THIRD <Tn Smjjtnup tip #oil nuir the 3I!tnit. SERIES 
Vol. VI. ALBANY, NOVEMBER, 1858. No. XL 
Tlie Close of Anotlier Year. 
It is customary to speak of the present age as one 
of Associated Effort—an age in which, more than 
ever before, improvements are pushed on and progress 
is effected, by the combined exertions of thousands, 
working through simple and effective agencies previ¬ 
ously unknown. 
No example of this is more in point than that afforded 
by our Agriculture. Through Societies and the Agri¬ 
cultural Press its followers have already been largely 
awakened to the importance of their calling 5 to the 
best means of increasing its profits and its comforts ; 
to the necessity of activity in mind as well as in body ; 
to the enjoyment of the pleasures of taste, as well as 
the enlargement of the money results of their labor. 
The Agricultural Press is the product of Associated 
Effort in a double sense. It elicits from its readers 
their practical experience, and publishes this experi¬ 
ence to others. The Agricultural Paper is thus ren¬ 
dered a monthly or a weekly Meeting for discussion, 
between farmers, near and remote, skillful and igno¬ 
rant, old and young—still, each of them striving for 
and contributing toward the same end, the mutual 
benefit of ail—throwing out the lessons of an earnest 
life, as an example or a warning to others, according as 
its fruits may prove to have been good or evil. 
The second sense in which such a paper as The Cul¬ 
tivator may be regarded as the product of Associated 
Effort is this : It is offered at the lowest possible price 
to every subscriber—a price which gives him the whole 
advantage of the commission or reduction that would 
be offered to Agents upon a higher price, and one, too, 
that renders it necessary for a very largo subscription 
to cover the actual cost of production. Hence the cir¬ 
culation of The Cultivator we are forced to place 
entirely in the hands of its readers. We say to them : 
“This is the aggregate of your monthly in-gather¬ 
ing of facts, experiences and opinions. Everything 
that we can do to render these contributions service¬ 
able to you—whatever we can add from the constant 
Labors of our own lives—whatever money or time or 
effort can procure—all this we put into the common 
stock. The larger the circulation you can aid us in 
attaining—in just this proportion will our exertions be 
rendered effective, and the value and interest of your 
journal and ours be maintained and extended. You 
have the means of reaching many thousands, by lay¬ 
ing the subject Individually before a few. We offer 
you all the attractions we can; and we invite your 
support—not merely to the limit of your own single 
subscription,—but in the shape of a little time and 
exertion in extending our invitation to ten or twenty or 
thirty of your friends.” 
Political papers which have in charge the advance¬ 
ment of party interests, find agents at every corner 
ready to enroll clubs of subscribers and to keep them 
up, at the cost even of some money as well as time 
and trouble. But is there nothing to be gained in ex¬ 
tending the benefit of Agricultural reading'] is there 
nothing in the cause of Agricultural progress worthy 
of sincere, united, hearty efforts to advance it 1 
In pursuance of the system we have so long follow¬ 
ed, The Cultivator will open the year 1859 with new 
subscription books, and the time to fill them is now 
close at hand. This journal will continue to occupy 
much the same field as at present. Its course for 25 
years has been one that warrants us in promising that 
it will not fall behind in the future, while at the same 
time it frees us from the necessity of making novel 
announcements, and issuing startling extras. Un¬ 
biassed by any connection with secondary concerns, the 
conductors aim to identify their own interests with 
those of their readers, and appeal to the testimony of 
every thoughtful observer as to the influence The 
Cultivator has wielded and is every day wielding 
upon the husbandry and consequently upon the pros¬ 
perity of the country, even in parts the most remote. 
The past year may be especially referred to, as one 
that has elicited articles of constant interest and value 
from a host of instructive correspondents. This and 
other circumstances of encouragement, lead us to look 
with confidence to 1859—not only as a year that shall 
maintain and extend whatever merits the quarter of a 
century which the Cultivator now concludes, can 
boast,—but one also which shall enlarge its sphere of 
usefulness, and bring new thousands within the reach 
and the reading of its columns. Men of great intel¬ 
lect and ability are now devoting labor and time to the 
investigation of agricultural science. Men of wealth 
are more than ever giving up the pleasures and the 
pursuits of the city for those afforded by country life— 
or training their sons to do so. The most skillful me¬ 
chanics are at work in the service of Agriculture. 
Those farmers who have made it the business of years 
and derived from it competencies or fortunes, are con¬ 
stantly growing readier to contribute their counsels 
and advice. One must take a good Agricultural Journal 
to be upwith the times in what is going on through these 
and Other channels. In none we claim can he obtain 
