New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1844-03-23
IMPROVEMENT IN AGRICULTURE.
Legislature of New York.
Report Of the Committee on Agricultm

also the Annual Report Of the New-York State
Agricultural Society, embracing returns from
forty SIX County Societies, has had those subjects
under consideration, and espectfully submits the
following
REPORT.
SO far as your Committee have been able to ex
anime the manuscript essays and official reports
made by the State and County Societies. they ap
pear to be drawn IN strict conformity to existing
laws, and therefore your Committee do not feel
at Liberty to alter or abrldge them IN any respect,
Taken as a whole. these documents contain a
large amount OF Information of great practical
value TO The farming Interests Of the State The
Treatise OF Mr.. Gaylord on Insects INJURIOUS to
Field Crops, &c: the Essay on the Introduction
OF New Agricultural Products and on the In
portance OF the Geological Survey in It's connex-
ion with Practical Husband7y, &c, are worth
many times the cost Of publishing all the reports
Hitherto 1t has been customary to print ten times
the usual number for the use of Members of the
Legislature and State Officers, 500 copies for the
use OF the State Agricultural Society," and twenty
copies for each OF the County Societies. Beev.
ing that these documents will compare favoraby
with any that have preceded them from the same
source, and are well calculated to render the
Agricultural labor OF this great State more pro-
euctlve to the community at large, as well as more
profitable to the culilvators Of the earth your COM
mlttcc do not hesitate to recommend the printing
OF the number OF copies above named.
In his late Message, the Governor says: g The
number of acres of land charged with taxes in
1872 was 81, l16 934, valued at S504 ,254 ,029."
According to the State census Of lo25, the num-
Der OF acres under cultivation was !, loo, 967-
The same authority in 1885, gives the number at
9,655, 426. AT this time the number of acres un-
der cultivation, probably, does not vary much
from IL ,0OO,0O0 According to the L. s. Cen
sus OF 1910, the number of persons actually en-
ployed IN rural pursuits was 455 ,954; while the
whole number actually engaged in manufactures,
the mechanical arts, trade, internal. coastlng and
foreign commerce, Was POI, l72. These brief
statistics demonstrate the important truth that
Agriculture is the great productive interest OF the
State of New York.
Your Committee deem itnot out OF place to in
quire whether the half million of laborlng people,
who cultivate eleven millions Of acres of fair farm
ing lands donow realize as large return fo- their
capital and industry, as is practicable
In the returns of the census of 1910, the Wheat
grown in this State (l2,2S6,4lS busheIs,l was
estimated at S 20 per bushel; Corn QO,972,206
bushels,) at IS cents Oats GO, 675, SAL bushels)
at Al cents and Hay (3,l27,047 tons,) at $40
per ton. Atthcse prices, which are now too high
by one third, the aggregate products of all our
rural industry were valued at Sl09, OIL ,4l6.-
Reduce this gross sum to S7T700O,0O0, as it ought
to be, and divide that by IL ,OOOO00, the number
of acres in cultivation, and the average crop was
worth only seven dollars per acre.
From considerable experience, much study and
reflection, your Committee are of the opinion
III tbn | pf o.
this State might be made to yield, without any
additional expense, an average of three dollars
per acre more of the valuable fruits of the earth,
than they now do In other words the same Ia
bor which is now measurably lost through gnor-
ancc of the laws of nature, through lnattentlon
to the constituent clements of all cultivated plants,
and Of the afiinltles that govern their chemical
and organic combinations, IN practical agrlcut-
ture, might by the aid of PLAIN and available
science secure to our farmers ten dollars worth
of agricultural products, where they now get but
seven dollars worth. For what purpose does
the husbandman toll SO hard throug bout the
wear? Is it not to transform certain elements
of earth air and water, into cultivated plants;
and these again into domestic animals, beet, pork,
mutton, butter cheese and wool? And what are
these elements of earth, air and water, which the
well or i'll applied labor of the former changes
into wheat and other gram, into grass and roots
Where is the practical agrlcuturst to find the
raw material OF one good ripe wheat plant; and
how must the necessary ingredients be combined,
and applied to the soil, so to realize the largest
crop at the least expense
TO say nothing of the gaseous and earthly
elements necessary to make good firm wheat
straw, we now take over l2,00U,OO0 bushels of
the raw material of wheat bread from our fields
every year, and never stop to enquire whether
this system OF culture will or will not rob our
wheat lands of all their bread-bearing elements.
Not one particle in a thousand OF the clements OF
bread, alter entering human mouths, ever finds Its
way back again to the field from whence It w2s Ia
ken. live are certain that the benevolent Author
of our being will create aneD, annually, l2,OOO,-
900 bushels of those particular ingredients which
make that amount Of wheat, and will keep good
all the elements of straw not returned after the
harvest, then perhaps our fields may not suffer
from continuous cropping without renovation.
But Heaven will not create one particle OF matter
for our especial benefit, though the two and hall
millions Of people in New-Iork shall waste the
raw material OF 5000, 900 bushels OF grain every
year, until they Shall have no more to waste.
To prevent farther loss, and regain all the
fertilizlng elements taken from oar cultivated
lands since their first settlement, are objects OF
great public Importance. Man is indebted to
AGRICULTURAL science for the invaluable discovery
that not far from 81 per cent. OF all the elements
of cultivated plants exist IN the air ID e1hausiess
quantities. These are carbon, nltrogen,o1ygen ana
hydrogen, the two latter forming wafer The com
buslion of wood and coal the respiration OF all AMI
mails, fermentation and the decomposition OF all
organic matter throw into the atmosphere vast
amount Of the ingredients necessary Tor the re-
construction of vegetables and animals. say
nothing OF water and IT'S elements, which play an
important part in all organic structures carbon IS
The larnest and mos. expensive clement IN the