328 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
in advancing the cause of agricultural improvement in 
your State I shall be gratified. And allow me to add, 
that I shall ever be ready, as far as my engagements will 
permit, to give you any infoamation desired, as far as I 
may be enabled to do so. 
I am respectfully yours, 
B. P, Johnson, 
October 9, 1841, 
AN ACT FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
[Passed Blay 5, lg41 ] 
The people of the State of Nevj York, represented in 
Senate o.ud Assembly, do enact asfoUoies: 
§ 1. The sum of eight thousand dollars per annum shall 
be, and hereby is, appropriated for the term of five years, 
for the promotion of Agriculture and Household Manu- 
factures in this State, in the manner following, to wit : 
to the county cf 
Albany 8205 
&c., 
% 2. When the New York State Agricultural Society, 
and any county agricultural society now formed, or which 
may hereafter be formed in this State, or the American 
Institute, in the city of New Ybrk, shall raise, by volun- 
tary subscription, any sum of money, the President and 
Treasurer shall make and subscribe an affidavit of the 
facts of the formation of such society, and of their having 
raised a certain sum, specifying the amount thereof, which 
affidavit shall be filed with the Comptroller of this State, 
v/ho shall draw his warrant on the Treasurer for a sum 
equal to the amount of such voluntary subscription, not 
however, exceeding the amount to which such county or 
said State society would be entitled, according to the ap- 
portionment aforesaid. 
^ 3, The New York State Agricultural Society and the 
several county agricultural societies now formed, or which 
shall be formed in this State during the continuance of this 
Act, shall annually elect such and so many officers as 
they shall deem proper; and it shall be the duty of such 
officers annually to regulate and av/ard premiums on such 
articles, productions and improvements as they may deem 
best calculated to promote the agricultural and household 
manufacturing interests of this State, having especial refer- 
ence to the nett profits which accrue, or are likely to ac- 
crue from the mode of raising the croiD or stock, or fabri- 
cation of the article thus offered, with the intention that 
the reward shall be given for the most economical or 
profitable mode of competition: provided, always, that 
before any premiums shall be delivered, the person claim- 
ing the same, or to v/hom the same may be awarded, shall 
deliver, in writing, to the President of the society, as ac- 
curate a description of the process in preparing the soil, 
including the quantity and quality of manure applied, 
and in raising thg crop, or feeding the animal, with the 
viev/ of showing, accurately, the profit of cultivating the 
crop, or feeding or fattening the animal. 
^ 4. The President of the State Agricultural Society and 
the several Presidents of the said county societies, who 
shall receive or expend any of the monies hereby appro- 
priated, shall, annually, in the month of December, trans- 
mit to the Comptroller a detailed account of the expendi- 
ture of all the money which shall come into their hands 
under this act, and stating to whom and for what purpose 
paid, with the vouchers thereof; and the said Presidents 
of the several couuty agricultural societies, shall annually 
transmit, in the month of December, to the Executive 
Committee of the New York State Agricultural Society, 
all such reports or returns as they are required to demand 
and receive from applicants for premiums, together with 
an abstract of their proceeding during the year. 
^ 5. The Executive Committee of the New York State 
Agricultural Society shall examine all reports and returns 
made by the Presidents of the county agricultural socie- 
ties, and condense, arrange and report the same, together 
with a statement of their own proceedings, to the Secretary 
of State, in the month of January of each year. 
() 6. The Presidents of the several county societies, or 
delegates to be chosen by them annually for the purpose, 
shall be ex-officio members of the New York State Agri- 
cultural Society. 
() 7. It shall be the duty of the county Clerks in the 
several counties of this State, to cause notice to be given 
in one or more newspapers in each county of the time 
and place of a meeting to be held in such county for the 
purpose of organizing such county agricultural society ; 
and notice thereof shall be given at least four weeks pre- 
vious to such meeting. 
(i 8. This Act shall take effect immediately. 
State of New Yore, ) 
Secretary’s Office. ) 
This Act having been approved and signed by the 
Governor on the 5th day of JJay, 1841, I do hereby certi- 
fy that the same became a law on that day. 
John C. Spencer, Secretary of State. 
[The remaining Acts, Forms of Application, &c , will 
appear in our next..] 
RENOVATING EXHAUSTED EANDS. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — A correspondents in 
the August number of your very valuable journal, proposes 
a plan for renovating exhausted land and keeping up the 
feitility of those freshly cleared, by turning under, with 
the plow, pea vines before vegitation is checked by frost. 
His plan may be a very good one and, doubtless, it is far 
better than to use no fertilizer at all. 
Permit me to suggest a plan which I think he will be 
better pleased with than the one he proposes, if he will 
try it. It is this : Seme time in April or the first of May, 
bed up the land with a turning plow, leaving the beds 
thus prepared from three to four feet apart, according to 
the strength of the land. I specify the distance, not that 
it would matter as regards peas, but that it will leave the 
lands in a more convenient or better condition to be pre- 
pared for the next crop of cotton or corn. After the land 
is thus prepared by the plow, open the bed with a scooter 
and drop the peas, ten or fifteen together, along the fur- 
row about ten inches apart, covering the same either with 
the foot or hoe, as may be preferred. Once plowing and 
hoeing will be all the cultivation they will require. 
The above is intended for broken or hilly lands— where 
it is presumed the land is horizontalized and hill-side 
ditches. On level lands it will, perhaps, be better to sow 
the peas broadcast, as it will save afcer-cultivation, which 
is no trifling consideration. 
If you want to reap the full benefit from the pea vines as 
a fertilizer, all stock should be kept off and the viues al- 
lowed to stand on the ground until winter, when you are 
ready to commence your preparations for the next year’s 
crop. The dead vines can then be readily turned under 
with the plow. 
My reason for suggesting the above plan is, that the 
land is so thoroughly protected, by the dense growth of 
vines, from the scorching effect of a Southern sun through 
the months of August and September; whereas, the plan 
proposed by your correspondent, of turning everything 
under and leaving the surface exposed, must, necessarily, 
injure the land more or less. G. 
Leon County, Fla., August, 1859. 
ly The loss of cotton by fire, chiefly at sea, during 
the past year, amounted to S829,7G5. 
