VMVRANKEM.M.V. 
THIRD 
VOL. VI. 
<* 
€n SnijitnuE tl;t inil nnit tlit 3Xliuit. 
ALBANY, JULY, 1858. 
SERIES 
No. VII. 
Published by Luther Tucker & Son, 
EDITORS AND PROPRIETORS. 
Associate Ed., J. J. THOMAS, Union Springs, N. Y. 
PRICE PIETY CENTS A YEAR. 
The Cultivator has been published twenty-four years. 
A New Series was commenced in 1853, and the five vo¬ 
lumes for 1853, 4, 5, 6, 7, can be furnished, bound and post¬ 
paid, at $1.00 each. 
The same publishers issue “The Country Gentleman,’ 
a weekly Agricultural Journal of 16 quarto pages, making 
two vols. yearly of 416 pages, at $2.00 a year. They also 
publish 
The Illustrated Annual Register of Rural Affairs 
—144 pp. 12 mo. — price 25 cents — $2.00 per dozen. This 
work was commenced in 1855, and the nos. for 1855,-’56 
and ’57, have been issued in a beautiful volume, under the 
title of “ Rural Affairs,”— containing 440 engravings of 
Houses, Barns. Out-IIouses, Animals, Implements, Fruits 
&c.—price $1.00—sent by mail post-paid. 
Editorial Correspondence—No. II. 
Baltimore, May, 1858. 
I have been spendingsome hours at “Riversdale,” the 
seat of Charles B. Calvert, Esq, widely known as 
one of the most prominent Country Gentlemen of this 
State, not only on account of the extensive farm he 
cultivates, but also for his long and active services in 
the cause of agricultural improvement. The very full 
and complete description of his grounds and estate con¬ 
tributed to our last volume, (see Co. Gent, for Sept. 
3, 1857, p. 161,) by a gentleman most thoroughly 
qualified to appreciate and describe them, has antici¬ 
pated much that I would like to say; and in what I 
have to add, great allowance should be made for such 
a thorough previous occupation of the field as well as 
for the disadvantages of letter writting amidst the 
hurry and bustle of travel. 
Maryland State Ag. College„ 
Our first business was to see the farm of about 400 
acres, which had recently been purchased by the trus¬ 
tees of the Maryland State Agricultural College. It 
occupies a very accessible position, being directly upon 
the railroad, and within a few minutes ride of Wash¬ 
ington ; including the old tavern which travellers, be¬ 
fore the days of railroads, may remember as the first 
stage station after leaving that city, and which will now 
prove a very convenient and comfortable building for 
the various purposes required, until the erection of 
others, and intended to serve subsequently, as a hotel 
or boarding bouse for visitors, &c. The soil includes 
some that is enriched by a very considerable stream on 
which the farm borders, and varies in stiffness and 
fertility from the bottom land, up to the more elevated 
fields where the college structures are to be located, 
and where, united with a commanding prospect, there 
will be some obstacles to overcome, of a more practi¬ 
cal nature—the kind of farming here required being, 
however, precisely such as most pupils might perhaps 
best employ themselves in studying, preparatory to 
their own practice of it on a larger scale. Back of the 
site of the main buildings a large orchard has been 
already planted out, on newly broken land, in order 
to get the trees started with as little delay as possible. 
They include a wide assortment of the different fruits, 
about one half of them I believe dwarfs, and all pro¬ 
mising well for a life of future usefulness. 
On the lower ground toward the road, bricks were 
making for the college building, as fast as the wet weath¬ 
er would permit. The plan decided upon calls for a struc¬ 
ture when completed some 300 feet in length, of which 
a part, calculated to accommodate about an hundred 
students, will it is hoped be ready for occupation before 
another season. The funds of the Institution are said 
to be in a most healthy condition, and when the report 
of the trustees soon to be published, appears, readers 
in this and other States will be interested in having a 
synopsis of it given through these columns.* It might 
be invidious to mention meantime the several instances 
of munificence which casually came to my knowledge— 
but that of a Louisiana gentleman, Dr. Mercer, a 
native and former resident of Maryland, should not be 
left unnoticed. The law of incorporation required a 
previous subscription of $50,000 from private persons, 
and when it was made known to Dr. M. that the amount 
subscribed had reached $47,500 he generously came 
forward with the $2,500 necessary for the completion 
of the fund; and, subsequently, having been chosen 
an honorary trustee of the college, he acknowledged 
the compliment by one in return, as demonstrative as 
it could well be made of his confidence in the plans and 
management of his associates—namely, a check for 
* We are indebted to Mr. Calvert, and a friend in Bal¬ 
timore, for copies of the Report here referred to, from 
which we learn that the “ Maryland Ag. College,” was 
incorporated by the state on condition that the commis¬ 
sioners appointed by the act, should raise by subscription 
the sum of $50,000, to be expended in the purchase of a 
farm, the erection of buildings, and placing the institution 
in a condition for the reception of students. This having 
been done by private munificence, the state now comes in 
with its aid, and pledges itself to pay $6,000 per year foi 
the annual support of the institution. Thus it will be seen 
that the Maryland Ag. College is substantially endowed, 
and promises, with as little delay as possible, to become 
one of the active institutions of the land. Its Board of 
Trustees consists of 25—one from each county in the state 
—of which Hon. C. B. Calvert is President. 
