Dec. 
THE CULTIVATOR* 
381 
pends on good feeding; and just as it was with the Oaks 
cow, so will every man find it with his farm. If he 
won’t feed his farm, and that often and well, he need 
not expect it long to feed him. Always taking out of 
the meal tub, and never putting in, will soon come to 
the bottom, as poor Richard says. But to return to the 
Oaks cow, that did so much honor to the name of Caleb 
Oaks; it is stated on the most unquestionable authority, 
such as satisfied the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, 
that in the first year, with ordinary keep, she made but 
180 pounds of butter;—the next year she had twelve 
bushels of corn meal, and then gave 300 pounds of but¬ 
ter; the next, 35 bushels, and she gave more than 400 
pounds; the next year she had a bushel of meal a week, 
and all her own milk skimmed, and then she gave from 
the 5th of April to the 25th of September, the day of 
the show, 484 pounds, besides suckling her calf for five 
weeks. She was exhibited, and deservedly took the 
premium on the last mentioned day; and will carry 
down her owner’s name, with credit, to posterity, as 
long as oaks grow. 
After all, my friends, in respect to cattle, the true 
question is, not what breed can be made the heaviest, 
if stuffed with food, as in some countries thejr stuff 
geese and turkies, until no more can be crammed down 
their throats; but what breed, according to our locali¬ 
ty and objects, will do the most work, or yield the 
greatest weight of milk, butter, cheese, or beef, as the 
case may be, from the food at our command. In cold, 
mountainous districts, says a writer of high authority, 
it is necessary to restrain, within certain limits, the 
ambition of having highly improved stock. In such 
circumstances, the grand point is to have a hardy race, 
not over nice in its food, which consists, through a con¬ 
siderable portion of the year, of but short and coarse 
herbage. The best milch cow, generally, as every 
good dairy woman will tell you, is the one that, while 
she is at the pail, turns everything into milk, and is 
least disposed to be or to look fat. 
The same considerations that apply to breeding do¬ 
mestic animals, apply also to vegetables and grain. ! 
We cannot contradict nature, but we can co-operate | 
with her, and working in her methods and in conformi¬ 
ty to her laws produce all the results that the Creator ever ! 
designed to put within our reach. A man passing a 
few years ago, by a field of ripe wheat on Long Island, | 
was struck by the rich appearance of two or three | 
heads that grew near the road, and hung down as if the ! 
grain was of great weight. He stopped and plucked I 
those heads, and sowed them the next season in a place j 
by themselves, and so cultivated them year after year 
till they had increased to over a hundred bushels, that 
for color, weight, uniform plumpness of the kernels, 
are, perhaps, not surpassed in the country; at least, 
they are expected to take the premium at the approach¬ 
ing fair of the American Institute. This shows what 
we should do if we wish to carry out nature’s plans, and 
finish what she had begun. The very best specimens 
should be chosen from those that have been grown on 
our own, or on a neighboring farm, instead of sending 
to a distance for such as, when we get them, will be 
forced, by the irreversible laws of soil and climate, to 
change their character, and adapt themselves to their 
new locality. The high scented Cuba tobacco loses its 
flavor on being transplanted to other countries. So the 
eight-rowed Dutton corn of the north refuses to ex¬ 
change localities with the gourd seed of James river. 
Wheat, too, changes its character, and cannot be trans¬ 
ferred from one climate to another, without losing its 
original color and other characteristics. As well might 
you attempt to transplant the beautiful hemlock of our 
mountains, where the God of nature placed them, to 
regions designed for the live oak and the olive, as 
to neglect the peculiar varieties of grain that our own 
region produces in perfection,, and cultivate those whose 
distinctive properties are the result of a different soil 
and climate. 
Therefore let me urge upon you to hold on upon what 
you have proved to be good. Choose always the best 
of its kind in the animal and vegetable departments, 
and depend on your own clear heads and strong arms 
for the rest. You are in the very middle region between 
the extreme rigox-s of the north and the enervating heat 
of the south—in the finest climate that the sun ever 
shone upon; and of all positions, the one best adapted 
to develop the human faculties and to bring forth the 
noblest displays of mental and physical energy, and, in 
a word, to grow the whole man. Rely then on your¬ 
selves to do your own work; to make your own laws; 
to improve your own animals and agricultural products; 
and to pursue, on all subjects, those investigations, and 
make those discoveries and arrangements, which your 
own interests require. Bring up your children to re¬ 
spect the character and to love the labors of the farmer 
and the mechanic; for on them at last, as I before said, 
does every country depend for support in peace and de¬ 
fence in war. Who does the world pronounce the great¬ 
est men that ever headed patriot armies in defence of 
freedom, in ancient or in modern times? Was not Wash¬ 
ington a farmer? he whose fame will be as eternal as 
our own Catskill Mountains! 
“ Great Cincinnatus at the plow, with greater glory shone, 
Than guilty Caesar e’er could do, though seated on a throne !” 
And again;—among all the benefactors of American 
industry, who have contributed most to promote our 
national wealth and honor? With pride let me name two 
brother mechanics, Whitney and Fulton! 
Let us, gentlemen, follow thes® bright examples; let 
us study to inform our minds and improve ®ur hearts, 
and enlarge our hearts, and then we shall not ®nly know 
how to increase our crops, and improve our fortunes, 
but how, at the same time, to benefit our country and 
our race. 
Washington was great in war, but greater still in 
peace. He presided with unsurpassed wisdom and dig¬ 
nity over the affairs of State; but added increased lustre 
to both by the calm contentment of Mount Yernon 
Every farmer cannot expect to occupy ?o high a posi¬ 
tion or gain so much applause; but every one ought, in 
his own sphere, to practice the same strict integrity 
and faithful performance of duty; and be, in his princi¬ 
ples and conduct, a Washington—possessing the same 
virtues, though he may never have the same glorious 
opportunity to exemplify them. Every mechanic can¬ 
not expect to make so useful discoveries as the steam¬ 
boat and cotton-gin; yet every one can and ought to 
acquaint himself with all the mysteries of his art, and 
give diligence to make himself as capable and his work 
as nearly perfect as possible, and do all that Whitney or 
Fulton would have done in his place. 
I rejoice to be able to say, not only that this is the 
course our farmers and mechanics ought to pursue, but 
also that to a great extent they are pursuing it now. 
The formation of this, and other like associations, and 
the variety, and standard worth of our many periodicals 
which are devoted to agriculture and the mechanic arts, 
show the spirit of our people. The benefit which the 
country receives on account of the free interchange of 
thought, and general diffusion of intelligence through 
these channels, is incalculable. An intelligent and well 
informed gentleman from the south, once asserted that 
through the influence of the Albany Cultivator alone, 
the wealth of that part of the country had been in¬ 
creased more than two millions of dollars. 
Before I close these remarks, let me suggest (being 
myself a father, with some opportunities of observa¬ 
tion,) that you should incline your sons above all things, 
to prize that honest station, however humble, which is 
gained by personal industry, and enjoyed without de¬ 
pendence on the capricious breath of party, or of any 
mortal man in power. 
Any honest pursuit will be esteemed by a young man, 
of independent spirit and honorable ambition, in pre¬ 
ference to being seen lounging in the anti-ehambers of 
public departments, and the lobbies of the capitol, a 
suppliant for the precarious emoluments of office. Let 
it ever be deemed a high honor by those who are quali¬ 
fied to be called on to serve the people; but when you 
see your son, made in the image of his God, inclined to 
quit the handles of his plow, or throw down his ham¬ 
mer and sell his birth-right for a mess of pottage—put 
