1852, 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
807 
The General Theory of Cultivation. 
Eds. Cultivator —The cultivation of the soil, togeth¬ 
er with the improvement of those animals which are given 
us as aids in the work, is a noble employment, and fur¬ 
nishes the mind with exhaustless subjects of thought. 
There are two systems of belief that obtain fully my 
credence. The one embodies the heaven-given rules to 
make the moral soil, which sin has cursed, bring forth 
nourishment for the more enduring part of man 5 —the 
other teaches how to provide with the least toil for the 
wants of the body—-to clothe the most unsightly and bar¬ 
ren places with beauty and compel them to add to man’s 
comfort and luxury. Though by our fallen condition.we 
are compelled “ to eat bread in the sweat of our brow,” 
we are not obliged to gather it by the most laborious 
process, to eat the earth’s most uncultivated products, 
or to dwell in the most rude and uncomfortable habita¬ 
tions. But rather it is a high virtue to overcome the ob¬ 
stacles thrown in our way—-to acquire skill in increasing 
and appropriating the precious things “ contained in the 
everlasting hills.” 
I am not qualified by experience or education to give 
rules for farming, I write simply to express the profit 
and gratification your paper affords me, and to throw 
cut a word of caution, chiefly to your correspondents. 
A writer on breeding horses, after many good obser¬ 
vations about the best stock, training, &c., says, “ I doubt 
whether any kind of early training will raise the head of 
a lubber or keep down the head of a flyer.” Another 
writer on education makes the same statement—no col¬ 
leges however good can make statesmen of dunces, and 
no want of education can long keep down the mind in 
which nature has lodged the elements of greatness. 
Now what is this but asserting that no land is to be 
cultivated but the best; yet most of your correspondents 
think all lands may be made good—that there is no need 
of “ dunce” or “lubber” land anywhere. Who are our 
great men,but those whose great minds education has made 
greater? What are our best horses and cattle, but those 
that by continual improvement have been raised from the 
common stock? It may cause a smile to see men of 
science and dunces, “ lubber” and “ flying” horses on 
the same page; still one and the same principle is at 
work in the production of higher forms of life, whether 
applied to the physical or moral v T orld—to animals or 
men, viz: Cultivation. . 
There are many farmers, who by the continual selec¬ 
tion of their best animals for breeding, might have a stock 
equal to any of the high-sounding English nomenclature. 
Would it not be wiser then, to keep more prominent this 
fact, and excite emulation in improving our stock at home, 
than to search creation over after improved animals. I 
do not think it possible to make a perfect Black Hawk 
by obliging him to eat from a high manger, and yet the 
lacing of the Indian baby to the board has some influence 
in the right formation of the man, contributes something 
to the beauty and nobility of the chieftain, and gives him 
power to spring the bow and wield the battle axe. You 
cannot make a perfect gentleman by merely removing a 
pair of clumsy boots and compelling the same clumsy 
heels in calf to go through college; nor can a pair of 
cowhide boots conceal the science and dignified bearing 
of the scholar, who chooses to walk in these in the hon¬ 
orable calling of a tiller of the soil. Deep plowing will 
not cause a large crop on poor land, without manure. 
Feeding a colt on hay alone, will not be likely to produce 
a high spirited creature from a low stock in a single gen¬ 
eration; but let a few oats be added, preserve the best 
for breeders for a series of years, with other things cor¬ 
responding, and you may work wonders. There un¬ 
doubtedly is a great difference in the quality of stock; 
yet it is an old and true saying that “ a bad cow may 
have a good calf,” and when this happens let us take 
good care of it. The conclusion I would draw from these 
remarks is, that from the best materials w r e can obtain, 
by the best means in our power, we should improve our 
stock and elevate ourselves, never forgetting that what 
has been done, may be done again. Warner. West 
port , Essex county, N. Y. 
-- - • 
Advantages of Agricultural Reading. 
Eds. Cultivator —I have been a careful peruser of 
The Cultivator for several years. To me it is a source 
of great enjoyment, in an agricultural point of view; it 
is a visitor who is anxiously waited for, and most parti¬ 
cularly welcomed; a visitor who leaves an indelible im¬ 
pression and gratifying influence, and one who for years 
to come, should I live, I wish to invite to my fireside. 
I can remember when I borrowed of a distant neighbor 
the Genesee Farmer, and how some of the neighbors 
called me the Genesee Farmer, when I told them some 
of the “ big stories” of large crops, and handsome shap¬ 
ed cattle, he., he., all of which they “poohed’? at, 
and said “book farming would ruin any man,” and 
“ book farming was a complete humbug.” In fact they 
said enough to convince me that one party or the other 
were consummate blockheads. But I was determined 
to try to learn something of the profession to which I 
was becoming more attached. I had not the advanta¬ 
ges of an early education in all the particulars which 
one learns who has been reared on a farm, and I thought 
I had better read upon the subject, whether I practiced 
or not. I was fifteen years of age when I moved on a 
farm, and up to this time I had never seen a grain of 
wheat. I had always been at school, and like a great 
many others, did not appreciate my opportunity. About 
this time my parents concluded to invest their little pro¬ 
perty in a farm in thejeounty of Cayuga. When we got 
on our farm, everything looked strange to me; and as 
for my parents, they were but a trifle in advance of me; 
my father did not feel competent to manage a farm of 
one hundred acres. But what I have read upon agri¬ 
culture has been of vast importance to me, whether I 
practice or not. My testimony is, that I would not 
change for money that which I have learned from your 
paper. I would not eyen part with those old numbers; 
every one of them is a gem to me, and if they could 
talk, they would tell of being badly chafed by use. 
The success that has attended my farming operations, 
is wholly attributable to what I have gleaned from works 
upon the subject. I think every man, if he has no more 
than four acres of good land, should read, that lie may 
become more wise, and improve that little to the best 
advantage. What if we do not “ follow the Cultivator,” 
as some say; it enlightens our minds, and I get hints 
every month, that I would ask one dollar a piece for. 
And'I jud ^3 that some of them will come in play, and 
turn something into wliat- will help pay for my farm. 
Chs. E. Roffe. Scipio, N. Y. 
