By the Board of Managers of the
Richmond County Agricultural Society.

[December 1849]

“Agriculture—The most useful, the most healthful, the most noble employment of man.” “I know of no pursuit in which more important service can be rendered to any country, than by improving its Agriculture.”—WASHINGTON.

In requesting the attention of the citizens of Richmond County to the constitution of their Agricultural Society, we desire them to consider whether it should not obtain their cordial support.

Associations for the encouragement of Agriculture and Horticulture, and for mutual assistance in Rural Improvement, have for years existed in forty-three of our sister counties. The advantages that have accrued to their respective localities from their institution are most gratifying and undoubted. We have hitherto disregarded their example and their success, and neglected the encouragement offered to these enterprises by the enlightened policy of our State. Has it been a reasonable pride that has permitted us to remain thus distinguished?

How is this, Fellow Citizens? Is the very best method of Farming [332]which can be adopted universally practised among us? Is it by anyone of us? Is Agriculture, as a science, sufficiently understood in our community? Can no luxuries be added to our orchards—no new beauty bloom in our gardens? Are there no incongruities or inconveniences in our Domestic Architecture? Is the want of refined Rural Taste nowhere observable on our island? Are we quite satisfied with our Roads—confident that our breeds of cattle are unsurpassed, and that no improvements can be added to the implements of our Husbandry, that we should neglect or refuse to combine our knowledge and influence in these matters? May we not want a little of the patriotic sentiment, the neighborly feeling, the cordial good understanding among ourselves, that would be promoted by a free interchange of our thoughts, opinions and observations, and by manifesting a unity of purpose with regard to these subjects of common interest?

The average yield of wheat on Staten Island is less than twenty bushels from an acre. Some farmers in the county have obtained at the rate of forty and even fifty bushels. The average crop of Indian corn has been estimated as not far from thirty bushels. We know that one farmer has obtained for the last five years an average in each year of over sixty bushels, and in one of over ninety; and this, he assures us, at no greater cost than is often expended to obtain the ordinary crop. Another, we are informed, has this year, without extravagant expenditure, taken from an acre one hundred and seven bushels, as the reward of his intelligently directed labor. One hundred bushels, it is supposed, will cover the yield from an acre of the land devoted to potatoes. Three hundred bushels from an acre have been raised here.

What occasions these differences? It may be asserted that owing to long culture, some of our lands are impoverished and rendered incapable any longer of producing large crops. “Old Richmond is getting worn out. Our toil is wasted upon her.” We have no doubt of it; so is the whip wasted on a starved horse. But we know that there are lands that have been driven longer than ours, that yet show wind and bottom, and seem far from being run out. We find in the Agricultural Report of the “Old Colony” of Plymouth, on the rock-bound shore where the famished Puritans first gathered their scanty supplies of corn: seven crops in one year, of this grain reported of over one hundred bushels, the premium crop being one hundred and forty. The fields of England were tilled ages before the first furrow was turned on Staten Island, yet they are made to produce larger crops than the largest we have mentioned. Instead of running out they actually grow more productive. From official returns it appears that within the last few years the average crop of all England has increased eight bushels per acre. Mr. Colman tells us of some of those old farms being made to produce year after year, an average crop of fifty bushels of wheat, and one of them of fifty-six, from the acre. Of potatoes, a yield per acre of six hundred and sixty bushels, is reported.

Farmers of Staten Island! it is the application of Science, of [333] Thought to Agriculture, that does this! What results might we anticipate if the Thought, the Skill, the Enterprise, the Energy, should be brought to bear upon our noble employment, which have given to the world the Steam Engine, the Cotton Gin, the Steamboat, the Railroad, the Electric Telegraph! And why shall we not ask it? No man expects the Merchant, the Mechanic, the Manufacturer of the present day to succeed in his calling while stupidly shutting his eyes to the light of Science, or scornfully pushing aside the proffered aid of the student. They readily avail themselves of aid from all sources. It is time the Farmer did so too. They have no patent right to improvement. Progress is no half-hardy plant that must be trained to the walls of cities. Why is it, then, that in all the pursuits of Human Industry we see such rapid advancement, while in our Art, the art on which all other arts depend, the wheels of progress move so strangely slow?

The Simplest explanation, as we conceive, is forcibly presented in a speech lately delivered before the Norfolk County Agricultural Society, by the Hon. Daniel Webster.

“In all other professions,” he says, “men have had opportunities of comparing ideas and assisting one another. What one knows, all know. What is the experience of one, all soon become acquainted with. It is conversation; it is the meeting of men face to face, and talking over what they have common in interest; it is this intercourse that makes men sharp, intelligent, ready to communicate information to others, and ready to receive instructions from others, and ready to act on those which they receive only by this communication. The great practical truth of the present generation is, that public improvement is brought about by voluntary combination.”

It is in this point of view, Fellow Citizens, “in this great practical point of view,” that we urge upon you the importance of your hearty aid to Agricultural Association. Its great power for good depends at last on individual cooperation. Shall it fail for the want of the influence of your names, of your knowledge, of your experience, of your experiments, of your assistance in its investigations, of your attendance at its meetings, and of your use of the benefits it may offer?

It is not in its effects on mere physical comforts that this subject rests its claims upon your serious consideration. The benefits of our support to this society, we warmly trust, will not end here. With the Farmer must rise the Man. The mysteries of God are ever opening to his observation. Give us to read aright their unwritten word, and our hearts shall hear His voice. With increased knowledge of the operations of nature, with our eyes opened to a thousand wonders hitherto unseen, our sensibility to the Beautiful will be awakened. We shall mutually cultivate true taste, and its fruits will ripen not only to gladden our eyes by the adornment of our Island, but to nourish in our hearts all that is true and good.

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We ask you, then, Fellow Citizens, one and all, to associate in this Society. We entreat you to support it. We believe it will increase the profit of our labor—enhance the value of our lands—throw a garment of beauty around our homes, and above all, and before all, materially promote Moral and Intellectual Improvement—instructing us in the language of Nature, from whose preaching, while we pursue our grateful labors, we shall learn to receive her Fruits as the bounty, and her Beauty as the manifestation of her Creator.