[The nominating Committee reported the names of James S. Wadsworth for re-election as President, and Luther Tucker for re-election as Recording Secretary-both of which nominations were unanimously approved by the Society. But both of the individuals named, were compelled, by other avocations, to decline a continuance in their respective offices. E. P. Prentice, who was on the nominating committee, declined a re-nomination as Treasurer, which was warmly pressed upon him.]

The Society re-assembled in the evening at the Capitol, where the newly-elected officers took their respective stations. After some brief remarks from the President, JOHN P. BEEKMAN, in reference to the duties which he had just been elected to discharge, the Annual Address was delivered by Mr. KNEVELS of Dutchess county. The address was replete with facts and arguments illustrative of the importance of Agriculture in all its branches, and in its varied connexions; and was listened to with marked attention during the hour and a half which its delivery occupied. It is published herewith.

In addition to members of the Society, the Assembly Chamber was filled with other citizens, embracing various distinguished friends of Agriculture from different parts of the State. Among them were ExPresident Van Buren, Lieutenant-Governor Dickinson, several of the State officers, members of the Legislature, &c.

Resolutions were passed, tendering the thanks of the Society to Mr. WADWSORTH, President; to Mr. PRENTICE, Treasurer, and to Messrs. RANDALL and TUCKER, Secretaries of the Society, for the able and faithful manner in which they had discharged the duties devolving upon them while occupying those stations.

On motion of Major DAVEZAC of New-York,

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be tendered to Mr. J. W. Knevels for the able and instructive address delivered by him this evening, and that he be requested to furnish a copy for publication.

On motion of Mr. S. SMITH of Putnam,

Resolved, That a Committee of three persons be appointed to petition the Legislature to extend the operation of the existing law for the promotion of Agriculture, and for other purposes.

Mr. JOHN DICKSON of Ontario country, gave notice that a motion would be made at the next Annual Meeting of the Society, to amend the Constitution thereof, so as to give to the Society, instead of the Executive Committee, the power of fixing the place where the Annual Fairs are to be held.

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Mr. RANDALL of Cortland gave notice of a proposed amendment to the Constitution, (to be acted on next January,) which will render the Presidents of County Agricultural Societies members ex-officio of the Executive Committee of the State Agricultural Society.

-On motion of Mr. DANIEL LEE of Erie,

Resolved, That this Society regards the establishment of an Agricultural Institute and Pattern Farm in this State, where shall be taught thoroughly and alike, the Science, the Practice, and the Profits of good husbandry, as an object of great importance to the Productive Agriculture of New-York. The Society then adjourned.

THE ANNUAL ADDRESS-BY J. W. KNEVELS. DELIVERED IN THE CAPITOL AT ALBANY.

Fellow-Members of the New-York State Agricultural Society:

The first positive indication to Columbus of his having achieved the discovery of a new world, was-A RAY OF LIGHT. After months of perplexing navigation, in a frail bark and over an untraversed ocean, with a mutinous crew maddened by repeated disappointments, the undaunted mariner, indomitable in spirit as he was sagacious in judgment, took his accustomed station to watch for the anxiously anticipated discovery-his keen eye ranging along the dusky horizon in search of that "land" for which he had long and fervently yearned. Suddenly he beheld a light gleaming in the distance! That ray was the herald of America! LIGHT, "the bright effluence of bright essence increate," was the auspicious harbinger chosen to announce the existence of the NEW WORLD. Nor has the resplendent augury proved fallacious. Our country has thus far justified the appropriateness of this propitious omen. On general politics and religion she has shed a flood of light, as a beacon to guide the course of the wandering family of She has done her part in science and the arts, in education and jurisprudence. It remains with the present generation to carry out and vindicate her permanent claim to be looked to as the luminary as well as the asylum of the civilized world. In this way alone can her high destiny be accomplished.

The Association which I now have the honor of addressing, have assumed as their share of this duty, the high and responsible task of concen

trating and diffusing the light of mind over the first, the most important, and most complicated of arts-AGRICULTURE. I need not remind so respectable and enlightened a body, of the arduous nature of their du ties, or of the invidiousness of the position they have taken. As the State Association, they are constituted the centre and primum mobile of the system, and they necessarily exclude the formation and action of any similar general institution: A failure here, therefore, is a total failure, and a criminal one. But I may and must say, that, however diligent, faithful, and capable, they cannot fulfil their high mission in all its amplitude, without the favor, protection, and assistance of the public in general, of the farming community more particularly, and finally, of the executive and legislative branches of our State Government.

We hope the notion that legislatures can do nothing for agriculture, is pretty generally exploded, and that the inquiry henceforth will be, not what can be done, but what, of so much to be done, should first claim attention. The legislative grant of eight thousand dollars per annum for five years, for the improvement of agriculture, was highly honorable to the character of our State, and we hope will be continued. The scientific survey of the State, now drawing to a close, must also be viewed as a favor to the farming interest, although not exclusively. We are now also informed that one of the gentlemen hitherto engaged in the geological department of this economical examination into the mineral resources of the State, has been commissioned by the Governor to make an Agricultural Survey. It may be mentioned as a favorable manifestation of public opinion towards agriculture, that a farmer has been placed at the head of the State Government; and we are prepared to hail it as the precursor of a new era in the administration of our public affairs. And we do the individual who now exercises the executive function, the justice of believing him willing and anxious to do all that he consistently can to forward the great work of agricultural improvement. It is with some degree of disappointment, therefore, that we find this great branch of the public interest noticed in a late message merely in a complimentary passage, however liberally and elegantly phrased: We were prepared to find some direct and earnest recommen. dations of future patronage; but reflection leads us to regard ourselves as perhaps unreasonable in the expectation, and to attribute our disappointment to a want of express indication of the public sentiment on the subject. Besides, is not this Association the proper source from which such recommendations should originate and be discussed? and if farmers and the guardians of the farming interest are at a loss, or

manifest remissness and incertitude, as to the nature and extent of the exigencies, we need not be surprised at apathy or silence in any other quarter. The State Agricultural Society, as the official organ, should make known its wants and wishes; and an important part of its duty is to elucidate the principles on which legislative protection and aid is to be exercised.

Agriculture is a servile or a liberal profession, according to the spirit with which it is pursued. It is servile, when ignorance, prejudice, or a sordid greediness of gain confines its disciples to the dull, unvaried, absurd, and often impoverishing whim of their predecessors-without hope of improvement, heart for enjoyment, or head for the appreciation of the advantages derived from the discoveries of science, or even an acquaintance with the practices of other districts. With such a one, a farmer of the old school, (or the no school rather,) whatever does not tally with his own notions, is set down as book-farming, visionary theory, scientific nonsense. Let me relate, as an instance of such prejudice and preposterous attachment to preconceived views, the following anecdote, no doubt familiar to many here: "When plaster “of Paris was first introduced, a gentleman who had experienced its "benefits, endeavored to persuade one of his neighbors to apply some "of it to his lands by way of experiment. Not succeeding in this, he "ordered one of his servants to spread a small quantity of it, secretly, over a piece of sainfoin belonging to the old farmer. The crop "proved surprisingly abundant on the spot to which the gypsum had "been applied; but upon discovering the secret of its superiority, the "old man, instead of profiting by the circumstance, grew peevish, "and wondered why his neighbor dared to have taken the liberty of spreading this new-fangled manure over his sainfoin, which, for "aught he knew, might do more harm than good. The laugh, how

ever, going against him, he determined to get rid of it, by breaking "up the sainfoin and sowing peas; when behold! they also rose up "in judgment against him, so evidently on the gypsumed part, that he "was constrained, though reluctantly, to acknowledge that it seemed good enough stuff.' Yet, the story adds, he was never afterwards "known to lay a bushel of it upon his farm." So true is the old proverb,

"He that's convinced against his will,

Is of the same opinion still."

It is in reference to such farmers that the writer of the almost inspired Book of Ecclesiasticus, expresses himself in these contemptuous terms: "How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plough, that

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'glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen, is occupied in their labour, "and whose talk is of bullocks? He giveth his mind" (that is, his whole soul is absorbed in the manual operation,) " and is diligent to 'give the kine fodder." In those days there was some excuse for the ignorance of the tillers of the soil-mere serfs and bondsmen of their lords paramount; but in this age and in this country, where almost every farmer has a fee in his lands, and is a component part of the Sovereignty, such boorish stupidity is singularly out of place, and we hope is rarely to be met with. Yet, with all our opportunities of education and amidst the present universal diffusion of knowledge, we are far from thinking either that our farmers are sufficiently roused to their own interests, or that the State has discharged the whole of its duty to the community in these respects.

Much remains to be done in providing appropriate means for the education of the rising generation of farmers; for the encouragement of discoveries, inventions and improvements in agriculture; and for a complete circulation of rural information (gathered from every quarter of the globe) among this meritorious class of our population, and especially for the instituting of a grand system of investigation into the principles and applicability of agricultural chemistry. To this topic, with your permission, we may recur again in the course of this address. If, on the one hand, however, we deplore the apathy and ignorance prevalent in regard to this art, we take a pride in avowing that there are many who do honor to their profession-who appreciate the extent, importance and complicated nature of their occupation. To them, agriculture is indeed a liberal profession, such as it was in the conception of Cicero, when he pronounced on it the following eulogium: "Amongst all occupations whose object is gain, I know none preferable to agriculture, none more attractive, more profitable or "more consonant to the dignity of a freeman." And hear too on this point our New-England Cicero: "Agriculture feeds us—to a great extent it clothes us; without it we could not have manufactures, and " we should not have commerce. These all stand together, but they "stand together like pillars in a cluster-the largest in the centre, and "that largest is agriculture. Let us remember too, that we live in a country of small farms and freehold tenements, in a country in which "men cultivate with their own hands their own fee-simple acres ; "drawing not only their subsistence, but also their spirit of indepen"dence and manly freedom, from the ground they plow. They are "at once its owners, its cultivators, its defenders; and whatever else [Assembly, No. 100.]

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