146 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
ried, and within us we feel the convictions of eventual success, 
and are cheered with the hope. Shall the cultivation of the earth, 
the art most useful and first created, lag behind all our contempo¬ 
raries in the race ? Will we permit doctors, and lawyers, and 
ministers, mechanics and manufacturers, all ranks and classes, by 
the exercise of those reasoning faculties which we hold in com¬ 
mon with them, to take precedence of us, simply because they 
use their understandings, while we are striving only to use our 
hands? Will we cultivate the soil, and neglect the culture of our 
minds, and thus contemn the law of nature which teaches, that it 
is the intelligent head that can most successfully direct the labors 
of the hand ? Our art as a system, is yet to be arranged, for we 
know little of the capacities of the soil we nuzzle in, or what are 
its most bountiful and profitable productions. When our pursuit 
resolves itself into simple elementary principles, scientifically 
arranged, and easily understood, our labors will be better directed, 
and that Eden which was created for the enjoyment of our first 
parents, will, by our intelligence and industry, be re-created, and 
the whole earth become, as it were, a paradise to dwell in. 
Efforts are now making to reduce farming to a regular system, 
that like law, divinity, or physic, mechanics or manufactures, a 
young man shall learn it as those are learned, both theoretically 
and practically ; and it will not be till this is done, that the farme'r 
will take his place along side of the professions in the scale of so¬ 
ciety. It is but a few years since agricultural newspapers have 
been successfully established in this state ; abortive attempts had 
previously been made, but the community seemed then not to be 
prepared to maintain them. They have now thus far fought their 
way into notice, and from the benefits which they have distribut¬ 
ed among the farming community, have established themselves 
upon a permanent basis. Agriculture, since this period, is look¬ 
ing up. All the former productions of the soil have been greatly 
increased, and new articles of produce to us have been beneficial¬ 
ly introduced. There has been an obvious improvement in our 
stock of cattle, both by the introduction of foreign varieties, and 
a more thorough attention to the breeding of better kinds engraft¬ 
ed upon our old stock. We have become better acquainted with 
the best and most profitable kinds of sheep, and can now compete 
with any country in Europe in the excellence of our mutton and 
our wool. In swine, there is an evident improvement, both as re¬ 
gards weight and their facility to fatten. In the cultivation of the 
soil, new methods have been suggested and beneficially acted up¬ 
on. New implements have been invented and profitably used; 
the old ones altered and simplified, so as to make them more ma¬ 
nageable and far more useful. Both new and old varieties of 
grasses have been more successfully cultivated, which have af¬ 
forded the triple profit of better and more abundant pasturage in 
summer, more hay in winter, and a richer sod to impart fertility to 
a succeeding crop. Above all, the old system of exhausting the soil 
by a succession of grain crops, has been most successfully expos¬ 
ed, and is in a measure abandoned. The subject of manures has 
been amply discussed, is better understood, the kinds extended, 
the quantities increased, and this great source of the farmer’s 
wealth receiving more of the farmer’s attention. In a word, far¬ 
ming is on the advance, and the hand of improvement discernable, 
and that the agricultural newspapers have materially contributed 
to it cannot be denied. We now find that the amount of our pros¬ 
perity is proportioned to the intelligence with which we culti¬ 
vate our farms, and as we give it more of our thoughts it seems to 
require less of manual labor. 
These are the first results, the auspicious beginings of all our ef¬ 
forts, thus far, for the amelioration of the soil, which lias been en¬ 
hanced in value since these efforts have been made. But much 
remains yet to be done. There is yet a vast field open for the ex¬ 
ercise of our power, and no man must call himself a farmer who 
does not endeavor and aspire to raise his fifty bushels of wheat, 
from seventy to eighty bushels of oats and barley, one hundred 
of corn, from two to three tons of grass to the acre, with that pro¬ 
portion of other vegetable productions. He must not be content 
with less. Providence has given the ground the capacity of be- 
ing made to do more than this—it will be man’s own sloth and in¬ 
attention in abusing the soil, on which he was reared, and on 
which he treads, if he does not obtain, yea, far surpass, these now 
to us great results. Albany, Jan. 1, 1836. 
f I his preceding article has been furnished, at our request, by an esteemed 
and intelligent fnend-to whom, ln this manner, we beg leave to tender our 
thanks.] 
AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR 1835. 
The season, as a whole, has been cold and dry, and consequent¬ 
ly a late one. Natural vegetation was from ten to fourteen days, 
later than usual. The spring was so dry, that the grasses, sensi¬ 
bly injured by the drought and cold of the winter, did not get 
their accustomed early growth ; and from the scarcity of forage 
generally experienced, the scanty herbage of the meadows was 
led off too late in the spring as a matter of necessity. They did 
not recover their accustomed vigor. Winter grain withstood the 
severities of the winter better than the grasses, looked tolera¬ 
bly well when the spring opened, and maintained their good ap¬ 
pearance. Indian corn, which habit has rendered almost indis- 
pensible in the economy of our farms, was not generally planted 
so early, by ten to fourteen days, as in ordinary years, on account 
of the backwardness of the spring; and it had many subsequent 
difficulties to encounter, which have tended greatly to lessen its 
product. The season has been more propitious to other crops, 
particularly to oats and potatoes. Yet on the whole, the products 
of our agriculture are less than a medium yield, as is evidenced by 
their high prices in market. 
Wheat, we believe, afforded a fair average yield in most of the 
districts of secondary formation, where it constitutes the great 
staple. In other districts the result was less favorable. In the 
south, the product was seriously diminished by the Hessian fly; 
[while in this vicinity, and to the north of us, the grain worm took 
at least one half the crop. The quality of the grain was good ; 
and there has been a manifest improvement, which we hope will 
continue to progress, in selecting clean seed. The extra price 
one pays for clean seed, weighs but as a feather against the ad¬ 
vantages of a clean crop. Our apprehensions from the grain 
worm are in no wise diminished. We have tried the preventive 
means which have been recommened without any sensible benefit. 
We hardly know of a more afflicting calamity that could happen 
to our state, than the extension of this evil, as now experienced 
here, to our western counties. And what is to prevent it? Is 
not the subject one of sufficient importance to call for legislative 
inquiry? 
Hay has not been two-thirds, and in some districts not one- 
fourth, of an ordinary crop, from the causes which we have in 
part explained,—the want of the early and the latter rain, and the 
severe cold of the preceding winter,—causes, which human pru¬ 
dence could neither foresee nor guard against. If there is any 
profitable suggestion which we can make, growing out of the 
failure of this crop, it is that of renovating old meadows, by sub¬ 
jecting them to the plough and an alternation of crops. So far as 
our personal observation will serve as a criterion, old grass grounds 
fell off in their product much more than grounds recently laid 
down, on our own lands three to one. This disappointment in 
the hay crop is however likely, we think, to do a vast amount of 
good—by coercing us to more economical modes of feeding it to 
our cattle, and to the better husbanding our means—and by ex¬ 
tending the culture of roots. The practice of feeding at stacks 
and in open yards, or even in common racks, where the cattle 
tread and waste nearly one-half of the forage, is giving way to 
the better system of feeding in mangers, to which the cattle are 
tied, and where nothing is lost. The stacks and shucks of com 
have been better sa\ed, and if cut, as they are in many instances, 
they are affording an excellent substitute for hay. We give to¬ 
day a cut and description of a yard rack, well calculated to pro¬ 
mote economy in fodder. The hay cutter is coming into gene¬ 
ral use. 
Indian corn, as we have observed, was planted late, and w r as 
very generally and seriously injured by the grub-worm. The re¬ 
planted portion did not come to maturity before the frosts of Sept. 
14, 15—the mean temperature of the summer having been some 
degrees cooler than ordinary. The frost of the 4th of August also 
destroyed much in the elevated districts, and upon the margins of 
small streams. Nor were these the only difficulties the crop had 
to encounter : the warm humid weather of October seemed to sa¬ 
turate the cob with moisture, or to prevent its becoming dry, and 
caused mouldiness in the grain ; and in many cases where this 
was not fully ripened, absolute putrefaction. This was not only 
the case at the north, but extensively so as far south as Virginia. 
We note the fact here, that the reader may compare it with his 
own practice and its results, that we cut our corn at the ground, 
before all that had been replanted had become glazed ; that it did 
