THE CULTIVATOR. 
7 
much cheaper, and much better, by professional mechanics? Road 
making is considered in Britain a more scientific and intricate business 
than the common mechanic arts, and employs higher talents. At present 
the path-master seeks to improve the road which he most travels, and 
the laborer merely to get rid of the exactions of the law; and both con¬ 
cur generally in making the days of highway labor at least half-holi¬ 
days. We put it to any man who is acquainted with the mode of per¬ 
forming highway work, if one-half of the time is not virtually wasted— 
if six men, experienced in road, making, under a competent engineer, 
will not do more good upon a road in a day, than eighteen men do now 
as ordinarily employed. If so, the farmer might better pay for one day, 
than work or lose three days, from his farm. 
As no one should find fault without suggesting a remedy, we proceed 
to suggest our plan of reform. 
1. Substitute county for town commissioners, appoint them for a term 
of three or four years. Let them be appointed by the judges and su¬ 
pervisors, who will select good men. Pay them liberally. Require 
them to make a semi-annual circuit through the county, if business of¬ 
fers, to lay out and alter roads. Let all applications for new roads, or 
alterations, be presented to them previous to these tours of duty.— 
Their jurisdiction will be enlarged, their responsibilty incresed, and 
they will be enabled to digest a system of general improvement, and to 
carry it into effect. The expense of these duties will be sensibly 
lessened. 
2. Appoint, in the manner, and for the time above indicated, a com¬ 
petent engineer, as superintendent of roads, whose duty it shall be to 
attend the commissioners in their semi-annual tours, to advise with 
them, and to superintend and direct the construction of all roads in the 
county, with power to appoint one or more assistants, and to employ 
competent laborers to perform their work. Let these charges be paid 
from the county treasury, after being duly audited. 
3. Let the highway tax be paid in money, with the county taxes. Pro¬ 
fessional road-makers would then be employed, labor would not be mis¬ 
applied, more work would be done, and better done j most of the mo¬ 
ney would again return to the pockets of the farmers, for team-hire, 
provisions, materials, &c. and our roads would be progressively im¬ 
proving, with half the expense that is now bestowed upon them—our 
bridges would be more permanently and economically constructed, and 
system and order would grow out of confusion. 
ON INVESTMENTS IN MENTAL STOCK. 
When men grow rich by their business, be it professional, mechani¬ 
cal or agricultural, it becomes deservedly a matter of calculation, how 
they shall best employ their surplus profits, with the view of promot¬ 
ing their own happiness, and subserving the interests of their children. 
Our farmers who farm well, and attend to their business, are doing 
well, better perhaps thanat any former period of our history, and are lay¬ 
ing up annually snug sums of money. To render these profits truly a 
blessing, and to enhance their value, they must take care to implant 
early habits, that will enable children to appreciate, and to preserve, 
the patrimony which is thus annually accumulating for them, and above 
all, to enjoy it as rational men. These objects are best effected by vest¬ 
ing a part of this augmenting capital in mental stock —in giving to 
their children the advantages of good education. Other property is 
liable to many casualties, and may be wasted or destroyed; but the trea¬ 
sures of the mind are stable, and are certain to endure while reason 
holds the rein. There is not a thriving farmer but can have his sons 
instructed in the general principles of physical science—in the laws 
which God has instituted for the government of the animate and inani¬ 
mate matter of which our globe is composed. The brutes are taught, 
by instinct, to provide for their wants, and to take care of their young. 
But man is endowed with intellect, capable of vast expansion, and of a 
scale of enjoyment of which the brute must ever be an utter stranger. 
Possessing these high capacities, can a father consent to see his chil¬ 
dren forego the pleasures and moral improvement which education may 
confer, and which should distinguish our species, and to grovel through 
life almost on a level with the inferior orders of beings? The invest¬ 
ment which we advocate, will not only constitute a business capital, serv¬ 
ing to increase the profits of labor, but an intellectual capital, serving to 
increase the happiness of man. Knowledge is multiplex in the benefits 
it confers. It may be dispensed to thousands without impoverishing him 
who dispenses it. Hence whoever will, may profit by its teachings. 
Again, what father is there who would not like to see his son distin¬ 
guished for talent and usefulness, exerting the benign influence upon 
the condition of society, and enjoying the respect and esteem of his fel¬ 
low citizens ? Can he reasonably expect to see this unless he dispen¬ 
ses to him the advantages of education ? Can he expect to reap the 
harvest, without sowing the seed, and without sowing the seed too in 
the spring-time of life ? 
AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION IN VIRGINIA. 
An agricultural convention was held at Richmond, Va. on the 11th 
Jan. James Barbour, late governor, was called to preside, and Ed¬ 
mund Ruffin, editor of the Farmers’ Register, was appointed secretary. 
About 200 persons were in attendance. The meeting was addressed by 
Gov. Barbour, a lengthy memorial to the legislature was reported by 
Mr. Garnett, and a resolution adopted to call another agricultural con¬ 
vention, at the capitol, on the first Monday in January 1837. The ob¬ 
ject of the convention was to improve the condition of Virginia hus¬ 
bandry, and the memorial, which is ably written, points out three 
modes of effecting this desirable object. “ The only things,” says the 
memorial, “ which can save our state from sinking to the very bottom 
of the federal scale,” “ are popular education and internal improvements, 
at the head of which stands agriculture.” The measures prayed for 
in the memorial, are 
1. “ The establishment of an agricultural professorship in their university, 
never to be filled by any but by a scientific andpractical agriculturist, witli a sa¬ 
lary of $1,500, to be paid out of the unappropriated balance of the literary 
fund ; and in connexion with this an experimental farm, of one or two hun¬ 
dred acres, to be purchased with the same fund , upon which larm the pupils 
of the professor should be required, as a part of their duty, to labor a certain 
number of hours every day. Such an institution would furnish in afew years, 
a body of hardy young men, skilled both in the theory and practice of agricul¬ 
ture,” “ qualified at once to become proprietary cultivators.” 
2. “To establish a stale agricultural society, aboard of agriculture, some¬ 
what similar to that of New-York.” 
3. “ To employ a competent person, with a sufficient salary to defray all 
necessary expenses for two years, to make an agricultural survey, or critical 
examination, of all the best cultivated parts of the Atlantic States : and to make 
a written annual report to the legislature, of all the most approved methods 
within each state, of clearing, draining and fertilizing land ; for cultivating, 
harvesting and preserving the staple crops of the same; of improving, rearing 
and keeping farm stock of every kind ; together with a particular description 
of all the best agricultural machines and implements,” to form a body of hus¬ 
bandry like the works of Young and Marshall. 
It affords us high gratification to find, that the necessity of enlarging 
the sphere of agricultural knowledge, by affording to the cultivators of 
the soil a better education, at the public expense, is every where be¬ 
coming manifest, and attracting the public attention. We dou bt, however, 
whether the plan suggested by the Virginia convention, of appending an 
agricultural professorship to a literary institution, will ever answer any 
beneficial purpose. The literary or agricultural class must become su¬ 
bordinate ; and when we consider the disrepute which attaches to labor 
by the young, it is very evident which will be ascendent. Agriculture 
will never flourish in the shade, or as a subordinate study. You must 
make it the great and paramount object of an institution, if you would 
make it honorable and useful, and praiseworthy. 
STATE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION. 
The Agricultural Convention which convened at Albany on the 8th 
February, we have reason to believe, would have been very numerous¬ 
ly attended, but for the almost unprecedented snowstorm which pre¬ 
ceded its day of meeting, and which prevented the attendance of many 
delegates even from neighboring counties. Notwithstanding the diffi¬ 
culty of travelling* the names of about 140 gentlemen were handed in 
to the secretaries as in attendance, and these were from most of the 
counties in the state. Much good feeling, and an anxious desire to for¬ 
ward the objects which engaged the attention of the convention, were 
manifested, and confident hopes were indulged, that their deliberations 
would result in much positive good to the community. It will be per¬ 
ceived that another agricultural convention is appointed to be held on 
the first Thursday in February, 1837. 
MAPLE SUGAR- 
Every sugar boiler knows how to make maple sugar, but every one 
does not know how to make good maple sugar. The material of fo¬ 
reign sugars is the same; the difference in quality and price, results 
from the difference in the process by which it is manufactured and re¬ 
fined. The art of making good sugar consists in freeing it from all im¬ 
purities, which may effect its flavor or appearance. With the same 
care the juice of the maple will make as good sugar, and as white, as 
the juice of the cane. Every family who make maple sugar, may add 
one-third to its market value, by the simple process we are about to 
detail, and which it will cost them but a trifle to adopt. It is the process 
by which Havana sugars are brought to the purity and whiteness which 
we see them in our market. We take it from Chaptal, who manufac¬ 
tured sugar extensively from the beet, and who here describes the pro¬ 
cess he successfully pursued. 
We will first give the processes of purifying the juice and the syrup. 
The juice (of the beet) is first heated to a temperature of one hundred 
and eighty degrees, thirty two degrees below the boiling point, when 
some milk of lime, prepared by throwing some warm water on to lime 
is thrown in, and the liquor well stirred. As soon as the first bubble 
makes its appearance, the fire is extinguished, and the liquor left atrest. 
A scum rises, thickens, dries and hardens. The liquor becomes clear. 
The lime unites with the mucilage and settles to the bottom. The 
scum is removed, and the clear liquor drawn off. The process requires 
