166 
THE CULTIVATOK. 
But the most potent engine, probably, in the progress 
of agriculture, has been the Press. This has not only 
been the grand focus for the collection and dissemination 
of light, hut by bringing mind in contact with mind, and 
giving direction and stimulus to mental effort, it has 
elicited new light, and brought to view truths of the 
highest value. 
It is true, that publications on agriculture, of one de¬ 
scription, are not new; volumes were written on the sub¬ 
ject many years ago, and have been issued with increas¬ 
ed frequency down to the present time. These have 
been highly useful as embodying the results of past ex¬ 
perience, and furnishing guides for general practice. 
Periodical publications devoted to agriculture, are, how¬ 
ever, of comparatively recent origin. Thirty years ago, 
there was only one in the United States, and it is but a 
few days since the enterprising founder of that one, (the 
late John S. Skinner, Esq.,) was laboring among us 
with unabated zeal. Scarcely tw T enty years have elapsed 
since the effects of these publications became visible in 
the country; yet in the brief period of their existence, 
they have doubtless contributed much of the power by 
which the improvements which mark the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury have been accomplished. Besides disseminating 
knowledge previously acquired, it is the special office of 
periodicals to record new facts, as they are from time to 
time developed; to suggest new ideas, and to discuss and 
elucidate unsettled questions. They furnish a medium 
through which farmers have a mutual interchange of 
views on the various points of husbandry, and subjects 
therewith connected. This interchange awakens and 
sustains a general interest in agricultural affairs. It 
arouses the mind of the farmer, stimulates him to inves¬ 
tigate the principles of his calling, and to labor with 
greater energy. It has been well remarked in regard to 
these vehicles of communication, that “ they inform us 
of the progress of our art in various districts; they refresh 
the memory,brighten the intellect, and improve the mind; 
they are vast stores of facts , from which many useful 
lessons may be learned by the studious farmer.” They 
are, as another writer observes, “ what the political 
sheet is to the politician; the commercial journals to the 
merchant—indispensible; and that farmer who does with¬ 
out at least one of these publications, must soon lag 
behind his fellow r s, in all desirable improvements; must 
soon be behind the intelligence of his age.” 
These publications, by their circulation through all 
parts of the country, have nearly revolutioned the pub¬ 
lic mind in regard to the relation in which agriculture 
stands to the other industrial interests. Farmers have 
been led to see that their vocation is not a menial drudge¬ 
ry, but that the cultivation of the earth is worthy to be 
dignified as a science. This elevation has infused 
into the agricultural class, a spirit of pride and satifac- 
tion, and given a strong impulse to the cause of improve¬ 
ment. So long as the rural population looked on them¬ 
selves as occupying an inferior social position, little ad¬ 
vance could be made in the improvement of the soil 
or the mind.” The eradication of this error was, there¬ 
fore, the first and most essential step, and this was ef¬ 
fected by inducing farmers to read and observe, by which 
they acquired that knowledge which imparts power and 
inspires confidence. 
May. 
The Wheat Crop of New-T ork. 
Professor Johnston, after his return from America, 
gave an address to the East-Berwickshire Farmers* Club, 
in which, among other remarkable expressions, he is re¬ 
ported to have said— u You have all heard of the famous 
wheat of Genesee, wdiere the land is more fertile than in 
any part of Great Britain; and I learned there that they 
are laying the land down to grass, because they cannot 
afford to grow Avheat.” In the same report of this ad¬ 
dress, we find the following j “ In New Brunswick, Ver¬ 
mont, New-Hampshire, Connecticut and New-York, [we 
italicise] the growth of wheat has almost ceased, and is- 
now gradually receding westward.” 
It is hardly to be expected, that a foreigner, who 
spends but a few months in the country, and whose op¬ 
portunities for observation are limited to a small portion 
of the territory, will be able to obtain a thorough and 
minute knowledge in reference to its agricultural or oth¬ 
er resources; but an honest regard for truth would certain-- 
ly prompt to the exercise of caution, in all statements 
of an important character. But making due allowance 
for all the circumstances, these expressions of Profes¬ 
sor Johnston are less calculated to excite surprise, than 
those of a similar nature which have been made by some 
of our own countrymen, whose position gives to their 
opinions more or less weight with the public. Thus Prof. 
Mapes, in the Working Earner, asserts that c ‘ the wheat 
crops of New-York are less than half, per acre, what 
they were thirty years ago.’* Mr. Skinner, of the 
Plow, Loom and Anvil, regards this assertion as coming 
from u veiy high authority/* and adds in 11 confirma¬ 
tion** of it, that the Hon. Willoughby Newton, in a 
late address at Baltimore, stated that the wheat crop in 
“ the Genesee valley has fallen in production from twen¬ 
ty-five to ten bushels jjer acre.** 
Now we regard these assertions as entirely unwar¬ 
rantable, and notwithstanding the difficulty of proving a 
negative, we believe it can be shown that they have no 
real foundation. We think the history and results of 
wheat growing in this state, may be briefly stated as fol¬ 
lows : 
When the country was first settled, and while the vir¬ 
gin fertility of the soil remained, good crops of wheat 
were generally obtained at little expense; but from the 
imperfect and exhausting tillage which was practiced, 
the yield gradually declined till within a comparatively 
few years. This retrograde tendency has been arrested 
by improved cultivation, and the average yield, for se¬ 
veral years, in the principal wheat growing districts, has 
been steadily increasing, and is now greater than it was 
when the soil was first cultivated. 
We are confident that the testimony of those who are 
best acquainted with the subject, will support this view; 
and though we are not in possession of such extensive 
data as would be desirable, we can offer some evidence 
which bears directly on the point. 
At a discussion on the subject of wheat culture, which 
took place at the rooms of the Ne^-York State Agricul¬ 
tural Society, in 1850, Lieut. Gov. Patterson said— 
The wheat lands in the Genesee valley, when new, pro¬ 
duced about fifteen bushels of wheat per acre. They 
were plowed shallow—the farmers had not generally suf- 
