mean that all farmers do thus, for I know there are a few who seek, with intelligent and profitable efforts, to improve their stock. There are Short-horns, and Ayrshires, and Devons and Alderneys, and other choice breeds of cattle from which to select; or, if you prefer, there are choice native cattle, from which, in time, our herds can be greatly improved. With better stock, too, will come better care; for men take pride in their best fruits, their best flowers, their best horses and their best cattle; and as the standard of excellence is raised. inferior animals will be found unprofitable and speedily sent to the shambles. I do not flatter myself, gentlemen, that in these remarks I have presented any new ideas to you. They are facts with the truth of which you are all familiar but perhaps you have not all of you been struck as I have, with their importance. The improvement which I have suggested is one that can be accomplished in a comparatively short space of time. In five or six years you could add as many hundred thousand dollars to the net profits of agriculture in this county in this single department. But while associations and fairs, like this, are doing an excellent work in stimulating improvements in every branch of agricultural interest, it must not be forgotten there is a higher and nobler duty to perform in improving and elevating the standard of our common humanity. It is a great mistake to suppose that the farmer requires less intellectual culture and mental discipline than other professions. On the contrary he requires to be a proficient in the natural sciences. In the circle of his duty, he carefully observes the progress of his crops, from the time the seed is deposited in the ground until the ripened fruit and grain is garnered into his barn. Possessed of a thorough knowledge of botany he would watch the curious processes of nature with new interest. As germ and bud expanded, as leaf and flower unfolded, he would study the perfection of those laws that govern the vegetable kingdom; and finding his avocation to be simply to assist nature, his acquaintance with vegetable physiology would be turned to profit in his experience. When, with an educated eye, he beholds in the handful of earth from his fields the various organic elements that constitute his crops and his grain, the preponderance of one element and the deficiency of another, he will find the science of agricultural chemistry of assistance in enabling him to adapt his crops to his soil, and to restore fertility by a supply of the appropriate elements. When he understands the laws of mechanics by which, through capillary vessels, the moisture of the earth is lifted to the tree-tops; when he becomes familiar with the laws of light aud solar heat by which the moisture thus elevated in the leaves and spread out to the action of the sun, is in the wonderful laboratory of nature converted into fruit and flower, and ripened grain, he will feel a new love and interest in his profession. The perfect and undeviating laws of nature, the unflagging progress with which she carries on her work, through day and through night, through sunshine and through rain, will set before him such impressive lessons of order and industry as cannot but elevate and improve heart and understanding. If you would save your sons from the shops and stores of villages, and the offices and lounging places of cities; if you would make them producers rather than drones, give them the blessings and benefits of a higher culture. Do not let them feel that farming is simply drudgery and servile labor. but show them that it is one of the most ennobling and elevating pursuits; they are not simply the swarthy firemen who, down in the depths, feed the fires that drive the engine, but they are the engineers who sit with hands on the throttle valve, and guide and control the progress and prosperity of the State. The comparative retirement of the farmer offers the grandest opportunity for reflection and thought, for critical observation of the duty and conduct of our rulers, for careful cousideration of the theories offered by our public men, and from the quiet and careful meditations of the rural districts come those sober second thoughts. which are the antidote to popular excitement and often the salvation of the State. We hear daily of new evils which are supposed to threaten us as a people. To-day it is the irruption of the Chinese, who are swarming to our shores from the crowded hives of Asia. They have overleaped the barriers which an antiquated superstition built up against their emigration. They have entered the golden gate of the far west, and soon will be surging on in a living tide across the Rocky mountains. Many profess to believe that the 170,000 of these Mongolian pagans now among us are but the precursors of millions that will crowd our mines and public works and every avenue of labor, until by sheer force of numbers they will obtain complete possession of the country, reduce us to heathenism and crush us out as effectually as if the car of Juggernaut had rolled over us. Other good people find much to disturb them in the great numbers of Catholic emigrants, the founding of Catholic institutions, and the servility of politicians to Catholic voters; they look forward with apprehension to our subjugation to the pope and the overslaughing of civil liberty by religious intolerance. Others, again fear that the vices and crimes of our large cities will spread over the land like moral cancers, sapping the foundations of our virtue, placing the government in the hands of the unscrupulous and profligate, and breaking down every safeguard for our protection. But I fear none of these things. The conflict between vice and virtue, between truth and error is eternal, and truth and virtue are sure to win, either by crushing out error or raising the ignorant and the degraded to a higher level. Let us give to our youth such intellectual culture and training as will enable them to come off victorious in this daily and perpetual warfare. Let the bulwarks of our defense be their virtue and intelligence, and we shall have a sure rock and defense against which the waves of paganism, of superstition and error shall dash in vain; or dashing, shall be broken into mist and spray, leaving the foundations of our civil and religious liberty firm and unshaken in the hearts of an enlightened and intelligent population. SCHENECTADY. The annual fair of this association for the year 1869 was held on their fair grounds October 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th. STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES. Balance on hand from last year... Amount received from memberships and at gate Amount received from licenses shows and refreshments.. Amount received from advertisements in premium lists.. Miscellaneous...... Amount received from sale of lumber.. For premiums.. $328 39 1,982 74 186 65 100 00 2.50 277 05 $2,877 33 $683 50 2,193 83 $2,877 33 E. SCHERMERHORN, Secretary. SCHOHARIE. The eighth annual fair of the Schoharie County Agricultural Society and the Schoharie Valley Stock Growers' Association came off, as advertised, on the 5th 6th and 7th days of October, 1869, on the grounds of the Stock Growers' Association in the village of Schoharie. The fair, notwithstanding the recent freshet, proved a success in every respect, the number of entries exceeding that of any previous year. The display of horses and stock was good, and, in pure bred cattle, better than last year. The exhibition of sheep was very good, but not what it ought to be for a county like Schoharie. The show of fruit proves that apples, pears, plums and grapes can be grown here in such profusion and of such quality as to satisfy the taste and demands of any palate. Vegetables were in such numbers, and of such superior quality, as almost to defy competition. There were several very fine samples of hops and broom corn on exhibition, showing, that the growers of our county understand the culture almost to perfection; the hop interest in our county has been growing very rapidly for the past few years, adding greatly to the wealth of the county. The ladies' department was much better than that of last year. Specimens of household industry, economy and good taste were to be seen throughout this department, which adds very much to the interest of the society. On the afternoon of the third day the annual address was delivered by Hon. John D. Van Buren of Albany, N. Y., and was attentively listened to by an intelligent audience; also the Hon. Horace Greeley appeared and delivered an earnest and interesting address upon the practical duties pertaining to agricultural improvements, which was listened to with attention. Receipts and disbursements the present year (1869) as follows: Received from admission fees and other sources. Paid premiums awarded.. All other expenses.... Balance on hand.... $1,088 50 $455 50 413 72 869 22 $219 28 Officers for the year 1870: Charles Bouck, Fultonham, President; Isaac C. Van Tuyl, Schoharie, Secretary; Marshal De Noyelles, Schoharie, treasurer. ISAAC C. VAN TUYL, Secretary. SCHUYLER. The total receipts of Schuyler County Agricultural Society, for the year 1869 were $2,084.25, all of which has been expended in payment of premiums, in the improvements of the grounds, and in payment on the real estate for title. The annual fair was held at Watkins on the 28th, 29th and 30th days of September, and attended with marked success. The annual address was delivered by Horace Greeley, and listened to by a very large concourse of attentive admirers. All, particularly our practical farmers of Schuyler, expressed much satisfaction with the subject and its treatment. The number of entries of cattle, manufactures and produce, nearly doubled those of any previous year. As to the general and special features of the exhibition I send the following statement by the chief editor of the New York Tribune, whose advantages and ability for judging the merits of a county fair are, perhaps, surpassed by none A MODEL FARMERS' FAIR. The little county of Schuyler, the latest born of the sixty which compose our State, comprises seven or eight rural townships surrounding the head of Seneca Lake, a lovely sheet of water, mainly fed by submarine springs which keep it cold in summer, and preclude its freezing in winter, so that steamboats ply upon it all seasons, as they do on no other lake in the union. Its banks rise gradually from its shores, some 300, or 400, feet in the course of five or six miles, presenting the noblest panorama of alternating field and forest that our State affords. The open lake so modifies the severity of winter, that the grape and the peach here attain a luxuriance rare in so high a latitude, rendering fruit growing here signally successful and profitable. Watkins, the shire town, lying just at the head of the lake, is a large and growing village, wherein the Chemung canal tranships its coal and other produce to the lake steamboats, receiving thence merchandise in return; while the Northern Pennsylvania railroad (having absorbed the Canandaigua and Elmira), affords frequent and easy transit to the Central on the north, and the Erie on the south. The census of 1880 will give this thriving village over 10,000 inhabitants. The county fair was held here on Wednesday and Thursday of last week; and the people seem to have resolved, with one mind to make |