THE CULTIVATOR. 
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the economy of labor, and in the utility of results.— 
This change has been less, or rather less general, in 
the business of farming than it has in the mechanic arts ; 
Owin'* to the fewer facilities which the farmer possesses 
of acquiring useful knowledge in his business, by read* 
ing and personal observation. An improvement in the 
mechanics arts is no sooner made, than it becomes known, 
is adopted, and rendered profitable, in every part of the 
country; while improvements in agriculture, however 
important, travel slow, are received with distrust, and 
adopted with reluctance. To keep up with the spirit of 
the age—to prosper in our business and benefit the com¬ 
munity, we must sedulously avail ourselves of all the 
prominent improvements which are going on in agricul¬ 
ture and the mechanic arts, and endeavor to infuse into 
those around us a spirit of industry, emulation and en¬ 
terprise. For man does not live by his own labor alone. 
His success depends upon his being able to sell the sur¬ 
plus products of his labor to those who are able to pay 
for them, and to exchange the avails of his sales for 
such articles as he does not produce, and of which he 
stands in need. Hence he who is surrounded by pros¬ 
perous neighbors can sell and buy to better advantage 
than he who is surrounded by poverty and want. I 
therefore lay down this proposition, that a man, what¬ 
ever be his honest business, is profited by the prosperity 
of his neighbor, be that neighbor a farmer, a mechanic, 
e manufacturer, a merchant, a lawyer, a physician, or 
eclergyman: and that consequently, the true way to 
advance his individual interest is, to endeavor to 
improve the condition of his neighbors. It is a bad 
trait in the human character, and one which gene¬ 
rally defeats its object, but which is nevertheless too 
conspicuous, that many seek to elevate themselves by 
depressing those around them—as if the poverty and 
misfortune of the one, added to the merits and virtues 
of the other. Not only self-interest but philanthropy 
and Christianity enjoin, that when we have provided 
comfortably for ourselves and our own, we should ren¬ 
der all the assistance in our power to our brother who 
stands in need of our aid. The selfish being who lives 
but for himself, may, by amassing useless wealth, en¬ 
joy his hour or his day of fancied greatness ; but he can 
never realize the pure, the elevated pleasures which 
flow from a life of active benevolence to the human 
family. 
The farmers and mechanics who have united in this 
celebration, have many interests in common, and they 
do well to cultivate, in this way, kind feelings towards 
each other. They are neighbors; and there should be 
an interchange of good offices maintained between them, 
to heighten the pleasures of social intercourse—one of 
the chief enjoyments of society. It has been said that 
in fixing on a location for life, the grand requisites to 
Comfort are, pure air, good water and a healthy soil; yet 
these seem incomplete, at least as regards comfort, 
without the addition of good neighbors. And with a 
right temper of mind, an individual may contribute 
much to make good neighbors. But the interests of the 
farmer and mechanic are otherwise intimately connected. 
They are mutually dependent upon each other for the 
eomforts and necessaries of life. Ttie farmer wants the 
fabrics of the mechanic—the blacksmith, the hatter, the 
cabinet-maker, the tailor, See ; and these in turn want 
the bread-stuffs, the meat, the butter and cheese, the 
roots, and the raw materials of the farmer. Both 
classes are best accommodated by an interchange of 
commodities. If the farmer can exchange with the me¬ 
chanic, at home, enough of the surplus products of his 
farm to buy what he wants of the mechanic, the expense 
of transportation to market, of both parties, is saved, 
and the uncertainty of sale, and the danger of loss, ob¬ 
viated. It is much better to exchange, at home, the 
products of each other’s labor, for a fair equivalent, 
than to trust to the contingencies of a foreign market 
On the old continent, some men are born to rank and 
privilege, and others are born to servile labor. Arbi¬ 
trary laws have prescribed, to a great extent, a man’s 
condition in life, ere the infant breathes the vital air — 
Arbitrary power has perverted, then, the laws of equali¬ 
ty, which were intended for the human family, and has 
enacted artificial distinctions, which industry and genius 
can hardly surmount, nor hereditary rank hardly sink 
below. We know no such distinctions among us. We 
recognize neither the hereditary distinctions conferred 
by birth nor wealth. With us 
“ Merit makes the man, 
Want of it the fellow.” 
And this merit is the reward of individual effort, the 
prize of intelligence, industry and virtue. And the com¬ 
petition is open to all We are all endowed with natural 
capacities for improvement, like the soil we cultivate; 
and our reward, like the harvest, will be greater or less, 
in proportion to the measure of our self-improvment. 
But as with the rich soil, where nature has done most, 
man generally does least, so with the mind, where the 
expectations from parental aid are the greatest, the off¬ 
spring seem least anxious to exert themselves to fulfil 
the high obligations imposed upon all. Poverty and 
want are often the strongest stimulants to physical and 
mental exertion ; and when a laudable ambition is awa¬ 
kened to excel in any useful pursuit, it seldom stops at 
mediocrity. Adversity, more than prosperity, is the 
school in which men learn wisdom. 
There are other high responsibilities resting on the 
farmer and mechanic, which should stimulate them to 
mental and moral exertion. They constitute the physi¬ 
cal and political strength of our country. If they are 
ignorant, poor and dependent, they are very liable to 
become the tools of demagogues, and the corruptors of 
public morals. If they are intelligent and prosperous, 
they will be exemplary in their habits, strong in their 
influence, and independent and patriotic in the bestow¬ 
ing of their suffrages. 
With these incitements to improvement, and these 
duties and responsibilities before them, the farmer and 
the mechanic have abundant cause to put forth their best 
exertions, to study the principles of their business, and 
to profit by the genius and talents of others who excel 
in their respective callings ; for however a man is gifted 
naturally, or however successfully he calls his physical 
and mental powers into action, he may learn much from 
the skill and practice of others. 
The establishment of fairs is one of the most efficient 
means of improvement. They bring together the inge¬ 
nious products of labor, from the exhibition of which 
every individual may learn something useful, to improve 
his mind and his business. They promote friendly in¬ 
tercourse and excite to laudable emulation; they enable 
their members to see, in contrast, the weakness of want 
and the strength of innate independence; in fine, they 
put in motion a thousand springs to self-respect, to in¬ 
dustry, and to usefulness. 
Another prominent means of improvement is the pe¬ 
riodicals of the day, which treat of agriculture and the 
mechanic arts. These record the discoveries and im¬ 
provements which are daily making in their respective 
branches of productive labor, and are written by prac¬ 
tical men, or by men of science, with a view to benefit 
labor. I am sure I do not exaggerate, when I say that 
individuals have been benefitted hundreds of dollars by 
an outlay of one dollar for a publication of this kind, 
in consequence of the useful information it has given 
him in the prosecution of his business. These discove¬ 
ries and improvements in farming and the mechanic arts 
are continually going on, and he that will, may, by a 
moderate expenditure, largely profit by them. 
The great secret of success in agriculture, consists 
in adapting our crops to our soils, in fitting the soil for 
their reception, in feeding them well, and in giving them 
proper culture; and the great obstacles to improvement 
are, ignorance of the principles or science of agricul¬ 
ture, a blind adherence to old practices, and a parsimo¬ 
ny in expenditure. We better understand the economi¬ 
cal management of animals than we do of plants. We 
all know that we cannot make fat beef, or pork, or 
mutton profitably, without we feed high. It requires a 
certain amount of food to keep an animal in condition— 
all beyond this which the beast can consume, digest, arid 
assimilate, is virtually converted into flesh. Now, it 
makes a vast difference whether this extra food is con¬ 
verted into flesh in three months or twelve months ; be¬ 
cause, in the former case, three-fourths of the ordinary 
food required to sustain life and condition for a year, is 
saved to the feeder, besides an equal expense in atten¬ 
dance. It is precisely so with our crops. One well fed 
acre is more profitable than three poor fed acres, be¬ 
cause it requires but one-third of the labor, and will, 
oftentimes, give an equal or a greater product. Take 
Indian corn for example, the average product of which 
I will assume to be thirty bushels an acre. Now, if we 
make an acre of suitable soil rich with 25 loads of un¬ 
fermented dung, and tend the crop well, we may get 
ninety bushels of corn from the acre—and the amount 
has often been swelled to one hundred and one hundred 
and twenty. Here, then, is a net of gain of sixty bu¬ 
shels by feeding an acre well, over the nett gain of an 
acre not fed at all. In regard to the cost of the manure, 
call it, if you please, $25, and consider it capital ex¬ 
pended. If you deduct this from the profits of the well 
fed acre, there would still remain a difference in favor 
of the latter, according to the common scale of prices, 
of $35. If you merely charge the interest on the out¬ 
lay, this would be $1.50, and would diminish the diffe¬ 
rence between the good and bad acre but this amount, 
or would still leave the crop on the rich acre worth $58 
more than that on the poor acre. Estimate the farmer’s 
corn crop at ten acres, and you will perceive that the 
cultivator of the ten good acres realizes a nett profit of 
$580 more than the cultivator of the ten poor acres.— 
Carry out this comparison to the products of the whole 
farm, and we shall at once discover why the good far¬ 
mer finds a profit in an outlay every four years, of $20 
an acre, in enriching his lands. But if we suppose— 
what is, in fact, the truth that the long manure, which 
causes this great increase in the corn crop, is as good 
for the next crop as it would have beenliad it been sum¬ 
mer yarded, as was wont to be, and is now often the 
case, the absolute additional expense is nothing—the 
food of the corn crop is absolutely saved to the farm. I 
might carry these illustrations to other crops, to farms, 
and to districts of country. In my late journeyings in 
the States of New-York and New-Jersey, I have seen 
many farms, and some districts, where the intrinsic 
value of lands has been enhanced a thousand per cent, 
or in a ten-fold degree, by the almost magic influence of 
improved husbandry, based upon the principle of work¬ 
ing no more land than can be kept rich and worked well. 
Having gone into details in these matters on recent pub¬ 
lic occasions, I forbear repeating them here. 
It should be borne in mind, that the elementary mat¬ 
ters which constitute animals and vegetables are simi¬ 
lar, though differently combined in animals and plants, 
and in different animals and in different plants. They 
are principally oxygen and hydrogen (the constituents 
of water,) nitrogen, which, with oxygen, forms the 
volume of the atmosphere, and carbon, the substance 
of charcoal. These elementary matters are found in 
all the combinations of matter—in a solid form in ani- I 
mals, vegetables, and rocks. By the interposition of 
caloric, or the matter of heat, they are rendered liquid 
and gaseous—liquid in water, and gaseous in the at¬ 
mosphere. When they disappear in one form, they take 
another—they are never lost, never annihilated. They 
perform a constant routine, under fixed and established 
laws, termed natural laws, for the benefit of man, and 
for the order and preservation of the natural world.— 
As soon as the animal and vegetable cease to live, a de¬ 
composition or separation of their elementary parts com¬ 
mences, if exposed to the agency of heat, air, and mois¬ 
ture, and goes on until their organic forms are lost, and 
their elements are mingled with the soil, and fitted again 
to enter into new vegetable combinations, and are taken 
up, with the moisture of the soil, by the spongioles, the 
mouths of plants, or are imbibed by their foliage, and 
become again parts of new and living organic matters. 
Thus the products of the soil are consumed by the ani¬ 
mal, and these elementary matters become flesh and its 
natural appendages, or they are voided by the animal, 
and decay upon the soil. When deprived of their vi¬ 
tality, they soon resolve themselves into manure, and 
when these animal and vegetable substances, known by 
the general name of organic matters, are blended with 
the soil, they become the proper food for new genera¬ 
tion of vegetables. 
These facts suggest to the farmer who would keep up 
the fertility and productiveness of his soil, the necessity 
of— 
1st, Consuming his crops, as far as is practicable, up¬ 
on his farm, or of returning to it an equivalent, in ma¬ 
nure, for what he carries off; 
2nd, Of carefully husbanding every animal and vege¬ 
table substance which he can command, of preserving 
it from waste, and of faithfully and judiciously apply¬ 
ing it to the soil, as food for his crops; and 
3d, Of studying those laws of nature which govern, 
to a greater or less extent, the whole business of the 
farm, and which can never be Violated with impunity. 
I am aware that something further is necessary to sa¬ 
tisfy the wants of the farmers in old settled districts— 
that their lands have been deteriorating under a bad, a 
skinning system of husbandry, until they require extra 
stimuli, other than the ordinary vegetable products of 
the crops, to bring them into a state of profitable cul¬ 
ture. These extra means of inducing fertility are abun¬ 
dant. They may be found in almost every district or 
upon every farm, and no intelligent or spirited farmer 
need hesitate about employing them. As I have said, 
nothing is annihilated. The vegetable matters, the hu¬ 
mus, or the geine, or whatever term we choose to give 
to the food of plants, which originally existed in our 
soil, are not lost—they have merely changed position. 
It is the province of the farmer to restore them to their 
place of usefulness, and his reward will be commensu¬ 
rate with his labors. These fertilizing matters, it is 
true, have, to a great extent been lost to present, though 
not to future usefulness. They have been dissipated by 
winds ; they have passed into the sub-soil; they have 
been wasted by the rains, washed into swamps, rivers, 
and the ocean;—and yet they are, in a measure, reco¬ 
verable, and may be made again to feed our crops and 
renovate our husbandry. These great changes cannot 
be effected by ignorance and hereditary conceit, nor in 
a day. They must be the work of patient industry, of 
liberal expenditure, of scientific knowledge—of a gene¬ 
ration. I will proceed to enumerate some of these means 
of renovating the fertility of the soil: 
The first I shall name is a thorough system of drain¬ 
ing. Many of our wet grounds have become rich in the 
elements of fertility at the expense of those which are 
naturally dry. There are certain coarse grasses which 
indicate the presence of surplus water within the range 
of their roots. In these vegetable matters, the food of 
plants do not decompose, or, to employ a term anala- 
gous to animal economy, do not digest, by reason of the 
exclusion of heat and air. No cultivated crop will do 
well in such situations, not from a lack of the elements 
of vegetable food, but from the inability of the vegeta¬ 
ble stomach to digest it, and which, like the dyspeptic 
stomach of man, is rather injured, than benefitted. by 
excess. Drain these lands thoroughly. Let in the ge¬ 
nial influences of the sun and the atmosphere, and cul¬ 
tivate them—the process of digestion or decomposition 
will go on, and the soil will render a liberal tribute to the 
cultivator. 
In some cases draining will not suffice to induce fer¬ 
tility, by reason of an excess of vegetable matter, which 
resists putrefaction. This is no misfortune to the owner. 
If this peaty or vegetable matter, is placed in his cattle 
yards for a season, to the depth of twelve or eighteen 
inches, exposed to the tread of his cattle, and becomes 
intermingled and saturated with their dung and urine, 
or placed in piles with fermenting materials, it vvill un¬ 
dergo fermentation, and may then be blended with the 
soil to certain advantage. Another mode of converting 
these matters into the food of vegetables, is to pare and 
burn it, in smothered piles, and to spread the ashes upon 
grain and grass grounds; and still another mode, which 
has been successfully practised, is to carry on to these 
drained grounds, earthy materials, and to blend them 
with the vegetable surface. 
The rivers, the salt marshes, and the sea are prolific 
in the materials of fertility. Their vegetables, their 
mud, and their fish, are all convertible into the food of 
farm crops. 
From the materials already enumerated, great lertslv 
ty has been imparted to farms which had been worn out, 
by bad husbandry. On mentioning to a visitor from 
South Carolina, Mr. Crowell, the other day, that I had 
