THE CULTIVATOR. 
33 
The whole field received three pecks to the acre in 1808, and was 
the best piece of high land grass of the size I ever saw. The wheat 
received ne benefit. 
March 10th. Sowed 40 bushels of plaster on 60 acres of poor 
land, cultivated in corn (Indian) last year, and well set with bird- 
foot clover, leaving an unplastered slip. Weather dry and windy. 
Effect vast. Strip visible to an inch, as far off as you could distin¬ 
guish grass. The bird-foot clover died, and a crop of crab grass 
shot up through it, and furnished a second cover to the land. 
1807 and 1808. In these two years all my corn ground as it was 
broken up or listed, has been plastered broad cast, with from three 
pecks to a bushel to the acre, and direcOy ploughed in, and both the 
seed corn and seed wheat have been rolled bushel to bushel. In 
both, the crops have greatly exceeded what the fields have ever be¬ 
fore produced. That cultivated last year has doubled any former 
product. But they have been aided in spots with manure, and the 
years were uncommonly fruitful. All the manure carried out in 
these two years, has been sprinkled with plaster when spread before 
being ploughed in, and several fields of the bird-foot clover have 
been plastered. The results conform to those already mentioned. 
18U8, February. Plastered four ridges of highland meadow oat at 
a bushel to the acre. No effect. 
Some ef the inferences I make from these experiments are, that 
gypsum should be worked into the earth; that half a bushel or less 
to an acre, worked in, will improve land considerably ; that drought 
can defeat its effects upon corn, but not upon the land, if it is cover¬ 
ed ; that the weather is of no consequence at the moment it is sown, 
though the subsequent season is of great; that it may vastly improve 
red clover even as late as May ; that it increases the effects of 
coarse manure; that a quantity less than half a bushel to an acre, 
is in some cases as effectual as a much larger one; that excessive 
moisture or excessive drought destroys its effects ; that its effect is 
more likely to be destroyed, when sprinkled on the surface, than 
when mixed with the earth; that sowing it broad-cast among Indian 
corn after it is up, may improve the crop 25 per cent; that sown in 
June, it may not improve English grass; that sown in August and 
covered, it may improve the land, though drought succeeds ; that 
sown on wheat in November, it may neither benefit the wheat 
nor land : that about three pecks to the acre immediately sprinkled 
on clover seed sown on the surface, may cause it to come up, live, 
and thrive better; that a similar quantity sown on the surlace in 
March, may treble the burden of bird-foot clover; that sown broad¬ 
cast from the 1st of January in breaking up or listing corn ground, 
the same quantity will probably add considerably to the crop ; and 
that it may not improve the high land meadow oat if sown in Febru¬ 
ary. 
Young- Men’s Department. 
ON THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER. . 
Fix upon a high standard of character. Or as it has sometimes 
been expressed, determine to he somebody in the world. To be thought 
somebody is not sufficient: the point you are to aim at, is to be°so. 
As a motive to this, let me urge in the first place, a regard to your 
own happiness. To this you are by no means indifferent at present. 
Nay, the attainment of happiness is your primary object. You seek 
it in every desire, word, or action. But you sometimes mistake the 
road that leads to it, either for the want of a friendly hand to guide 
you, or because you refuse to be guided. Or what is most common, 
you grasp at a smaller good, which is near, and apparently certain : 
and in so doing cut yourself off from the enjoyment of a good which 
is almost infinitely larger, though more remote. 
Let me urge in the second place, a regard for the family to which 
you belong. It is true you can never fully know, unless the bitter¬ 
ness of ingratitude should teach you, the extent of the duty you owe 
to your relatives ; and especially to your parents. You cannot know 
—at least till you are parents yourselves,—how their hearts are 
bound up in yours. But if you do not in some measure know it, till 
this late period, you are not fit to be parents. Hence, then, one 
evidence of the need in which you stand of the lessons of experi¬ 
ence. 
In the third place, it is due to society, particularly to the neigh- 
borhood or sphere in which you move, and to the associations to 
which you may belong, that you strive to attain a very great eleva¬ 
tion of character. Here, too, I am well aware that it is impossible, 
at your age, to perceive fully, how much you have it in your own 
Vol.I. E 
power to contribute, if you will, to the happiness of those around 
you ; and here again let me refer you to the advice and guidance of 
aged friends. 
But fourthly, it is due to the nation and age to which you belong, 
that you fix upon a high standard of character. This work is in¬ 
tended for American youth. Americanl did I say! This word, 
alone, ought to call forth all your energies, and if there be a slumber¬ 
ing faculty within you, arouse it to action. Never, since the crea¬ 
tion, were the youth of any age or country so imperiously called up¬ 
on to exert themselves, as those whom I now address. Never be¬ 
fore were there so many important interests at stake. Never were 
such immense results depending upon a generation of men as upon 
that which is now approaching the stage of action. These rising 
millions are destined, according to all human probability, to form by 
far the greatest nation that ever constituted an entire community of 
freemen, since the world began. To form the character of these 
millions involves a greater amount of responsibility, individual and 
collective, than any work to which humanity has ever been called. 
And the reasons are, it seems to me obvious. 
Now it is for you, my young friends, to determine whether these 
weighty responsibilities shall be fulfilled. It is for you to decide 
whether this greatest of free nations shall, at the same time, be the 
best. And as every nation is made up of individuals, you are each, 
in reality, called upon daily, to settle this question: “Shall the Unit¬ 
ed States, possessing the most ample means of instruction brought 
within the reach of all her citizens, the happiest government, the 
healthiest of climates, the greatest abundance of the best and most 
wholesome nutriment, with every other possible means for develop¬ 
ing all the powers of human nature, be peopled with the most vigo¬ 
rous, powerful and happy race of human beings which the world has 
ever known!” 
There is another motive to which I beg leave for one moment to 
direct your attention. You are bound to fix on a high standard of 
action from the desire of obeying the will of God. He it is who has 
cast your lot in a country—which all things considered—is the hap¬ 
piest below the sun. He it is who has given you such a wonderful 
capacity for happiness, and instituted the delightful relations of pa¬ 
rent and child, and brother and sister, and friend and neighbor. I 
might add, He it is too, who has given you the name American, —a 
name which alone furnishes a passport to many civilized lands, and 
like a good countenance, or a becoming dress, prepossesses every 
body in your favor. So that all the foregoing motives unite in one 
to swell the appeal to your feelings and increase the weight of your 
responsibility. 
He who only aims at little, will accomplish but little. Expect great 
things, and attempt great things. A neglect of this rule produces 
more of the difference in the character, conduct, and success of men, 
than is commonly supposed. Some start in life without any leading 
object at all; some with a low one ; and some aim high :—and just 
in proportion to the elevation at which they aim, will be their pro¬ 
gress and success. It is an old proverb that he who aims at the sun, 
will not reach it to be sure ; but his arrow will fly higher than if he 
aims at an object on a level with himself. Exactly so it is, in the 
formation of character. 
Let me repeat the assurance that as a general rule, you may be 
whatever you will resolve to be. Determine that you will be some¬ 
thing in the world, and you shall be. Young men seem to me ut¬ 
terly unconscious of what they are capable of being and doing. 
Their efforts are often few and feeble, because they are not awake 
to a full conviction that any thing great or distinguished is in their 
power. 
But whence came an Alexander, a Caesar, a Charles 12, or a Na¬ 
poleon ! Or whence the better order of spirits,—an Alfred, a Lu¬ 
ther, a Howard, a Franklin, a Washington, a Rush ? Were not 
these men once like yourselves! What but self-exertion, seconded 
by the blessing of heaven, ever placed their names high on the ca¬ 
talogue of human fame! Rely upon it,—what these men once were 
you may be. Not that the same individual may successfully imitate 
them all; but those of you who fix upon any one of them as a mo¬ 
del, may be pretty sure of rising to the same, or a higher eminence. 
Resolution is almost omnipotent. These little words, try, and begin, 
are sometimes great in their results. «I cant,” never accomplish¬ 
ed any thing ;—“I will try,” has achieved wonders. 
The positions I have here taken, in reference to human capabili¬ 
ties might be proved and illustrated by instances almost innumera¬ 
ble ; but one only may suffice for the present. 
