1848. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
91 
their inception, proved by their results, the sagacity and 
prescience of his theories. Impatient at the listless and 
calculating spirit of doubt or scepticism that often crossed 
his path, he sometimes opposed it with an impetuous zeal 
rather than conciliatory moderation, and thus animated 
hostility when he might have diverted opposition. Mr. 
Watson’s essays and other publications were very volu¬ 
minous, and spread over a period of more than sixty 
years. He wrote with great fluency, and in a nervous 
and elevated style, wanting often, however, the polish 
and precision formed by the hand of finished education. 
He was not learned in science or literature j men and na¬ 
ture were the books he studied, and from travel and ob¬ 
servation he had accumulated no ordinary fund of fact? 
and intelligence. Mr. Watson died at Port Kent, De¬ 
cember 5, 1842, in his 85th year. A plain monument 
is erected over his grave, inscribed with this simple and 
touching epitaph, written by himself: 
HERE LIES THE REMAINS OF 
ELKANAH WATSON, 
The Founder and First President of the Berkshire Agricultural 
Society. May generations yet unborn learn by his 
example to love their country. 
THE FAMEH’S ITOTE BOOK. 
Benefits of Reading Agricultural Papers. 
Since I last saw you in Albany, I have occupied 
some of my leisure moments in looking over the vol¬ 
umes of the Cultivator from its commencement. I 
have been induced to do so from curiosity to determine, 
from examination, whether the paper has generally had 
a practical character, or has been (as some carping 
persons say it has) a receptacle for wild, impracticable 
theories, or for puffs of speculator’s humbugs in cattle, 
sheep, hogs, potatoes, corn, &c., &c. While I find 
much matter pertaining to husbandry which cannot be 
of practical value to me, o-r to other farmers in this 
immediate vicinity, I have been agreeably disappointed 
in finding so much knowledge communicated in its 
pages which I can immediately apply, and with imme¬ 
diate benefit. Much instruction contained in the early 
volumes of the Cultivator had passed from my mem¬ 
ory—been forgotten with the volumes of the paper, 
when filed away, unbound and undisturbed. I mention 
this fact as a strong argument to other subscribers in 
favor of procuring the bound volumes, as I have done. 
Many farmers of sound judgment, and who are well 
informed on other subjects, refuse to subscribe for the 
Cultivator, assigning as a reason that it is the mere 
organ of a wealthy band of speculators in bulls and 
boars, and filled with laudatory notices of farming— 
such as rich, amateur farmers alone can follow. If 
such opponents of the Cultivator, and of kindred ag¬ 
ricultural journals, would sit down, and carefully ex¬ 
amine the matter contained in the published volumes, 
they would (many of them at least) become friends and 
patrons of the paper. 
While leisurely turning over the pages of the Culti¬ 
vator, and noticing their contents, I have frequently 
been reminded of remarks made to me, during the ex¬ 
citing political campaign of 1840, by a gentleman— 
an eminent lawyer, among whose papers I found the 
numbers of the Cultivator. Upon expressing my as¬ 
tonishment at finding him the reader of an agricultural 
paper, when he was not the proptietor even of a gar¬ 
den, he answered me —■“ I am not a farmer, and never 
expect to be. I was bred and have lived a lawyer, and 
shall continue letting myself out to be kicked in other 
men’s quarrels; but the Cultivator is pleasant reading 
to me, and I turn from the details of my profession, 
and the sharp warfare of party, to the pages of that 
paper, as scho.ol boys turn from their dog-eared Virgils 
to the pages of glowing romance.” 
That a large portion of the earlier volumes of the 
Cultivator was devoted to the mode of farming best 
suited to the sandy plains about Albany, I know ; but 
I also believe that a large space in its columns has ef¬ 
fected much towards making e: the desert rejoice, and 
blossom like the rose.” I am fully of the opinion that 
the amount of knowledge relative to the Diseases of 
Domestic Animals and their Cure, which has been dif¬ 
fused through your paper, aside from all other matter 
contained in it, is worth more to any farmer than many 
times the cost of the paper. 
And I here take occasion to remind you of the la¬ 
mentable ignorance generally prevailing among far¬ 
mers on the subject of the diseases of animals, and 
the proper method of treatment. With rare excep¬ 
tions, farmers are ignorant on this subject, and the 
horse and cattle-doctors they are compelled to employ, 
are, most of them, vile quacks, knowing nothing of 
their business, and in their ignorance killing or ruining 
many a valuable animal. Even our physicians are 
generally as ignorant of comparative anatomy, as they 
are of the picture-writing of the Aztecs. In France 
men are regularly educated as veterinary surgeons, but 
I am not aware of any opportunity in this country of 
acquiring such knowledge. Our colleges, yielding to 
the demands of enlightened public opinion, are estab¬ 
lishing professorships of scientific agriculture; but no 
college or school in the country, so far as I am informed, 
has given instruction on comparative anatomy, in con¬ 
nection with the cure of diseases affecting domestic 
animals. You have a flourishing medical college in 
your city which should take the lead in this matter. 
The city which furnishes the first agricultural paper 
in the country, should be the first to furnish correct in¬ 
formation on this neglected subject. Furnish the 
graduates of that institution with as thorough know¬ 
ledge of veterinary surgery, and its kindred branches, 
as they are taught on other matters pertaining to their 
profession, and their respectability or usefulness will 
not be impaired. They will then be able, without de¬ 
meaning themselves, to benefit as well the property as 
the persons of their patrons; and in a pecuniary point 
of view will be gainers. S. A. Law. Meredith , A r . 
F., Jan. 21, 1848. 
Fattening Hogs. 
On the 11th day of April, 1846, I bought a sow and 
eleven pigs, the pigs being about three weeks old, for 
$12.25, and not having plenty of feed, (for I had re¬ 
cently changed my residence from Dutchess to Livings¬ 
ton,) I gave one pig away, and kept the rest, and 
fed them the milk of four cows, after it was well 
skimmed, with the slops from the kitchen, and the bran 
from 15 bushels of wheat, 8 bushels of oats, and 4 
bushels of corn ground together. This was their feed 
till after harvest, when I turned them into the stubble, 
and fed them but very little till I shut them up to fat, 
which was about the first of October. I then put 9 of 
the shoats in a close pen, and fed them a few boiled 
