THE CULTIVATOR. 
23 
subject, to see respectable foreigners, in passing through 
our country, notice the almost total neglect of this beau¬ 
tifying, and moralizing branch of social economy. 
The mode in which agriculture, if it can be so called, 
has hitherto been conducted, had its origin, no doubt, in 
the circumstances of the early settlers of our country. 
Those pioneers were not in situations to indulge refined 
taste; being only enabled by their utmost exertions to 
procure what would barely sustain life; and pecuniary 
necessity compelled them to cultivate such simple arti¬ 
cles as they could dispose of, in mass, for immediate re¬ 
lief, and the state of society afforded no market for fruits 
or garden vegetables. This state of things established 
a distaste for any thing to gratify the eye or the palate, 
beyond bare necessity; and this distaste has continued 
with little improvement to the present time. 
But a few, among those engaged in agriculture, have 
discovered that, by rational improvements in the system, 
not only the same ground, with the same labor, might 
be made to double, and even quadruple its former pro¬ 
ductions ; but that horticulture, tastefully and judicious¬ 
ly managed, is calculated to improve the mind, to excite 
and expand the intellectual faculties; and especially to 
increase wealth, at least as much as any other branch 
of agriculture. 
The ancient prejudices against horticulture, are now 
beginning to be overcome, by the convincing evidence 
of successful results, and some of the more industrious 
and thinking farmers begin to see that a well selected 
assortment of choice fruit yields a greater profit, than 
perhaps any other crop from the same ground; that the 
choice new garden vegetables cost no more in cultiva¬ 
tion than the most coarse and common, while they add 
comfort and healthy variety to the table, and lessen the 
heavier expense 1 of aiiitnal food. They begin, in a few 
instances, to find that the value of a farm depends not 
so much upon the number of acres as upon its judicious 
mode of culture, and its productiveness. They see that 
a handsome and convenient, but not a large and extra¬ 
vagant dwelling, surrounded by fruit and ornamental 
trees, but more particularly a well stocked farm house 
garden, not only increase their comforts and respecta¬ 
bility, and even their wealth while in possession, but if 
they wish to sell, attracts the notice of purchasers and 
enhances the price. 
Our forests abound with maple, elm, ash, and other 
elegantly formed ornamental shade trees, which we 
would recommend our agriculturists to plant along 
the road side, bordering their homesteads. They will 
thrive in almost any situation, and add beauty and value 
to their possessions and improve the general aspect of 
the country. “We never pass a tree which has been 
planted and nurtured by man, but we feel gratitude and 
respect towards the hand that done it.” The cultiva¬ 
tion of the Mulberry and the growth of timber, parti¬ 
cularly live oak, locust and cedar, deserve the highest 
consideration; such trees being required, and command¬ 
ing a high price for ship building, and in our growing 
manufactories. 
In short, from the palace to the humblest cottage the 
business of horticulture, when carried to the perfection 
of which it is susceptible, appears to your committee, 
to be calculated, above all other branches of industry, 
to improve the mind and manners; to increase and mul¬ 
tiply the comforts, and promote the wealth and respect¬ 
ability of the community. 
We would therefore recommend to all, to use all justi¬ 
fiable exertions to excite a more general taste for hor¬ 
ticulture, and to promote a more thorough and general¬ 
ly diffused knowledge of its principles and practice.— 
To this end, we would recommend, that those who have 
any knowledge of the subject would communicate it to 
those who have none, and that more general attention 
should be paid to the various periodicals which are pub¬ 
lished and publishing on horticulture, and subjects con¬ 
nected with it—and they would also suggest, that should 
the honorable legislature think proper to lend their aid 
to the subject, as they have done in some of the other 
states, much might be effected by their employing and 
paying some suitable person to write or compile a text 
book, as a manual for the use of farmers and mechanics, 
on horticulture and the household arts, and particularly 
on the subject of the growing of silk. 
With respect to the “ necessity and importance of the 
household arts,” your committee are fully convinced, 
that, in the thriftiness, and good regulations and conse¬ 
quent happiness of society, as much depends on good 
housewifery as on good husbandry. It is a common 
saying, that “ the man who would thrive must ask his 
wife.”_ These arts are not only more numerous and 
complicate, but susceptible of even greater improve¬ 
ments both from the aid of science and the dictates of 
common sense, than those which belong to the outdoor 
economy; and they, principally belong to the female de¬ 
partment. The culinary arts alone embrace a more ex¬ 
tensive and complicated system of knowledge than proba¬ 
bly appertains to any one trade in the compass of the 
mechanic arts. On that system depends, not only our 
comfort and satisfaction in eating and drinking, and our 
health in the choice and preparation of food, but our 
prosperity in the economy of its management. The 
important business of the dairy depends almost entirely 
upon the skill of the housewife. But a few years ago 
they were the sole manufacturers of most of our cloth¬ 
ing, and still a portion of it depends for its formation 
on their ingenuity and industry; even in the cottages of 
the poor, we may often admire the talents of the indus¬ 
trious housewife where 
‘‘The mither, wi’ her needle an’ her shears, 
Gars ould claes look amaist as weel’s the new.” 
But these important domestic arts, on which our com¬ 
forts and prosperity so much depends, are too much 
neglected and despised. It is the duty, and ought to be 
the pride of every mother in America, to teach her 
daughters, first the most substantial and all important 
arts of good housewifery; and next to call forth and 
excite to action all their surplus ingenuity, diverting it 
into such channels as will elevate our national charac¬ 
ter, and by lessening dependence on foreign nations, 
promote the independence of our own. 
It is natural, and perhaps proper, for females to de¬ 
light in finery; and to this end, nature has invested 
them with sprightly intellects to invent, and delicate fin¬ 
gers to construct it. But instead of availing themselves 
of these precious gifts of nature, our females generally 
appear to have almost wholly lost sight of, or never to 
have possessed a spark of that national pride which 
would prompt them to turn those talents to their own 
advantage. It would be deemed an insult to say that 
they have not as much inventive talent and refined taste 
as the females of France, and yet they appear to have 
cultivated a spirit of emulation to outdo each other in 
servile dependance on French fashions and French fine¬ 
ry ; (which fashions and finery do not arrive here, until 
cast off in France, so that the summer dresses of that 
country become the unsuitable winter dresses of this,) 
until by extravagant importations of those articles, ad¬ 
ded to the immense amount paid for silk beyond our 
means, we have continued to plunge our country into a 
state of pecuniary distress, from which it will not soon 
be extricated. How much more independence should 
we display if our females would employ their leisure 
hours, and exert their ingenuity, in constructing orna¬ 
mental dresses suited to our climate, according with their 
own refined taste, and let the French follow their own 
fashions, or servilely copy ours if they please. 
Those of our young females who are destined to re¬ 
ceive what is considered a polite education, are by the 
present national public taste, studiously kept ignorant 
of any thing which can contribute in the slightest de¬ 
gree to the future benefit of their families or themselves. 
Thus, in most of the more opulent families of the com¬ 
munity, those important arts on which domestic com¬ 
forts so greatly depend are left to the sole possession 
and management of domestics. 
It is, therefore, of the highest importance, that females 
who are coming on the stage of action, should receive 
such education as should fit them in a greater degree 
for the important stations they are destined to fill.— 
Without rejecting what are justly considered polite ac¬ 
complishments, every female who is to become the head 
of a family, ought to have a thorough theoretic and prac¬ 
tical knowledge of all the arts which appertain to cook¬ 
ery and systematic household arrangement. This know¬ 
ledge would be greatly enhanced by an acquaintance 
with some of the natural sciences, particularly chemis¬ 
try. Indeed, so important is a smattering of that branch 
of science, in every part of household economy, espe¬ 
cially in the management of a dairy, that no female 
ought to be considered well educated without it. 
But there is one branch of the household arts which 
your committee would strongly recommend. 
By the aid of labor saving inventions, females are re¬ 
lieved from a great and tedious part of their former la¬ 
bors, and they have consequently noAV a considerable 
portion of leisure. 
There are many little household arts, by which they 
could manufacture little articles, which would command 
fair prices in market. 
Many of these arts have been introduced by necessity 
in other countries; and a little attention to the subject 
would render them sources of profit here. 
There is one which we would earnestly recommend, 
as paramount to, and probably superceding the necessi¬ 
ty of any other. This is the growing and reeling of 
silk. This is, perhaps, as pleasing an employment as 
the human faculties can be engaged in. It is insepara¬ 
bly connected with a branch of horticulture, and will 
need some male assistance in cultivating the Mulberry 
trees, and erecting necessary fixtures. But the growing 
the silk is the appropriate work of women and children. 
It is periodical, leaving long intervals of rest; and the 
reeling is a light, easy and social employment, peculiar¬ 
ly calculated for delicate female fingers. 
The profits arising from this business will be equal, if 
not superior,' to those of any other branch connected! 
with agriculture; and will need no other time devoted 
to it in the female department than is now devoted to 
leisure. It is now the heaviest item of our importations, 
and will find a sure market among ourselves, or will 
command a high price in return for its exportation. 
Your committee, therefore, would most fervently urge 
that a proper attention to horticulture, effecting by art 
and science all the improvements of which it is suscep¬ 
tible, and similar attention to the household arts, as of 
the highest national importance, particularly the grow¬ 
ing of silk, affording the surest guarantee to the inde¬ 
pendence and prosperity of our union. 
Your committee would also strongly urge the import¬ 
ance of County Fairs, as one of the most efficient means 
of improving both agriculture and horticulture, and the 
household arts, by awakening ambition and exciting a 
spirit of emulation in both sexes. These Fairs would, 
as they have already done in many places, call forth new 
displays of ingenuity—choice products of the farm and 
of the garden, in needle work and miscellaneous sub¬ 
jects ; and Ave. think the legislature would do much to 
exalt the national character by appropriating a small 
fund to each county, that may have its rural society for 
the support of such Fairs. 
All of which is respectfully submitted. 
ALEXANDER WALSH, Chairman. ' 
Mr. W. A. S. North, of Schenectady, read the follow¬ 
ing Report on the subject of Neat Cattle, which was ac¬ 
cepted. 
Report on Neat Cattle, 
In drawing up the following remarks in pursuance of 
a resolution of the Society, passed at their last meeting, 
your committee have had some difficulties to encounter, 
the greatest of which has been the want of that person¬ 
al communication with each other, which the import¬ 
ance of the subject demanded, and which has compelled 
them to put off the drawing up of the Report to the last 
minute. Of the many subjects relating to rural econo¬ 
my which were submitted to the different committees at 
that meeting, there is none more immediately interest¬ 
ing to the great body of agriculturists, than the one 
intrusted to your committee, to wit, the present state 
and future improvement of Neat Cattle. It is a subject 
which appears to be less understood, and to have re¬ 
ceived less attention, than any other, “ and is most com¬ 
pletely identified with our agricultural prosperity and 
with the comforts, and the very continuance of life.”— 
That this kind of stock constitutes a great proportion of 
the wealth of the country may be inferred from the fact, 
that our state alone, according to the census of 1835, 
contains 1,885,771 cattle. It will hardly be expected 
that your committee should go into a particular history 
of all the known breeds of cattle, and of all their pecu¬ 
liar properties. Such a course would do in writing a 
treatise on cattle, but in the present case would only 
tend to confuse the mind of the inexperienced breeder. 
Your committee therefore have thought it advisable to 
confine themselves in the performance of the duty as¬ 
signed them, to giving a short general description of the 
most common kinds of cattle among us, as well, those 
imported as our native stock, noting their good and bad 
points, and by stating the disadvantages and losses at¬ 
tending a careless and unskilful course of breeding, 
rearing, and feeding, endeavor to get up a spirit of re¬ 
formation and improvement among the agricultural po¬ 
pulation ; thereby increasing their wealth, and adding 
to the subsistence and comfort of all classes of the com¬ 
munity ; and if, by means of our report, and those which 
shall be read here to-day, the farmers could be induced 
to employ more capital, and to exert more care and skill 
in all the various branches of agriculture, and particu¬ 
larly to the one under consideration, it would greatly 
add to the productiveness of their farms, and their 
wealth. Many books have been published, detailing 
the great improvements made and still making in Eng¬ 
land in neat stock, but they cannot be expected to be in 
the hands of our farmers, and it will be our aim in this 
report, in some degree, to make up this deficiency, by 
endeavoring to show wherein our native stock are defi¬ 
cient, and recommending to them a better and more pro¬ 
fitable course of breeding. To begin then with the most 
numerous and least profitable breed, the native cow.— 
“ They are a mixture of every breed, and the intelligent 
and observing breeder, sees in them traces of almost all 
the English varieties, such perhaps as they were before 
science and attention had improved them, such as might 
offer to the American breeder the original materials of 
their most improved and valued stock, but requiring 
more time and perhaps more talent, skill and attention, 
than the American farmer would be Avilling to bestoAV 
on the subject, and yet necessary to enable him to arrive 
at the same results. This mixed breed are not very ce¬ 
lebrated for any thing; some of them are good milkers 
as far as quantity is concerned, but as to quality of the 
milk and aptitude to fatten, they generally fail. Their 
calves are of diminutive size, rarely giving more than 
20 lbs. per qr. Avhen killed, at four Aveeks old; and if 
reared, of slow groAvth, seldom coming in till the third 
year, and then requiring two or three years more to 
give them standing and character, such as it is, in the 
dairy. As to their characteristic marks, they are small, 
short bodied, thin and coarse haired, steep rumped, slab 
sided, having little aptitude to fatten, or to lay the fat 
on the right place. There is another class of the native 
cow, although distinctively marked, (as the horns are 
Avanting,) yet this want will hardly entitle them to be 
considered a distinct breed, deserves to be mentioned in 
the enumeration of the native breed. Descended from 
the Galloway or Angus cattle, a long while ago, they 
still retain among all the crosses to Avhich they have 
been subjected, some of the marks and good points for 
which their ancestors are still celebrated—that is to say, 
they are a docile, thrifty, hardy kind of animal, with 
much the same faults, as to form, of those above de¬ 
scribed, though perhaps more compact, shorter in the 
leg, a middling thick hide, and Avithal easier fattened. 
They are few in number compared’with the horned cat¬ 
tle. There is one other species of the native coav, to 
which it is only necessary to direct your attention, as 
they are nearly as much celebrated in the sandy tract 
of country about Albany and Schenectady as the im¬ 
proved short horns themselves, the one for their beauty 
and good points, the other for their homeliness and bad 
points. They are peculiar to the sandy soils of our 
country, running Avild in the Avoods in the summer, and 
picking up a miserable subsistence in the barn yard in 
the winter. They are a long legged, rarv boned, narrow 
hipped, sharp backed, steep rumped, slab sided, coarse 
haired, Avorthless race, and exactly answer the descrip¬ 
tion of those lcine that came up out of the river of Egypt 
in the'time of Pharoah—“They are poor, ill-flavored 
