32 THE CULTIVATOR. Jan, 
capable of being brought into cultivation, much of it 
admirably adapted to meadows, and there is no crop 
cultivated in the west, requiring so little labour, that 
has, and probably will continue to yield as good a 
profit as hay, baled and shipped to the South. Other 
portions of our land, are more broken and adapted 
to grazing, and the cultivation of the grape. Our 
location is about 37| degrees of North latitude,- and 
the principal crops now cultivated for market, corn and 
tobacco. We are also so low down upon the Ohio 
river, as to possess great advantages, over those living- 
on the upper Ohio, in getting our produce to market, 
during a low stage of water. I think our lands are 
peculiarly adapted to an industrious German population, 
possessing some means for purchasing and improving 
them, yet such appears to be their aversion to settling 
in a slave state, (if B. and many others, are correct 
in their belief, this cause of aversion will soon cease in 
Kentucky) that they buy lands in Indiana, from $6. to 
$10. per acre, which are not better located, and fre¬ 
quently of very inferior quality, to those that could be 
purchased on our side of the river, at from $2. to $4. 
per acre. There are the same advantages here, to make 
the timber pay for the land, as those in the upper part 
of the state, as mentioned by B. A tract of about 
4000 acres of land, fronting nearly two miles on Green 
river, about two miles above Lock and Dam No. 1 
where a grist and two saw mills are located, 10 miles 
above the mouth of the river, and 15 or 20 miles 
above Evansville, a very flourishing town in Indiana, 
rapidly increasing in population and located at the ter¬ 
mination of the Erie and Wabash canal, upon the Ohio 
river, can now be purchased, if taken altogether, at 
$2 per acre; the tract is unbroken and can all be improv¬ 
ed and cultivated. Many other tracts can be bought 
on as favorable terms. There is a vast field of coale 
under all this region of country, which is seen near the 
surface in many points among the hills on Green river 
and other parts of the country, and which, I should 
think, is worth the attention of capitalists. A. Hen¬ 
derson, Ky. Dec . 1848. 
To Build a Rat-proof Granary. 
Eds. Cultivator. —Having noticed in one of the nos. 
of your Cultivator,an inquiry for a “Rat-proof Granary,” 
l -offer the following cheap, simple and effectual plan, 
which you can place before your readers, though I fear 
I am too late to benefit my Brother Farmer who ap¬ 
plied to you • but he is not the only one who is intruded 
upon by these unwelcome visitors, therefore I feel myself 
called upon to save all the corn I can, for those who 
have to build cribs:—Take locust posts and place them 
in the ground as deep as you may wish; saw the tops 
off smooth, and build on your crib, 3 or 31 feet above 
the ground; and then around the posts, which must be 
barked smooth, nail tin; and when the rats climb up to 
it they will tumble down, finding no foot hold. The 
building must not be attached to any other building, or 
to any fence. A Young Farmer. Willow Bottom, 
Md., Dec. 2, 1848. 
Benefit of Example. 
Being among the number “ who have gone to farm¬ 
ing from the shop, store, offices, &c.,” I have been 
much interested in the details of farming by experienced 
and successful farmers, that have appeared in the last 
volume of the “ Cultivator,”—those relative to the 
author’s own operations, and the editorial descriptions 
of farms and farming by men in various parts of the 
country. Very few of us are at leisure to visit the 
different farms at the season of active operations, and 
must, but for those descriptions, be satisfied with such 
examples as appear around us, many of which are cer¬ 
tainly not the most perfect patterns of good farming. 
I think we are most apt to adopt the example that 
meets us at the moment when we wish to put it in prac¬ 
tice, if it is not palpably wrong—not recalling, in the 
hurry of business, the many better ones that we have 
met with before. Here is one of the advantages of 
the “Cultivator,”—a text book always at hand; and 
any one may take time to look at the index and find 
each article that has a bearing upon the business he is 
engaged in, from which, together with his neighbor’s 
operations, he may select the best way. Theory won’t 
answer then; it is practical details and results that tell. 
Theory is let alone to talk about at leisure. 
The influence of one good farmer among his immediate 
neighbors, is greater than is generally supposed. I am 
led to think so from what came under my observation 
when a boy. My father, (whom I always set down as 
a good farmer,) purchased a farm in a neighborhood 
where the farms had descended from father to son, and 
the modus operandi was among the “ appurtenances” 
bequeathed. Each innovation of my father on old cus¬ 
toms, was hailed with a sneer and a —guess he will 
get sick of that .” The muck was “ cold stuff,” the 
ashes would “kill the corn,” the plaster “ruin the land,” 
the cultivator was “ not half so good as the plow,” 
the spring-tooth rake “ spoiled the hay, and would be 
torn all to pieces before haying was over.” When 
asked to take an agricultural paper, the reply was,— 
“We know more farming than we can do now.” But 
they were men who looked to the interest of their pock¬ 
ets, and could not fail to see that my father’s crops 
were ahead of theirs, with less advantages for manure, 
and that he was ahead of them in his work with less 
help. The consequence was, one after another might 
be seen starting the team for the muck-swamp, but 
stealthily, as a dog bent on mischief. The cultivator, 
the horse rake, &c., were purchased and brought home 
in the night, at first, that the neighbors might not see 
them. One or more agricultural papers are now taken 
in each family. They have found that although they 
knew before, “ more farming than they could do,” 
much of it may be unlearned, and what needs to be 
done, may be done quicker and better by adopting the 
improvements of the day. 
I left home while young, and have not my father’s 
example fresh before me; and, as I before said, examples 
of good farming are not as frequent as they might be; 
I, therefore, on receipt of my “ Cultivator,” seek first 
and most anxiously for such examples from you and 
your able correspondents. I trust the interests of far- • 
mers, young in experience, like'myself, will not be for¬ 
gotten in the forthcoming volume. O. W. Edson. 
Chester , Vt., Dec. 8 , 1848. 
Judicious Improvement. 
The Report of the Committee on Farms for the 
Hartford County (Ct.) Ag. Society, 1848, gives the 
following sketch of the farm of Marvin Sexton. 
of Simsbury, to which the first premium of the Society 
was awarded. “Mr. Sexton purchased this ground 
about fifteen years since, principally on a credit, and 
with a large debt upon him, which he has gradually 
liquidated. He has with good judgment and untiring 
industry, accomplished in the way of improvements 
what is truly wonderful, and indeed, had not some of 
our committee well known the facts, what would be 
incredible. When Mr. Sexton went on to this land, 
several of the lots, were so covered with stone that it 
was exceedingly difficult to cultivate them; other por¬ 
tions were swampy, covered with bushes and bogs 
The stones have been drawn off and made into sub¬ 
stantial wall around lots of various sizes, from four to 
ten acres—the swamps thoroughly drained with deep 
ditches, the bushes cut, the bogs cut up, piled and 
