126 INTRODUCTION. 



without seeds. ****** Manure is scarcely made use of, but what 

 little is collected is given to the maize, which requires every support that can be 

 given it. Clover is just beginning to be cultivated, in consequence of which good 

 pasture and plenty of hay take the place of old field, and by the use of gypsum 

 astonishing crops are obtained. The average produce of wheat in New- York 

 has been stated to me, by very intelligent persons, at twelve bushels per acre ; 

 which agrees with the general opinion, and I believe is as high as it ought to be 

 stated. The average of Dutchess county, which, under a proper cultivation, 

 would be a most productive as it is a most beautiful county, has been stated at 

 sixteen bushels : twenty bushels per acre are every where a great crop. The 

 average of maize may be about twenty-five bushels ; thirty bushels per acre is a 

 great crop. With such agriculture as has been stated, it is not to be wondered 

 at that the produce should be so small, and yet it will be found that the average 

 of this state is superior to that of any other in the union. ***** The 

 wheat of New- York is esteemed the best in the United States, and that grown on 

 the banks and branches of the Mohawk, the best in the state." 



To this graphic sketch it must be added, that farmers, at the period referred 

 to, were destitute of proper implements of husbandry. The cast iron plough 

 had not been invented ; and, not to mention more important instruments, now 

 considered indispensable, the horse hay rake, the threshing machine, the roller 

 and the cultivator, were unknown ; or if any of them had been invented, they 

 were so imperfect and so little used as to produce no effect on the general state of 

 agriculture. To understand the progress since made in the art of cultivation, as 

 well as to mark the existing defects in our system, we must consider separately 

 subjects which, when combined, constitute the basis of improved tillage. In all 

 new countries, where the soils abound in the elements of fertility, manure is un- 

 dervalued. No care is bestowed in preserving and using it, until diminished 

 crops, from an impoverished soil, expose the error which has been committed. 

 Although this error has been somewhat checked in a portion of the state, it still 

 prevails in the newer regions where the natural fertility seems to be inexhaust- 



