TRANSACTIONS

OF THE

New York State Agricultural Society.

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

To the Honorable the Legislature.

The Executive Committee of the New York State Agricultural Society, in presenting their annual report to the Society and to the Legislature, call gratefully to mind the bounty of the beneficent Creator and Ruler of man and nature in the plenteous yields of the fruits of the earth during the year now ended. Occupying as do the farmers of New York a country so physically formed and situated as to be far more uniform in its productions than most others, and almost exempt from extremes of drought, moisture and temperature, we have in our annual record of the crops and seasons to mention variations in yields and character that are slight compared with those that occur in less favored climes. It would, perhaps, te difficult to point out any season within living memory in which the cultivators of our soil have not, as a body, been rewarded with satisfactory returns of their labors. Local inequalities doubtless occur often; but the farming of the State, taken as a whole, is always successful in its production, though from external causes it may not always be equally remunerative in its results. We have good reason to be grateful. We possess a territory of great advantages as regards climate. Our soil, though it varies in its character and capacities, is throughout the State, excepting in a few small sandy districts whose resources are generally greatly underrated, justly characterized as strong and fertile in the production of the crops suited to the district, whatever they may be. We have soils capable of the highest pro [AG.]

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duction of the most esteemed of the cereals; others in which the most nutritious grasses find their natural habitation; there are districts in which almost tropical plants flourish, and in but few parts. of our territory is there not capability for all the products of the tem perate zone. Varied, comprehensive, safe is the agriculture of New York, and herein lies the secret of our uniform prosperity. Confined to no specialty, tied down to no limited range of enterprise, possessing advantages of ready access to markets, tilling a soil strong in its resources of fertility and yet requiring in different degrees the application of intelligent labor to develope these resources and to bring it to the highest agricultural condition, the farmers of our State are placed in a natural school of agriculture, in which the highest prizes are offered to such as bring vigor, intelligence and liberality to the practice of their profession. In our State, therefore, should be found. the field for improvement. In our practice, as total failure is almost. impossible, experiments are comparatively safe, and scientific progress should be rapid because theory may be reduced to fact without the risk of ruin.

The peculiarities of the season of 1869 may be stated as consisting in the coolness and superabundant moisture of early summer and harvest, and the late occurrence of the frosts of autumn, although the summer as a whole was characterized by a low degree of heat. The consequences have been a large yield generally of the cereals and an abundant hay crop, with a good deal of trouble in securing both, and a tardy growth of Indian corn in the former part of the season, which was made up by the heat of early autumn and the protraction of the period of growth at the end of the season. Grain crops of all kinds have been good, especially the oat crop, which was unusually large. Corn has turned out beyond expectation in quantity and quality. Potatoes have yielded largely, but have been subject to more disease than usual. Hops have made a fairly good return in general, northern New York perhaps excepted, and have been more remunerative. than last year. Dairymen have had a very good year. Their produce has been large, and it has brought a good price, cheese having been specially profitable; and the rearing and feeding of cattle and sheep for meat have been highly successful and remunerative.

The chief disappointment of the year is the comparatively low price of grain of those kinds, such as wheat and barley, which we sell, and the prices of which are dependent upon the rates current in the grain markets of Europe. Whatever may be the cause of the present depression (and many of the best commercial authorities seem to be

anable to account for it) it has gone so far as to reduce the prices below the limit of profitable production, and the effect has been to cut off the returns of our best grain farms to such an extent as, in many cases, to make the business of the year a losing one, even where the crops have been good. The experience of the season will undoubtedly lead many to a change of system. Farms managed chiefly with a view to the production of cereals will be turned to the production of meat; and, fortunately for their owners and for the State, the lands best adapted to wheat and barley are in the highest degree productive of clovers and the grasses. The change will be a good one. There are no lands in the country that will produce more beef and mutton per acre than the wheat lands of western New York, and a restorative system will be substituted for an exhaustive one.

The dairy farmers, whose profits during the year have been much better than those of the grain growers, have prosecuted their branch of productive agriculture with increased vigor. Under the factory system the cheese dairies return very satisfactory profits, with the least possible care and toil to the owners and their households. Their success is probably to be, in years to come, still greater. The problem of increasing the yield of milk, every ounce of increase over the increased cost of feeding being clear profit, is now occupying their attention. It is suggested that the means will be found in increased liberality in feeding during the time the cows are dry, and that the dairies that come into profit in the spring in the highest condition will give the best results. It is very gratifying, too, to know that more attention is now being paid to the rearing of dairy stock at home, stimulated by the advance in the price of cows making homerearing economical, and that the use of thorough-bred bulls on dairy farms is every year extending.

The breeding interest in the State has, during the past year, continued to develope, and New York not only maintains but advances her eminence in this most useful and most interesting of agricultural pursuits. It is yet too soon to predict the success of those enterprising men who have entered upon a systematic course of breeding of horses, but there has been no relaxation of effort in this direction. So far, these efforts have been directed to the production of horses for the carriage and road, such as are also available for general purposes; and the results are believed, from the better character and breeding of the sires employed, to be very hopeful. The introduction of heavy horses for agricultural and draft purposes is desirable. It would seem that breeding such animals should be profitable, especially

if the Percheron and Suffolk breeds, which, the former especially, combine weight and strength with activity, should be resorted to; but it would be necessary to import mares as well as stallions, the present stock of the country being much better suited to improvement by the use of the thoroughbred horse, than for crossing with the larger breeds mentioned. The large prices, however, obtained for heavy draft horses, would seem to justify the investment of some capital in this way.

The depressed condition of the market for other than combing wools is turning attention to those breeds of sheep that produce that staple, and which are at the same time valuable as meat producers. The Cotswolds are at present the favorites, and the recently intro duced Lincolns and the Leicesters are also receiving attention. Valuable importations of both Cotswolds and Lincolns have recently been made, and both breeds seem to thrive in our country. The South Downs seem to be comparatively neglected though no breed of sheep as yet naturalized in the northern States produces meat of such quality as theirs.

In cattle, that breed of universal adaptation and unrivalled usefulness, the short horn, continues to gain in estimation. Some remarkably fine animals of the Booth blood have been imported during the year, and some of the pure Bates blood have been exported to England at prices higher than ever obtained before, while the home demand for well bred animals has been very large at advanced prices. Jerseys continue to be imported and the breed continues to grow in favor.

While the past season in its coolness and moisture, during the times of tillage and harvest, furnished the most conclusive evidence of the value of improved machinery in the operations of the farm, it is gratifying to find that the manufacturers have made great progress toward the perfection of harvesting implements. In 1866, at the Society's trial there was no machine that could be pronounced a perfectly satisfactory self-raking reaper. In 1869, the number of successful self-rakers is almost as large as the number of manufacturers, and at the fair the implements generally showed that inventive genius had been successfully applied to those of almost every class. Few matters are of more importance to our farmers than the successful economical employment of labor-saving machinery. Our harvest season is short, our climate is such that harvest operations, and, in fact, all farming operations admit of no delay, our labor supply is limited and wages are so high as to diminish both the breadth and the thoroughness of our tillage.