THE CULTIVATOR. 
15 
very rich men, or very wise men, be the aggregate of wealth and talent; 
ever so great, that give prosperity and greatness to a state. It is the I 
general diffusion, among a whole people, among the rank and file of 
society, of property and knowledge, and the industry, enterprise and 
independence which they beget, that renders a state truly respectable 
and great. If this convention, therefore, can do aught to render labor 
more profitable and more honorable, and our lands more productive, it 
will effect a substantial good to society. 
I venture to lay down this broad proposition, that the productions of 
our agricultural labor may be doubled in ten years, and trebled in 
twenty. In proof of this, I appeal, in the first instance, to facts which | 
have fallen under the observation of all; to the contrast, in products 
and profits, which are seen to exist, between districts and farms, of 
equal natural fertility, and often continguous to each other, which are 
under good and bad management, and the constantly increasing profits 
of husbandry, where the spirit of improvement has been fully awaken¬ 
ed. We find many individuals, who pay from seventy to one hundred 
dollars an acre for farms, getting not only the interest of their pur¬ 
chase money, but realizing large profits, from their agricultural la¬ 
bors ; while we see others, equally well circumstanced, hardly, getting 
enough to meet the contingent expenses of their families. Within the 
last thirty years, in many districts, particularly in Orange, Dutchess, 
Columbia, &c. where the natural fertility of the soil had been exhausted 
by the old system of depletion, and where improvement gained an early 
footing, the price of lands has increased three and four fold, and the 
products of agricultural industry in a proportionate ratio. There are 
other districts again, that have remained stationary in their practice, 
while the soil has been constantly deteriorating, because this practice 
has been primitive, calculated to exhaust, but not to restore fertility. 
The measure has been constantly sent for meal, without the meal-chest 
having been replenished. This has most happened where nature had 
been most bountiful in imparting natural fertility; man being in a mea¬ 
sure compelled to exert his physical and mental energies most upon a 
poor soil. The benefits to the productive districts and farms, have 
been brought about by a more extended knowledge, in the cultivator, 
of the principles upon which good husbandry is based, by the force of 
competition, and examples of individual excellence. The bad husband¬ 
ry has diminished in products and profits, from the want of this know¬ 
ledge, from the force of prejudice, the want of a spirit of competition, 
the want of system, and from culpable indolence, the natural result of 
the other causes. In what manufacturing or mechanic art, do we see 
the master prosper, who adheres to the modes and practices of his 
grand-father? The labor of fabrication has been abridged of one half 
of its toil in these, by the discoveries of science and the inventions of 
genius. Nor is much less the case in agriculture, where science and 
skill have been pressed into its service. “ Why,” says a late writer, 
“ this becomes another world to the man who opens his eyes. Science 
breathes life and light into it; it kindles with glory, happiness and 
praise; there is no one who cannot feel its inspirations if he will.” 
But even in our best cultivated districts, and on our best cultivated 
farms, the capacities of the soil to reward labor, are yet but partially 
developed. Art has not yet exhausted its energies upon them, and 
science, with gigantic strength, is coming to its aid. The value of ma¬ 
nures, the pabulum of vegetable life, and the source of vegetable 
growth and excellence, will be better appreciated, their quantity dou¬ 
bled, and their application directed with better economy. The impor¬ 
tance of alternating crops, on all lands susceptible of this mode of cul¬ 
ture, which makes the grain, grass and root crops mutually subser¬ 
vient to the wants of each other, will be better developed in principle, 
and better carried out in practice. The culture of roots, which pul¬ 
verize and ameliorate the soil, fatten the farm-stock and fill the dung- 
yard—which has been the basis of improved husbandry in Britain, and 
promises the best results in this state, wherever it has gained a fair 
footing, will be greatly and profitably extended. The properties of 
lime, marl and gypsum will be better understood, and these mineral 
substances will be made to contribute more largely to the productive¬ 
ness of the soil. Labor-saving implements will be multiplied, and our 
farm stock will be improved in quality, and increased in numbers. 
Whitney’s Cotton Gin doubled the value of the cotton lands of the 
south, and its benefits have been estimated over one hundred millions 
of dollars; and I state with confidence, that a single implement, Green’s 
Straw Cutter, is calculated to save half a ton of hay in the winter keep 
of a horse, ox or cow, fed upon hay. Estimating the number of horses 
and neat cattle at half our population, which is certainly within bounds, 
the saving in this machine, over that of feeding in the old slovenly | 
way, would be at least 500,000 tons of hay in a year, which at the 
moderate estimate of $7 per ton, would amount to an annual saving! 
of three millions and a half of dollars. If we estimate the labor to 
be saved by the general introduction of improved ploughs, harrows, 
cultivators, drill-barrows, horse-rakes, mowing machines, thrashing 
machines, &c. which not one farmer in twenty has yet availed himself 
of, and consider the benefits of the countless new inventions which the 
genius and enterprise of our countrymen are likely to produce. I can¬ 
not be mistaken in assuming, under a view of all these considerations, 
that every tolerable acre of land, near the borders of the Hudson, may 
be made to produce to the cultivator, the clear interest of two hun¬ 
dred dollars per annum. There are thousands of acres which already 
produce double this income. 
To strengthen the lorce of this conclusion, I beg leave to call your 
attention to the agricultural products of other countries. 
Professor Low, one of the latest and best authorities for Scotch hus¬ 
bandry, bases his estimate of farm profits upon an annual rent to the 
landlord—(for Scotch, as well as English farmers, are almost invaria¬ 
bly tenants to the nobility and gentry)—I say he bases his estimate of 
the farmer’s profits upon an annual rent of £2, or about nine dollars per 
acre. He puts down the other burthens, as window and saddle horse 
duty, statute or highway labor, poor rates and insurance, at $141.87, 
for a farm of five hundred acres. Thus the Scotch farmer, upon his 
500 acre farm, pays annually in rent and burthens $4,641. After de¬ 
ducting this amount from the products of the farm, as well as the ex¬ 
pense of family, stock, implements, manure, labor, &c. the profes¬ 
sor gives to the farmer, a nett income, from the products of his labor, 
of £399, 6s. 2d. ($1,785,) amounting to 16s. ($3.80) per acre. If we 
throw out of the account the burthens and rent, which are mere 
nominal with us, the nett income of the Scotch farmer, clear of every 
expense, would average seven dollars and seventy-five cents per acre, 
or upon his 500 acre farm, would amount to $3,875, instead of $1,785. 
The cultivated lands of England and AVales are computed at 91,- 
000,000 of acres, and the annual product of these lands is estimated 
by Arthur Young, at one hundred and forty-five millions of pounds 
sterling, equal to six hundred and forty millions of dollars. More re¬ 
cent estimates put the agricultural products of Great Britain, includ¬ 
ing Scotland, at two hundred and sixty millions of pounds. Upon the 
first estimate we have, as the average product per acre, about $19.36. 
To show the burthens of the British farmer, which are an enormous 
drawback upon the profits of his labor, we will only quote from Ar¬ 
thur Young, who made an agricultural survey of the country some 
forty years ago, the amount of these burdens in the county of Essex, 
a district sixty miles long by fifty broad. The tithes amounted to 4s. 
9d. (94 cents) on the acre. But I will give gross sums: 
Rents, . £936,320 
Tithes,. 225,620 
Poor rates,. 500,000 
Exceeding, in the aggregate, seven millions, three hundred thousand 
dollars, which the farmers of one county annually pay, to the land¬ 
lords, the clergy and paupers! And yet, says our account, with all 
these burdens, their profits from the improved modes of cultivation, 
were greater in 1805, than when the expenses were much less. Let 
us imitate their industry and their skill, but may we long be exempt 
from their rents, rates and tithes. 
Let us now examine the statistical data of New-York Agriculture. 
The cultivated lands in our state were estimated, in 1825, at 7,160,967 
acres, and their aggregate value, at the average value of $25 per acre, 
at$179,124,175. The farm stock was estimated to swell this amount 
-to two hundred and twenty millions. Let us suppose, what we be¬ 
lieve will be making a pretty fair allowance, that the farmer upon 100 
acres, which, with the necessary farm stock, we will put down at 
$3,000, produces twenty per cent upon this capital, or $600 a year. 
Deduct seven per cent from this sum, for interest upon the capital, or 
for rent, and he will have left, for his labor, and family, and other ex¬ 
penses, $390. Upon this estimate, it will be perceived, our lands do 
not yield one-third of the produce per acre, upon an average, that is 
produced upon the farm lands in England. And even the farming in 
England, we believe, is badly managed in many districts, and is less 
productive than either that of Scotland or Flanders. We certainly 
have the capacities, if we will call them into action, of successfully 
competing, in every branch of productive labor, with the population 
of the old world. 
In recurring to the history of agriculture, we find, that a century 
ago, it excelled in the Netherlands, embracing Flanders, and in some 
districts of Italy, particularly in the valley of the Po. In the former 
of these countries, a judicious system of rotation, suited to soil and 
local circumstances, had been adopted; clover and roots had been in¬ 
troduced, and manures were sedulously husbanded and discreetly ap¬ 
plied. In addition to these improvements, irrigation had been exten¬ 
sively adopted in the valley of the Po. Although these countries have, 
during the last century, progressed but comparatively little in agricul¬ 
tural improvement, they nevertheless retain a degree of pre-eminence, 
at this day, and furnish practical examples highly worthy of our imi¬ 
tation. So recently as 80 years ago, agriculture was in a most wretch¬ 
ed condition, both in Great Britain and France. Most of the improve, 
ments in English husbandry have been made within the last seventy 
years; those of Scotland during the last fifty years, and those of France 
since the period of her revolution, or within the last thirty years. 
These improvements, which have contributed essentially to the pros¬ 
perity and happiness of the human family, were brought about by the 
