valued at $500 or $600. To these were added files of the standard agricultural and horticultural periodicals, an interesting and useful feature among the whole. This was Mr. A.'s sanctum, to which he regularly retired at certain hours of the day, impossibilities and emergencies excepted, which were very unfrequent, to give soul its proper play and exercise.

His barns and out-houses were constructed on original plans and principles, combining in a high degree the elements of convenience, taste and durability. A basement story under his main barn, embodied more of the convenience for sheltering, feeding and watering stock, than I had ever conceived to be attainable-I am sorry I have not time to particularize.

His house, barn, orchard, garden, with their adjoining yards, enclosures, small out-houses &c., were included in about five acres of land. The rest of his improvement, embracing 50 acres, was divided into six fields, of eactly the same dimensions, and laid out into exact quadrangular, or rectangular figures. These fields had been thoroughly drained, where necessary, of all surface, stagnant waters, thus relieving them of all chilling dampness and vegetable-destroying acidities. These had then been plowed, pulverized, and crushed artificially, until they presented an even, rich soil, ten or twelve inches in depth. This had been a progressive work, and he still was making improvements in this direction. These fields were subjected to a six years course of rotation in cropping, from which he owned he had received many advantages, which I cannot detain you, by enumerating. His course consisted of spring crops, on sod, with all the manure of the farm, half decayed, which were cleared from the ground in the fall, and then plowed and sowed to wheat in the fall, or oats in the spring, and heavily stocked to timothy and clover, mowed the third year, and the fourth, fifth and sixth, devoted to pasturage, when it was ready again for the rotation.

In the stock-rearing department, my friend was without a rival in his vicinity. His intimate knowledge of animal physiology and the principles of breeding and feeding, had enabled him to prosecute this branch of his profession with decided advantages. He was accurately informed in regard to the qualities and peculiarities of the various branches of the same families of animals, and had spared no

reasonable amount of means and time in surrounding himself with the best. His animals were of the noblest specimens I had ever seen or conceived. He had horses exactly adapted to draught-cows profitably adapted to the dairy-sheep for wool, and sheep for mutton-hogs that made pork at the smallest cost, &c., &c., all the result of skill and attention.

Mr. A.'s crops of grain and grass were of course large and profitable. His returns were from two to three times the amount usually received from the same area of surface, thus giving him as much as though he cultivated a farm double or triple the size of his own, with the advantage of saving a vast amount of time and labor. This was partly the result of his thorough mode of operating upon his soil, deep plowing, clean tillage, &c., and partly the result of his systematic and persevering efforts in accumulating and applying manures. His idea was to deepen and enrich his natural soil, instead of thinning and impoverishing it. This he succeeded in accomplishing, at the same time that he was reaping the highest and increasing profits on his various products and expenditures.

Mr A. was just the man to worship with the greatest fervor at the shrine of Pomona. His collection of fruits embraced the choicest of each species, and his skill in raising them, was as prominent as his knowledge of pomology and horticulture was varied and accurate. He had not extended his catalogue of varieties farther than to embrace the very cream of what is excellent in this delightful department of our industry, but these he cultivated to the highest degree of attained perfection. He thought it as easy, and far more profitable, to grow a good variety as a poor one; hence he tolerated none but the very best, and these he had in the greatest abundance. A small but well arranged garden, mostly cultivated, however, by the hand of Mrs. A. and her daughter, afforded in greatest sufficiency all the smaller fruits and garden vegetables proper.

The general appearance of Mr. A.'s farm and fixtures was that of scrupulous nicety, punctuality, and economy of arrangement. Fences were high and substantial, gates instead of gaps or bars. His shop contained a good set of tools, which were used to the best advantage in constructing or mending implements, of a rainy or severely cold day. He tolerated none but the most approved implements,

those combining all the scientific prerequisites of an easy drawing and skilfully operating instrument. The contents of his cart and implement house were quite a curiosity.

Mr. A. had devoted a goodly amount of attention to the ideal and refining, and in the prosecution of this delight of his nature, had surrounded his house with all the embellishments of tree, shrub and floral beauty. In this department he had received the untiring exertions and encouragements of his worthy wife and amiable daughter. While tarrying there, I could not but regard this spot as a kind of Eden, and these occupants the guardian angels.

Thus was Mr. A. I am sorry I cannot be permitted, for want of time, to draw this truthful reality of a picture down to its finer tints and shades, and show it up in all its glowing splendor. Mr. A. was one of God's own noblemen, with a brow encircled with the true insignia of equality. I more deeply and sincerely covet his elevation than the Czarship of all Russia, or the sceptre of the imperial tyrant of Austria, crowns and sceptres fade to absolute nothingness before such genuine greatness.

And such, brothers, are the faintly drawn outlines of this my beau ideal of a model American farmer. His physical nature, the embodiment of health and strength, erect with honest pride; his mind the seat of all intelligence; his moral nature the image of the just and good one; his farm the field in which he studies God; his home the paradise of beauty and innocence; his wife the very incarnation of matronly grace and intelligence; his daughter the amiable, the lovely, the truly accomplished, because the soundly educated in the true elements of useful life; his son, how noble, how sensible, how virtuous-the fac-simile of his father, lacking only his experience, his matured judgment, his extended observation.

And such, fellow farmers, should be our aim. I know the mark is a high one, and while aiming at the sun we may only reach the moon, yet were we to fix our standard of excellence lower, we might flounder forever in the terrestial sloughs of ignorance and anxiety, never obtaining our true position. To the young man just entering upon the duties and cares of our profession, the field is open in all its length and breadth. There is no limit to bound his ambitionthere is no heighth of intellectual, moral or professional perfection,

for which he may not be a distinguished candidate or a successful competitor. Remember your responsibility. Be studious, be energetic and persevering in the encompassment of all that is honorable, noble and praiseworthy. By well directed and long continued exertion in the proper direction, you may make a print in the sands of time, or a ripple on the bosom of its placid ocean, to mark the fact of your existence.

Then, fellow farmers, when the toils and business of the day have all been consummated, let us hie us away to our happy homes to complete our arrangements for our own comfort, and that of our animals; for the lambkins of the flock and the young ewes of the herd have already snuffed the wintry blasts, and old Boreas will soon embrace both man and brute in his sleety boisterous arms. Let us hasten to gather in the remaining fruits of our labor, and extend and perfect to the best of our abilities, every convenience and arrangement that will contribute to our own comfort and pleasure, and that of our animals during the approaching reign of frost and snow. Having done all, let us not forget to surround ourselves with every possible facility for extending our knowledge of our profession. A few dollars judiciously expended in procuring books and periodicals devoted to agricultural science and practice, will prove if well studied, a most excellent investment. Tis thus that we will combine both pleasure and profit, when the peltings of the merciless blast in its drenching and withering displays of rain or frost, seem to defy all efforts to accomplish either.

In conclusion, Mr. President, ladies, fellow farmers and friends, allow me to say, this agricultural science, like every thing else in these days of active progressibilities, is receiving a momentum that will soon send the profession of agriculture up to its proper level in the estimation of mankind, as the most honorable, the most pleasurable, and yet the most intricate of all the occupations and learned professions of men. Then shall the enlightened agricultor be hailed universally what he really is-the best and the happiest-the wisest and noblest specimen of God's handiwork upon the earth.

Owosso, Oct. 7, 1852.

ST. CLAIR COUNTY.

J. C. HOLMES, Sec'y Mich. State Ag. Society:

SIR-Deeming it important that the Transactions of the State Agricultural Society should contain an annual notice of the progress and condition of every County in the State, I have hastily compiled a few facts in relation to this county for that purpose.

A few remarks on the localicy and peculiar capacity it affords for eventually becoming an extensive manufacturing region, will be first in order. St. Clair county is bounded partly on the east by the Lake St. Clair, and its whole eastern line fronts on the magnificent river St. Clair and lake Huron, navigable for vessels of the largest class, and in all weather affording a secure harbor, with numerous and capacious wharves for the rapid increase of the shipping interest.

Some forty vessels are owned on the river and six or eight new ones now on the stocks. Freighting of lumber was very profitable the past season, and the prospects for the same business as well as the increased value of that product are very favorable for the ensuing

one.

The soil of this county is much varied and well adapted to the successful production of grain and grass. The southern parts have long been famed for luxuriant grass and corn crops, large quantities of hay are annually pressed and shipped to the mining districts of Lake Superior and the lumber region on the shores of Lake Huron, at an average price of twelve dollars per ton.

The fruit products comprise all the common varieties, and rarely fail to yield bountifully; apples, pears, peaches, cherries, are abundant and at remunerative prices. The gravelly loam preponderates in lower or southern part of the county, while more northerly the