61 
Statement of Receipts and Expenditures of the American So¬ 
ciety for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, up to March 
1, 1839. (The book of subscriptions made in Western New- 
York, being in the hands of the Agent who collects in that 
region; the amounts therein mentioned, are not included in 
the statement below. The actual receipts of moneys, by 
that agent, have not been equal to his expenses.) 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
James Brown,.$1,000 
J. T. Gilchrist,. 300 
S. V. Renssalaer,. 500 
James Wadsworth,.... 100 
Jacob Abbott,. 100 
Peter G. Stuyvesant,. 200 
A. Barclay,. 25 
George Douglass,. 200 
Thaddeus Stevens,.... 100 
C. Bartlett. 5 
G. P. Oakley,. 5 
William Brown,. 5 
SUBSCRIPTIONS. 
John Sergeant,. 
J. M. Porter. 
Geo. McKeim,. 
David Potts, jr.,. 
|M. W. Baldwin,. 
J. C. Biddle,. 
James Wadsworth,.... 
J. J. Astor,.. 
James Roosevelt,. 
James G. King,. 
Samuel Ward. 
William Kemble,. 
5 
5 
5 
5 
10 
200 
100 
20 
20 
5 
Total amount of receipts, 
$2,925 
EXPENDITURES. 
Paid for printing, binding, and stationery,.$443 58 
“ “ rent,. 130 50 
“ “ postage, . 39 50 
“ “ actual expense of secretaries...... 1,399 54 
“ “ agencies,. 162 33 
“ “ travelling expenses,. 198 38 
“ “ expenses of secretary, . 132 40 
“ “ rent,. 65 00 
“ “ custom-house expenses,. 11 07 
“ “ printing and stationery,. 17 02 
“ “ postage,. 26 82 
“ “ agent,. 50 00 
“ “ advertising,. 7 14 
1839, March 1,—Balance in treasury, . 233 71 
$2,925 00 
EXTRACTS. 
[From the New-England Farmer .] 
We proceed in the publication of Premium Farm Report s 
■—intending to give them to the public with as much despatch 
as the state of our columns admits. They will be read, we 
are pursuaded with much interest. We give them without 
regard to any order, as is most convenient; but we shall ve¬ 
ry soon wind off the worsted. The subjoined account is from 
Mr. Fay, in Southboro’, who received a gratuity of fifty dol¬ 
lars. H. C. 
A SCHEDULE OF PETER FAY’S FARM, SITUATED IN SOUTHBO- 
ROUGH, IN WORCESTER COUNTY, MASS. 1838. 
Question 1. Answer—one hundred and fifty acres. 
2. It consists of loam, gravelly loam and gravel, and under 
the stratum a clay gravel. 
3. The best method of improving my land—the plough is 
decidedly the best. 
4. I till about eighteen acres, and I put twenty-five loads of 
manure to an acre on that which I plant with corn and pota¬ 
toes. 
5. I apply it both in its long or green state and in compost. 
6. 1 do both spread and plough in the manure put upon 
fields to be planted with corn and potatoes, and also put it in¬ 
to the hills. 
7. My method of cultivating green sward is by ploughing 
it at any part of the year, and of frequently harrowing the 
same the year previous to its being planted. 
8. I mow from thirty to thirty-tw'o acres of upland, and ave¬ 
raging two to two and half tons to an acre, 
9. 1 irrigate about four acres, commencing about the first 
of May, and allow the water to flow about one month, and I 
think I get about one-fourth more in quantity, and the quali¬ 
ty not as good. 
10. I do manure the land that I irrigate, and a part of my 
other land that I mow, once in two years, and I put twelve 
loads of compost manure to the acre. 
11. I have mowed about ten acres of land not suitable for 
the plough, and the quality of the hay very ordinary, and pro¬ 
ducing more than five tons upon the same the present season. 
12. My method of reclaiming my low land has been to dig 
out the stones and then to smooth or level the same, and 
give it a top dressing of loam or gravelly loam or gravel and 
then compost manure, and by seeding of herds grass, red top 
or clover, and roll in the same. On bog or peat meadow I 
never have performed any operations. 
13. I have planted nine acres of corn the present season; 
my method of preparing the ground has been, of ploughing 
the same fine in the spring, then harrowing it, then carting on 
my manure and spreading it, then ploughing in the manure 
fine, and then roiling the land where it will admit, if not bush¬ 
ing it. Six acres of it I have cultivated in this way, by put¬ 
ting ten loads of long or green manure to an acre, and four¬ 
teen loads of compost manure in the hills, and planted the 
same in hills three feet and six inches apart each way. And 
on the three acres in addition to the ten load of long or green 
manure to an acre, I spread fifteen loads of compost manure 
to an acre, by putting the loads hetween the long or green 
manure, and ploughing in the same, and not manuring it 
in the hills; hills four feet and six inches apart from east to 
west, and three feet apart from north to south. I soaked 
about one half my corn in water about twenty-four hours 
and rolled the same in gypsum; the other half I planted 
dry without any preparation. When I planted my corn I 
put a table spoonful of gypsum into each hill, and when the 
corn had come up I put six bushels of wood ashes, lime and 
gypsum around the corn upon the hill, in the proportion of 
one half ashes, one fourth lime and one fourth gypsum to an 
acre upon the said nine acres. I used the cultivator instead 
of the plough among my corn and hoed the same three limes, 
and made the hills of a small flat form. 
14. I have planted five acres of potatoes the present year, 
four acres of which I ploughed the land fine in the spring, 
then harrowed it, ploughed it the second time fine, then 
spread twenty loads of compost manure on the acre and har¬ 
rowed it in, furrowed the ground four feet and six inches 
apart north and south and three feet apart east and west, and 
planted them the first week in May, when the ground froze 
every night, and on the north side of the wall the ground did 
not thaw through the day; when I planted the potatoes, I put 
a table spoonful of gypsum into each hill, and when the vine 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
* 
made its appearance through the ground, I put twelve bushels 
of wood ashes, lime and gypsum on the hills in the proportion 
of one half ashes, one fourth lime, and one fourth gypsum; I 
ploughed and hoed them three times. The produce was one 
hundred and sixty bushels to the acre. The kinds, a part of 
them a red potato called among us here the Rutland, and 
a part of them were the blue potato; the soil a gravelly loam. 
The one acre was a green sward ploughed in about the 
middle of May, this spring, then harrow ed the land and spread 
twenty-five loads of long or green manure to the acre, and 
planted it in rows three feet and six inches apart each way ; 
ploughed and hoed the same twice: the soil was a gravelly 
loam: the produce one hundred bushels to the acre. The hot 
and dry weather in the month of August, was very severe 
with my potato crop upon both fields, and the product not 
half of an usual crop. The kinds of potatoes were the same 
as planted upon my other field. 
15. I have among the corn in one of my fields of about 
three and a half acres, the English turnip, where my corn 
was very much injured by the cows, and the growth is ex¬ 
tremely promising, but I have not harvested them now. 
16. None this year of winter grain; of spring grain three 
acres and three quarters. The ground was prepared by 
ploughing it fine, then harrowing it; then cross ploughed it, 
then rolled it, sowed the grain and got it in with the cultiva¬ 
tor; put no manure upon my land in the spring; the land the 
season previous having been planted with a potato crop, sow¬ 
ed two and a half bushels to an acre. My grain was all of 
wheat of the Black Sea kind, except one half bushel, and that 
was of the Italian: the soil of a gravelly loam of a hard pan 
bottom: my method of preparing the grain was by washing 
all the foul seed therefrom, then put the grain into baskets 
and let it drain until dry. then put the grain into tubs and 
soaked it in as strong a solution of salt and water as could be 
made to dissolve in the water at a heat of one hundred and 
twenty degrees, and soaked the same ten minutes, then took 
it out upon a floor and raked in as much of dry lime as would 
adhere to the grain. When the grain was up about three or 
four inches in height, I sowed eighteen bushels of wood ashes, 
lime and gypsum in the proportion to one half ashes, one 
fourth lime and one fourth gypsum to an acre; this dressing 
is highly valuable to the wheat crop and to the succeeding 
crops of grass, and visible for a number of years, and one of 
the cheapest and best manures used. 
The half bushel of Italian wheat was sowed upon the same 
field side by side of the Black Sea wheat, and the same pro¬ 
cess of preparing the land and seed was had as with the 
Black Sea wheat, and the produce was about the ssme with 
the Black Sea wheat, and the crop when ripe for harvest w'as 
one week later than the Black bea wheat. The crop of both 
kinds was twenty bushels to an acre, and the last year I rais¬ 
ed thirty-five bushels to an acre of the Black Sea w'heat; my 
wheat was sown the last week in April. 
17. I have laid down three acres and three fourths of an 
acre to grass the present season; I sowed the seed on the first 
day of May; my usual practice of seeding is, half a bushel of 
herds grass, one peck of r-d-top, and ten pounds of clover 
seed to an acre, and I sowed the same quantity this year; and 
was sown with the grain crop after the grain was got in with 
the cullivator and then rolled in. 
18. The means and manner of collecting and making ma¬ 
nure, are from my cattle and hogs, and by digging the loam 
out from under my walls; where I new set them or make 
new walls; the loam and sand beside the roads and from loam 
pits in my pastures, and the same carried into my barn 
yard. 
19. I keep six oxen, twenty-six cows, no young catile, two 
horses, sheep none. One of my barns is 84 ieet long and 30 
feet wide, one other barn 50 feet long, 36 feet wide, and 20 
feet posts, and a cellar under two thirds of the same; one-third 
part of said cellar occupied for my hogs to lie under in the 
winter. Manure not covered. 
20. My cows are all of the native breed. 
21 I have raised no calves. I have fatted all my calves for 
the market this year and for several years past; I have fatted 
37 calves for the market this year, which have brought me at 
my house $317; but I am convinced that I am pursuing a 
wrong course, and I intend to raise ten or twelve of my best 
calves yearly in future. 
22. Of butter I have made up to the 15th day of October 
the present year, twenty-five hundred pounds, and of cheese 
only for my own consumption, six hundred and fifty pounds 
of two meal and four meal, and none of new milk. 
23. Of swine I have on hand three old ones and twenty- 
two pigs; I intend to fat the three old ones and seventeen of 
the pigs, and keep five of the pigs through the winter for 
breeders; my swine are all of the native breed, and I make my 
pigs weigh on an average at ten months old, when dressed for 
the market, three hundred pounds, and have for many years 
past. I fatted seven thousand one hundred pounds of pork 
the last year, and sold six thousand and five hundred pounds 
of the same, which brought me six hundred and fifty dollars. 
24. I feed my swine through the summer upon the skim 
milk and whey from my dairy, and give them no meal in the 
summer: 1 fat them upon corn and potatoes; I boil my pota¬ 
toes and mash them fine and make the composition in the pro¬ 
portion of one bushel of potatoes and half a bushel of meal, 
and keep my hogs dry and warm, and keep them well littered 
with straw, which is of the utmost importance in the fatten¬ 
ing of hogs. 
25. I have a yard in front of my barns, 100 feet in length 
by 75 feet in depth, where my cattle and swine all yard 
through the summer and winter; and I get from 300 to 400 
loads of manure a year from the same, meaning all that I make 
of long or green manure and of compost. The materials are 
of loam, sand that I cart into the yard in the autumn after I 
have taken the manure out, and of meadow hay, straw and 
corn stover that I throw out into my yard for my cattle in the 
winter for them to pick over. It is decidedly the best way 
that cattle and swine be yarded together for the making of ma¬ 
nure. 
26. I employ upon my farm three men for eight months, 
commencing on the first of April, and one man in the winter, 
and one man three months by the day: 1 have paid fourteen, 
sixteen and seventeen dollars by the month for the eight 
months, and from five to six shillings by the day, and board¬ 
ed said men. 
27. I have five hundred of engrafted apple trees and from 
two to three hundred trees not engrafted 
28. I have forty two pear, 35 peach, 25 plum, 14 cherry, 8 
apricot, and 4 almond trees. 
29. My trees have never been attacked by the canker worm, 
to my knowledge; the borer has destroyed one apricot tree 
and four or five apple trees; I have not taken any means to 
destroy them. 
30. I do not use any nor allow any ardent spirits on my 
farm, and have not for the last five years. 
Horticulture. 
[From the Northern Journal .] 
Mr. Clark— Observing that you occasionally devote a co¬ 
lumn of your Journal to the interests of agriculture and horti¬ 
culture, 1 am disposed to give some of my notions and expe¬ 
rience upon the latter; and if you think them paper worthy, 
you are at liberty to give them an insertion. 
I have long been satisfied that our country gardens lose 
much of their interest and utility, by the unskilful and slo¬ 
venly manner in which they are usually managed. Not only 
are they suffered, through shameful neglect, to be overrun 
with all manner of noxious weeds, but the garden vegetables 
are planted or sowed (as the case may be,) in such a crowded 
manner, that it is physically impossible that they should ever 
approximate to within ‘ gun-shot’ of perfection. 
Onions, parsnips, and carrots, should be sowed in drills, 
lengthwise of the beds, at least twelve inches apart, nor 
should they be suffered to remain too thick in the drills. Beets 
should be sowed in the same manner, with the exception, 
that the drills should be made twenty inches apart, and the 
plains six inches in the drills. Marrowfat peas should be 
planted in double drills, three and a half feet apart; and dw arf 
marrowfats in double drills three feet apart; while melons and 
cucumbers should be planted in hills at least seven feet apart 
each way, and no more than three plants should be suffered 
to remain in a hill. 
By adopting the rules, as I have just stated, and keeping 
our gardens clean by often stirring the ground, we should add 
much to their beauty, and still more to their utility. It re¬ 
quires but a very small piece of ground, properly managed, 
to furnish in great variety a full supply of garden vegetables, 
which not only add much to our table comforts, but are emi¬ 
nently conducive to health; without which, life can scarcely 
be considered an enjoyment. But I must not stop to lecture 
or moralize; but, adding a little of my experience the last sea¬ 
son, in suppoit of my theory, I will close this communica¬ 
tion, which I fear will be too long before I have done with it. 
About the middle of May, I planted a part of my side bor¬ 
der next to the street with cucumbers. The ground had for¬ 
merly been thrown up and used as a hot-bed. Owing to the 
continued wet and cold, one solitary plant made its appear¬ 
ance; nor did this, until near the middle of June. But it did 
not lose much time after it was up. About the first of July, 
it commenced giving off its branches, and in less than a month 
from this time it completely occupied a space of six feet by 
ten, and scores of young cucumbers might be seen at a time, 
in different stages of development. Seeing it was a plant of 
great promise, I conceived the idea of keeping an account of 
its produce, and thought I should get two hundred; instead of 
which, I picked with my own hands, rising of four hundred 
as perfect cucumbers, from this one plant, as was ever setup- 
on a table, or put into a pickle tub. 
The circumstances which led to this astonishing result, 
were obviously, the high culture, the kind of cucumber, the 
uncommon fecundity of the season, and last, but not least, 
the ample space allowed to this plant. 
It may not be improper to remark here, that many of the 
branches passed through the pickets into the street, and were 
fed off by the cattle. Others passed over into the walk, and 
were trodden under foot-—and I w : ill add to these, the untime¬ 
ly frost which happened on the morning of the 4th of Sep¬ 
tember, which lulled more than half the leaves—all of which 
operated as so many drawbacks, but for which, I have no 
doubt, my crop of cucumbers from this solitary plant, would 
have been augmented to 500 ! The greatest number I picked 
in any one day w r as 35—the greatest number in any three suc¬ 
cessive days 72. The length of the cucumbers when picked 
would range from 2| to 3^ inches; and with the exception of 
a dozen or so, at the close of picking, were perfect in shape, 
and without spot or blemish. 
I am well aware, that such a result cannot be reached ex¬ 
cept in highly favorable seasons ; but then it should be re¬ 
membered, that good seasons ever are lost upon us when the 
culture is bad; and that good culture will do much in sup¬ 
plying the defects of an indifferent season. 
If the above remarks and detail of facts, thus hastily thrown 
together, shall have any influence in improving the state of 
our gardens, I shall feel myself amply rewarded for the trou¬ 
ble I have taken in placing them on paper. 
DAVID PERRY. 
Lowville, IGth Jan. 1839. 
Extract from an Address of the Hon. James M. Garnett, 
before the Fredencksburgh Agricultural Society, Va. 
The scripture injunction “ seek and ye shall find," is emi¬ 
nently true, not only of spiritual knowledge, but. of every 
species which human beings are capable of attaining, and to 
no class of mankind is the frequent repetition of this most mo¬ 
mentous truth more necessary than to ours; for the worst of 
our besetting sins is an overweening confidence in our know¬ 
ledge of husbandry, and the consequent neglect of all the 
means essential to its improvement. Our secluded country 
lives, if long continued without interruption, serve only to 
cherish and confirm this self conceit, almost beyond all hopes 
of cure. The symptom which usually indicates this disease, 
in its most inveterate state, is, when the infected person is 
found, whenever an opportunity offers, constantly and most 
complacently, talking about “his method, his system.”’— 
When the disorder appears in this aggravated form, a recove¬ 
ry very rarely occurs, for there are only two modes of cure, 
and both of doubtful efficacy. The first is, to persuade the 
sufferer, if practicable, to go a little from home, and examine 
other men's methods and systems; for he will then surely find, 
either that his, upon which he has prided himself so much, 
as sole discoverer and practitioner, have really nothing new 
in them, or that they are much inferior to the methods and 
systems of many other persons of his own profession. The 
second remedy is, to tempt him to read (provided he can,) a 
few scraps or whole articles in print, about husbandry. If 
well selected, they may possibly coax him on to peruse a 
pamphlet, or book or two, on the same subject, when he will 
discover that the great bug-bear which he has always despis¬ 
ed so much under the name of book-farming, is, in reality, 
neither more nor less than a well authenticated record of the 
best practices in every branch of husbandry, from the earliest 
ages to the present day. It is true, that he would find some 
mere speculations—some useless trash ; but what books ex- 
