts, step by step, the barriers
of alleged impossibility, and if it sometimes have
to submit to the rebuke of counting prematurely
on its unaccomplished triumphs, it may find sup-
port for perseverance, by turning from the appa-
rent discouragements of the present to the annals
which extend backward, from the last page just

turned over, to be included in the past.”

24

Gentlemen, allow me to congratulate you on
the choice you have made of a Presiding Officer
for the ensuing year. It is with great pleasure
that I now resign my place to him, who will bring
to the performance of its duties a talent and an
energy that will reflect an honor upon the Society,
and great credit upon the State to which it belongs.
For myself, let me say that during the short
period of time that may still be allotted to me
on earth, I shall be happy to co-operate with you
in the good work you have now in charge, of pro-
moting the permanency of this Society, and the
prosperity of the farming interests thoughout our

whole country.

REMARKS

OF

ABRAHAM B. CONGER,

THE

NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT,

ON TAKING THE CHAIR.

GENTLEMEN, Frettow Members oF THE AGRICULTU-
RAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE oF New York.—It is
my privilege to express at this time a grateful
appreciation of the trust which, in accordance
with your constitution, you repose anew in your
Presiding Officer.

A trust it is, which in the minds of all men, justly
carries with it a sense of high honor conferred,
while to such as are intent upon the issues of
its fulfilment, it speaks of a large responsibility.

You, gentlemen, who have so generously called
me to this post of duty and honor, will not charge
me with any affectation of self distrust, when I

4

26

say that I have been emboldened to assume this
responsibility, and this trust to accept, moved
alone and supported in such decision by those
kind expressions and those hearty assurances of
especial support which you have been pleased to
extend. The earnest co-operation which you so
uniformly render, that you may advance the pros-
perity of our Society, and through it that of the
farming interest at large, is the only ground on
which I rest any expectation of success in the
discharge of the duties that may devolve upon
me; and I may add that I consider it as not only
the secret of your strength at home, but the
measure also of your renown abroad.

I may repeat, with pride, that which I first
learned with the same emotion, when, as one of
your delegates to the United States Agricultural
Society, I was in attendance upon its last session
in Washington. When the principal business of the
Society was over, as I happened to be conversing
on the conditions of its prosperity, and the expe-
rience gained in the conduct of such associations
throughout the country, a delegate from a sister
state, who, from his commanding position in the
Agricultural world, has enjoyed singular opportu-

nities for the forming of such an opinion, said to

27:

me, and with great enthusiasm: “Ah! that is a
noble society of yours in the State of New York;
it stands the foremost in the Union.” Elate with
the feeling which this compliment had aroused, I
interposed, as with a view of ascertaining the
facts or impressions on which he rested such an
estimate of our worth; ‘“ But I thought that the
Society in your own state made a strong claim
to this leadership.” ‘Ah,’ said he, ‘“ you have
such a noble band of men; you work so har-
moniously together.”

We may continue, gentlemen, to be worthy of
such encomium, as we manifest an abiding resolu-
lution to cast aside all local jealousies, personal
prejudice, and casual differences of sentiment,
and to stand side by side in the fellowship of this
great work, sustained in our purpose not only by
the incentives furnished by the past, but by the
natural outgoings of our daily life. No class of
men feel so constantly the obligation of undaunted
labor, are so nerved under a lowering sky, and
conduct themselves so buoyantly through antici-
pations of danger, as those whose hourly task
brings them in close communion with nature, and

acquaints them with her varied teachings.

28

As when at some calm twilight hour, the droop-
ing grain begins to rear its bowed head, and the
blade which wilted under the fierce ray, is bathed
with the gently falling dew, or the stem, which
shook in the strong blast, returns erect, and
stretches to a higher bent, and soon each tiny
pore is oped to catch from earth and air new
measures of nourishment and growth—we see
that our despondency over a stricken crop was
inopportune, that the processes of development

and fecundity have been re-established—and that

with a firmer hold—and believe that ere long each
harvester will come in swaying under his golden
load; so when, in the councils which shape the
work of each succeeding year, should it happen,
however rarely, that they are disturbed with
divided thoughts or jarring schemes, smit with the
fierce breath of passion, or scathed with the keener
phrases of debate, and auguries become rife of
intestinal discord and permanent schism, soon that
which was but a trial of our strength is at an end;
what threatened a breach, cements our union; we
stand upon what has been decided, and feel

reassured of harmonious action and more exalted

achievement.

assis

29

Gentlemen, may it be our happy lot, as we
come hither at the close of another year, and
pass in review our labors and our success, to know
that we have brought not only increased products
from our herds and fields to fill the lap of com-
merce, but contributions from new paths of nature
explored to add to the swelling treasures of
science, and with fresh zeal and maturer purposes,
to devote our energies to our great enterprise,
true to the motto so dear to a New Yorker, the
record of our past and the pledge of our future,

“Higher, Higher still.”

~ te ore ee OE 9 Sent ae
rng Io HOEY ili ae

qe

(cha) : me
noo jaan 6 Wire Tae
j a

iepft biz Sent: iwidte her Ov iu

ol) Ti wi eb beit fete aR aaa
1 %

qiov? acolbrd ties et ea
eee aad O. : nite oT $yeyng tt :
€ f q

EIT fioe de TW Pie

i —
: . =?
Zea pep gare JorvalF Re &

at

: 1 ee ’ ont ‘y Bey | itt iy 0) oie

. lt bins dune ie Si eee

Hd i Ay erp a fi.

WAR. 15, 1806,

—— Be, LP) Ste

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