be sunk and I am willing to sink, and it will be no great sinking either (laughter) -when things must be regarded, and names disregarded; and though I am not one to give up opinions lightly and without occasion, the time has arrived for practical measures; when we must attend to the things which belong, I had almost said, to our peace -if it did not appear in some sort profane to apply to ordinary affairs words made sacred by a higher meaning-but I will say to the things which belong to our interest. We must be practical-we must look at things we must see the results of measures and the bearing of every thing that relates to the interests of all classes of people in the United States. For, gentlemen, we may be sure that, however local interests may prevail, however local feelings may prevail, we shall all, when we approach the close of life, regard every thing with satisfaction which we have done under the impulse of a large, a broad American feeling; and we shall look with regret on every thing contracted, or personal or local, which the interests of individuals may have led us to cherish in our hearts. Let us remember, then, gentlemen, that our interests are the common interests of the United States. Let us remember that there is not a man in the Union, from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, from Maine to Mississippi, in whose interests and welfare and political rights we are not concerned. Let us have souls and hearts and minds big enough to embrace thet great empire which God has given us; and while conscious that beneath his benignant rule we enjoy distinguished blessings, religious and civil and social, such as have been showered upon no other men on the face of the earth, let us go boldly on-determined, now and forever, living and dying, to be fully American-American altogether!

ANNUAL MEETING

OF THE

NEW-YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY,

IN THE OLD STATE-HOUSE, ALBANY,

THE Annual Meeting of the New-York State Agricultural Society was held on the 17th of January, 1844-the then President of the Society, JAMES S. WADSWORTH, in the chair. The meeting was held in the Geological Museum, Old State-House, Albany.

The first business taken up, after the usual preliminaries, was the admission of Members-eighty-nine gentlemen enrolling themselves and paying their fees-$1 each.

The Report of the Committee on FIELD CROPS was then called for, with a view to determining the claims of the competitors for Premiums under the offers made for Field Crops by the State Society, in the Premium List of the Great Fair at Rochester last fall.

The decision was then made by the Society, in accordance with the recommendations of the following Report, which was read, and unanimously approved :

REPORT ON FIELD CROPS.

The Committee to whom was referred the examination of the statements of the competitors for the premiums offered by the New-York State Agricultural Society, on "field crops," having attended to that duty, respectfully offer the following REPORT:

1. ON BARLEY.-To Bani Bradley, of Ontario county, we award the first premium of $10.

To George Geddes, of Camillus, we award the second premium of $5.

To William Wright, of Vernon, we award the third premium, a Volume of the State Society's Transactions.

The statements under this head are as follows:

Mr. Bradley states, that the quantity of land on which he raised his barley, was two acres and 21 rods. The soil (a clay loam) has been in cultivation 40 years; previous crop, corn, manured with 20 loads barn-yard manure to the acre-corn crop, 90 bushels per acre. Barley was sown last spring on the 5th of May; two bushels of the tworowed kind to the acre. The aggregate yield was 140 bushels 21. pounds, ascertained by weight, (48 pounds to the bushel,) or 65 bushels per acre. The whole expense of cultivation, harvesting, etc., was $15.

Mr. Geddes states that he had five acres in barley. The land had been seeded with clover on a wheat crop in 1842. Barley was sown about the 5th of May, three bushels to the acre. Ground was ploughed five inches deep; after sowing, harrowed and rolled. Yield was 51% bushels per acre. Cost of cultivation for the whole lot, five acres, was $32.12. Value of crop $96.50. Profit per acre, $12.89. Mr. Wright had two acres in barley; soil, clay and gravel, in good condition; two previous years had been in corn, yielding 40 bushels per acre; no manure after the corn. Sowed two and a half bushels two-rowed barley per acre; yield was 822 bushels on the two acres. Value of crop, straw included, was $35. Cost of cultivation, harvesting, etc., $12.60. Profit, $23.60, or $11.84 per acre.

2. INDIAN CORN.-There were three competitors for premiums under this head, none of which had sufficiently complied with the requisitions of the Society to justify the award of a premium.

Mr. Robert L. Pell, of New-York, furnished a statement of the product, etc., of a piece of corn land, from which it appears that he produced the extraordinary crop of " 420 bushels of ears on three acres;" and had Mr. Pell complied with the printed requisitions of the Society, in furnishing an account of the expense of cultivation, he would have been entitled to the first premium. As it was, the committee could not venture to transcend the Society's rules.

Judge Betts, of Orange county, presented a statement of an experiment made by him, in cultivating corn; but the rules of the Society requiring two acres, and he having but one acre, we could not consistently award him a premium.

Mr. J. F. Osborn also presented a claim, but which, not being what is required, could not be received.

3. WINTER WHEAT.-Nathaniel S. Wright, of Oneida county, we think entitled to the first premium of $15. His statement is as follows: Two acres; soil, sandy loam, in pasture, without manure. Summer-fallowed; ploughed three times; harrowed once before sowing; sowed one and a half bushels Cnnada Flint Wheat per acre; no gypsum or other manure used the present season. Sowed the 6th of Sept. broadcast; threshed with machine; cleaned with good mill, once run. through. Yield, by actual measurement, 80 bushels; at $1 amounts

To William Wright we award the second premium of $10. He states that the soil where his wheat grew, was clay and gravel, in good condition. It was greens ward, and summer-fallowed; the previous year in grass; ten loads long manure ploughed in first ploughing. Ploughed twice, harrowed once; sown with one and a half bushels to the acre broadcast, the first week in September; no plaster or other manure than what is above mentioned used this season. Yield was 731 bushels on two acres; at $1 per bushel $73.20, value of straw $1 entire value of crop $74.20. The expense of cultivation, including two ploughings, harrowing, harvesting, threshing, and $10 for twenty loads of manure, was $29.30, which would leave a profit of $44.90.

4. SPRING WHEAT-Uri Beach, of Ontario county, was the only claimant for the premium offered under this head, and him we think entitled to the first premium of $15. His statement is as follows:

The soil is a gravelly clay, formerly covered with a thick growth of white oak timber; had been much worn by the former proprietor. Had been planted to corn the previous year; manured at the rate of fifty loads of barnyard manure to the acre. Last spring it was ploughed [Assembly, No. 100.]

12

once and harrowed twice; sowed three and a half bushels seed, without preparation; sowed one and a half bushels plaster on the field; harvested about the 8th of August; threshed in September. Expense of cultivation, threshing, cleaning, &c. $15.75. The whole amount produced on the field, (a fraction less than two acres,) was 75 bushels by measurement, of a beautiful quality, and all clean enough for seed.

5. RYE.-George McGeoch, of Jackson, Washington county, was the only claimant for the premium offered for this crop, and to him we award the premium of $10. He states that the soil where his rye. grew, is a gravelly and sandy loam, with an extensive subsoil, lying level. It had been in meadow for four or five years previous. For the first one or two years it yielded two to three tons of hay per acre; the last year not over half a ton, owing to the drought. In July, 1842, after the grass was cut, the lot was ploughed and sowed to buckwheat, which was on the 3d of August ploughed in. The total expense of ploughing the sward, buckwheat sown for seed, sowing, harrowing and ploughing in the buckwheat, was as detailed by Mr. McG. $7.50. The cost of cultivating the rye, including seed, sowing, harrowing, harvesting, threshing and cleaning was, $14.87; or, adding the cost of the buckwheat ploughed in, $22.37. The produce on the two acres was (37 and 391) 77 bushels, worth $48.121, the straw $6, $54.12, which, after deducting expenses, leaves a net profit of $31.75.

6. PEAS.-We award the first premium of $10 to Geo. K. Smith, of Utica, and the second of $5 to Myron Adams, of Ontario county. Their statements are as follows:

the 9th of that furrow and har

Mr. Smith raised his crop on one acre and fourteen rods of gravelly soil, on which corn had grown the previous year, and which was manured with ten common loads of barn-yard manure. The land was plowed for the peas the first week in May, and on month three bushels of June peas were sown on the rowed both ways-not rolled, and no manure used. The crop was harvested the last of July-produce, by measurement, forty-six bushels twenty quarts, well dried. Ten bushels of pods were sold in the city and used in the family while green, and owing to the bad weather while they lay on the ground, after they were cut, a considerable quantity shelled out and was eaten by fowls, as the lot was close to the barn-yard. The expense of seed, cultivating, harvesting, threshing and cleaning, was $7.50.

Mr. Adams states that the acre of peas for which he claims a premium, was a part of a lot of eight acres, all of which was sown to