THE CULTIVATOR. 
July. 
Scenery and Agriculture of Albany County. 
The annexed notes of a tonr through this coun¬ 
ty, have been furnished by one of the committee 
appointed to visit the several towns, by the re¬ 
cently organised County Ag. Society; 
A tour through all the towns in Albany county 
has disclosed two prominent facts, which were un¬ 
known before to us, and which are worthy of 
note. 
The first is, that the scenery of the county is 
remarkably beautiful and picturesque, and of so 
varied a character, that one cannot weary of it. 
There are the rich meadows along the banks of 
the Normanskill, little isolated hills jutting up in 
solitary beauty, and then again forming them¬ 
selves into a mountain range, stretching away for 
miles, in bold, mural declivities, and supporting a 
luxuriant growth of forest trees, and a mass of 
verdure unrivaled in any portion of our land. 
But the beauty of the Helderbergs, as you wind 
your way near their base, is nothing compared 
with the view from their summit. The Catskill 
mountains form a splendid back-ground to the 
landscape in one direction, while the undulating 
country between, spotted here and there with 
groves, farm houses, and cultivated fields, made, 
in the light of a^clear May day, a most lovely pic¬ 
ture. The country on the east bank of the Hud¬ 
son, can be seen reaching away into the blue dis¬ 
tance, and on every side there is something to at¬ 
tract attention and aftaken admiration. 
But it is not so much our purpose to speak of 
the scenery, as of the agricultural aspect of the 
county, and here we notice the second fact of 
which we spoke above, that Albany county af¬ 
fords some of the best farming lands in the state, 
and that a measure of care will develop its resour¬ 
ces to a degree quite unprecedented in its agri¬ 
cultural history. For some eight or ten miles 
from Albany, in a southerly direction, the soil is 
of a light, sandy nature, and with underdraining 
might all be made productive. The low places 
where the water stands and ruins the crops, could 
by draining, be changed into warm, strong soil. 
As you approach the mountains, the soil changes 
to a rich loam, formed by the decomposition of 
the limestone, sandstone, and shale, of which the 
mountains are composed, and which is admirably 
adapted to all the purposes of agriculture. The 
geological structure of the mountains, and the 
many curiosities which are to be seen at every 
step, we have not time or space to glance at. But 
we doubt whether a more fertile soil than that 
which lies in the valleys, and along the slopes of 
the hills, as yon rise towards the Helderbergs. can 
be found in the state. The land up to the very 
summits of the hills is susceptible of cultivation, 
and there is less waste territory than in most 
counties. In some sections, ledges of rock crop 
out or lie very near the surface, which makes the 
soil rather shallow, but yet of sufficient depth to 
afford good pasturage. Some of the finest farms 
we have ever seen, whether situation and general 
appearance, or richness and variety of soil be con¬ 
sidered, may be found in Bethlehem, New-Scot- 
and Coeymans, while Watervliet and Guilder* 
land are in no respect inferior. The towns of 
Westerlo, Rensselaerville, Berne and Knox, fur¬ 
nish many excellent grazing and grass growing 
farms 5 and in most instances, the land which is 
called u too cold and sour” for tillage, might be 
made the best land by draining and cultivation. 
In the first named towns we were informed that 
farms were valued at from $60 to $85 per acre, 
and in some instances could easily find purchas¬ 
ers at higher prices. In the last named, land is 
held considerably lower, owing to a greater dis¬ 
tance from market, and local causes ■ but very 
many farms, for general purposes, are fully equal 
to any in the county. 
The finest stone for building purposes and walls, 
abounds in the county, and can be procured at a 
slight expense. Upon some farms, stone walls 
were the only fences to he seen, and we could not 
but admire the solid, substantial appearance which 
they present. In many cases these fiat stones 
might be used to great advantage for drains instead 
of tiles. 
We were gratified to learn that quite a number 
of farmers are beginning to underdrain their land, 
and in all cases the results have been such as to 
induce them to continue the work as fast as other 
farm labor will permit. In some instances, the 
increase of crops in the first two years has more 
than paid the entire expense of laying the tile, 
while the soil is claimed to be doubled in intrinsic 
value. Mr. ^avid Calaean, of New Scotland, 
the enterprising vice president of the Agricultural 
Society for that town, is improving his excellent 
farm by underdraining, and we also saw here the 
most approved agricultural implements, which, by 
the way, were not in very general use in most 
parts of the county. Other individual instances 
of spirit and success might be mentioned, but in a 
hasty tour we did not take notes sufficiently in 
detail to make such narration interesting. 
The appearance of thrift which pravails in the 
county surprised us. We saw very few neglected 
farms, decrepid fences and dilapidated buildings. 
On the contrary, the farm houses are generally 
neat and commodious, and frequently tasteful, 
the barns and outbuildings are capacious, and give 
indubitable evidence that the farms produce the 
wherewithal to fill them. Wherever a new dwell¬ 
ing has been erected ,it is invariably in a style supe¬ 
rior to that which prevails in most sections of the 
country, and considerable taste is manifested in 
the disposal of trees and shrubbery around the 
best residences. Such improvments are pleasing 
indications of the competence, and also of a degree 
of refinement. There is something contagious 
about taste, and we expect to see a constant ad¬ 
vance in this respect from year to year. 
Though we were pleased to learn that a majority 
of the farmers in the county are becoming owners 
of their soil, and are money lenders instead of 
money borrowers, there are comparatively few 
farms which are cultivated with that care and 
skill which are necessary to the highest profit, 
and the greatest improvement of the soil. The 
lack of ambition and emulation among the farmers 
of the county, and the want of imfbrmation on 
subjects of agricultural reform have been hereto¬ 
fore the hold-backs to progress. But evidences of 
increasing spirit and a true farmer's pride are not 
altogether lacking, and we trust that the Agricul¬ 
tural Society which has just been formed, will do 
much to awaken the attention and direct the en¬ 
ergies of the farmers to higher modes of cultiva¬ 
tion. We do not over-estimate the capabilities of 
the soil, in saying that Albany county can grow 
as large crops, and furnish as marked examples 
of superior culture as any county in the state, if 
the resolution to develop her resources be at once 
adopted and carried into effect. That such a de- 
