) 
EXCELSIOR 
•II Pnrli How, Now Ynrlo 
82 HuIVnlo St., ltocIiCMtcr 
NEW YORK CITY ANT) ROCHESTER, N. Y 
ljsn.no k*KH YEAR, 
t Single Yo.. Eight Cents 
WHOLE NO. 1050 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, MARCH 
(Entered nooordinR to Act of Comrress. in the year WTO, by I). D. T. Moore. In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.J 
Dome manures applied amounted to one justifiable, but commendable and auspicious 
thousand two-liorse loads, and from 1841 to in every cultivator of the soil, than to have 
1847 more than $8,000 was expended in the traveler as be passes, either rein up bis 
other fertilizers. As a result, the products of horse to admire, or point from the window 
1848 realized more than $14,000, not from of the car as it files along on its iron track, 
exclaiming:—‘Ah! look at that! that looks 
’“"■*'***■*» something like a farm ! There are signs of 
There you behold fil¬ 
ing to the original cost of the farm, the 
expense of substantial and spacious build¬ 
ings and of farm improvements, the improved 
farm and its aggregate products exceeded 
the sum by more than $37,000, or $5,500 per 
ployment and subsistence to a population of 
2,300 inhabitants. 
Gen. Cajivon ns n Farmer. 
It was at Laurel, during bis career as a 
manufacturer, that bis rare success as a 
fnbustrhri M 
? 
HORACE CAPRON, 
Commissioner of Agriculture 
honorable ambition 
dnstry guided by knowledge. There it is 
that visible improvement and increased pro¬ 
ductiveness vindicate the cause of agricul¬ 
ture and assert its claim to be ranked among 
intellectual professions !' Such are reflec¬ 
tions that every thinking man makes—such 
the observations that every man hears ns he 
passes the /awrcf-crowned oasis half way in 
the great desert which some years since 
spread over the country between Baltimore 
and Washington, hut which is now giving 
w r ay slowly hut surely to the force of mind 
applied to the art of cultivation,” 
In 1850, in consequence of the prostration 
of the manufacturing interest, from which 
stocks were reduced to twenty per cent, of 
their original cost, involving the loss of the 
results of long years of laborious enterprise; 
the farm was sold at a time of great depreci¬ 
ation of values, and under the influence of a 
distrust in the permanency of the improve¬ 
ment, for $4(1.50 per acre—a sum much less 
than its intrinsic value. What is the verdict 
of time upon that question of permanency? 
Twenty years of severe cropping have dem¬ 
onstrated the soundness of theory and cor¬ 
rectness of practice of Hie improver. During 
at least a large portion of this period the 
present proprietor lias received $20,000 per 
annum from that farm of “ barren old fields,” 
and it is now bold at $150 per acre—and the 
State of Maryland has reaped the benefit of 
Gen. Cax’Tion’s system of fertilizing, which 
the earlier and host years of his manhood 
were spent, in inaugurating. 
In 1854 he emigrated to Illinois, and set¬ 
tled upon a tract of wild land, and with his 
own labor and that of Ids three sons, he 
produced another model farm, eon tinned the 
breeding of Devon cattle, and established a 
herd and a reputation which became, known 
throughout the West. Many of the most, 
noted prize-takers of this breed, throughout 
that portion of the Mississippi valley, can be 
traced to this herd. 
His official connection with agricultural 
organizations lias been extensive in point of 
time as well as of territory. President, of 
several county societies, Vice-President of 
the Maryland State Society, and of that of 
Illinois, as well as Vice-President and mem¬ 
ber of the Executive Board of the United 
States Agricultural Society, his progressive 
tendencies have had free scope In suggesting 
and developing organized action in aid of 
agriculture. Nor was lie content merely 
with the executive duties of official leader¬ 
ship; entering the arena of competition, he 
led in the generous rivalry, taking prizes for 
essays, one of them $100 for the best and 
most highly improved farm in Maryland, 
and receiving more than three hundred pre¬ 
miums from societies in the same State for 
the best, herd of cattle, for the best in sev¬ 
eral classes of horses and other farm stock, 
and for the largest crops of hay, corn, wheat 
and oats. After his removal West his com¬ 
petitive efforts were equally successful, se¬ 
curing a diploma for the best herd of cattle 
at the United States Fair at Chicago, and also 
first prizes for Devon hulls, cows and heifers 
in competition with the most celebrated 
herds in the country ; and taking first prizes 
at the exhibitions of tin* State Society of 
Illinois for the best herd of thorough bred 
cattle, and almost invariably in all entries of 
North Devon stock. At the Milwaukee 
Fair, on one occasion, lie carried away sev- 
Gen. Horace. C apron, the present popu¬ 
lar Commissioner of Agriculture, is a native 
of the State of New York. He is the fifth 
in descent from Banfield Catron, of a 
Huguenot family, which let! France on the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, settling 
in England. In 1051 lie emigrated to 
America, and settled in Cumberland, Rhode 
Island, afterward removing to Massachusetts. 
Dr. Setii CAPRON, the father of Gen. 
Catron, was an officer of the Revolutionary 
army, who served under the eye of Wash¬ 
ington, and accompanied him across the 
Hudson on Ills taking leave of the army. 
He settled in Oneida county, New York, in 
1804, where he practised his profession suc¬ 
cessfully for many years, and where, in 
1800-10, he earned the high distinction of 
being the originator of the first woolen fac¬ 
tory in the United States, (in which De 
Witt Clinton, Francis Bi.oodoood, Ste¬ 
phen Van Rensselaer and others were 
interested,) which was Incorporated under 
the name of “ Orjskany Factory” in 1811. 
In 1*20, Dr. Catron removed to Orange 
county, and with others established the now 
flourishing village of Walden, on the Wal- 
klll Rivet 1 , where one of his sons, a success¬ 
ful manufacturer of woolens, still resides. 
Growing up amid these scenes of promis¬ 
ing industrial innovation, and inspired with 
a noble enthusiasm for progress In the arts 
of industry, it is not strange that Horace 
Catron, the subject of this sketch, was at¬ 
tracted to the business of manufacturing, 
notwithstanding he was educated for a 
cadetship at. West Point, (where an older 
brother had •'received his education,) and 
that he should prefer the activities of pro¬ 
duction to the splendid inaction of military 
life in a time of peace. He first essayed a 
thorough knowledge of cotton manufactur¬ 
ing at the mills at Walden; but finding a 
wider field for coveted acquisitions in the 
mills at. Msittenwan, in Dutchess county, and 
a generous appreciation in the noble pro¬ 
prietors, Peter II. and Abraham Bchenck, 
lie pursued his course of pract ical education 
under their direction, devoting his time to 
mechanical study, draughting patterns, com¬ 
pleting estimates and plans of factories, set¬ 
ting up and operating machinery, <&c. 
In 1829 the Messrs. SCHENCK received an 
application from James A. Buchanan, Esq., 
for a suitable person to take charge of their 
extensive establishment for the manufacture 
of printing cloths, situated on the Gunpow¬ 
der River, in Baltimore county, Md. Al¬ 
though this was comparatively a new busi¬ 
ness in this country, and Mr. Catron was 
little more than a mere boy, the trust was 
confided to him, and he was entirely success¬ 
ful in the important commission, introducing 
many new anil valuable improvements, by 
which production was greatly cheapened 
and extended, when a disastrous fire de¬ 
stroyed the principal works, terminating his 
labors at this point: He was Immediately 
engaged by the Messrs. Williams, to take 
charge of their works at the Savage, where 
similar results xvere obtained, and their pro¬ 
duction more than doubled without increas¬ 
ing the quantity of machinery. 
In 1834 he married a daughter of Major 
Nicholas Snowden of Prince George’s 
couuty, one of the oldest and most respecta¬ 
ble of Maryland families. By this marriage 
lie became interested in the extensive water 
power of the Patuxent, River, at Laurel, on 
the Washington branch of the Baltimore and 
I Ohio Railroad, and soon engaged in the erec- 
■dv tion of large manufactories of cotton cloths 
fv and cotton machinery, building up, from a 
^ small beginning, works which, in 1849, the 
date of their highest prosperity, gave em- 
G-RN. HORACE < 
farmer was demonstrated, and especially as 
a renovator of worn-out lands; and it was 
here that he became distinguished as a cattle 
breeder, and known as a leader in the ad¬ 
vanced processes in agriculture which char¬ 
acterize “ high farming.” 
The “Laurel Farm” consisted of 1,200 
acres. Its assessed valuation in 1836 was $7 
per acre. Its improvement was commenced 
in 1841, and in 1847 its value was estimated 
at $00 per acre. Nor was the change effected 
at great cost. It is true that the expendi¬ 
tures in the improvement were liberal, but 
the cash returns were equally liberal. In 
these seven years the disbursements for cul¬ 
ture, manure and management, were $34,- 
363.87; the receipts were $36,209.34. Add- 
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