

VOLUME I. 



KOCHESTER, JANUARY 1, 1831. 



NUMBRR I. 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, Domestic Econo- 

 my, &e. Af 



The first number of a paper under the above 

 title, was published at Rochester, on Saturday. 

 Jan. 1, 1831 — conducted by a gentleman long 

 experienced in the science of Agriculture, Hor- 

 ticulture, and other gsetul arts, assisted by man) 

 of the best practical firmers in this section of 

 the country, and particularly by some of the 

 Jlfambers of the Western and Sloaroe County 

 Horticultural Societies. 



No part of the world is more richly blessed 

 with soil and climate, for a great and flourish 

 ing Agricultural and Horticultural interest, 

 than the western part of the state of New York 

 — that part called Old Genesee. Thi6 section 

 of country is supposed by competent judges to 

 be as favorable to the growth of the Vine and 

 'fulborry as the middle of France ; and as wine 

 and silk are becoming matters of national in- 

 terest and legislation, a portion of ihe columns 

 of the Farmer will be devoted to these sub- 

 jects. 



This section of country has become densely 

 populated with an industrious and thriving 

 lass of Citizens, who have made themselves 

 rich by their own labors and who have now ac 

 quired ihe time and means of becomiug The- 

 oretically and Practically learned in the arts for 

 cultivating Scientifically the soil they have gn 

 lately reclaimed from the wilderness & prepar- 

 ed for the highest stale of Agriculture. While 

 must otherbrar.ches of science have been pro- 

 gressing, aided by the unwearied eiertionsof 

 men of learning and invention ; and while 

 practical improvements have flowed like a 

 stream from the press, Agriculture and Horti- 

 culture (twin-sisters) have been comparatively 

 speak.ng, neglected and forgotten ; and those 

 who have been pursuing the primitive mode: 

 of tillage for subsistencehave been left to strug 

 gle onward, (maided in their progress byjthosc 

 means which have been given to other bran 

 cbes of science, and which have proved the 

 cause of their rapid advancement. 



These are among the reasons that have indu 

 ••.edthe subscribers to embark in the cnterprize, 

 and to direct ii part of their tirr e and attemion 

 to the diffusion 'of Agricultural and Horticul- 

 lural information which will occupy a lar«e por- 

 tion of their paper. 



They further expect through the aid of the 

 Franklin Institute of this place to be able oc- 

 casionally to present such essays as shall he 

 Thought useful in meehanical Philosophy. 



The undertaking is one which must neces- 

 sarily require much labor and expense in its 

 prosecution, and without the aid of a liberal 

 patronage cannot long be sustained ; yet aware 

 of all these difficulties to be encountered, the 

 subscribers flatter themselves that, if they suc- 

 ceed in rendering their paper worthy of sup 

 port, itp merits will be duly appreciated by an 

 enlightened community, and their labors re- 

 warded in proportion to the profitable informa- 

 tion distributed to their Patrons. 



In addition to the above there will be pub 

 iVied monthly aMetesrologica! Table, givin-> 



the temperature and slate of the Atmosphere, 

 course of the winds, &c It will also contain 

 > Horticultural and Pomological register; giv- 

 ing the time of leafing and blossoming o plants, 

 and the time of ripening of the various kinds 

 of fruit, lor the benefit of those who reside in 

 different latitudes, as well as to compare dif- 

 ferent seasons in the same latitude. 



ST A Price Current and Bank Note Table, 

 carefully corrected each week, will be given. 



The paper will be printed every Saturday, 

 in quarto form, ob fine paper and fair type, ma- 

 king 416 pages a year, besides a Title Page and 

 Index, at $"2,50 per annum, payable in six 

 months, or $2,00, if paid at the time of sub 

 scribing. 



TUCKER & STEA'ENS. 



Rochester, Jan. 1, 1631. 



Editors who will give the above two or three inser- 

 tions, will confer a favor which will be reciprocated the 

 first opportunity. 



HTJMBER ONE. 



We are aware that this season of the year is 

 rather an unfavorable time to commence a work 

 like this, when every subjeotof whiohwc shall 

 treat is frozen in " thick ribbed ice," — the 

 field, the garden, and the forest, shorn of their 

 glorias, dressed in the habiliments of death, 

 have gone to their night of repose ; and man, 

 with his fine bounding animal spirits, which 

 expand and exhilarate the frame at the return 

 of spring and the re-appearance of all things 

 that are fair — he whose " eye in a fine frenzy 

 rolling, doth glance fiom heaven to earth, from 

 earth to heaven" — now frigid and torpid, driv 

 en like the " silvery sap" of vegetables to their 

 hidden recesses — we say. that this period. when 

 all things aro a " chaos of hard clay," mav he 

 rather an unfavorable one to commence our 

 work ,of which this number is a specimen ; but 

 as this little plant is the only one of the class. 

 ;>rdor, genus, or species, of the kind, in this 

 Slate, except a monthly publication in ISew 

 York city, we intend to nurse it with peculiar 

 care, and fondly hope that this bud which we 

 now set will increase and multiply, blossom 

 and bear fruit to the satisfaction of all concern- 

 ed. With this number we strike off, and shall 

 continue at that ratio 1000 copies, trustin" 

 that when the genial sun of public approbation 

 and liberality shall kindle it into life, the bene- 

 fits on the score of mutuality may be in favor of 

 our patrons. We shall not be disappointed 

 nor discouragi d if a part of our edition should 

 lie dormant for a while, until the season of hy 

 bernation, both of the animal and vegetable 

 systems, shall pass away. 



In the mean, time, maugre as the season is 

 with subjects, we hope to be able, not only to 

 assure but to instruct a great portion of our rea- 

 ders by uch suggestions on general topics, and 

 such philosophical speculations as our experi 

 ence and research has endowed ns with, to 

 gether with the kind favors we anticipate from 

 a large and able promised correspondence, and 

 selective facts, regarding the physiology of the 

 vegetable kingdom, from staple authors and 

 periodical works as we shall regard worth the 

 attention of our readers. With this peroration, 

 I we make our congee to our patrons. * 



GENESEE COUNTRY. 



We were forcibly struck with the wonder 

 ful and magic change that the region once cal 

 led the "Genesee Country," has undergone 

 in the brief space of thirty years— brief space 

 because many of our readers can look back te 

 that length of time as yesterday, and see in the 

 mirror of memory events shadowed forth with 

 more palpable boldness and reality than even 

 the events of yesterday. We say we were 

 forcibly effected by the wonderful change of 

 thirty years on looking over a little work pub- 

 lished by the Messrs. T. A- J. Sword in 1799 

 ontitled, " A Series of Letters from a Gentle- 

 man to his Friend, describing the Genese« 

 Country." He says, " in 1790, all that part oi 

 the Stale, lying west of the above mentioned 

 line to lake Ontario, including the Genesee 

 Country, was ereoted into a county by the name 

 of Ontario ; it is bounded on the north by lake 

 Ontario, on the west by Niagara river, and lake 

 Erie; on the south by Pennsylvania, and on the 

 east by the counties of Tioga and Onondaga.'' 

 " In 1796, a printing office was established in 

 the town of Eatb, entitled the Bath Gazette— 

 another paper is also printed in the Genesee, en- 

 titled the Ontario Gazette, The same year a 

 sloop of forty tons was built and launched on 

 the Genesee lake." 



Quere? Where was the •■ Ontario Gazette" 

 printed, and where is the " Genesee lake?" 



That portion ofcountry once called ihe ''Ge- 

 nesee Country," although its exact boundaries 

 were rather vague and uncertain, probably now 

 contains some two hundred towns with more 

 than 800,000 inhabitants, with cities and villa- 

 ges at every four corners, and newspapers as 

 thick as blackberries. The Genesee Country, 

 at that time a wilderness of forest, now teems 

 with an active, industrious and wholesome po- 

 pulation. The forests have fallen uefore the 

 axe, and the bread stuffs, and all the luxuries of 

 life arise behind the plough share, and the 

 young lion of the west, from a purblind whelp, 

 now shews his gnashing fangs and bristles his 

 waving mane, in proud confidence to ihe mam- 

 moth of the east. Possessing one of the most 

 luxurious soils of the globe, with a climate that 

 for mildness will compare with New Jersey and 

 Pennsylvania, and situated on the great inland 

 seas of America, the production of their soil 

 can lay under contribution Quebec and Mon- 

 treal, New York, Boston, and the cities of the 

 east— New Orleans— even (under the modern 

 discoveries which defy time and space) Colum- 

 bia rivar, and Kamschatka. These are not 

 chateaus d' Espagne, and Time, that old hoary 

 headed truth-teller,will endorse it a '"true bill." 

 Feeling, as we do, the importance and wo.th 

 of the Genesee Countiy, we trust our reader? 



will not ihink the title of our paper "The 



Genesee Farmer"— too local or trivial to pat- 

 ronize it even beyond the counties of "Tioaa. 

 and Onondaga;" and although they may ask 

 what good can come out ofGallilee, like tbem 

 of old let them wait, and hear what he hath to 

 say for himself. » 



BtFTwo weeks will elapse before tho pub- 

 lication of No. 2, after which this paper wilfc 

 be published every Satnrday. 



