ECULTIVATOR 
A MONTHLY PUBLICATION, DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE 
I KNOW OF NO PURSUIT IN WHICH MORE REAL AND IMPORTANT SERVICES CAN BE RENDERED TO ANY COUNTRY, THAN BY IMPROVING ITS AGRICULTURE.— Wash. 
Vol. V. 
NO. 3, WASHINGTON-ST. ALBANY, N. Y. FEBRUARY, 1839. 
No. 12. 
Conducted by J. MEL, of Albany. 
TERMS.— One Dollar per annum, to be paid in advance. 
Subscriptions to commence with a volume. 
Special Agents. —L. &. R. Hill, Richmond, Va.; Bell & 
Entwisle, Alexandria, D. C.; Gideon B. Smith, Baltimore, 
Md.; Judah Dobson, bookseller, D. Landkeith, and M. S. 
Powell, seedsmen, Philadelphia; Israel Post, bookseller, 
88 Bowery, Alex. Smith, seedsman, P. Wakeman, office of 
the American Institute, Broadway, N. York; Hovey & Co. 
Merchants’ Row, Boston; Alex. Walsh, Lansingburgh, and 
Wm. Thorburn, Albany, gratuitous agents. For general 
list of agents see No. 12, vol. iv. 
The Cultivator is subject to common newspaper postage. 
CCS” Price of the published volumes, 50 cents per vol. stitched— 
the four volumes bound together, $2.75—bound iti two volumes, 
$3—the four vols. bound each separate, $3.25. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
$3=* An extra sheet of 16 pages accompanies this No. 
making 32 pages gratuitous matter with this volume. 
O 3 A LIST OF AGENTS, principally of gentle¬ 
men who have volunteered as such, accompanies this 
number. ID" Any person who forwards us Ten Dol¬ 
lars, for ten subscribers, becomes virtually an agent, 
and is entitled to the eleventh copy for his trouble, or 
to ten per cent, and in that proportion for any greater 
amount. Post-masters are particularly invited to re¬ 
ceive subscriptions—a legitimate object of the post- 
office law being, in our opinion, to facilitate the dif¬ 
fusion of useful knowledge among the people. 
EF An interesting communication from Mr. Gar¬ 
net, of Virginia, and several other favors of corres¬ 
pondents, are unavoidably postponed till our next. 
Close of the Volume. 
This No. closes the fifth volume of the Cultivator 
We have endeavored to make it useful to the great 
cause of improvement which it professes to promote ; 
and in this effort we have been ably sustained by more 
than TWO HUNDRED CORRESPONDENTS 
from different parts of the Union. To these gentlemen 
both the Conductor and the Patrons of the Cultivator 
are under great obligations ; and we feel warranted in 
tendering to them, in behalf of our subscribers as wel 
as ourselves, our hearty thanks. But this, we trust, 
is but a small portion of their reward : the conscious¬ 
ness of doing good to others—of having discharged a 
high obligation to society—is the best reward to ; 
philanthropic and benevolent mind. Who can pre 
tend to limit the beneficial effects, present and remote, 
which will result to the nation from their concentrat. 
ed labors— to improve the soil and the mind! We see 
every where the most salutary changes, in the im 
provement of our husbandry, and in the condition of 
farmers, produced by the increased circulation of ag¬ 
ricultural periodicals; and yet, in our opinion, we see 
but the germ of their usefulness. And is there a mem¬ 
ber of society, be his situation what it may, that can 
say, he is not benefited by this change 1 Putting our 
own labors out of the question, is there a subscriber, 
who after attentively reading this number, will say, 
that he may not be benefited by the matter it con¬ 
tains—more than one dollar—the price of his an¬ 
nual subscription 1 We think not. These con¬ 
siderations, we trust, will stimulate our correspon¬ 
dents to persevere in their labors of usefulness. We 
have a stock of individual experience and useful 
knowledge in our country, which, if drawn out and 
diffused over the land, would cause it to teem with 
plenty. 
We feel also under great obligations, and wish 
here to make our acknowledgments for them, to the 
numerous class of gentlemen who have volunteered 
as agents—from a wish to promote useful improve¬ 
ment—to extend the circulation of the Cultivator._ 
We earnestly invite a continuance of their co-opera¬ 
tion. 
Board of Agriculture. 
In the bill reported to the last legislature, by Mr. 
L. F. Allen, for the improvement of agriculture, there 
is a provision for the establishment of a Board of 
Agriculture. The subject has been recommended, 
by the Governor, to the consideration of the legis¬ 
lature. Propositions for establishing similar boards 
in Virginia and North Carolina are now, we believe, 
before the legislatures of those states. The bill of Mr. | 
Allen provided further, that a room in the new state 
buildings should be assigned for the use of the board, 
and that the room should also serve as an agricul 
tural museum. 
As both the board and the museum may appear 
of doubtful utility to many, we will endeavor to ex 
plain, as far as we are able, the objects of both, 
or at least to suggest some of the advantages which 
may be expected to result from their establishment, 
sufficient, we think, to warrant any expenditure they 
may require from the state. 
It is matter of general notoriety, that the agri¬ 
cultural staples of a district, or state, are subject to 
fluctuation and change. These changes arise from 
exhaustion of the soil for particular crops ;—the 
introduction of new articles of culture ;—the 
fluctuations of the market;—the demands for new 
and particular products, or from other unforeseen 
causes. We have witnessed many of these changes 
in our day; and unless we mistake the signs ol the 
times, other changes of importance are on the eve 
of taking place, at least in many districts, by the 
extension of root culture, the silk business, and the 
fabrication of beet sugar. To facilitate these changes, 
which are often indispensable, it is important that 
our farmers should be early and correctly advised of 
the best modes of managing the new articles of cul¬ 
ture, and of their products and profits. Thousands, 
and tens of thousands, may be wasted in useless ex¬ 
periments, and a useful and profitable branch of cul¬ 
ture may get into disrepute and be neglected, for 
the want of the requisite knowledge for its manage 
ment. 
The upper valley of the Pludson, and the valley 
of the Mohawk, were, not very remotely, the great 
wheat growing districts of the north. Wheat was 
their staple product, and this wheat constituted the 
great mass of farm produce which was sent down 
the Hudson from this city and neighborhood to New- 
York. These districts do not now produce enoug'h 
wheat for their own consumption. Wheat culture 
from the beet root. Vermont gives a bounty of ten 
cents a pound on cocoons ; and Pennsylvania and 
New-Jersey, we believe, have also offered bounties 
to encourage the silk business. New-York, no doubt, 
stands ready to follow the praise-worthy example of her 
sisters, in these as in other matters deeply interesting 
to her agriculture—as soon as she has settled the 
question of party ascendency. But hitherto her 
statesmen have been too much engaged in 'political 
legislation, involving banks, rail-roads and canals, to 
cast a thought upon the humble claims of agricul¬ 
ture ; which, having had nothing to give to party, 
would of course be last to be served by party. 
New grains, new grasses, new roots and plants, 
new breeds of animals, new implements of farming, 
new manures, and new modes of culture, are con¬ 
stantly coming into notice. Many of these would 
prove valuable in our husbandry. Our agricultural 
population are so dispersed, their means of informa¬ 
tion so limited, and they are withal so distrustful of 
whatever is new, that improvement with them pro¬ 
gresses slow. But were there a central board, who 
would take early cognizance of these matters, and 
publish their opinions upon them ; who would collect, 
at home and from abroad, all choice seeds that pro¬ 
mise to become an acquisition to our husbandry, 
and distribute them among careful and discreet far¬ 
mers, the progress of improvement would be greatly 
accelerated. In regard to new farming implements, 
there are and will be many of intrinsic merit—and 
there are and will be others that are worthless.— 
The farmer cannot distinguish well the good from 
the bad without trying them, and this he has seldom 
the opportunity of doing thoroughly. The conse¬ 
quence is, he is often deceived; and is afterwards 
deprived of the benefits of those which are good, 
from an honest distrust of his own judgment as to 
their merits. The matured opinions of competent 
judges, acting under the authority of the state, would 
has given way to cattle and sheep husbandry, and go far to prevent imposition, and to facilitate the ge- 
.i ~ neral introduction of the most valuable kinds. 
There are already several articles in extensive use 
in aur country, and for which the home demand must 
increase, which might be profitably cultivated among 
us, were their culture once fairly introduced, and 
the processes of preparing them properly taught.— 
We will particularize madder, woad aud weld, plants 
in extensive use in dying cloths. We import annu¬ 
ally of these to the value of some millions of dollars. 
We have grown them all on a limited scale, and 
haye no doubt but they may be made profitable farm 
crops. 
Having made these preliminary remarks, we are 
now prepared to answer the question— 
In what way would a Board of Agriculture benefit 
the State! 
A Board of Agriculture should consist of three 
or more intelligent men, and a secretary, meet per¬ 
haps quarter-yearly, and receive a fair compensa¬ 
tion for the time necessarily devoted to the duties 
of their office. The secretary should devote his 
whole time, under the direction of the board, to the 
interests of agriculture— 
1. In collecting, arranging and publishing statisti¬ 
cal and other useful information in regard to rural af¬ 
fairs. 
2. In collecting and distributing seeds of such 
kinds of agricultural products, as may promise to 
profit our husbandry; together with the modes of 
their culture, management and preparation for mar¬ 
ket. 
3. In receiving, labelling and arranging, models 
of implements, geological specimens, seeds and sam¬ 
ples of rare or excellent products of the soil, por¬ 
traits of fine animals, donations of books, &c. and 
in exhibiting them to visitors, and explaining their 
objects, qualities and promised advantages. 
4. In answering the inquiries of agricultural men, 
on all matters relating to any branch of husbandry, 
or any article of culture. 
5. In corresponding with societies and individuals, 
on matters promotive of the interests of agriculture. 
The due performance of the above enumerated 
duties could not fail to be very serviceable to the 
state, in promoting the improvement of her agricul¬ 
ture. But there are other duties which might ho 
performed by the board, of unquestionable benefit, 
should one be instituted, and the legislature think 
proper to confide such to them, to wit: 
6. Examining, testing and deciding upon the me- 
to the raising of coarse grains 
The great staples of our southern states, a few 
years ago, were rice, indigo and naval stores. Cot¬ 
ton was then a stranger to their soil; but it is now 
almost their entire staple, and constitutes by far the 
largest article of export from the United States 
The New-England states formerly raised grain and 
provisions sufficient for their consumption, and to 
export. They are now importers to a large amount. 
Manufactured goods constitute their principal ex¬ 
ports. 
Root culture is but of comparative recent intro 
duction into Great Britain. It has changed her whole 
system of husbandry, as that of the sugar beet has 
that of France. The advantages which have result¬ 
ed to those countries, from root culture, have been 
vastly great; and New-York, we have no doubt, 
will ere long reap from it like advantages. We are 
now much in need of manual instructions for culti¬ 
vating the beet, and manufacturing the sugar. The 
French farmers have been immensely profited by the 
exertions of their government to coilect and diffuse 
a knowledge of the best modes of practice in the beet 
sugar business; and even now that government is 
offering large bounties for new improvements in the 
manufacturing processes. France now makes 100,- 
000,000 lbs. beet sugar per annum. 
The silk business is exciting great attention among 
us. Our soil and climate are adapted to it. Ma¬ 
naged as a household concern, it promises to become 
a source of individual and national wealth. But we 
lack experience, and we lack instructions which may 
be implicitly followed. We import silk to the amount, 
of 20,000,000 dollars a year, produced in a soil and 
climate very similar to our own. Under the instruc¬ 
tion and fostering care of the government, the silk 
business might soon become a great and profitable 
one to New-York. 
These two new branches of agricultural labor, the 
beet and the silk business, have already attracted 
the notice of adjoining states, whose legislatures 
have offered liberal bounties to encourage their pro¬ 
secution. Connecticut gives a bounty of one dollar 
for every hundred mulberry trees planted in the state, 
for the fabrication of silk, and fifty cents per pound 
for every pound of merchantable silk made in the 
state. Massachusetts gives a bounty of one dollar 
for every ten pounds of cocoons produced, and one 
dollar for every pound of silk reeled or thrown in the 
state; and a liberal bounty on sugar manufactured 
