Vol. I. ALBANY, JANUARY, 1858. No. I. 
Third Series of the Cultivator. 
With this number we commence the Third Se¬ 
ries of The Cultivator. We commence a new 
series, because the supply of back numbers and 
complete sets is nearly exhausted, and to mark the 
fact of its reduced price. With this number, too, 
we enter upon a New Year, and with a hearty 
good will, wish all our subscribers happiness and 
success. Though separated from many of them by 
thousands of miles, we have a mutual ground of 
sympathy, mutual labors and hopes. We are 
striving for a common good—you in the bright 
sunshine and on the broad field ; we in the con¬ 
fines of an office, and on a circumscribed sheet. 
We trust our readers will bear in mind that we 
are .laboring for their interests, and that we in¬ 
tend to make The Cultivator the repository of 
the experience of the best skilled agriculturists 
of the day, as well as the advocate of principles 
of sound culture, as taught by the most scientific 
and reliable scholars of the country. While all 
the tendencies of the times are onward, and error 
plants, itself side by side with truth in the haste of 
rapid progress, we aim to be guarded and pru¬ 
dent ; and while we shall welcome every advance 
in agricultural improvement, we shall also en¬ 
deavor to distinguish between the false and true, 
and thus render The Cultivator a safe guide to 
the farmer. The matter of an agricultural jour¬ 
nal must of course vary with the times, but the 
purpose and spirit of our work is always the same. 
Larger aims now enter the design of such a pub¬ 
lication 5 for we have now to appeal to that know¬ 
ledge and those tastes which at first it was our 
purpose to awaken. 
A fruitful field and a cultivated mind lie at the 
basis of national prosperity and individual happi¬ 
ness, and whatever tends towards these, is within 
the scope of The Cultivator. We shall spare 
no pains or expense to make this journal worthy 
the continued confidence and patronage of those 
who have so long supported it, and to deserve all 
the eulogiums which the press and our friends 
have made, with regard to our efforts. 
In thus commencing our Third Series at a 
merely nominal price, we ask for the continued aid 
and co-operation of all the friends of agricultural 
improvement. We must, of necessity, have a 
much increased subscription list, at the reduced 
price, or our expenses cannot be met. Will not 
each person into whose hands this number falls, 
use his best exertions to extend its circulation in 
his neighborhood, by getting up a club himself, 
or inducing some one else to do so ? 
We also invite attention to the Country Gen¬ 
tleman, a specimen of which many of our sub¬ 
scribers have seen. We were led to its publica¬ 
tion, from the conviction that a large class of 
farmers and Others interested in rural life, wished 
something more in an agricultural journal than it 
was possible to furnish in the columns of a, month¬ 
ly. Horticulture and matters of rural taste, de¬ 
manded more attention than the limits of the Cul¬ 
tivator would allow. The home education of 
farmers and their families, the social aspects of 
country life, the pleasures that slumber too often 
at the fire-sides of country residents, all present 
themselves as most desirable topics for discussion 
in an agricultural paper. A growing literary 
taste demands articles of a higher order than usu¬ 
ally find their way into such journals. In a week¬ 
ly journal all these subjects may be combine d with 
strictly agricultural matter, in such way an to fit 
it for general perusal, and the improvement of the 
family circle, while the paper will be none the less 
valuable to the farmer. This combination, to¬ 
gether with a concise summary of news, will sup¬ 
ply a want that is felt to a considerable extent by 
country gentlemen and their families. We have 
already received many flattering assurances that 
we have not mistaken public sentiment in this 
matter, and we commend the Country Gentle¬ 
man, to our readers as the paper, which no en- ^ 
lightened farmer, no man of rural taste, no one N 
who wishes to educate his children to be farmers, // 
