have been for some time in existence in this county; we shall now be able to offer higher premiums, thus holding out greater inducements for the farmer and mechanic, to present for premium their various articles of manufacture.

At the Annual Meeting of the Society, held in the village of Cooperstown, Dec. 20th, 1851, the following premiums were awarded:

On Field Crops.-Best acre of winter wheat, 263 bushels, Wm. Davison; 2d best, 291 bushels, Philip Potter. Best acre of spring wheat, 244 bushels, R. Warren; 2d best, 19 bushels, Wm. Davison. Best acre of buckwheat, 21 bushels, W. Davison. Best acre of barley, 47 bushels, 22 lbs., Constantine King; 2d best, 47 bushels, 32 lbs. Wm. Davison; 3d best, 40 bushels, Wm. C. Davison. Best acre of oats, yield by weight, 3,434 lbs., A. Barnum; 2d best, 2,112 lbs., Joseph A. Cheney; 3d best, 6711 bushels, W. G. Northrup. Best acre of corn, 8133 bushels, William G. Northrup. Best acre of beans, 8 bushels 22 lbs., William Davison; 2nd best, 260 lbs., A. Barnum; 3d best, 204 lbs., Joseph A. Cheney. Best acre of potatoes, 7,220 lbs.; Ebenezer Chaffee; second best, 6,190 lbs., Alexander H. Clark; 3d best, 5,670 lbs., William Davison; 4th best, 4,990 lbs., A. Barnum. Best 10 roods of carrots, 3,396 lbs., Ebenezer Chaffee; 2nd best, 394 lbs., Elihu Phinney; 3d best,2,909 lbs., Alexander Taylor; 4th best, 2,025 lbs., William Davison. Best 10 roods ruta baga turnips, 3,289 lbs., J. A. Cheney; 2nd best, 2,444 lbs., William Davison; 3d best, 1,100 lbs., A. Barnum.

The society received a deputation from the towns in the south and south-western parts of the county, proposing to abandon the society known, for many years, as the Butternuts Agricultural Society, and unite with the county society. After hearing the arguments, for and against the proposition, which were given with candor and apparent good feeling, it was agreed to unite; and it was stipulated to hold the annual fairs alternately, at Louisville (Morris) and Cooperstown.

The society proceeded to the election of officers for the ensuing year, which resulted as follows:

Hon. Samuel S. Bowne, President; Henry J. Bowers, 1st Vice President; John W. Tunnicliff, 2nd Vice President; Edward Hall 3d Vice President; John T. Phinney, Treasurer; Chester Jarvis, Secretary.

Executive Committee.-Francis Rotch, R. H. Van Rensselaer, Williams Rathbun, David B. St. John, Rensselaer Day, Thomas Jackson, Alexander H. Clark, Hiram White, Nelson H. Washbon, R. Franchot, David Bundy, W. Frater, Jonah Davis, Joseph W. Ball, Abijah Barnum, S. G. Cone, F. A. Pearsall, William A. Walker.

Report of W. Davison, President, in answer to the circular of the President of the State Society.

Dear Sir-In compliance with your request, in regard to the agricultural condition of our county, I have endeavored to obtain the information which you desired, but it is more imperfect than would, perhaps, have been expected.

As to your several inquiries; Frst, (our county's chief product:) This county is mostly a grazing one, and consequently, best adapted to dairying. Cheese being the principal produce, though butter is made in considerable quantities. The increase the past year in these two articles is about 12 per cent. The number of acres devoted to dairying is not well ascertained. The other important products are principally oats, corn and potatoes, with hops in some few towns. Wheat is beginning to be raised once more, and it is probable that in a few years this important grain will be raised as plentifully in this as it is now in other more western counties. I have put the quantity of land tilled over and above that of past years, at 1200 acres. There has been but a small increase in animal stock, but a marked improvement in breed. The scientific attention to farm cultivation is beginning to gain ground, though not very rapidly. As to the price of farms, they have increased

in value, I should think, nearly 8 per cent, owing, principally, to draining and fertilizing. I have now answered your various questions, as far as it has been in my power todo so. We have had, in this county, two agricultural societies; (which are now uniited,) and, though not antagonistic, still operated to prevent the friends of the cause from concentrating their energies and collecting and treasuring up, in one repository, the whole facts, that would be a chart for present and future guides; and, therefore, there is no doubt but that our county is in a more flourishing condition than would have been at first supposed by the data on hand. I hope that the little information that I have given, may, in some measure answer your expectations, though it does not come up to what I should have wished to have been able to give on the subject.

PUTNAM.

REPORT. THOMAS B. ARDEN, PRESIDENT.

Agreeable to the requisition of the statute, passed May 5th, 1841, to promote agriculture, I have the honor to lay before the executive committee of the State Society, the following statement of the formation and progress of the Putnam County agricultural society:

Due notice having been given, through the columns of the county paper, a public meeting was held in the town of Carmel, on the 29th of March, 1851, at which a constitution was adopted, and the officers therein called for duly elected. Early in April a premium list was circulated which, on account of the advanced state of the season, the executive committee judged expedient to make rather limited. At a subsequent day, it was decided by the executive committee to hold a fair and plowing match, in the town of Carmel, on the 8th and 9th of October. The citizens of that place having contributed liberally to our treasury, and generously offered to make all necessary enclosures, sheds and fixtures for stock, and also provided a commodious tent. The exhibition

came off on the above days, and the weather being propitious, the farmers of Putnam with their wives and daughters, assembled in larger numbers than the good town ever saw congregated before. It was manifest the true spirit was abroad, and if nothing has been gathered in that useful experience and refinement of knowledge, which constitutes our aim, the good will that prevailed throughout the two days of the fair, together with the abundance of the exhibition, is a sure presage of the good result of this our first effort; and I trust, when our farmers come to reflect, that the' premiums are only the "cullings" of an agricultural association, they will come prepared another year, to render ideas for "value received." The plowing match did not come off; the drought having left the sward ground too stiff, for a fair trial in the opinion of the judges. This I regretted myself, not holding to the doctrine that an absence of obstacles is necessary to a skilful practice of any art or profession. In my rides through the county, I was pleased to see that the landholders, having low meadow and boggy land, were actively engaged draining and fencing the same, for the unusual dryness of the location not only exhausted our streams, but most of our springs and all the swamps not contiguons to the lakes. The efforts of Mr. James Raymond, of the town of Carmel, deserve particular notice, as they were more thoroughly conducted than any coming under my observation. The muck from his ditches, which was the richest in organic matter I have ever seen, was carted to his uplands to be incorporated with the gravelly loam; the stumps had all been removed by his farming force, collected and burnt on the ground, leaving him a residue of inorganic matter, sufficient, by proper and judicious distribution, to invigorate his whole tract. Mr. R., I observed, had likewise so distributed his ditches, as not only to carry off water derived from springs, but the surface water of the adjacent hills, a source too frequently regarded as of no importance.

The improvement of land by irrigation, though of ancient date, is still one of those imperceptible causes, which require many instances in a neighborhood to satisfy the most of farmers of their utility; and I was pleased to see both on the farm of L. D. Clift,

of Carmel, and H. C. Wilson, of Putnam Valley, very successful applications of the streams, which their peculiar locality enabled them to avail themselves of; these gentlemen are entitled to much praise, as the work is chiefly the labor of their own hands, carried on at such times as most farmers are content with walking over and viewing their farms, and if a thought of improvement chance to pass their minds, it most generally dies a natural death.

Much is to be done to establish the farmers of this county in an enlightened system of husbandry; and the work is two-fold, for having studiously rejected the suggestions of science as the humbug of the day, these prejudices are first to be eradicated, before the work of sowing the seeds of improved agriculture can be commenced. But I trust now, that our society has won a place in the hearts of our farmers, the task will be carried forward by the many, and hence prosperity must attend our efforts.

Mr. Clift, at a very short notice, addressed the society at some length, and with much ability. He is one of the foremost in our cause, and the association owes a great share of its success to his exertions in its behalf. In the Transactions for '41, he has given a very correct history of our county, which supercedes the necessity of any further details on my part. The society very much ręgreted that circumstances beyond its control prevented the examinations suggested by the report of the State society, as, doubtless, much valuable data would be brought together, available for both scientific men and our 'citizens generally, whether employed in the arts, manufactures or agriculture, I therefore entertain the hope that something may be done during the ensuing year.

It will be the constant endeavor of the society to advance the common cause by every means within its power. Our first endeavors will be to circulate some standard agricultural paper, by which together with the volume of the State Transactions and American Institute, which are disseminated as premiums, we trust a fresh impetus will be given to their operations, and the pride which is