THE CULTIVATOR. 249 
OUR ENGRAVING. 
The well executed and life-like engraving- which ac¬ 
companies this number of the Cultivator, represents a 
pair of three years old steers, bred and reared by James 
S. Wadsworth, Esq. of Geneseo, to which one of the 
premiums was awarded at the show of the New-Yprk 
State Agricultural Society, at Utica. One of them, we 
were informed, was a full-blood Durham, and the other 
three-fourths of that breed. They were very fine steers, 
exceeding in size and symmetry any other we have 
ever seen of their age. Their uncommon growth and 
tendency to fatten, induced their owner to dispose of 
them for beef at an early age; they were, therefore, with 
seven other cattle, transported via railroad, and sold at 
Boston, in February last. As the lot passed through 
this city, we had an opportunity of seeing them, and 
have no hesitation in declaring that we have never seen 
them equalled by any similar number. The live weight, 
(we never learned the dead weight,) of the subjects of 
our plate, was 3,965 pounds. The lot consisted of ten 
head, one of which, a remarkably fat ox of six years 
old, was slaughtered in this city weighing, dressed, 
2,061 pounds. There was one cow, (a full blood Dur¬ 
ham,) in the lot, and four of them, including the steers 
whose portraits are here given, were under four years 
old, yet the aggregate live weight of the ten, was 
14,295 pounds. 
Mr. Wadsworth and his brother, have been frequent 
and successful competitors for premiums on stock, par¬ 
ticularly working oxen, at the shows of the State So¬ 
ciety. Many of our readers will recollect a splendid 
team of ten yoke of oxen which they exhibited at 
Poughkeepsie—three yoke of which obtained the first 
premium offered on that number. Their display at the 
Utica show was still more attractive. Besides several 
yoke of steers, they presented a train of ten yoke of 
working oxen of the finest appearance, which received 
the first premium offered for that number from any one 
town. A very superior pair of four-year-olds from this 
noble team, received the second premium offered for the 
best single yoke of working oxen. 
The vast domain of Mr. Wadsworth and his family 
connexion, in the county of Genesee, is devoted large¬ 
ly to grazing. Mr. W.’s home farm consists of thirteen 
hundred acres, of which he usualty mows about six 
hundred acres, and obtains an average yield of two tons 
of hay per acre. He kept on this farm last wfinter 260 
head of cattle, and he usually summers from 400 to 500. 
They are mostly steers, bought of the tenants on other 
portions of the estate. After having been allowed to 
run for a season on the rich pastures of the Genesee 
flats, they are sold off to drovers. 
It is proper to say that Mr. Wadsworth, besides 
being a spirited competitor for premiums, is a most 
liberal supporter of agricultural societies, and an ear¬ 
nest patron of agricultural improvement generally. 
He for two years occupied the post of presiding officer 
of the New-York State Ag. Society, whose affairs he 
managed with an efficiency and judicious care alike 
creditable to himself and beneficial to the association. 
THE FARMER’S BANK. 
L. Tucker, Esq. —Why may not every farmer be 
his own banker? 
Every farmer may effectually be his own banker if 
he chooses; he has the right, he has the power, he has 
the means at his own command, and by the exercise of 
this right, this power, and these means, he can be bene- 
fitted far more than by any investment of capital in the 
general banks now in use. 
The bank I allude to is the Farmer’s Bank of Manure, 
the location in his own barn-yard. This is a bank that 
can never fail, can never be insolvent. He subjects 
himself to no protests, he lives in no fear of a suspen¬ 
sion of payment, he needs no bolts, bars or locks to se¬ 
cure him from the midnight robber, there is no cashier 
to tell him when he presents himself to this bank for 
means to carry on his farming operations that a discount 
is required to grant him a favor, or to tell him his en¬ 
dorser is not good or sufficient. He is not confined to 
a limited number of days, with a little grace beyond it; 
and when he draws his check he has no fear of be¬ 
ing told by Mr. President, Mr. Cashier, or Mr. Teller, 
that there is not any funds placed to his credit. 
Then let every farmer, if he has not done so already, 
securely arrange his barn-yard in such a manner that 
none of the deposites can be squandered until he re¬ 
moves them himself. 
If the farmer owns stock in this bank he suffers no per¬ 
plexity or anxiety of mind that he may not have a semi¬ 
annual or annual dividend declared of less than the law¬ 
ful interest of his money, but he can rest assured that his 
dividend will be the real substantial of life to his 
pocket and family, viz., pork, beef, butter, cheese., 
money, &c. There are many of the common banks 
that have the words “Farmer’s Bank of” prefixed to 
the place where they belong, apparently to induce the 
farmer to believe that they are for his own especial 
benefit. Beware of them! Do not be drawn into their 
snare. There is a class of men and business which these 
banks may perhaps benefit; but the farmers, who may 
be justly styled the corner stone of our republic, they 
can never benefit as will their own bank, the Farmer’s 
Bank of Manure* A. H. Halleck. 
Westmoreland, N. Y. 
AGRICULTURE OF OTSEGO COUNTY, N. Y. 
Mr. Tucker —I have been sojourning awhile in Ot¬ 
sego county, and I thought perhaps I might extract 
something from my notes that would be interesting to 
your readers. 
Otsego is rather elevated, containing the head waters 
of the Susquehannah; hilly, but not mountainous, most 
of the hills being susceptible of cultivation to their 
summits. The principal articles sent to market are but¬ 
ter, cheese, wool, pork, fat cattle and sheep, oats, bar¬ 
ley, and hops; and by the way, this last article is all 
the rage in some parts of the county just now. But on 
the whole, the wool-growing and dairying business 
take the lead; and say what you please of Old England 
or Dutchland, I never ate better butter or cheese than 
at some of the tables in Otsego. 
The farming here i-s somewhat peculiar; the arable 
land is divided into meadow and pasture; the meadows 
receive the manure, and in them a rotation of crops is 
pursued, and frequently four or five different kinds of 
grain, besides grass, are to be seen in the same field. 
When the pastures are supposed to be “ rich enough,” 
they are ploAved, and a crop or two of grain taken, and 
then seeded again to grass. 
The attention of the traveller is often attracted to the 
numerous little mills for sawing wood—propelled by 
water power, and placed on almost every rivulet; they 
are used for a few days in the spring when the snows 
are melting and the streams high. The trunks of 
trees are hauled to the mill, and a man will saw from 
eight to ten cords in a day, e ‘ stove length,” and thus 
save many “hard knocks.” 
The diversified face of the country gives many beau¬ 
tiful sites for cottages, and in some instances nature has 
been aided by art, but in the majority of cases you will 
find nothing to relieve the monotony of that eternal 
row of maple trees, straight as a Lancaster rifle, and 
the trees just so many inches apart. Now I have 
nothing against maple trees “ in the abstract,” ohly let 
them be more JDowningized, that is, have more of a 
come-by-chance arrangement. Rambler. 
Butternutts, 1846. 
Heavy Crops. —In the fourth report of the Agricul¬ 
tural Commissioner of Massachusetts, instances are given 
where 105, 110, 113, 115, and 117 bushels of corn have 
been harvested from one acre; and 400, 484, and 518 
bushels of potatoes. 
