THE CULTIVATOR. 
47 
very slight degree from a piece of charcoal—that water is a com¬ 
pound of two invisible airs, or gases, and that one of these ingredi¬ 
ents is the principle of flame !—that the air which produces suffoca¬ 
tion and death in coal mines and subterranean grottos, is the same 
substance which gives briskness to ale, beer, and soda water, and 
the acid flavor to many mineral springs-—that the air we breathe is 
composed of the same ingredients, and nearly in the same propor¬ 
tions, as nitric acid or aquafortis, which can dissolve almost all the 
metals, and a single draught of which would instantly destroy the 
human frame—that the colour of while is a mixture or compound of 
all the other colours, red, orange, yellow, green,, blue, indigo and 
violet, and consequently, that the white light of the sun produces 
all that diversity of colouring which adorns the face of nature—that 
the same principle which causes our fires to burn, forms acids, 
produces the rust of metals, and promotes the growth of plants by 
night—that plants breathe and prespire as well as animals-—that 
carbonic acid gas, or fixed air, is the product both of vegetation, 
of burning, of fermentation, and of breathing—that it remains in¬ 
destructible by age, and in all its diversified combinations, still 
preserves its identity —that the air which burns in our street-lamps 
and illuminates our shops and manufactories, is the same which 
causes a balloon to rise above the clouds, and likewise extin¬ 
guishes flame when it is immersed in a body of this gas—that 
the leaves of vegetables which rot upon the ground, and appear to 
be lost forever, are converted by the oxygen of the atmosphere into 
carbonic acid gas, and this very same carbon is, in process of time, 
absorbed by a new race of vegetables, which it clothes with a new 
foilage, and again renews the face of nature—-and that the same 
principle which causes the sensation of heat is the cause of fluidity, 
expands bodies in every direction, enters into every operatiou in na¬ 
ture, flies from the sun at the rate of 195,000 miles in a second of 
time, and by its powerful influence, prevents the whole matter of 
the universe from being converted into a solid mass ! 
What, then, can be more delightful to a being furnished with such 
powers as man, than to trace the secret machinery by which the 
God of nature accomplishes his designs in the visible world, and dis¬ 
plays his infinite power and intelligence—to enter into the hidden 
springs of nature’s operations, to follow her through all her winding 
recesses, and to perceive from what simple principles and causes the 
most sublime and diversified phenomena are produced ! It is with 
this view that the Almighty hath set before us his wondrous works, 
not to be overlooked, or beheld with a “ brute unconscious gaze,” 
but to be investigated, in order that they may be admired, and that 
in such investigations we may enjoy a sacred pleasure in contem 
plating the results of his wisdom and intelligence.-— Dick. 
Pleasure .—Neither is it enough to avoid sloth ; you must likewise 
fly the excesses of that enchantress, pleasure. Pleasure, when it 
becomes our business, makes business a torment; and it is as impossi¬ 
ble to pursue both, as to serve God and Mammon. You may per¬ 
haps think this lesson hard to learn; but it is nevertheless the re¬ 
verse of the prophet’s roll; and, if bitter in the mouth, is sweet in 
the belly. 
To explain ourselves more fully on this head; do not imagine 
we mean by this, that though you must live by the sweat of your 
brow, you must not reap the harvest of your own labors. No man 
exacts it of you, nor would nature submit to the ungrateful dictate, 
if he did. We speak only of pernicious or unlawful pleasures, such 
as are commonly ranged under the word intemperance, such as prey 
on the body and purse, and in the end destroy both.— Young Man’s 
Own Book. 
Temperance.- —But, that your integrity may be permanent, it must 
be founded on the rock of temperance. First, therefore, banish sloth, 
and an inordinate love of ease; active minds only being fit for em¬ 
ployments, and none but the industrious either deserving, or having 
a possibility to thrive; which gave occasion to Soloman to exclaim, 
“ The sluggard shall be clothed with rags; because he cries, Yet a 
little more sleep, a little more slumber!” But the folly of sleeping 
away one’s days, is obvious to the dullest capacity, it being so much 
time abated from our lives, and either returning us into a like con¬ 
dition with what we were in before our births, or anticipating that 
which we may expect in the grave. In short, sleep is but a refresh¬ 
ment, not an employment; and while we give way to the pleasing 
legarthy, we sacrifice both the duties and employments of our being. 
— Ib. 
Excess .—Excess is a deceitful evil, that smiles and seducess, en¬ 
chants and destroys. Fly her very first appearance, then : it is not 
safe to be within the glance of her eye, or sound of her voice ; and 
if you once become familiar with her, you are undone. Let us fur¬ 
ther add, that she wears a variety of shapes, and all pleasing; all 
accomodated to flatter our appetite and inflame our desires. 
To the epicure she presents delicious banquets ; to the bacchan¬ 
al, store of exquisite wines ; to the sensualist, his seraglio of mistres¬ 
ses ; to each, the alurement he is most prone to; and to all, a pleas¬ 
ing poison, that not only impairs the body, but stupifies the mind 
and makes us bankrupts of our lives, as well as our credits and es¬ 
tates.-— lb. 
THE CULTIVATOR—JUNE, 1834. 
TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
SANDY LANDS NEAR ALBANY. 
That so large a portion of the sandy land near Albany, the capi¬ 
tal of the State, should be left waste and uncultivated, is to the 
stranger a matter of surprise, and to the citizen a cause of regret. 
In travelling west as far as Schenectady one way, or for a few miles 
on the western turnpike on the other, the eye is pained with the 
general appearance of waste and barrenness with which it is sur¬ 
rounded. The destruction of timber, which has left nothing but a 
few stinted pines, the continuous route of sand and sand-hills, the 
few enclosures one meets with, and the slovenly manner in which 
those enclosures have been made and the fields cultivated, show 
either that the soil does not admit of profitable cultivation, or that 
the owners of the land are too lazy or not competent to give it the 
opportunity. That the nature of the soil is entirely unsusceptible 
of cultivation, is contradicted by the fact that here and there indus¬ 
trious and enterprising men have made good farming investments, 
and are now beginning to realize a proportionate return. The ex¬ 
ample of these men show that even this land may be converted into 
good farms, and that industry and intelligence will ultimately accom¬ 
plish it. Land so near to a good market, where its productions are 
so much called for, ought not to be permitted to lie waste. It is a 
reflection upon the whole community that thousands of acres are 
left in a state of worse than nature, because hitherto man has done 
little else than purloin and destroy the timber, its only production. 
I assume it as an established fact, that this land may be profitably 
cultivated. The success that has attended the few examples allud¬ 
ed to, is sufficient proof of it, and if even these examples in that 
location were wanting, similar soils have been most successfully 
cultivated elsewhere. So long have we been satisfied of this fact, 
that as early as 1815, we made application to the agent of the 
owner for the purchase of the fee simple of 1,000 acres of what, 
from general appearances at that time, we presumed was thought 
almost valueless. Obstacles, however, intervened, and a purchase 
was not consummated; but our opinion formed of the capacity of 
this soil at that time, has not changed by subsequent experience, 
and we hope the time will soon come that will bring all this land 
under the use of the plough ; that time, however, cannot soon come, 
unless the fee simple of the soil is parted with. Men will not buy 
land that at present produces nothing, which is apparently useless 
to the owner, and will cost much to the occupant to improve for the 
ultimate benefit of others. They must have the encouraging thought, 
that what they expend upon it is for their own or their children’s 
benefit, and the course of improvement consequently adopted, will 
be such as to give permanent value to their labors and wealth to 
society. The cultivation of these lands, from their nearness to, 
would be extremely beneficial to Albany. It would make a resi¬ 
dence there more desirable—property more valuable—afford employ¬ 
ment to its poor population, and ensure the most extensive as well 
as varied collection of vegetable productions. This is the kind of 
soil that wants intelligence and enterprise to cultivate it successful¬ 
ly. Your hum-drum farmer will not do here. He must be willing 
to expend as well as to receive if he expects to prosper, and the 
evidences of his success will soon be seen in the appearance of his 
fields. Upon a rich soil any one can farm successfully if he is only 
industrious—there nature has done all, and, like his ox, he has only 
to labor and live—but not so here, nature at present looks unpro- 
pitious, all the improvements of husbandry must be called to our aid, 
and in time stertility wiil be turned into fruitfulness, and what is now 
waste, into profitable culture. The bare and low sand-hills that oc- 
