THE CULTIVATOR. 
Itoies far ttie Htaiit|. 
Points of Excellence in Cattle. —So much dif¬ 
ficulty had been experienced in selecting Judges on Cat¬ 
tle at our State Fairs, and permitting each successive 
committee to determine upon its own rules of merit, 
that the State Society determined to take efficient mea¬ 
sures to remedy, so far as possible, the evil; and a com¬ 
mittee was appointed some months since, consisting of 
about twenty of the best judges of cattle in the state, to 
consider this subject, and to report such rules as they 
might deem best calculated for a uniform and correct 
criteria in awarding the premiums of the Society on 
Cattle. This committee held a final meeting at the Ag¬ 
ricultural rooms in this city on the 5th of May. Hav¬ 
ing concluded their labors, they made their report to the 
Executive Committee, who at their meeting on the 6th, 
adopted the Rules reported by the commit We, and pass¬ 
ed a vote of thanks to Francis Rotch, Esq., chairman 
of the committee, by whom the very able and carefully 
prepared report “ on the points of excellence in cattle,” 
was drawn up. We give the “ Points of a Short-Horn” 
in this number, and shall publish the rules in relation to 
other breeds hereafter. These “ Points” will be found 
worthy, not only of the perusal, but of the careful study 
of everv breeder of cattle. 
New-York Agricultural College. —The corpo¬ 
ration of this Institution was organized last week, by 
the election of John Delafield, of Seneca co., Presi¬ 
dent; Hon. John A. King, of Queens co., Chairman 
of the Board of Trustees; Joel W. Bacon, of Seneca 
co., Secretary; and N. B. Kidder, of Ontario co., 
Treasurer. Measures are to be taken immediately to 
secure the requisite funds, and it is expected that the 
college will go into operation in the course of the fol¬ 
lowing summer. - 
A Sound Suggestion. —A valued correspondent in 
Pennsylvania, after expressing his approbation of the 
Country Gentleman, makes the following suggestion, 
which is worthy the consideration of both editors and 
correspondents:—“ If I might venture the remark, I 
would say, that the strongest hold an agricultural paper 
can have on. the body of farmers is, that it should be 
practical and applicable to every day farm work; and, 
while enlightened and progressive, should repress specu¬ 
lation, unsupported by reason or experience. The strong 
hold of ignorance is book farming, theory, Ac.; but the 
discretion of editors may readily silence this battery.” 
United States Ag. College. — A correspondent 
writes us as follows: 
Messrs. Editors —By the “New-York Times” of 
the 13th inst., I saw that a farmer of Hamilton county, 
Ohio, had subscribed $1,000 to the Clay monument 
project. Now, I am neither a Whig nor a Democrat, 
but I think it is proper for the American people to tes¬ 
tify their admiration of such a man as Henry Clay; 
but the next question is, to know which is the most ap¬ 
propriate as well as lasting monument, that can be 
erected. It seems to me that it can in no way be bet¬ 
ter done than by erecting a United States Agricultural 
College, to which the name of this lamented and great 
man—who was also a farmer—should be given, and the 
young men who would receive an education in this col¬ 
lege, would forever cherish the memory of the “Far¬ 
mer of Ashland.” 
A monumental pile of granite or marble is certainly a 
fine sight, but when once erected, it benefits no one, 
and in the course of time it crumbles to the earth; 
while, if Agricultural Schools were built—instead of 
monuments—in which a good education could be se¬ 
cured at little cost to those who intend to be farmers, 
and whose pecuniary circumstances allow them to re¬ 
ceive but a poor education, it would benefit the country 
to the extent of thousands of dollars annually, as the 
next generation of farmers, being better educated than 
the present one, would cultivate their lands properly, 
and thus add to the national wealth. N. Northern 
New-York, 21 st April, .1853. 
We like the idea, and should rejoice to know that 
some admirer, (and few r men ever had more devoted ad¬ 
mirers,) of Henry Clay, had undertaken to carry the 
project suggested above, into execution. It could be 
done, were a suitable and competent person to undertake 
it. The difficulty is to find the man who has the patri¬ 
otism and the energy to carry such a project into effect. 
If any of our readers know such a man, we hope they 
will call him into action. 
The Michigan Discovery. —Since our notice of the 
announcement of the discovery of a remedy for the po¬ 
tato rot, by som§. person in Michigan, whose friends 
wished to secure “ an ample ’’reward for giving it to the 
public,” we have been favored with the secret, -which 
amounts to just about as much as we supposed. As the 
secret has been voluntarily communicated to us, without 
any restraint as to the use we should make of it, we 
give the following extract from the letter of our corres¬ 
pondent :■— 
“I suppose, from your article, that you must have 
seen Mr. Roberts’ pamphlet. If not, as I have re¬ 
ceived it without any pledge of secrecy, I may say to 
you that the “remedy” seems to consist simply in 
leaving the seed potatoes in the hill through the winter, 
covering the hills with half-rotted straw, chaff or leaves.” 
That potatoes may be preserved in this way, through 
the winter, is well known to every farmer; and that 
Mr. Roberts’ potatoes may have escaped the rot is by 
no means improbable. This, however, does not prove 
that their freedom from rot is to be attributed to the 
manner in which the seed was preserved through the 
winter; but rather that his soil and culture were pecu¬ 
liarly favorable to the growth, and. we presume early 
maturity of the plant. 
During the prevalence of the rot in England, six or 
seven years since, this very experiment of keeping the 
potatoes in the ground through the winter, was repeat¬ 
edly tried—that is, potatoes were planted in October, 
November and December, and so covered as to prevent 
injury from the cold, but in every instance which we 
remember to have seen reported, they, proved as sub¬ 
ject to disease as those planted in the spring. 
Terra Culture. —The Rural New-Yorker must 
have greatly desired to find fault with this journal, or it 
would hardly have gone so far out of its way as to have 
dragged it into a controversy about who set “ that ball 
in motion.” We have not only never disputed its 
claim, to have given it the first kick, but expressly 
gave it the credit, whatever it might be, of having first 
“ disclosed the disclosures ” of “ Professor ’’ Comstock. 
True we have known Mr. Comstock for a dozen years or 
more; but we have always refused to receive his secret; 
for however much of a humbug it might be, it did 
not comport with our ideas of right, to receive a se¬ 
cret, however simple, under an understood pledge 
not to reveal it, and then to proclaim -it to the public. 
Neither, from all we have heard from those who have 
listened to Mr. C., did we suppose there was any par¬ 
ticular necessity, or that there would be any great “ vir¬ 
tue ” in denouncing him. A large majority of those 
who attended his “ lectures,” so far as we knew', ap¬ 
peared satisfied with what they got for their dollar; 
while no one pretended that he was doing the cause of 
agriculture an injury. We did not, therefore, deem it 
necessary to make a “ virtue” of entering into a contest 
upon the subject. We were content to let him follow 
his own course, especially when it seemed to awaken in¬ 
quiry and to increase attention to improvement in cul¬ 
tivation. 
Had the Editor of the Rural New-Yorker finished 
the sentence so abruptly and indefinitely ended by an 
“Ac.,” he would have informed his readers that we did 
class the important “ secret,” with the most common¬ 
place facts, some of w r hich were thereafter disclosed. 
We had not the opportunity which the Rural had “to 
condemn the humbug,” as we did not hear it “ei.poun- 
