Essay on the relations of agriculture, mechanics and manufactures Essay on the relations of agriculture, mechanics and manufactures. Essay on the relations of agriculture, mechanics and manufactures, by S. List of premiums on farm implements, &c ..... List of premiums on Ohio staples, agricultural products, and manufactured FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT. COLUMBUS, OHIO, JANUARY 13, 1850. Zo the General Assembly of the State of Ohio: In obedience to the requisitions of the law creating the State Board. of Agriculture, the undersigned respectfully presents the fifth annual report of that Board. I have the honor to be, your cbe l'ent servant, M. L. SULLIVANT, President of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture. PRESIDENT'S REPORT. In my last report, the va ious subjects that it would be proper to consider were so fully discussed, that I deem it unnecessary to repeat many of them, and after a few extracts and brief remarks, will leave the various reports, essays and ar.cles, to speak for themselves in detail. A pursuit which engages the attention of four-fifths of our population, and is so intimately interwoven with the interests of all classes, that its prosperity gives life and energy to all other pursuits, which is the true basis of national wealth, and upon which commerce, arts and manufactures, depend for their very existence, is one of so much importance, that to give it aid and encouragement by all legitimate means, is a sound policy, dictated by common sense, aud perfectly obvious to ery intelligent mind. 2-AG. REP. As an art, agriculture has been practiced from remote antiquity, but the applications of science, are of more recent date, and are, perhaps, yet in their infancy, although many of the leading principles have been developed, and are now generally known. The masses of the people, feel the necessity of acquiring a knowledge of the experience of others in the practical operations of farming, and how far they are influenced or to be modified by the difference in soil and climate, and the ease or difficulty of transporting their products to market. They wish to know the results of scientific investigation concerning those elements of soils, which are necessary to the growth and full development of the various agricultural products. They are seeking for those kinds of animal, vegetable and mineral manures, that, with a proper rotation of crops, will secure a permanent and increased power of production, and renovate worn lands, and restore their fertility. A great change has taken place in the public mind within a few years. A spirit of inquiry and investigation is aroused; much of this has been effected by the establishment of State and ounty agricultural societies, where mind has been brought in contact with mind, and stimulated into thought and action-where the experience of many, under varied circumstances, has been made known for the benefit of all. The establishment of numerous agricultural journals that scatter broad-cast over the land knowledge and experience, and the results of scientific investigation of the important process of vegetable nutri tion, have, likewise, been efficient agencies in working this change in the public mind. The exhibition of stock, agricultural implements, domestic manufactures, fruits, agricultural products, the competition for premiums, and the addresses and essays on the principles of agriculture at the Agricultural Fairs, have aided in producing a spirit of emulation, the effects of which may be expected to exert a far-reaching influence in the future. Agriculture, horticulture, the mechanic arts and commerce, have already received great aid from the applications of science, and if we were to judge the future by the past, we would say that they seem destined to reach a degree of perfection, such as the world has not yet seen, and which we can scarcely conceive. Each exerts a reflex influence upon the others any improvement in one, produces corresponding improvement in others, and these are only steps onward into a field continually opening wider and wider, to the view of him who will watch the constant changes in the scene. Education also of the masses of our youth, who will succeed us-such education as will fit them, especially for the industrial pursuits of life, is felt as a want that is, as yet, imperfectly supplied by our institutions of learning. The proper aim of education, is to train the mind and also the body for active exertion, to make both the body and the mind the nstruments of the will, ready to concentrate their powers upon any subject that may require their exercise-to acquire actual knowledge both practical and theoretical-a knowled of facts and of principles that can be applied to the varied wants of life. That training which merely or mostly developes the physical powers is degrading to man; that which cultivates the intellect, at the expense of the body, is also wrong. We want vigorous minds in vigorous bodies, capable of concentrating and using with equal facility all their varied powers. This will be in some measure accomplished, when all ho est bodily labor shall be considered honorable. Indeed the effects of such a feeling are already manifest, in the general prosperity, the rapid increase of population, the accumulation of wealth, the enterprise and activity everywhere seen in those States where bodily labor, so far from being considered degrading and the badge of servitu e, is honored and respected, P The wheat crop, which ordinarily reaches an aggregate of 25,000,000 bushels, will probably be found, by the assessor's returns this. year, to have been 30,000,000 to 33,000,000 bushels-a larger crop than has ever been raised in Ohio. In consequence of the short crop of 1849, caused by a very general prevalence of rust in the crop of that year, more land was sowed than usual, and the yield is supposed to have been fully one-third greater per acre than the average; so that, from both these causes combined, it would not be surprising if the aggregate yield of the wheat cp for 1850, should be found to reach 35,000,000, or even 40,000,000 bushels. The corn crop was much affected by drouth, soon after planting time, so that it was very late in coming forward in May or June; but the occasional slight showers during a remarkably dry season, together with the ho, weather, brought the crop to maturity at a period |