A MONTHLY PUBLICATION, DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE. 
I KNOW OF NO PURSUIT IN WHICH MORE REAL AND IMPORTANT SERVICES CAN BE RENDE RED TO ANY COUNTRY, THAN BY IMPROVING ITS AGRICULTURE Wash. 
VOL. V. ~ ~~~ NO. 3, WASHINGTON-ST. ALBANY, N. Y. MARCH, 1838. NO. 1. 
Conducted by J. BUEL, of Albany. 
TERMS.— One Dollar per annum, to be paid in advance. 
Subscriptions to commence with a volume. 
i Special Agents. —L. At R. Hill, Richmond, Va.; Bell & 
Entwisle, Alexandria, D. C.; Gideon B. Smith, Baltimore, 
Md.; Judah Dobson, bookseller, and D. Landreith, seeds¬ 
man, Philadelphia; Israel Post, booksellers, 88 Bowery, 
Alex. Smith, seedsman, P. Wakeman, office of the Ameri¬ 
can Institute, Broadway, N. York; E. M. Hovey, Mer¬ 
chants’s Row, Boston; Alex. Walsh, Lansingburgh, gratu¬ 
itous agent. For general list of agents see No. 12, vol. iv. 
The Cultivator is subjected to common newspaper postage. 
95“ Price of the published volumes, 50 cents per vol. stitched— 
the four volumes bound together, $2.75—bounded in two volumes, 
$3—the four vols. bound each separate, $3.25. 
_ TH ECULT1VATOR. 
TO IMPROVE TIIE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
Our Fifth Volume. 
Agreeable to our proposition, we commence our 
fifth volume upon an enlarged sheet, and at an ad¬ 
vanced price. To the individual subscriber the ad¬ 
vance in price is trifling, while the aggregate will en¬ 
able us greatly to improve the utility of our paper; 
and of our disposition to do this, we give a substantial 
evidence in the outset, in the number and expensive¬ 
ness of the cuts, and in the entire sheet of extra mat¬ 
ter, containing the very interesting proceedings of the 
State Agricultural Society, and State Agricultural 
Convention, recently held in this city. By this ex¬ 
tra sheet we incur an individual expense, to the 
printer alone, of five hundred and fifteen dollars. And 
we beg gentlemen of intelligence and candor, after 
they have carefully perused the thirty-two pages 
which we give to-day, to put to themselves the ques¬ 
tion—“ Am I not likely to derive a benefit, in the ma¬ 
nagement of my farm the coming year, from the in¬ 
formation contained in these two sheets alone, great¬ 
er, far greater, than the paltry amount of a year’s 
subscription to the Cultivator 1” If, as we believe, 
the response will be in the affirmative, we hope they 
e...will be induced, from a spirit of philanthropy and pa- 
" triotism, to endeavor to extend these benefits to their 
friends and neighbors, by enlarging the sphere of our 
circulation. 
The better to enable us to carry out our views 
of public usefulness, we invite the co-operation of 
our old and of new correspondents, particularly of 
such as can furnish us any thing new and useful, in 
their practice, in any of the departments of husband¬ 
ry. Next to the satisfaction arising from honora¬ 
ble endeavors to promote our individual interest, is 
that which results from a consciousness of doing 
good to our neighbors, and to society at large: And 
it is by publishing our improvements in the great bu¬ 
siness which employs most of our population, that we 
make ourselves truly useful. There is no monopoly 
in the business of agriculture ; there should be none ; 
there can be none. The best requital we can make 
for distinguished benefits, resulting from an enlighten¬ 
ed system of practice, is to tender to others a partici¬ 
pation in the benefits which our better practice con¬ 
fers. It abstracts nothing from our enjoyments,—it 
adds to them—while it often contributes much to the 
stock of human comfort and public virtue. Acts of 
beneficence, though they may sometimes provoke the 
sneers of envy, are sure to receive the applause of the 
liberal and enlightened. 
Agricultural M ovements. 
If we are permitted to judge from the spirit of our 
agricultural journals, and from the oral evidence which 
we daily hear of a like spirit among the people, wo 
should consider this as the commencement of a new 
and auspicious era in the history of American hus¬ 
bandry. A disposition is every where manifested to 
enlighten, improve, and elevate our agriculture, and 
our agriculturists. In most of the states, geological 
surveys have been made, or are in progress. In se¬ 
veral states, bounties are awarded for the culture of 
the mulberry and the production of silk. Maine gives 
a liberal bounty on the culture of wheat, from her 
state treasury; and a bill is now before the legislature 
of Massachusetts to pay a like' bounty. Massachusetts 
has also made provision for an agricultural survey of 
the state, and a very able gentleman, Rev. H. Colman, 
as already devoted a year to the labor. A proposi¬ 
ti is before the legislature of Maryland to establish 
icuitural schools. Kentucky is organizing a state 
•rd of agriculture, or state society; while our 
r er sisters, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and 
\ 
even one-year-old Wisconsin, from the spirit they are 
manifesting, seem determined not to be outdone in 
rural improvements, by the older states. 
But let us come to New-York. The meetings of 
the State Society and State Convention are fraught 
with great public usefulness. The reports and other 
documents which we give to-day, abound in valuable 
information, and will be read with great interest. 
The subjects which they embrace are intimately in¬ 
terwoven with our prosperity. The matters to be re¬ 
ported upon at the next meetings are numerous and 
interesting; and from the character of the gentlemen 
to whom they are severally assigned—and the time 
allowed them to collect and mature their reports, we 
hazard little in saying, that they will furnish an inva¬ 
luable fund of information in the practical business of 
our husbandry. There seemed to be in these meet¬ 
ings no shyness,—no diffidence—no doubt of the pro¬ 
priety of asking from the legislature, as matter both 
of expediency and right, an appropriation—a liberal 
appropriation—towards improving our soil, and the 
minds of those who are destined hereafter to cultivate 
it. Many of the members of the legislature partook 
in the deliberations of the convention, and accorded 
heartily in the measures which were there adopted. 
A small matter set Right. 
The Conductor of the Cultivator has, however, gi- 
“ven notice of his intention to enlarge that paper to the 
“ size of this sheet.” 
The above is quoted from the first number of the 
Monthly Genesee Farmer for the current year. Whe¬ 
ther intended to be so understood or not, it would 
seem to imply, that the Monthly Genesee Farmer and 
the Cultivator, in its enlarged form, contain a like 
quantity of matter. We asked our printer to make 
an estimate of the quantity of matter in each, and he 
has given us the following as the result: 
This number of the Cultivator contains, by printer’s 
computation,. 120,610 ems. 
The first number of the Monthly Gene¬ 
see Farmer contains, by like compu¬ 
tation, . 101,556 ems. 
Difference in favor of Cultivator,. 19,054 ems. 
This balance, multiplied by twelve, the numbers 
in a volume, gives as the difference in a volume of 
each, 192,640 ems, equivalent to thirty pages of the 
Monthly Genesee Farmer—in favor of the Cultivator, 
and if we add the extra sheet which accompanies this, 
and which contains as much as twenty-two pages of 
the Monthly Genesee Farmer, the difference in matter, 
in the two papers, will amount to 52 pages in favor of. 
the Cultivator, to say nothing of our great expense for 
cuts. We make this statement merely to set the matter 
right, without the least wish to charge our cotempo¬ 
rary with a wanton error ; for, until he saw our sheet, 
which he could not have seen when he made the com¬ 
parison, he could not judge correctly of the matter 
which it does contain. We would only say, he is not 
good at guessing. 
Cultivator Premiums. 
We have reason to believe, that the premiums 
which we offered in the first number of our last vo¬ 
lume, have been productive of highly beneficial ef¬ 
fects, not only as regards tillage crop's, and the ma¬ 
nagement of the dairy, but in reference to the con¬ 
struction of barns and other out-buildings. If the 
plans which we have published, and publish to-day, 
are not the best, they are certainly much better than 
are usually followed, and by directing the public at¬ 
tention to this branch of improvement, the result can¬ 
not but prove beneficial. Influenced by these consi¬ 
derations, we are induced to offer the following pre¬ 
miums for the coming year. 
For the best plan of a farm dwelling-house, of stone, 
brick or wood, to cost from six hundred to two thou¬ 
sand dollars, a premium of twenty dollars. 
For the discovery and publication ot an effectual 
means of preventing the ravages of the grain-worm, 
fifty dollars.* 
For the most profitable acre of Indian corn, ten dol¬ 
lars. 
* Should the legislature offer a bounty for this discovery, 
this premium will be withdrawn, and the amount offered up¬ 
on other objects. Should they not offer such bounty, we 
shall be glad to add to the fifty dollars such sums as other 
gentlemen may please to contribute, in order to make the 
amount more respectable. 
7-7:— ' r 
For the second most profitable crop of Indian corn 
five dollars. 
For the most profitable acre of ruta baga, ten dol¬ 
lars. 
For the second best do. Jive dollars. 
The plans for a dwelling-house must be accompa¬ 
nied by drawings of the elevation and ground plan, 
and must comprise estimates of expense of wood and 
brick or stone. The premium on the mode of pre¬ 
venting the ravages of the grain-worm will be with¬ 
held until the remedy has been satisfactorily tested. 
We shall require, in the tillage crops, the same de¬ 
tails of expense, product and profit, as are embraced 
in the statements published in our last number, and, 
where the competitor is a stranger, a like certificate 
of a magistrate as to his credibility. The large pre¬ 
miums will be paid in medals or plate, and those of 
five dollars in bound volumes of the Cultivator. 
There is great room for improvement in the con¬ 
struction of our farm houses, both as regards econo¬ 
my and comfort. It is a subject well worthy the stu¬ 
dy of our architects; and if we can be a means of 
turning the public attention to the matter, the result 
cannot but he beneficial. 
The New Husbandry. 
We have been asked, and have promised, to explain, 
what we mean by the New System of Husbandry: 
and we now proceed to redeem our promise. 
The system is new only comparatively, and in con¬ 
tradistinction to the old system, which is generally 
adopted in the first settlement of a country, in some 
degree as a matter of necessity; but which, being 
once established, is too often persisted in, with a reck¬ 
less indifference to ulterior consequences, long after 
the necessity for it has ceased. This particularly 
happens in countries like ours, where new and virgin 
soils are continually inviting to emigration. What 
we denominate the new system, has long been in 
operation in the valley of the Po, in Italy,—indeed it 
seems to have been practiced there by the Romans, 
in the meridian of their greatness—and in Flanders,— 
and for the last half century in Great Britain; and it 
has, besides, for sometime, had many faithful followers 
in the United States. By the old system, we mean 
that which, generally speaking, has impoverished, and 
is still impoverishing, the soil on our Atlantic border, 
and which is already causing indications of premature 
exhaustion and poverty m some portions of the new 
west. “ As much vacant land as this district con¬ 
tains” (says a late writer of East Virginia)—there is 
but little uncultivated [old fields] which, until enrich¬ 
ed, will yield any clear profit. Therefore, Eastern 
^Virginia, in its present state, is fully populated, and 
■no increase can be expected, except from the improve¬ 
ment of the soil, and the consequent increased means of 
subsistence." This remark will hold good in many 
portions of the older states. By New Husbandry, we 
mean the art, —and to many yet a mystery —of pro¬ 
gressively increasing the fertility and products of our 
soils, and the intrinsic value of our farms—and of 
thereby providing the means of subsistence for our 
increasing population. 
There are no universal rules for doing this. Much 
depends upon climate, soil, and upon the distance and 
demands of the market. The products of the soil, as 
well as the demands for them, vary generally with la¬ 
titude. Grain, pulse, roots, and grass, are the natural 
products of higher latitudes ; rice, cotton, and tobac¬ 
co, constitute the staples of more temperate regions ; 
while the productions of the torrid zone vary from 
both of those before referred to. Though there are 
no definite rules of practice, that will apply to all, yet 
there are essential requisites to success that have a 
general application. These are capital, industry and 
perseverance, and knowledge to apply them wisely 
with effect, under the varied circumstances of climate, 
soil and market. Great success cannot be expected 
in any laudable undertaking, without persevering in¬ 
dustry ; and in regard to knowledge, the laws which 
govern matter, upon which our labors are to be ex¬ 
pended, are the same every where; and we are en¬ 
dowed with capacities for investigating, comprehend¬ 
ing and applying many of them in aid of labor—the 
profits of which are in a measure graduated by the 
intelligence which governs and directs it. 
The New System of Husbandry, or the art of in¬ 
creasing the fertility and products of •the soil, consists 
in 
1. Manuring, 
2. Draining-; 
r - • • > - • •*#., 
