THE CULTIVATOR: 
A MONTHLY PUBLICATION, DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE. 
___ • - - . i ....... ... - . - ....— ■ . 1 ■•" '- ’T 
I KNOW OF NO PURSUIT IN WHICH MORE REAL AND IMPORTANT SERVICES CAN BE RENDERED TO ANY C OUNTRY, THAN BY IMPROVING ITS AGRICULTURE. — Wash. 
YOL. Y. NO. 3, WASHINGTON-ST. ALBANY, N. Y. JUNE, 1838. Mi 
Conducted by J. BUEL, of Albany. 
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_ THE CULTIVATOR. 
TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
Our three first Volumes. 
Qtf* The second edition of vol. 1, and the first edition 
of the 2d and 3d vols. of the Cultivator, being about 
expended, and the demand for them continuing unabat¬ 
ed, we are printing another edition, which will he com¬ 
pleted with all despatch. Orders will, in the mean 
time, be received, and the volumes forwarded as soon 
as published. When completed, stitched and bound 
volumes will he forwarded to our agents in Boston, N. 
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Alexandria, &c. 
0d» Our brethren of the type, who have borrowed 
any of the cuts belonging to the three first volumes, are 
requested to return them without delay. 
(jCf* We treat our readers, in this number, with more 
than thirty interesting communications from correspond¬ 
ents, residing in different states, upon various branches 
of rural economy—and almost the whole of them are 
from practical, intelligent farmers. We doubt whether 
there is a periodical in this country, or any other, so 
well sustained by the voluntary contributions of prac¬ 
tical farmers. 
Mr. Coleman’s Report. 
We proceed to notice, according to promise, the 
first report of Mr. Coleman, on the agricultural sur¬ 
vey of Massachusetts, embracing the county of Es¬ 
sex. The object of an agricultural survey, our read¬ 
ers we presume need not be told, is to describe a dis¬ 
trict of country, its soil, sources of fertility, products 
and farming operations—and whatever may be useful 
to the state, in promoting the improvement of agri¬ 
culture, developing its sources of wealth, and multi¬ 
plying the comforts and enjoyments of its inhabitants. 
The report before us is well calculated to promote 
these primary and legitimate objects of civil govern¬ 
ment. By a faithful detail of the best practices in 
husbandry—and many of those described in the re¬ 
port are well deserving of commendation,—the farm¬ 
ers of the state are enabled mutually to profit by the 
skill and improvements of each other,—each one may 
adopt whatever he finds excellent in the practice of 
others—and thus render the intelligence of all in a 
measure subservient to his individual profit. Besides, 
to quote from the report— 
“ If the survey results in no other good, it will pre¬ 
sent, I hope, in their true light, the motives which the 
children of Massachusetts have to stay at home. Her 
rewards to industry, enterprise, and good conduct, di¬ 
rected by intelligence, and under the guidance of tem¬ 
perance and prudence in the cultivation of her soil, are 
sufficient to satisfy every reasonable desire. Her social 
institutions and privileges are pre-eminent; and such 
as no new and unsubdued territory can expect to reach, 
under the most favorable circumstances, even in half a 
century. 
“Filial reverence and affection are honorable traits 
of character, and among the highest duties of religion. 
Let the children of Massachusetts then honor and love 
their old mother. Her soil may be hard; but labor com¬ 
pels it to be bountiful. Her climate may be harsh; hut 
it gives strength and elasticity to the muscles, and the 
brightness of its own stars to the mind. Her voice in 
winter may he sometimes hoarse, and her face wrink¬ 
led and frowning; but her children will not love her less 
for a sternness of discipline, by which she trains them 
up in habits of unremitting labor and self-dependence; 
and thus qualifies them to be the blessings and orna¬ 
ments of their own community; the substantial pillars 
of the federal edifice; and the pioneers of learning, ci¬ 
vilization, humanity, and religion in the boundless 
west.” 
The county of Essex lies upon the Atlantic border 
of Massachusetts, comprises an area of 360 square 
miles, and contains a population of more than 93,000. 
The surface is uneven and rocky, the soil of pri¬ 
mitive formation, varying in its earthy ingredients 
from beach sand to stiff clay, though a gravelly loam, 
well adapted to husbandry, preponderates. There 
are extensive tracts of salt meadow on the coast, and 
large tracts of peaty swamp in the interior. The 
soil has been exhausted, like all the old settled dis¬ 
tricts of our country, by bad husbandry; and no fart 
of it, says the report, can be advantageously cultivated 
without manure. The rural population are hardy, in¬ 
dustrious, prudent, persevering, and of course pros¬ 
perous. Tillage is very little practised, the main 
body of the land being devoted to pasturage and 
meadow. Much of the hay is carried to the towns, 
and manure brought back by the returning teams.— 
The tillage products are those common to the north, 
as grains, roots, &c. and considerable profits are 
drawn from the dairy. The quality of the soil is con¬ 
sidered relatively good; but here, and in the yet un¬ 
impoverished west, it would be considered poor. 
We will proceed to notice, in a summary way, 
THE CROPS. 
Grasses. —The following is given as the kinds and 
quantities sown: (I.) half a bushel of herds grass; 
(II.) half a bushel of herds grass and quarter of a 
pound red top ; (III.) three pecks herds grass ; (IV.) 
half a bushel herds grass, one-quarter pound red top, 
and one pint clover; (V.) half a bushel herds grass 
and half a pound red top; (VI.) one bushel herds 
grass, and sometimes two bushels. The herds grass 
here spoken of is the timothy of New-York and the 
south, and the red top is termed at the south herds 
grass. The average crop of grass seems to be from 
one and a half to two tons per acre, though the maxi¬ 
mum product is given at three tons. The labor of 
cutting and curing an acre of grass, is rated at two 
days and a half of a man’s labor; the average price 
of hay at the market, $16. The process of curing is 
not stated. The salt marshes yield from three-quar¬ 
ters to one and a quarter tons per acre—and the mean 
price of this hay may be stated at $10 per ton. In 
regard to saving herds grass (timothy) seed, the com¬ 
missioner recommends, that the grass, when ripe 
enough, be cut,when dry; allowed to lay one and a 
half days; tied in bundles, and set upright in a barn 
chamber, or on a scaffold, well ventilated, and where 
the scattering seed may be saved. 
Indian corn is a staple crop ; and the average ex¬ 
pense of its culture, including manure, is given at 
about $40 per acre, a sum that would be appalling 
to a western or southern corn-grower; and yet the 
Essex farmer contrives to make a profit of $20 to $30 
on an acre. The product is ordinarily from 40 to 70 
bushels per acre, though it has been carried as high as 
110 or 115 bushels. With some farmers this forms 
the first of a course of crops, and is planted upon 
sward; 2d year, corn or potatoes; 3d year, wheat, 
barley or oats, with grass seeds ; then from three to 
four years in grass. Four to ten cords of manure to 
the acre are applied to the corn crop, which is hoed 
three times. The Pickwacket variety is deemed the 
earliest, though the Dutton ^has likewise ripened in 
favorable locations. The modes of culture and of 
harvesting are unfortunately omitted; though the 
commissioner recommends, that it be cultivated on a 
flat surface, without hills, in order that after the last 
hoeing it may be laid down with grain and grass seeds — 
a practice which we should decidedly condemn, as 
slovenly and particularly exhausting. Three highly 
exhausting crops, and all carried from the soil, in suc¬ 
cession !! We like much better the following recom¬ 
mendation. The commissioner says— 
“ One of the most valuable improvements in the hus¬ 
bandry of the last twenty years, is that of planting this 
crop on an inverted green sward. The sward is com¬ 
pletely turned over after vegetation has considerably 
advanced. The manure is applied on the top of the soil; 
and the field is then rolled in a thorough manner. The 
ground is next harrowed, and the corn planted either in 
drills or hills. When the roots of the corn pierce the 
sod, they find an abundant pabulum of decayed vegeta¬ 
ble matter, equal, by as an exact calculation as can he 
made, to twelve tons upon an acre; and the crop is 
forced on, at the last of the season, when it particular¬ 
ly needs this stimulus and food, to great advantage.” 
As much as we commend this recommendation in 
genera], and highly as we esteem the authority from 
which it emanates, we nevertheless venture to dis¬ 
sent from some of its positions. From the fact that 
only one pint of clover seed is sown in but one of the 
six modes of stocking with grass seeds, we presume 
the green sward recommended to be turned under 
“ after vegetation is considerably advanced,” is a tough 
old sward. If so, it will not be decomposed in sea¬ 
son to afford food to the young corn crop, particularly 
without the aid of unfermented manures to accele¬ 
rate fermentation and decomposition. Again: if the 
manure is unfermented, it will benefit the soil, ulti¬ 
mately, at least one-third more, if ploughed under, 
than if harrowed in. The recommendation will prove 
serviceable, in our opinion, only when applied to a 
young clover ley, and fermented manure. 
Wheat .—The culture of this grain, “ down east,” 
is like rolling the stone up hill, except it be upon a 
limited scale, while the great secondary formation 
of the west is a competitor in the grain market. In 
1827, we published in the New-England Farmer, our 
reasons for believing, that the primitive formation of 
New-England could never be a great wheat growing 
district, by reason of the deficiency of its soil in the 
salts of lime, and matters which afford azote, both 
found in wheat, and both indispensable in the soil to 
its successful culture; and we recommended the ap¬ 
plication of substances containing these essentials, 
as lime, bones, urine, horn, hair, night soil, the refuse 
of the tanner, tallow chandler, soap boiler, the offal 
of the butcher, the dung of fowls, soot, woollen rags, 
fish, &c. as proper means of giving to the soil this 
essential food to the wheat crop. And we remember 
that our friend Coleman rebuked us, and treated our 
views of the matter as visionary and absurd. We are 
happy to find that he has so far overcome his preju¬ 
dice as to recommend lime, ground bones and soap¬ 
boiler’s waste for wheat grounds, and to declare that 
some portion of the former is “ deemed essential to 
success.” This gram is however raised in Essex, on 
a small scale ; hut there is nothing mentioned of the 
mode of culture particularly worthy of notice. In 
regard to blight, Mr. Coleman states the following 
fact: 
“ Of two contiguous fields of wheat, similar in aspect, 
condition of soil, and kind of seed, which I visited this 
season, one was severely blighted, the other sound and 
perfect. The only difference ascertainable in the ma¬ 
nagement of the two fields, was that one of the farmers, 
during the continuance of the heavy dews, and damp 
foggy weather, which occurred while the wheat was in 
flower, was careful every morning to sweep the dew 
from his wheat by passing a rope over it.” 
As the notice of the other farm crops contains no¬ 
thing particularly notable, we merely make the fol¬ 
lowing extract, describing af'mode of preserving the 
potato. It would, however, be an improvement if the 
starch alone were retained, as the residue is of little 
use. 
“Potatoes may be preserved by being rasped or 
ground to a pulp, and afterwards pressed with a heavy 
press, and then dried like cheese. Potato cakes of this 
sort have been found to keep perfectly sweet for years; 
and it is thought that ships bound on long voyages 
might find it advantageous to take their potatoes in this 
form.” 
Onions, carrots, beets and cabbages are cultivated 
profitably as garden crops for market. The produce 
of half an acre, in garden vegetables* is stated to 
have sold for $363.67. 
The Dairy is on a limited scale, and little butter or 
cheese is sent to market. The commissioner states, 
that it requires a gallon of new milk to make a pound 
of cheese ; that from two and a half to three gallons 
are required to make a pound of butter. “The 
cheese usually sells for eight or nine cents ; the but¬ 
ter for 20 to 22. When cheese is worth nine cents, 
butter should be worth 22; the value of the milk then 
applied either way is the same. The skimmed milk 
and butter-milk,, however,, are of much more value 
for various domestic purposes* and for feeding swine, 
than the cheese whey. The labor of the manufac¬ 
ture is not very different. The care of the cheese, 
where it, is kept through the season, is considerable. 
The yield of a cow in milk is stated generally at 350 
gallons per year; of butter 87^, 116, 140 lbs.; of 
cheese I have not been able to obtain any return on 
which I could placd any reliance.” These data are 
worth remembering. Essex butter is stated to be 
inferior to the butter of Pennsylvania and New-York ; 
and the commissioner hints at some of the causes of 
this difference, and suggests correctives. 
The Sheep Husbandry is very limited, there being 
only about 6,000 sheep in the county. The com- 
