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- 
