1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



695 



box of tea— nor has he answered a word as to the 

 promised appropriation of all his gains to charita- 

 ble purposes. His reply is nothing more nor less 

 than a new mode of advertising his commodity. 

 In this art, (or rather science, as it may be consi- 

 dered at this day,) Mr, Thorburn has certainly 

 evinced the possession of as much and rare talent, 

 as of boldness in its exercise. Sheridan might 

 have gathered additional lights Irom Thorburn's 

 account of his tree-corn ; and would have doubt- 

 less added to his satirical classification of puffs in 

 • The Critic,' the " puff" charitable," aa the most 

 efficient of all in the list. 



JUDGE BUEL. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

 The wide spread feeling of sympathy and re- 

 gret, experienced by the public at the unexpected 

 death ol Judge Buel, whose decease atDanbury, | 

 in Connecticut, has been already noticed in this 1 

 paper, is lully shown by the numerous respectful ' 

 noiices which have appeared in many of the jour- 

 nals of the day. In somewhat delaying the re- 

 marlo which the loss of our respected fiiend and ; 

 coiemporary seemed to render proper, we have j 

 been influenced by the hope of making our notice i 

 more lull and coa)plete than a more hasty one 

 could have been. We shall, however, be able 

 only to give a general outline of his course, a 

 sketch which will, we hope, be hereafter filled up 

 for the benefit of that public he so long and effi- 

 ciently labored to serve. 



Like Franklin, Judge Buel commenced his ca- 

 reer in a printing office, and perhaps a still larlher 

 similarity may be traced in the eminentlj' practi- 

 cal turn of his mind, which, allowing but little to 

 mere theory, conceded all to practical utility. He 

 first, we believe, edited and published a Republi- 

 can paper at Poughkeepsie in Dutchess county; 

 which was Ibllowed by another issued at Kingston 

 in Ulster. From King.-ton he removed to Albany, 

 where for a number of years he edited and pub- 

 lished the state paper, (the Albany Argus,) willi 

 ability and success. Judge Buel was a Democ- 

 ratic Republican of the Jefferson school, a plain 

 and forcible writer, and one that treated his oppo- 

 nents with courtesy and amenity. In his office of 

 state printer, he succeeded in saving a handsome 

 property, which he invested in a farm, and to 

 which he retired when he disposed of his interest 

 in the Argus. Judge Buel had not taken an ac- 

 tive part in politics lor some years, though he was 

 selected as the onposition candidate to Gov. 

 Marcyinl836. 



It is as a skilful and practical farmer ; an efficient 

 and undeviating advocate of agriculture, of its 

 legislative aid and protection, and its advancement 

 in all its forms ; and as Editor of the ' (/ultivator,' 

 however, that Judixe Buel will be longest and 

 most favorably known. When he disposed ofthe 

 Argus establishment, he purchased, much to the 

 surprise of his frieiids, a tract on the sand plains 

 some two or three miles from xVlhany, to the im- 

 provement of which his first attention and efforts 

 were devoted. This soil was so light, so broken 



up by clay swamps, and so uneven, that it was 

 considered worthless lor the purposes of agricul- 

 ture, and abandonetl to the scanty growth of pitch 

 pines that occupied the surfUce. As a theorist. 

 Judge Buel thought differently, and the result 

 proved that his reasonings were well founded. 

 He was aware that the sand hills lurnished the 

 the. means of correcting the clay, and that in the 

 latter a remedy for the lightness and porposity of 

 the former existed. The swamps have been 

 drained, the sand hills leveled, and the whole con- 

 verted into one of the most I'erliie and valuable 

 spots in the state. To a skililLiI rotation of crops 

 Judge Buel owed much of his success ; root crops, 

 clover and plaster, corn, and other grains alter- 

 nating, and all directed with skill as a source of pre- 

 sent profit and a permanent amelioration of the 

 soil. 



Judge Buel was secretary to the Board of Ag- 

 riculture at its first establishment, and a most ac- 

 tive promoter of the great objects it had in view. 

 It was principally under his direclion and supervi- 

 sion that the excellent papers published in the vol- 

 umes issued by that board were called forth, and 

 those contributed by himself are not among the 

 least valuable in that collection. As President of 

 the present State Agricultural Society, his labors 

 have been unceasing to perfect its more complete 

 organization and efficiency ; and to him and some 

 of his worthy associates we owe much that has 

 been done to awaken the attention of the public to_ 

 agriculture, and particularly to lay the foundation of 

 an agricultural school that should be an honor to 

 the state, and the class it was especially intemled to 

 benefit. If all has not been accomplished for the 

 great interests of agriculture that its friends could 

 have wished, the failure cannot be attributed to a 

 want ofexertion on the part ofJudge Buel. From 

 the first, he has been the firm and unwavering 

 friend of legisla'ive encouragement and appropri- 

 ations to the aid of agriculture ; to the formation 

 of state and county agricultural societies ; and its 

 advancement by every means within the power of 

 the state. For six years past, he has been the 

 conductor ofthe ' Cultivator,' a paper devoted most 

 ardently and efficiently to the cause of agriculture, 

 and which in ability and utility, has had ihw 

 equals among agricultural papers in any part of the 

 world. It is here, that his loss to the public will be 

 most severely felt. 



Judge Buel was a book farmer, in the strictest 

 sense of the term. His knowledge ofthe busi- 

 ness, of its details and management, had been ac- 

 quired from books and from observation. He was 

 a farmer camamore; because he loved the pursuit, 

 and held it to be the honorable basis of all others. 

 The knovv^ledge he had acquired Irom books and 

 from refieclion, he carried into practice on his farm, 

 with a skill and success that should silence forever^ 

 the unworthy clamor against the application of 

 science to the advancement ol agriculture. He felt 

 , his obligations to books, and was never backward in 

 j urging upon all, upon whom his influence could 

 be'brought to bear (he advantage and necessity of 

 ! a thorough acquaintance with those general princi- 

 ples of agriculture which science and practice have 

 united to^'develope, and which have been embodied 

 in works devoted to that cause. In no way was hia 

 familiarity with those principles and his ability in 

 entbrcing and explaining them more conspicuous 

 t han in tiie addresses belbre various Bgricultural soci- 



