308 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Sept. 
plows, with a coulter on the share, and he took that to 
another part of the field, and with one of his big horses, 
plowed with perfect ease, six inches deep and nine in¬ 
ches wide, without any extra effort of his horse. He 
gathered around him, as you may well imagine, a large 
crowd, and the wonder expressed was very amusing, 
The result of this was, that the gentleman ordered this 
plow on the spot, and before I left, gave the names of 
four others in the neighborhood, who were present, for 
the plows to be ordered for them. This gentleman said, 
after he had tried the plow, “1 do not mind what the 
judges may say say about the plow, it is the one for me.” 
Had I with me fifty of Starbuck's plows, of medium sizes, 
I could have sold them to farmers before this. 
We had four American plows tried—Star buck’s No. 
6 , Prouty's No. 40, A. B. Allen & Co.'s No. 20, and a 
Philadelphia cast-steel plow. The judges decided that 
they would award only one medal to each foreign na¬ 
tion. I endeavored to procure two, but as some of the 
nations had only one plow, and as the general rule had 
been adopted in some other cases, they would not change 
it. The medal was awarded unanimously, to Prouty’s 
No. 40. Starbuck’s No. 6, did equally good work, ex¬ 
cept that the furrow-slice was too wide. Taking into 
consideration all the embarrassments under which we 
labored, we are satisfied with the result. We have prov¬ 
ed that what the London Times has said of our plows is 
utterly untrue—“ that they are behind the age." I have 
an order from an English plow-maker, for one of Star- 
buck’s plows for his own farm! and I have no doubt when 
he receives it, it will be multiplied for the benefit of 
others. He desired to take the one we had tried to-day, 
but as that was disposed of, he must wait, with others, 
until they can be forwarded. 
We had at the trial to-day, some first-rate farmers 
from the Tweed, who are friends of Mr. Thomas Bell, 
and who were with him; and who expressed themselves 
greatly pleased with our implements. One of them, by- 
the-by, was present at the speech of Prof. J. before the 
Berwick Club —of which we had the account sent us. 
He says, that the report of the speech, so far as it went, 
in regard to our country was true, but that much more 
that was disparaging to us, was said—and that although 
he had never himself been in the country, he was satis¬ 
fied that it was entirely over-drawn, and designed for a 
free-trade market here, and he so expressed himself to 
his friends on the spot. I have found, in traveling 
through Northumberland and Cumberland, among the 
farmers everywhere, attention to this speech and the 
u Notes," and I have taken the liberty to say, on every 
occasion, that Prof. J. could have written a much better 
book, if he had known more about our country. I direct¬ 
ed their attention to a sample of wheat on exhibition at 
the Crystal Palace, from a portion of the wheat district 
which he said was being laid down to grass, because it 
was exhausted,—the whole field from which it was taken 
yielding 631 bushels to the acre! This was a sample of 
Mr. Hotchkiss’ wheat, from Lewiston, Niagara county, 
which received the first premium last winter at our an¬ 
nual meeting. I ,sent with the samples, the proofs which 
were presented to our judges—and there is not in the 
exhibition, anything that compares with it as to the 
amount raised per acre, and I have reason to believe 
that the,judges who have passed upon it, will thus notice 
it in their report. I have also referred gentlemen, when 
they have mentioned this to me, to a single fact, which 
would show them at once, how fallacious these state¬ 
ments were—the quantity of wheat and flour exported 
to this country, (England,) during the last six months, 
taken from a Liverpool paper, being nearly double that 
of the year when Prof. J. was in our country. 
I have made a very pleasant tour with Prof. J. in 
Durham, Northumberlaud, and Cumberland counties, 
where I visited a number of tenant farmers of the very 
best kind, who are making money, notwithstanding the 
depression of the times and high rents. I intend, when¬ 
ever I may have time, to write out what I have seen and 
learned, and I think I can show our farmers how Eng¬ 
lish farmers are enabled to live, with the great rents they 
are, in most parts of the country, still obliged to pay, 
notwithstanding the deductions that are made. The 
three great principles that a good farmer here relies up¬ 
on, are these: 1st. Thorough draining ; 2d. High ma• 
nuring, with guano or other prepared manures, in addi¬ 
tion to barn-yard manure, if required; 3d. Thorough 
cleaning of the crop, so that the grain or other crop 
shall have all the nutriment to perfect it, instead of leav- 
the greater share, (as is too often the case with us,) to 
support the weeds. 
I became acquainted at our trial of plows, with Count 
de Gourcy, a distinguished French Gentleman, who is 
one of the most intelligent agriculturists that I ever 
met with. He has written several works on the subject 
of agriculture—his Travels in Scotland and England, 
you will find in our Library He was formerly a practi¬ 
cal farmer himself, on a farm of 500 acres, on which he 
introduced the best system of husbandry from England 
and Belgium, and he was subsequently connected for a 
considerable time, with the army of France. He has, 
for a number of years, devoted himself in the summer 
season, to visiting the different countries in Europe, 
passing months in the farming districts, examining mi¬ 
nutely and carefully into the systems and practice which 
prevail, and taking notes of their stock, dairies, &c.. 
and in winter, he copies his notes, and publishes them 
for the benefit of the farmers of France. 
He spoke in very high terms of our plows. He had 
seen three of them in operation in France, which had 
been sent over by some American gentleman who had 
purchased Ramboullet sheep; but his name he did not 
recollect. They were, he said, so light, so simple in 
their counstruction, so easily operated by the peasantry 
of France, and so cheap, that he preferred them alto¬ 
gether to any other plows. He expressed himself highly 
gratified with the performance of our plows at the trial 
—-said they had accomplished all that was desired. 
He mentioned to me a very remarkable circumstance 
in the breeding of cattle, which seems, at least as far as 
tried, to have been successful. This was, the method 
by which a breeder can secure bull or heifer calves as he 
may desire. He said, if the cow is milked clean when 
she receives the bull, the produce will be a bull calf—if 
she receives the bull with a full udder, the produce will 
be a heifer calf. A farmer in France, whom he named, 
put seven cows, with their udders thoroughly deprived 
of milk, and the produce was five bull calves—two hav- 
