12 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
I am convinced the operative farmer, who performs his own labor, 
can effect similar improvements considerably less than I have stated. 
In some instances, the state of my lands required an expenditure 
of at least $20 per acre in draining. In such cases the produc¬ 
tion was coarse, unwholesome grasses, of little value, and tillage 
was quite out of the question. Twenty dollars per acre was the ex¬ 
tent of the value of the land ; whereas, after being effectually drain¬ 
ed and cultivated, these lands have produced Indian corn, oats, wheat 
and clover in great luxuriance, paying an income on one hundred 
dollars the acre. 
Every practical farmer is aware of the inconvenience and disad¬ 
vantage attending the cultivation of fields, the different parts of 
which are so various as to preclude a uniform crop and uniformity 
of cultivation. Draining is the remedy for this. 
As the improvement here treated of is of the most enduring na¬ 
ture, it would be unfair to charge the expense attending it upon the 
product ol a single year. My belief is, that I have been fully re¬ 
munerated by the increased products of three years in all cases; 
and further, in nearly every field I have, at the termination of the 
stone drains, durable suppiies of water for animals, which, in my 
estimation, fully compensate the whole expense incurred. 
Upon the whole, I know of no subject, connected with agricultu¬ 
ral improvement, of more importance than draining; and if these 
facts I have detailed at your request, should lead a single individual 
to experiment on this subject, I shall deem the hour occupied in the 
detail fully compensated. 
I am, sir, very respectfully, your ob’t servant, 
HENRY W. DELAVAN. 
Letter from Earl Stimson to Jesse Buel, dated 
Galway, 18lh Dec. 1833. 
Dear Sir —In reply to yours of the 23d November, requesting 
some information in regard to the difi'erence between gpod and bad 
farming, I submit the following facts: 
When the land was first cleared in this town, being about forty- 
five years since, its timber consisted principally of beach, maple, elm, 
ash and basswood. The soil produced good crops of ali kinds; but 
the farmers neglecting to save and apply their manure, the conse¬ 
quence was, that their crops decreased, and in about twenty-five 
years the land would not produce more than one-half as much, on an 
average, as when it was first cleared, and this half cost them more 
labor than when they got double the quantity of grain or grass. 
The land I now till, at first, would not produce on an average, 
more than fifteen or twenty bushels of corn, ten or fifteen bushels of 
wheat, barley or rye, and from half a ton to one ton of hay per acre. 
I commenced making, saving and applying my manure in the most 
economical way on the surface, and ploughing shallow; and in ten 
or twelve years I found I had brought it back to its original state of 
fertility. My practice has been to turn over the sod in the fall or 
spring, spread eight or ten tons of barn-yard manure on an acre, 
and then plant with corn ; and to follow the corn with barley and 
grass seeds, putting three pounds of clover and four of timothy 
seed on an acre ; then let it lay two years to grass ; then to go over 
with the same rotation of crops; and my third rotation was first 
wheat, second corn, third barley, to seed down with, applying about 
the same quantity of manure every time I turned over the sod. In 
this way, in the course of twenty years, I got some of my fields to 
yield from eighty to one hundred bushels of corn, thirty-five to forty 
bushels of wheat, fifty to sixty bushels of barley, and from two and 
an half to three and an half tons ot hay per acre, and with less labor, 
except in harvesting, than when I did not raise only about one-third 
or one-quarter as much. I know from my own experience, that it 
does not cost one-half, if more than one-third as much, to raise a 
bushel of grain by good husbandry, as it does by bad management. 
The farmers have much improved their farms in this town, since 
our State Agric 1 '.tural Society was organized, and of course their 
crops have increased in proportion. I have no doubt that the money 
which was appropriated by the state to encourage agriculture, has in¬ 
creased the wealth of this county, more than twenty per cent a 
year since, yet there seems to be a want of enterprise with our 
farmers in promoting their true interest. 
The crops in this town were generally good the last season, ex¬ 
cept corn, which, owing to the unusually wet and cold season, did 
not yield more than one-third or one-half of a usual crop. I planted 
a field of four acres, which was in my highest state of cultivation. 
Occupied as pasture, I turned over the sod about the first of June, 
and planted it two feet eight inches apart, with eight rowed yellow 
corn. When the stalks were fit to cut, I had the curiosity to ascer¬ 
tain the weight of the corn and stalks on an acre, and found that I 
had 38,000 pounds, and 26,000 ears of corn. This was the heaviest 
growth I think that I ever raised, and I have no doubt that there 
was 150 or 160 bushels of corn when fit to crib. 
Respectfully yours, 
EARL STIMSON. 
Communication from David Hosack, M. D. read before the society Feb. 12,1834. 
New- York, Jan. 26, 1834. 
Dear Sir—I rejoice to learn, from the hints dropped in the course 
of conversation when you were last in town, that you have it in view 
to recall the public attention to the subject of agriculture, which, 
some few years since, obtained the patronage of the legislature, and, 
I may add, was manifestly improved throughout this state, by the 
impulse it then received. 
The scheme originally suggested for promoting agricultural know¬ 
ledge by our late governor, De Witt Clinton, in 1818, and the valu¬ 
able observations on that subject, contained in his annual messages 
to the legislature, since that period, cannot be too frequently called 
to our recollection, and made known throughout our land. 
The establishment of agricultural associations of practical farmers 
in the different counties of this state, and who, as formerly, with the 
aid of legislative provision, shall be enabled to reward the enterprise 
and merit of those who may excel in improving the qualities of their 
stock, or in augmenting the various produce of the soil, must doubt¬ 
less advance the interests of the farmer, diffuse a knowledge both of 
the principles and practice of agriculture, and increase the general 
resources of the state. It has also occurred to me, that the institu¬ 
tion ot one or more schools or colleges, with farms annexed to them, 
where the students of agriculture may practically acquire a know¬ 
ledge of the art and science of (arming combined, is a most desirable 
object, and cannot fail to prove highly useful to the community. 
As a garden is essentially necessary to teach the culture of plants, 
so is the farm required to illustrate the practice and the principles 
of agriculture. 
For this purpose, such agricultural school should be provided with 
competent instructors in all the different subjects necessary to con¬ 
stitute the scientific as well as the practical farmer. 
It should be supplied not only with teachers or professors capable 
ot instructing youth in the various departments of practical husband¬ 
ry, and the theory of farming, but also with able instructors in ihose 
collateral branches of science that are directly connected with agri¬ 
culture, as geology, chemistry and natural history, embracing zoology, 
botany and mineralogy. To these should be added lectures on hor¬ 
ticulture, rural economy and landscape gardening. 
The subject of agriculture, viewed in this extent, appears to me 
to claim our notice, as one of great importance to the character, as 
well as tributary to the interests and wealth of our state and coun¬ 
try. 
While you will doubtless recommend the society to ask from the 
state the appropriation of a small premium fund, in addition to that 
to be contributed as formerly by the different county societies, to be 
bestowed upon the most successful cultivator of the soil, or breeder 
of the various animals employed as stock, I hope you will not fail to 
urge the benefits to be derived from the establishment of agricul¬ 
tural college and farm, where youth may be instructed in all the dif¬ 
ferent departments of knowledge necessary to constitute the scien¬ 
tific as well as the practical cultivator of the soil: where the pupil 
may be instructed, by the professor of agriculture, in a knowledge 
of the general principles of farming, the rotation of crops as adapted 
to different climates, soils and situations ; where he can witness the 
operation of the different implements of husbandry, -obtain a know¬ 
ledge of the various animals, those best suited to our climate and 
country, whether employed in the cultivation of the land, those most 
profitable for the dairy, or are most valuable as food for man : where, 
too, from the professor of chemistry as connected with agriculture, he 
can learn the nature and composition of soils, the effects of manures, 
their various sorts, whether animal, vegetable or mineral; their dif¬ 
ferent qualities and operation, whether acting directly as th e food of 
plants, or as condiments, exciting them to healthy growth : where, 
too, the pupil, under the professor of natural history, can acquire a 
knowledge of the various trees of the forest, whether cultivated for 
timber, for house, or ship building, whether employed in the various 
mechanic arts, or for the purpose of fuel: where, too, he can practi- 
