220 
editor’s table. 
EMtor’s cr<il3ie, ___ 
Reply to the Albany Cultivator. —-In our Au¬ 
gust number, under the head of The Improvement of 
Domestic Stock, we had occasion to comment, solely 
for the welfare of the farmer, on parts of a labored arti¬ 
cle upon breeding, which appeared in the Albany Culti¬ 
vator for July; and notwithstanding its highly mis¬ 
chievous tendency, we did so in a broad, national point 
of view, expressed in courteous language. What is its 
reply? It has not manliness enough to confess, its 
errors and make atonement, as Judge Buel did on 
something of a similar occasion, and would again were 
he still living and conducting the paper; but, on the 
contrary, it strives to shift the main question from its 
shoulders, and answers by irrelevant matter and per¬ 
sonalities, which is at once acknowledging its totally 
indefensible position, and the impossibility of main¬ 
taining it for a moment. One great consideration on 
the part of the public in supporting agricultural papers, 
is, that in these they get useful and entertaining in¬ 
formation, totally divested of the concomitant scurrili¬ 
ties of a partisan press. The Cultivator is the first 
journal of the kind, within our knowledge, that has 
ever descended to an opposite course; and at this point 
we would leave it, were it not that the high standing 
it had attained under the lamented Buel, and a certain 
authority which continues to cling to it from reverence 
and respect to his memory, and the ability of some of 
its correspondents, make it necessary to offer a few 
words of reply to its disingenuous and incorrect state¬ 
ments. 
The Cultivator says, “ He/’ meaning ourselves, 
“ has never to our knowledge bred any farm stock but 
pigs.” If this be so, it has been greatly deceiving 
its readers in regard to us for several years past. But 
it had plenty of “ knowledge ” to the contrary, so far 
as hearsay evidence can go, and it knows as well, 
as it does anything, that we were interested in, and 
personally inspected the breeding of a fine herd of 
Short Horns, and Devons, each distinct, beside animals 
combining various crosses between the two, natives, and 
a few Ayrshires; also something of a stud of most ex¬ 
cellent-blooded road-horses, and sheep of the Leicester, 
South-Down, and Merino breeds. In regard to the 
merits of Short-Horn cattle, particularly, we were early 
instructed by our friend ; and will add, what we think 
very few others in the United States can say, that we 
have seen nearly all the animals imported into Massa¬ 
chusetts about the year 1817, and after, by the late 
Mr. Williams and others; most of those which have 
been imported into this state, from time to time, and 
those brought out from England at different periods by 
the Ohio and Kentucky companies, and their subsequent 
breeding as far west as Illinois, and south to Missis¬ 
sippi and Louisiana. Books on this subject have been 
long familiar to us ; and in addition, we have had direct 
personal intercourse with many of the gentlemen prac¬ 
tically engaged to a considerable extent in the breed¬ 
ing of stock of all kinds, in various parts of the Union. 
Now whether all this has qualified us somewhat to give 
an opinion upon stock-breeding, we shall leave to others 
to determine. 
It is true, when in England, we saw but a “moiety” ' 
of the fine Short Horns; for it would require two 
full years steady travelling to accomplish the single 
object alone of seeing all bred there. But we saw 
at the various agricultural society shows, and else¬ 
where, more than a thousand head of Short Horns, 
which were said to be samples of pretty much all the 
best herds in Great Britain. Whether we could form 
any opinion of what we did not see, by those samples, 
the public may judge; but we suppose if the Culti¬ 
vator were called upon to purchase a cargo of wine, 
instead of taking a sip from a pipe here and another 
there, it would -feel,,compelled, in order to become a 
proper judge of its quality, to drink the whole ship’s load! 
We should be glad-now, in return, if the Cultivator 
would state its experience in breeding stock; but as it 
will undoubtedly prove very modest on this head, We 
shall probably hereafter give the public an inkling of ‘ 
its superabundant practical knowledge ; for judging 
from its “ 5-points” recommendation of “ improve¬ 
ment,” it would be very great indeed. 
The Cultivator does not seem to know, maugre its 
veteran editorial experience, that marking an article 
for attention is an act of courtesy; we wish all editors 
to do the same for us, otherwise, in the great number 
of exchange papers, and the labor of looking them over, 
the article might escape us.' 
The Cultivator intimates that our trip to England 
some two years -since, was the first: . time we ever 
“ smelt salt water.” We can only say, that that was. 
the fifth voyage we had made on the Atlantic. Our 
olfactory organs were initiated in the smell of salt 
water in early life, and the first-time we visited Europe 
we resided there nearly two years. We felt about as 
much elated at having crossed the Atlantic on our last 
voyage, as the Cultivator probably would to traverse 
the Erie canal. 
The “ important man” is doubtless what the pro¬ 
prietor of the Cultivator fancies he himself would be, 
after “ smelling salt water” for the first time, and get¬ 
ting rid of what the sailors professionally term “ lubber 
legs.” We have a frank, open way of expressing our¬ 
selves in all matters-—a merit of which the Cultivator 
seems to have no idea ; it therefore calls that “ impor¬ 
tant” which is nothing more than a free, ingenuous 
expression of opinion. We should be very glad to 
know whose reading assisted the Cultivator to so hu¬ 
morous. and “ striking an illustration,” as it is quite out' 
of the latitude of its usual prosaics. Or has it fairly 
awoke from the Rip-Van-YVinkle dullness, that has 
overshadowed it for so great a length of time, and 
absolutely returned to its haunts again at the quiet 
old Dutch village. May it find a second Judith Gar- 
denier to watch over and protect it, and a resting-place 
like unto the renowned Union Hotel, kept by another 
Jonathan Doolittle, where the less the Cultivator does, 
especially in matters it does not understand, the better 
it will be for it. 
The Cultivator “believes” that we went to England 
solely for the purchase of pigs. Very well; the value 
of swine annually bred in the United States, has been 
reckoned worth at least ninety to one hundred millions 
of dollars ; and when it is acknowledged by the Culti¬ 
vator itself, that we purchased and imported first-rate 
ones, and such as are likely to make a great improve¬ 
ment in the stock at home, we think we did the coun¬ 
try some service in making this importation. The 
Cultivator knows, however, that we did not go to 
England for that purpose alone, but for procuring stock 
in general; and the reason why we brought home no 
Short Horns was stated some time since in the columns 
of the Cultivator itself, viz., that we could not then 
procure anything which we thought would improve the 
very superior herds already imported into the United 
States, and for fear of the malignant disease then so 
prevalent among horned stock in England. We assured¬ 
ly think that we deserve some credit for abstaining 
from the risk of introducing such a plague among the 
animals of our country, when, if we had made an im¬ 
portation at that time, we could have done so at a cer¬ 
tain and considerable profit, 
