AMERICAN 
AGRICULTURIST. 
197 
“TCSKT! 
EARLY ASPA1UGUS. 
sat before the cheerful, crackling winter 
evening fire of a New-England farm-house, 
and heard the glowing accounts of travelers 
just returned from that far-away land, and 
in our young hearts longed to be a man that 
we could at once go there and enjoy the 
blessings of such a marvelous world as we 
heard described. We heard of no raging 
fevers, no debilitating agues, no heart¬ 
breaking home sickness, no wearing toil in 
chopping down the huge forests, and logging 
and burning them, no suffering in the open 
log cabins, no exposures to untold hardship 
from the absence of roads and bridges, 
nothing of the continued privations from 
want of schools, churches, and society— 
we heard nothing, indeed, but of cheap, rich 
lands, the enormous crops of wheat, and the 
brilliant prospects of health and abundance 
enjoyed by the settlers who reveled in 
mountains of “ maple sugar.” When the 
Spring came, we huddled in with the crowd 
of grown up men and women, and others of 
the village who assembled day after day in 
front of the town before the “ green,” sunny 
and pleasant, to take a last look at the de¬ 
parting wagons and families who had assem¬ 
bled their goods, with all their worldly pros¬ 
pects and hopes, surrounded by weeping 
friends, and leaving desolate hearts behind 
them, who, alas, were never again to behold 
them; and as their humble, covered, over¬ 
loaded wagons turned round the hill in the 
distance, with the faithful family dog behind 
them, we sighed that it was not our own 
joyous lot to depart and go with them to 
such a worldly paradise ! In a few short 
months straggling messages of sickness, 
death, and misfortune to some of the de¬ 
parted emigrants would come back, and the 
loss for ever of a dear relative or friend 
would be bewailed in the neighborhood, and 
the good pastor of the neighboring meeting¬ 
house would read a notice from his pulpit 
that the prayers of the congregation, for 
consolation to the afflicted in their bereave¬ 
ment, were invoked “ on the present occa¬ 
sion.” Still the people kept on “ moving.” 
Not only “ the Genesees,” but the “ Royal 
grants,” the “ Garman flats” of the Mohawk, 
the “ Black River Country,” all had their 
favorite advocates ; and a few years later, 
“ New Connecticut,” the “ Scioto Country,” 
the “ Muskingum,” and sundry other El Do¬ 
rados lured away the people. It was well 
that the parent hives at home propagated 
rapidly, otherwise New-England would have 
speedily been depopulated. Albany was 
then more talked of than New-York, and to 
become a greater city, and “ Bosting,” which 
to have seen in those times, was an achieve¬ 
ment only vouchsafed to great men and rich 
people, although the greatest town in the 
world was on the other side of all our hopes 
and aspirations. Rich men and speculators 
in Massachusetts and Connecticut, who had 
bought largely of western land, readily ex¬ 
changed them for the farms of discontented 
owners who were eager to emigrate, and in 
numerous instances, “ unsight unseen,” they 
packed up the remains of their property, 
and went away with high hopes to find new 
homes in the untrodden wilderness. So 
largely, indeed, had some of those specu¬ 
lators gone into western land, that they im¬ 
poverished their own estates at home ; and 
until within the last twenty years, they made 
annual journeys to their far off western es¬ 
tates, to collect from the struggling settlers 
upon them droves of cattle and horses (for 
money theyhad none) which they sold at home 
to replenish their exhausted coffers. Altho’ 
embarrassing to themselves, many of the 
families of these early proprietors have 
since become rich from the increased value 
of the residence of their new lands, and 
some among them who at a later day fol¬ 
lowed the fortunes of the early emigrants, 
have become among the distinguished and 
wealthy of the new States. Thus, with ac¬ 
cessions from other New-England States, 
and Eastern New-York, with an interregnum 
of three years during our last war with Old 
England, grew Northern and Western New- 
York, and Northern Ohio, up to the year 
1825, and now become great, rich, and pros¬ 
perous communities. 
With the opening of the Great Erie Canal 
through the heart of New-York, an import¬ 
ant revolution was effected in western emi¬ 
gration. This we shall notice in a subse¬ 
quent paper.—En. 
CAPITAL IN AGRICULTURE. 
Count de Gourney, in his agricultural tour 
in Great Britain, says, that Mr. Mactier, who 
made a fortune in the Eastlndies, purchased 
22,000 acres of land of the Duke of Gordon, 
Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The price paid 
was £120,000—nearly $600,000. In blast¬ 
ing and removing rocks, leveling, draining, 
liming, subsoil plowing and farm buildings, 
he expended about £800,000 more—$4,000,- 
000. The estate was then divided into farms 
of about 400 acres each, which were let on 
nineteen years leases at the rate of five per 
cent for the money expended. This is a 
high rate of interest to realize in Great 
Britain, on a permanently safe land invest¬ 
ment. 
Few in America have the ability to make 
such an investment as Mr. Mactier has done 
in Scotland, nor would we be satisfied with 
so low a rate of interest; but we contend, 
that if capital and skill were more extensive¬ 
ly employed in the culture of the soil among 
us, the profits would be much larger than 
they now are. The great want of our farm¬ 
ers is capital. They almost invariably pur¬ 
chase or hire two much land, and thereby ex¬ 
haust their resources at once, leaving noth¬ 
ing but their manual labor and a precarious 
credit to turn the use of this land to good 
account. We think that a cash capital at 
least of from three to seven dollars per acre, 
should be left in the farmer’s hands, to take 
advantage of circumstances and the markets ; 
after paying for stocking his farm, and fur¬ 
nishing it with agricultural implements, seed, 
and manure. Such a course as this would 
make farming much more profitable than it 
now is in this country. —Ed. 
Evil company is like tobacco smoke * you 
can not be long in its presence without car¬ 
rying away a taint of it. 
Those who have hot beds and forcing 
houses, and raise this article for the market 
will not need our hints. But any one who 
has a good bed of this vegetable can antici¬ 
pate the season two weeks without taking 
up the roots, and with very little extra trouble. 
As soon as the frost is out of the ground we 
clean off the portion of the bed designed for 
this use. It has been well manured in the 
previous fall and salted. W T e remove to a 
considerable depth the surface soil, so that 
the eyes of the stools may feel the heat quick¬ 
ly. We then put over the stools a large frame 
twelve feet by six and cover with glass. The 
outside of the frame is protected with a bank 
of fresh horse manure, covered with sea¬ 
weed or other refuse matter. Keep the glass 
close upon the frame until the purple shoots 
begin to make their appearance. Then give 
fresh air every clear day until the shoots are 
high enough for cutting. This is among the 
earliest and most delicious of vegetables. 
Every garden should have a good large bed 
of it, at least six square rods, for the use of 
the family. If you are not already furnished, 
do not put off the preparation and stocking 
of a bed to another season. This vegetable 
is not only palatable and nutritious but is 
slightly medicinal in its 'influence upon the 
system. It is a good diuretic and will save 
the doctor’s bills. 
RHUBARB PIES. 
If you have ever enjoyed this article you 
are looking forward with interest to the start¬ 
ing of the buds upon the pie plant. You can 
have young stalks some- days in advance of 
the season, by the same treatment we have 
pointed out for early asparagus. But wheth¬ 
er you put them under glass or not, the roots 
should be bountifully supplied with manure. 
If it is coarse and fermenting it will be all 
the better. It is a gross feeder and makes 
enormous stalks with night soil or guano. 
In making a new plantation, put your holes 
four or five feet apart, and make them broad 
and deep. Stalks of two pounds weight are 
much better than those of four or five 
ounces.— Ed. 
Spring work in Gardens and Fields will 
probably be late this spring as there is so 
much frost in the ground and ice in the riv¬ 
ers, lakes and bays to keep the atmosphere 
cold and damp. Every preparation possi¬ 
ble should be made to hurry up sowing and 
planting when the “ signs come right.” Our 
next number, which will reach most of our 
subscribers by the 1st day of April, will 
contain a considerable variety of hints sug¬ 
gestions and practical directions for garden, 
and field work, especially adapted to April 
work. 
Gentility is neither in birth, wealth, man¬ 
ner nor fashion—but in the mind. A high 
sense of honor, a determination never to 
take a mean advantage of another, an ad¬ 
herence to truth, delicacy, and politeness 
towards those with whom we have dealings, 
are its essential characteristics. 
What utility is there in killing hogs, if 
they are cured directly afterwards ? 
