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. 
T^TvL NOT^WASHINGTON-ST. ALBANY^ N. Y. MARCH, 1839. _ No. 1. 
Conducted by J. BUEL, 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.; JujdaK Dobson, bookseller, D. Landreith, and M. S. 
Powell, seedsmen, Philadelphia; Israel Post, bookseller, 
88 Bowery, Alex. Smith, seedsman, P. Wakeman, oflice of 
the American Institute, Broadway, N. York; Hovey & Co. 
Merchants’ Row, Boston; Alex. Walsh, Lansingburgh, and 
Wm. Thorbcrn, Albany, gratuitous agents. For general 
list of agents see No. 12, vol. v. 
The Cultivator is subject to common newspaper postage. 
The published volumes are for sale at the subscription price, or, 
if bound, the cost of binding added. The bound volumes may be also 
had of our Agents in the principal cities. 
_ T H K C U LT I V A TO U . 
TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
Common School Libraries, 
Are now attracting much of the public attention, 
and we begin to discover the want of suitable books, 
or a suitable collection of books, for these new esta¬ 
blishments, adapted to the capacities and the business 
of our rural population ; for it is generally conceded 
by intelligent men, that the two collections now offer¬ 
ed, to wit, that got up, or recommended, by the Ame¬ 
rican Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 
and endorsed by the late Secretary of State,—and 
the one offered by the American Sabbath School Un¬ 
ion, of Philadelphia, whatever intrinsic merits they 
may possess as literary or theological collections, are 
both of them glaringly deficient in what is most es¬ 
sential and most useful to an agricultural population. 
They contain little or nothing that is calculated to 
afford instruction, to the great business classes of the 
country, in their respective employments. The farm¬ 
er and mechanic, and even the housewife, require 
professional books—books that will instruct them in 
their several employments—that will render their la¬ 
bors more enlightened, more pleasant, more profitable, 
more respectable—as much as the lawyer, the physi¬ 
cian, or the clergy require professional books, to per¬ 
fect them in their several vocations. 
It is a well-known fact, that our system of farming 
is, in the main, wretchedly bad ; that while many 
farmers get little more than a bare compensation for 
their labor, under a constant deterioration of soil, 
there are others, more enlightened, and who pursue 
a better system of husbandry, that derive an annual 
nett income of seven, fourteen, twenty-one, twenty- 
eight, and even thirty-five dollars, from every acre of 
land they cultivate. It is also well known, that our 
poorest farmers—not in means but in management— 
never buy, and seldom read, any publications that 
might teach them how to improve their practice.— 
But were such works placed in a common school li¬ 
brary, at the expense of the state, the parents might , 
and the children would, read and profit by them.— 
There was more truth than poetry in the boast of the 
pedagogue, that he governed the village—because 
he governed Master Jacky, who controlled his mo¬ 
ther, who influenced the father. Parents will listen 
and respect the reasonable counsels of their chil¬ 
dren. Were books upon their future business of life 
placed in common school libraries, the young would 
read them, as matters of curiosity, if not of instruc¬ 
tion—and their minds would become imbued with a 
mass of useful knowledge—and generally with the 
ability and disposition to profit by it, which could not 
fail of producing the best effects on society. Sow the 
seeds of usefulness in the spring-time of life, and 
they will germinate, they will grow, and they will 
give the increase. Teach the young to provide for 
themselves, and you qualify them to be useful to 
others. Neglect this first duty, and, so far as yuur 
agency extends, you consign them to indigence or to 
vice. We do not mean to trespass upon credulity 
when we state it as our belief, that were a good col¬ 
lection of works upon agriculture, the mechanic arts, 
and rural affairs, placed in every common school 
library in the country towns, this measure alone 
would, in ten years, double the product- of our soil; 
and would elevate, in nearly a corresponding ratio, 
the industrial and moral character of our population. 
We-cannot omit, in our consideration of this sub¬ 
ject, to contrast the wisdom of a sister state, with 
what we deem the short-sighted policy of our own. 
The legislators of a state hold the same relation to 
the population, that parents do to children. They 
are presumed to be more wise, more provident, and 
to possess a stronger foresight, than those for whose 
benefit they act; and the legislator, or the parent, 
who, from the lack of moral courage, sacrifices the 
ulterior and substantial welfare of those entrusted 
to his care, to subserve selfish views, or to acquire 
temporary applause, abuses his trust, and mistakes 
alike his duty and his interest. 
We have appropriated $55,000 a year, of the pub¬ 
lic moneys, for one of the noblest objects that ever 
formed the basis of a legislative appropriation—the 
diffusion of useful knowledge—the knowledge that 
enables men to provide better for themselves, to im¬ 
prove their mental and moral powers, and to qualify 
them to be more useful in life ;—to every family—to 
every individual—be he rich or poor, and be his oc¬ 
cupation whatever it may—whether he reside in a 
splendid mansion or a log hut. Our legislators have 
virtually said, "we recognize no distinctions in our 
republican family. We have made ample provision 
for them all, for becoming wise, wealthy and distin¬ 
guished in life. But how have they carried out the 
plan of dispensing equally these munificent provisions ! 
The mass of our population know as little what is 
best for their own interest, in regard to a selection 
for common school libraries, as would our children 
know what is best for their future welfare in life— 
because they have not had the opportunity, or the 
means, of acquiring that knowledge which would ren¬ 
der them competent judges. Had the question been 
left to the ballot-box, the Erie and Champlain canals 
would never have been made. Their ulterior advan¬ 
tages to the state, could not have been scanned by su¬ 
perficial minds. Had the question been submitted to a 
popular vote, two millions of the public money would 
not probably have been appropriated to colleges and 
academies, for, we may say, the exclusive instruction 
of the learned and liberal professions—the unproduc¬ 
tive classes of society—while the productive classes 
—the rank and file of our population, were left to 
their own unassisted exertions, to acquire fortune and 
fame, and to keep down the aristocratic influence of 
the thus privileged classes. Yet we do not complain 
of what has been done. We only complain of what 
has not been done —that the public bounty has not 
been extended alike to all— to the producing as well 
as to the non-producing classes. We should take 
care, that while we are rearing the splendid column, 
and embellishing it with architectural beauty, we do 
not neglect the foundation upon which rests the en¬ 
tire structure. But to return from this digression— 
How have we carried out this munificent grant, 
made for the benefit of our people—our whole people ? 
We have left the expenditure of ibis money to the 
trustees of common schools—many of whom cannot 
probably even read—and forty-nine out of fifty of 
whom—we speak it without disparagement to their 
integrity or respectability—our legislators would not 
entrust to purchase a library for themselves. We 
have put the public money into their hands, leaving 
it to their wisdom or their weakness, to decide, whe¬ 
ther they shall lay it out in wholesome food or in 
poison—in useful knowledge or in useless trash—in 
romance and novels, which vitiate the taste, and un¬ 
settle the business habits of life—in the biography of 
the conquerors of the world, and in the history of fo¬ 
reign lands, with which we have little intercourse, 
and from which we can learn little that is useful, in 
arts, in commerce, in politics, or in morals—or in 
works of substantial utdity to our business, our im¬ 
provement and our happiness. 
But suppose these school trustees are all competent 
to make good selections—that they are all men of 
sound intelligent minds, acquainted with literature 
and science, and with modern improvements in the 
arts of productive labor—let us for a moment look to 
the economy of the matter. An edition of ten thou¬ 
sand copies of any book—and ten thousand is the 
number of our school districts—can be had for one- 
half, or less, of the retail price of the same work 
from a book-store. So that ten dollars expended in 
this way, by the state, would have gone as far in pur¬ 
chasing books, as twenty dollars expended by the 
trustees in a village or city book-store. 
But there is still another difficulty. Suitable books 
cannot be obtained except in the larger cities, even 
at this sacrifice. Thus the trustees must either in¬ 
cur the additional expense of procuring them from 
thence—of foregoing their share of the public bounty 
—or, sad alternative! of buying such as are not 
adapted to their wants—perhaps refuse stock, got up, 
like Pindar’s razors, to sell! and as illy adapted as 
Pindar’s razors for the purpose for which they are 
wanted. 
One word as to the utility of books on agriculture 
and rural economy to all classes of society. Is there 
an individual to whom the perusal of such books may 
not be useful ? Is there a branch of knowledge so 
generally beneficial to the state as this ?—one more 
susceptible of improvement, or that exerts a more 
salutary influence upon the habits and morals of our 
population"! To study agriculture, is to study the 
laws of nature, and their application to the wants and 
convenience of man. 
Let us now turn to our sister Massachusetts.—• 
With the same benevolent design of diffusing useful 
information among her whole population, that we 
have manifested, she has made provision for establish¬ 
ing common school libraries. But instead of leaving 
the selection to trustees, a great many of whom at 
least must be incompetent to the task, she has cho¬ 
sen some of her most worthy and distinguished citi¬ 
zens to form a board of education ; and has added ano¬ 
ther, perhaps no less distinguished, as the efficient 
secretary of the board—to this board she has confided 
the all important charge of providing common school 
libraries. She means to putin the hands of her chil¬ 
dren good books, for their instruction and improve¬ 
ment, and on the lowest terms ; and to be certain 
that the books shall be both good and cheap, she se¬ 
lects them herself, as every prudent parent will do, 
and gets them at wholesale prices. 
To carry out the views of the legislature, the board 
of education in Massachusetts are now employed in 
making up a common school library, to be principally 
composed of books expressly written for the purpose, 
and adapted to the capacities, the wants and the im¬ 
provements of her whole population. And the more 
effectually to accomplish this end, the board has en¬ 
listed the services of the most talented men of our 
country—and even of ladies—for ladies may do much 
to improve household economy, and to give a polish 
and charm to rural life. Among the writers who 
have engaged in this work of usefulness, we find the 
names of distinguished individuals of this state, and 
of other states of the Union. The library is to con¬ 
sist of one hundred volumes, one-half adapted to the 
senior and the other half to the junior branch of 
schools. It is to embrace matters in the various de¬ 
partments of knowledge, so as to improve the condi¬ 
tion of all; and no volume is to be accepted until it is 
approved by each individual member of the board. 
Comparisons, says the adage, are always invidious ; 
and they are so when introduced for mischievous pur¬ 
poses ; but they are certainly commendable when 
they are made to show us our faults, and to teach us 
how to correct them. Although it is not fair to draw 
conclusions before results have developed, we can 
hardly mistake the tendency of the two modes of pro¬ 
ceeding which we have contrasted, nor hesitate in 
giving a decided preference to the policy which has 
been adopted in our sister state. 
Our Country—our whole Country. 
There is no one business of life which so highly 
conduces to national prosperity and independence, 
and to general and individual happiness, as the cul¬ 
tivation of the soil. Agriculture may be regarded, 
says the great Sully, as the breasts from which the 
state derives its support and nourishment. Agri¬ 
culture is truly our nursing mother, which nurtures, 
and gives growth, and wealth, and moral health, 
and character, to our country. It may be consider¬ 
ed the great wheel which moves all the machinery 
of society; and that whatever gives to this a new 
impulse or energy, communicates a corresponding 
impetus to the thousand minor wheels of interest 
which it propels and regulates. Providence seems 
wisely to have ordained, that because this is the 
most necessary employment towards the subsistence 
and comfort of the human family, its labors shall 
receive the highest and most substantial reward. 
While the other classes of society are directly de¬ 
pendant upon agriculture, for a regular and suffi¬ 
cient supply of the means of subsistence, the agri¬ 
culturist is enabled to supply all the absolute wants 
of life from his own labors ; though he derives most 
of his pleasures and profits from an interchange of 
the products of labor with the other classes of so¬ 
ciety. Agriculture has been called the parent of 
