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The extent of the relief applied for and granted, and the expenses of completing necessary accommodations, have kept pace with their income, and compelled the petitioners to ask an extension of the law of last session, exempting the trustees from the payment of certain board, to the Marine Hospital fund.

By the act of 1831, establishing the Seamen's Retreat, it is enjoined upon the trustees of the same, to pay to the Commissioners of Health, the expense of boarding such sick seamen as may be detained in the Marine Hospital at the quarantine ground. From this charge the trustees have been exempted for the years 1831-2, and they allege that by a further exemption, they will be enabled to progress with their laudable institution, without running in debt.

The effect of granting this relief will be to authorize the Hospital fund to receive a credit equal to the amount of the board, in their annual account, instead of transmitting the money from one charitable fund to the other. To this the committee see no objection, as it appears that the income of the Hospital fund is sufficient to pay all the expenses of the Marine Hospital, the eight thousand dollars to the House of Refuge, and leave a surplus.

The committee, therefore, recommend that the prayer of the petitioners be granted; and for that purpose have prepared a bill, and ask for leave to introduce the same.

IN SENATE,

March 18, 1833.

REPORT

Of the select committee on the memorial of the New-York State Agricultural Society.

Mr. Sudam, from the select committee to which was referred the memorial of the New-York State Agricultural Society, praying for the establishment of an Agricultural School,

REPORTED:

That they have had under their consideration the subject submitted to them, accompanied by a report made during the present session, to the New-York Agricultural Society, and on which their memorial to the Legislature is predicated.

It will be conceded that there is no portion of the community more entitled to the fostering care of the Legislature, than the tillers of the soil. The farmers of the State of New-York are a class numerous, wealthy, industrious, patriotic, and above all other classes, from principle, devoted to our republican institutions, and cherishing with a holy spirit the union of our States. Their political exertions are not called forth by a desire of any great portion of their own body for legislative honors, or for those of the minor judicial situations in the State; but to maintain and preserve inviolate that sacred trust which has descended to them by the revolutionary efforts of their fathers, the full protection of life, liberty and property.

When a storm arises in the horizon and danger awaits us from abroad, or when crazed ambition at home drives the frenzied passions of men to madness and all its excesses, it is in the farming interest of the country that you find the steady hand which [Senate, No. 79.]

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holds the balance of political power, and by its strong arm repels the foe, or by its electoral voice annihilates the unjust hopes of the aspiring ambition of profligate politicians.

It may be said by your committee, (without the imputation of a State vanity,) that New-York holds a high rank by her munificent endowments of colleges, academies and common schools. We, knowing their extent, need not elaborate on them in this report. Still it is but just to say, that she is already cited in Europe as a signal instance of what may be done for the education of every class of society, under the soft and benign influence of a free government, and that her motto is, "Knowledge is wealth."

In her enterprize, by facilitating intercourse between the different sections of her State and the waters of the Atlantic, she is as unrivalled in conception as she has been successful in execution. Not content with this, it is an admitted fact, and worthy of all honor, that she has carried into effect the most perfect prison discipline in the world; and we have already witnessed the wise and the humane of Europe resorting to her shores to ascertain the art of subduing the rebellious passions of the worst of our race, without the aid of those sanguinary punishments which have so long disgraced the old world.

Thus has she expended millions of her money, and already has she erected a monumeut to the wisdom of her statesmen, more durable than any ever dedicated to the victor of a thousand fields.

Who are they who have contributed so freely, so generously to expenditures calculated to immortalize the State, and to establish its glory on so pure a foundation? Mainly the farmers of your country, the yeomen of the land, the tillers of the soil. Freely have they given, and joyfully have they paid, and most rich results have been the consequence of their enlightened liberality.

Is it then unfair to ask, what has been done by the Legislature for a class of its citizens so numerous, virtuous and meritorious? The stranger, when he sojourns in our land, and views all that has been done for the cause of science, for education in the higher branches of literature, for your common schools, for the reformation and punishment of crimes on a scale superior to any State in Europe, naturally inquires: Show me your agricultural school. You are essentially an agricultural people; a class of society who

have aided so liberally to the institutions of your State, must have received the constant and peculiar care of legislative protection and patronage, by forming their minds, their habits and their tempers to become the patrons of the noble monuments already erected, and which, while they shed lustre on your State, have placed her first among her sisters in the Union.

Shall we any longer be compelled to answer: We have no such institution; we have provided an ample revenue for all, but a complete course of practical instruction in agriculture. In almost every State in Europe, the attention of despotic governments has been called-nay, seriously and sedulously directed to the formation and endowment of schools of this description. There it is admitted the motive to a certain extent may be mercenary—to provide food tor taxation. Here it is a debt due from the State to a class which, before they asked for themselves, have contributed to all others.

It is conceded by your committee, that to a certain extent farmers are not fond of innovations. If experiments are tried, they are too often limited to one or two. If they fail, it is condemned. That prejudices of this description are fast wearing away, we admit: but that they still exist, to a considerable extent, there can be no doubt. And a gentleman farmer is generally at hand, as an instance of a poor farmer. But it is not the intention of the committee to endow an institution to rear up and educate persons in the mere theory of husbandry. It is to combine practice with science; and if it should be said that this would be a school only for the children of the more opulent, the unanswerable argument is, that it is the same in regard to your colleges, and must be so of necessity. Still the results of such an education, practised upon in all parts of the State, must and will lead to the most beneficial results. A good example is worth a world of mere speculation.

In a school of this kind, under competent managers, there may be concentrated the best models of practice, in rural labor, known at home or abroad. The various breeds of domestic animals, the varieties of garden and orchard fruit, and the implements of husbandry, may be here satisfactorily compared, and their relative merits and advantages determined. Diversified experiments may be made in the various departments of husbandry, calculated to instruct and improve us in practice. Mechanical science, particularly what is

denominated The Mechanics of Agriculture, may be illustrated and taught in the best manner, in the shops, and on the farm. The application of science to the mechanic and manufacturing arts, has, in a wonderful degree, simplified their manipulations, abridged their labor, and rendered their results more certain. From what has already been done, we are not permitted to hesitate or doubt, but science will prove equally beneficial to agriculture. There is no business which embraces a wider range in natural science than this.

The laws which govern organic and inorganic matter, which influence the economy of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, it cannot be denied, have a controlling influence in the operations of the soil, and in the business of raising animals and plants. Education (practical education) is no where calculated to diffuse a more benign influence in society, than when bestowed on the farmer. He neither claims nor can exercise a monopoly. His improvements and his knowledge diffuse light around him, and are beneficial to all within the sphere of their influence.

Your committee feel assured, that if put into operation, this school will become, not only popular, but highly useful. To the pupil it will afford the most important advantages, besides instruction in the principles and practice of rural labor; which, of itself, confers the power of creating wealth. It will afford him the advantages of a literary school, qualify him for the higher duties of civil life, and give him withal, what is seldom acquired but in youth, habits of labor and application to business; calculated alike to promote his individual happiness, and the good of the State.

With such an education, combining personal labor for a practical knowledge of all the instruments of husbandry, and the mode and manner in which it is to be prosecuted, those scientific pursuits will be prosecuted with a certainty that the foot of labor is guided by the unerring results of experience, founded in and regulated by the laws of nature.

This school is intended to be purely agricultural. But in saying this, it will be necessary to open a course of instruction, combined with labor, which your committee venture to say, will be as interesting, and to the State, as valuable, as that which may be acquired in any other seminary. The different qualities of soil, as fitted for the various products of the earth; the use of compost and manures, as applicable to soils; the seasons for planting the ro

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