THE CULTIVATOR. 
53 
would give place to kindlier feelings. These classes would 
become approachable—a brotherhood would be established— 
and the student would enjoy a variety of facilities for acquir¬ 
ing a knowledge of men as they are, which would otherwise 
be denied him. 
X. It would greatly diminish the expense of education. 
XI. It would increase the wealth of the country. 
Such a system would enable the sons of our farmers and 
mechanics, to acquire a thorough knowledge of those branch¬ 
es of science whose practical application to agricultural and 
the mechanic arts, would greatly increase both in quantity 
and quality the productions of the soil, and enhance the va¬ 
lue of mechanical products. The benefits resulting to the 
farming interest especially , from a thorough acquaintance with 
the sciences of chemistry and geology, are little appreciated in 
comparison with their practical importance. 
The system would increase the wealth of the country in ano¬ 
ther respect. In our academies, high schools, colleges, and 
professional seminaries, there are not far from thirty thousand 
youths. Let each of these fill up three hours a day with pro¬ 
ductive labor, and he makes no inconsiderable contribution 
to the resources of his country. He multiplies the means of 
subsistence, and augments the common stock of convenien¬ 
ces and comforts. These thirty thousand, by laboring three 
hours per day, would furnish an addition to the productive la¬ 
bor, and of course to the wealth of the country, equal to the 
labor of at least five thousand working men, who should la¬ 
bor ten hours per day. Besides this, the manual labor sys¬ 
tem would increase the wealth of the country, by contribut¬ 
ing to its health and muscle , and no less to its mind. 
XII. It would tend to do aioay those absurd distinctions in 
society, which make the occupation of an individual the standard 
of his worth. 
Let the contents of our sixty colleges, and fifty professional 
seminaries, with a thousand academies and high schools, pour 
themselves into our fields and workshops, and there, for three 
hours each day, ply the implements of agriculture and the 
mechanic arts, would it not have a powerful tendency to ren¬ 
der labor honorable, and the laboring man more respected 1 — 
Would it not create sympathies between the learned and the 
laboring classes, a permanent community of feeling, and iden¬ 
tity of interests ? 
The thousand repulsions arising from dissimilarity of ha¬ 
bits, which have so long operated to estrange them from each 
other, cease with the causes which produced them. Instead 
of being driven asunder by jealousies, and smothered animo¬ 
sities, they approach each other with looks of kindness, and 
form a compact, based upon republican equality, and the in¬ 
terchange of mutual offices of courtesy and kindness. He 
who does not perceive in such a system a tendency to these 
results, has mingled little with men; and however profound 
in other things, is a novice in human nature. 
XIII. It would have a tendency to render permanent our re¬ 
publican institutions. 
This would be the result of such a state of society, as has 
just beep noticed. The elementary principles of republican¬ 
ism are equality and reciprocity, its basis industry, economy, 
practical habits, general intelligence, and morality. We have 
seen that the connection of manual labor with study is calcu¬ 
lated to produce these effects, and consequently to perpetuate 
our republican institutions.” 
A Compliment to our Correspondents. 
The two hundred correspondents, who have given a 
value to the Cultivator, cannot but feel deservedly flat¬ 
tered by the following, which we quote from a letter, 
dated 
“ Nashville , Term. March 4. 
“ I have, independent of the $70 above, placed in the hands 
of Messrs. Trabene & West, 15 or 20 dollars, since they con¬ 
sented to become agents for the Cultivator. When the me¬ 
rit of the work was unknown in this section of country, I 
found it difficult to get an agent for the work; but things have 
vastly altered I have no doubt, and I feel fully warranted in 
saying, that the circulation of the Cultivator, in middle Ten¬ 
nessee, has done more to improve our agriculture within the 
short space of eighteen months, than eighteen years would 
have done without it.” 
The compliment and invitation which are subjoined, 
by the writer, to the conductor, are very gratefully re¬ 
ceived, and the latter will be accepted, as soon as cir¬ 
cumstances will permit. 
A Comparison. 
By comparing matters that are rather abstruse, with 
objects that are familiar with our senses, we often bring 
home to the understanding, truths of much practical be¬ 
nefit. The farmer who profits nothing from the better 
practice of his neighbor, but depends solely upon his 
personal experience, may be compared to the isolated 
spring, which hubbies from the earth always the same. 
The farmer of more enlarged mind, who sees and adopts 
the better practises of his neighborhood, may be liken¬ 
ed to the brook, made up of the waters of several springs 
and which propels the water-wheel of the manufactur¬ 
er. While the farmer who combines science with prac¬ 
tice—who profits from all the improvements of our land, 
and of other lands, may be likened to the noble Hudson, 
which is fed from ten thousand fountains, and which 
bears upon its bosom the riches of every clime. Let 
those who consider the comparison bordering on the ex¬ 
travagant, contrast the powers and usefulness of a Fel- 
lenbergh or a Timer, of a Chaptalor a Davy, of a Sin¬ 
clair or a Coke, whose labors are adding millions annu¬ 
ally to the products of the soil, to the drivelling ignora¬ 
mus, who. is delving in conceited ignorance, exhausting 
those riches of the soil, which Providence designed for 
his posterity. 
The Cora Laws of Great Britain, 
Are often spoken of in the public journals, without 
their object, or their operation at home or abroad, being 
generally understood by the American reader. The 
better to illustrate the matter, for it is a question which, 
if our agriculture ever reaches the state of improve¬ 
ment which it ought to reach, that may deeply concern 
Americans as well as Britons, it is proper to premise, 
that the farmers in Great Britain are not generally the 
proprietors of the land which they improve, but merely 
tenants to the nobility and gentry, who are the land 
owners. The rates of rent depend materially upon the 
ability of the farmer to pay; and this ability depends 
upon the price of grain in the market; the higher the 
price the better ordinarily for both landlord and tenant. 
Leases are given for different terms, often for twenty- 
one years; and if the improved condition of the farm 
and the price of grain will warrant it, the rents are 
raised at every renewal of the lease. To protect these 
two classes, or rather the first of them, or in other 
words, to secure a home demand, and a good price for 
the products of British husbandry, free from foreign 
competition, the corn laws impose a heavy duty upon 
foreign grain coming into British ports, so great as to 
amount to a prohibition, except in times of great scar¬ 
city, when the average price in market is sixty and 
seventy shillings the quarter of eight bushels. Were 
foreign grain admitted free, or by paying a nominal 
duty, prices would fall, and rents would have to come 
down, or the farmers he ruined. This explains the 
reason why the northern products of American agri¬ 
culture are virtually excluded from British ports. 
The continental powers of Europe have greatly in¬ 
creased the products of their agriculture, since the 
establishment of a general peace ; and finding that these 
products will not be received on fair terms for British 
manufactures, they have been for some years turning 
their attention to the manufacture of their own goods. 
The consequence has been, that the demand for British 
merchandize has been constantly lessening in these coun¬ 
tries, until the manufacturers, and a portion of the 
merchants, have become seriously cramped and alarm¬ 
ed ; and meetings are now being held in all the manu¬ 
facturing districts, to petition for a repeal of the corn 
laws. 
On the one hand it is alleged, that if the corn laws 
are repeapled, and foreign corn admitted free of duty, 
English farmers, burthened as they are with heavy 
rents, tithes and taxes, can never sustain a foreign 
compelition; that prices will consequently fall; that 
rents must come down; that the land holders and 
tenantry must consequently suffer severely; that the 
culture of poorer lands must be given up and abandon¬ 
ed; that the farm laborers, unable to obtain employ¬ 
ment at prices by which they can live, will be reduced 
to want and misery; and that ultimately every class 
will be seriously injured. 
The merchants and manufacturers, on the other 
hand, contend, that a reciprocity of trade can only 
secure the custom of foreign nations; that many of the 
manufactures have been stopped, the workmen thrown 
out of employ, and reduced to want; that the corn 
laws operate in favor of the land owner, at the ex¬ 
pense of the merchant and manufacturer, the great 
supporters of British power, and the great sources of 
British wealth. 
At our last dates matters were assuming a serious, if 
not an alarming aspect. Lord Melbourne, the premier, 
had declared in the House of Lords, that it would be 
the wildest and maddest scheme imaginable, to leave 
the agricultural interest unprotected; and in both 
houses, ministers oppose the repeal of the corn laws, 
and are supported by heavy majorities. In the mean 
time a radical convention was silting in London, of 
which O’Connell and the Rev. Mr. Wade were active 
members. In reference to the determination of the 
government not to repeal the corn laws, and the strength¬ 
ening of the military power of the throne, the conven¬ 
tion recommend a rural police,—every man to go armed 
with a bludgeon, and to resist any attack on his per¬ 
son, &c. The Woburn, or Duke of Bedford’s estate, is 
pointed out as among the spoils to be divided, if the 
landlords and capitalists, who are denounced, as “rob¬ 
bers, traitors and murderers,” do not yield to the peo¬ 
ple—that they ought to be pursued by fire and sword, 
&c. All Yorkshire is said to be actually armed. 
This state of things in England should admonish us, 
sedulously to protect our own resources, the agricul¬ 
tural and manufacturing labor of our country, and to 
avoid those enormous burthens upon agriculture, which 
there have become necessary, to pay the interest on 
an immense national debt, and to maintain, in idle ex¬ 
travagance, a privileged nobility, and a host of sinecure 
pensioners. 
Wire Ropes. 
It will be remembered, that many lives were lost dur¬ 
ing the last year, by the tiller-ropes of steam-boats being 
burnt off, when the boats have taken fire, thus leaving 
the boat and its passengers at the mercy of the stream 
and the fire, without the means of running the boat on 
shore. Samples of wire tiller-ropes for steam-boats, 
and also of wire tow-ropes for canal boats, have been 
left for examination at the Cultivator office, patented 
by J. McCord, \>f Harrisburgli, Pa. The tiller-ropes 
are already in extensive use in steam-boats on the 
Mississippi and Ohio; are three-eighths of an inch in 
diameter; have two strands of one hundred wires each, 
and, when submitted to a white heat, and cooled in¬ 
stantly in water, are as pliable as a hempen rope. The 
other sample is one-quarter of an inch in diameter, and 
has three strands, embracing one hundred and twenty 
wires. The larger kind is sold at twenty-eight cents, 
and the smaller at twenty cents per foot. We consider 
this a useful invention, calculated alike to economize 
expense and to preserve human life. 
G.Farnham, No. 7 West-street, New-York, is agent 
for the patentee. 
Items of Intelligence. 
“Nothing,” says Sir H. Davy, “is more wanted in 
agriculture, than experiments in which all the circum¬ 
stances are minutely and scientifically detailed—this art 
will then advance in proportion as it becomes exact in 
its methods.” 
JI Steam Threshing Mill has been put in operation in 
Switzerland. The machine is a five-horse power, and 
portable. It may be set at the barn-door. A few quarts 
of coal suffices for half a day. It requires but two men 
to tend it; and their work is equal to the labor of ten 
men with flails. 
The state of Maine paid a bounty last year, of $87,- 
352.39, on 1,107,849 bushels of wheat raised in that 
state; and $66,628.80, on 1,630,996 bushels of Indian 
corn—making an aggregate of $153,981, paid in one 
year, “ to encourage agriculture.” 
THE BUDGET. 
Under this head, we shall hereafter notice such corre¬ 
spondence as our limits will not permit us to give in 
detail, and such as requires to be noticed in a summary 
way. We have considerably increased the contents 
of our sheet, by the use of small type, yet our corre¬ 
spondence has been so enlarged as to compel us to con¬ 
dense some portion of it. 
DWARF BLUE IMPERIAL PEA. 
Joseph Kellogg, of Holland Patent, Oneida, a vete¬ 
ran of 72, has sent us an account of the field culture of 
a remarkable large blue garden pea, which he believes to 
be the dwarf blue imperial, and which he highly recom¬ 
mends. Mr. Kellogg received a handful of these peas 
in 1834, which were then selling at $6 per bushel; from 
this small beginning, he was enabled to raise, last year, 
twenty-four bushels of extraordinary beauty, and per¬ 
fectly free from the bug. Mr. K. considers the pea as 
the best preparatory crop for wheat. In locations 
where the pea bug does not prevail, and on suitable 
soils—and clay loams and clays are the best—the field 
culture of garden peas, for seedsmen, may he made 
a lucrative concern. At present, most of the garden 
peas sold in the shops are imported, and sell at high 
prices. 
APPLE ORCHARDS. 
Philo Mix, of Waterbury, Conn, has sent us an in¬ 
teresting communication, recommending the attention 
of the young farmer to the cultivation of orchards, for 
farm stock and for family use. Mr. Mix remarks, that 
the old orchards in Connecticut have most of them died 
from old age, and that very little effort has been made 
for many years to replace them. Our correspondent 
seems to have been long familiar with the propagation, 
transplanting and management of fruit trees. He urges 
the importance of care in taking up trees, so as to pre¬ 
serve the fibrous roots—the mouths; and of making 
large holes to set the trees in, that the roots may have 
their natural position; of surrounding the roots with 
fine surface mould; of pressing the earth firmly round 
them, and of spreading upon the surface, around the 
tree, some litter or coarse dung, to counteract evapora¬ 
tion, to protect them from the cold of winter, and to 
prevent the growth of grass. Mr. Mix prefers autumn 
planting, and that the orchard be tilled two or three 
years, taking care, however, not to cut or bruise the 
toots or the stem in the operations of tillage. Mr. M.’s 
directions are all proper and beneficial. 
REMEDY AGAINST THE BLACK ANT. 
Joseph F. Plummer, of Richmond, la. sends us the 
following:—“Put half a tea-cup full of tanners oil—the 
more rancid the better—in a large dinner plate, or any 
vessel as shallow and broad, anil set it on the floor of 
the closet, close the door, and in a day or two the ants 
will disappear. We have had them feasting in our su¬ 
gar barrel, and by setting a plate on the sugar, with a 
cloth steeped in the oil, they soon left; and indeed I 
know of nothing more offensive to insects than the 
smell of this oil.” 
Mr. Plummer is informed, that there is not any agent 
in the United States, that we are advised of, for the im¬ 
porting of foreign cattle and horses; and that we re¬ 
ceive subscriptions at all seasons. 
SILK CULTURE IN POOR-HOUSES. 
G. W. Forman, of Fleming county, Ky. asks—if it 
would not be a good plan to establish the silk culture in 
the poor-houses through the United States? We con¬ 
cur with him in the opinion that it would. We have 
urged the propriety of adopting this plan some years 
ago. And, to adapt the business more to the ability of 
the children and invalids of such establishments, we 
recommended that the mulberry be cultivated in hedges, 
or as shrubs, rather than as trees, to facilitate tiie ga- 
thering of the leaves. 
AN AGRICULTURAL GLOSSARY-THE CORN CROP. 
It is suggested by W. P. Vail, of Stroudsburgh, Pa. 
that we give a glossary of those terms in the art and 
science of agriculture, which are not generally under¬ 
stood. We gave a glossary of chemical terms in No. 
1, of vol. iv. and we propose to carry out further the 
suggestions of Mr. Vail, as soon as opportunity will 
permit. 
Mr. Yail says, that twenty-five bushels of corn per 
acre is deemed a good average crop, in his neighbor¬ 
hood; and that his neighbors are rather sceptical of 
their being able to get eighty bushels per acre. If they 
will plant northern seed, at the distance we plant, feed 
every acre with twenty-five good loads of long manure, 
on a dry sandy or loamy soil, and cultivate as we culti¬ 
vate, our Stroudsburgh patrons may have their doubts 
