30 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
and cheap means of improving the fertility of our lands. In the second 
place, it is a safe business, both in regard to product and price. Nei¬ 
ther dry nor wet, nor cold nor hot seasons, are so liable to impair the 
products of the dairy as they are of the grain crop ; and the demand is 
likely to increase more rapidly than the supply. The American peo¬ 
ple are growing rich, and as their wealth increases, so will their wants 
and indulgences. Cheese is yet but partially found upon their tables, 
nor has butter become an indispensable article of diet, and when used, is 
in many cases used very sparingly. Our dairy zone already furnishes 
the principal part of the cheese which is consumed in Pennsylvania, along 
our southern seaboard, and in the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio, 
and its consumption will be extended to the remote interior. Each 
district of our country seems adapted to some peculiar culture render¬ 
ing each dependent upon the others, as if to unite us closer in the bonds 
of fellowship and good feeling. The south and south-west excel in cot¬ 
ton, rice and sugar; the middle, east and west, excel in tobacco, and 
produce much grain; the north-west, embracing a portion of this state, 
find their interest best promoted by the culture of wheat and cattle 
grazing; New-England thrives by her manufactures, and fisheries; 
while the district of country extending along the north lines of Pennsyl¬ 
vania and New-Jersey, embracing the northern borders of the Mohawk 
valley, and stretching from lake Erie into New-England, is destined to 
become, as it has in a measure already, the great dairy district of the 
Union, nay of the American hemisphere. Nature has provided the re¬ 
quisites—a suitable climate, and good air, good water and good herbage 
—and man will profit from them. We use the term profit emphatically 
—as we consider the country and the employment calculated to foster 
and perpetuate those social and republican virtues which are the great 
ornament and blessing of rural life. If not the richest in dollars, we 
think the district we have described, is destined, ultimately, to become 
the richest in moral worth, in republican virtue—in the treasures which 
improve society, and render man happy—of any portion of our country. 
AGRICULTURE OF DUTCHESS. 
We have often spoken of the agriculture of Dutchess, as exceeding, 
in improvement and profit, that of any other portion of the union; and 
have ventured to add, that even in this county, the capacities of the soil, 
and the skill of the husbandman, are yet but partially developed. It 
appears from oflicial statements, that she sent to New-York, during the 
last year, of 
Wheat,. 17,145 bushels. Rye,.... 42,968 bushels. 
Corn,. 190,092 “ Oats,.... 587,838 “ 
that of all the grain received at New-York from different parts of this 
state, she furnished more than one-third, or 838,043 bushels, and which 
was more than one-quarter received from all places. This was proba 
bly wholly the produce of that county; and it is stated that large quan¬ 
tities, not* embraced in these returns, were sent eastward into New- 
England, and much sent to New-York in meal. The aggregate quan¬ 
tity of grain sent from Dutchess, during the last year, including meal, 
is computed, in the Poughkeepsie Journal, at 1,300,000 bushels. But 
the most remarkable fact is, that the surplus product of grain, sent to 
market from that county, has nearly doubled in two years, the quantity, 
in 1833 having been only 479,532 bushels. When we add the meats, 
wool and products of the dairy, in which this county is as prolific as 
she is in grain, we find a confirmation of the excellence of her agricul 
tural management, and the cause of the high price of her lands. “$100 
per acre,” says the Journal, “is ceasing to be regarded as an unusual 
price for the better class of farms in this county.” We have known 
Dutchess partially for thirty-six years, and have observed her progress 
in improvement; and we give it as our mature opinion, that the value 
of her lands, and the profits of her husbandry, have been nearly oi 
quite quadrupled since 1800. But her improvement has not been con¬ 
fined to her husbandry. The improvement of the mind has kept pace 
with the improvement of the soil. No county can boast of more intel¬ 
ligent yeomanry, of more social comforts, or of a more healthy state of 
public morals. 
The official report of the'inspection of grain at New-York, does not 
afford a correct criterion of the products of many counties; first, be¬ 
cause the counties upon the river are credited for what they send to 
market, though the grain may come from the interior counties ; and se¬ 
cond, because most of the wheat of the great west is manufactured into 
flour, ere it reaches New-York, and of this, no account is embraced in 
the return. This is our apology for not inserting the entire return. 
We give below an illustration of the excellence of farm management- 
in Dutchess, in the practice of Mr. Harris. It will be perceived, that 
the average product of the whole of the improved lands of this excel¬ 
lent manager, exceeded in value $23 per acre; and that the surplus pro¬ 
duce, actually sold, after deducting the expenses of labor, Etc. amounted 
to a profit of more than seventeen dollars per acre—equivalent to the 
interest of $250 per acre. Let the young farmer ponder upon these re¬ 
sults, and reflect, that he has the capacities, if he will improve them, of 
producing like results; and let his pride, his ambition, and a commend¬ 
able desire to become useful and distinguished, prompt him to a deli- 
gent and persevering use of his faculties, mental as well as physical, 
in the spring-time of life. Every step we advance in the principles and 
practice of agriculture, tends to enlarge our view, increase our pleasures, 
and to urge us forward. Every improvement in this art serves to bene¬ 
fit the human family. 
From the Poughkeepsie Telegraph. 
Messrs. Editors —I read in the agricultural department of your paper of the 
2d inst. a statement of the products of the farm of Mr. Samuel T. Vary, of 
Kinderhook, Columbia county, which was published at the request of the 
Agricultural Society of that county. It looks large, yet having kept an ac¬ 
count the last year, I am induced to send you an abstract of it for insertion in 
the Telegraph, that it may be seen that Dutchess is not ojily able to keep up, 
but to go ahead. My statement differs some from Mr. Vary's as I give in 
whole numbers what my farm produced, and then what I sold from it. He 
only gave the sales, among which were four cows, two oxen, and two steers, 
all beef, which, it seems to me, must have been reducing his stoek. My farm 
contains 158 acres; 143 of which are tillable. Mr. Vary has 145 acres of tilla¬ 
ble land. 
The whole amount of the proceeds of my farm for the year 1835. 
190 bushels wheat, at $1.25.$237 50 
165 do. rve. at 94 cents. 154 69 
325 do. corn, at 75 cents,. 
900 do. oats, at 50 cents,.. ...... 
27 do. buckwheat, at 50 cents,.. 
. 13 50 
7 live shoats,.. ••••«••••••• 
1200 pounds pork, at 7 cents,........ . _- 
. 84 00 
3 calves,. 
90 tons of hay, at $22,. 
Ad vance on 26 sheep,..... 
60 bushels potatos, at 25 cents,. 
. 15 00 
$3,292 94 
The amount of sales from the above. 
100 bushels of wheat, at $1.25,...$125 00 
165 do. rye, at 94 cents. 154 69 
200 do, corn, at 78 cents...... 156 25 
700 do. oats, at 50 cents,... 350 00 
7 live hogs, . 40 00 
3 calves... 9 50 
75 tons of hay, at $23.50,. 1,762 50 
Advance on26 sheep,,... 65 00 
Received for pasture and feed exclusive of my own stock,. 60 00 
$2,722 94 
Expenses fpr labor, Ac. on farm,.275 00 
Nonprofit,.... $2,447 94 
Poughkeepsie, March 15,1836. DAVID HARRIS. 
N. B. A letter from a correspondent at Wappinger’s creek, gives us 
the product of fifteen acres of wheat, raised in that neighborhood, by 
Mr. Peter Ackerman, which averaged about 37 bushels the acre. It 
was sown on a clover sod, pastured till July. This is an extraordinary 
crop for an old cultivated district, and is another evidence of the agricul¬ 
tural improvement of old Dutchess. 
SPANISH MERINO vs. SAXON MERINO. 
We have given full scope to the controversy touching the relative 
merits of these two kinds of merino sheep, for they are both from the 
same parent stock, till some of our readers complain of its being rather 
an uninteresting topic. Men will commend what they best succeed 
with, and sometimes, and not improperly, what they wish to sell. It is 
admitted that the Saxons have the* best wool; but this is obtained, say 
the advocate for the Spanish stock, at the expense of carcass and hardi¬ 
ness of constitution. We can well remember, that a strong prejudice 
obtained against the Spanish merinos, on their first introduction, and it 
was not until within a few years that their reputation for usefulness 
became well established among us. This prejudice was in some mea¬ 
sure owing to a want of knowledge of the proper mode of treating 
them, and to their change of climate, which caused the loss of many, 
and the deterioration of others. The same prejudice has had to be 
combatted in other countries, on the introduction of merino sheep, as in 
Prussia, Silesia, Hungary and France, and it has required the persever¬ 
ing exertions of distinguished individuals, and the patronage of the go¬ 
vernments, to overcome it. But it has been overcome, and the merinos 
have obtained a footing and a reputation in most of the countries of 
Europe : and by careful attention to improvement, in several they have 
been made to excel, in intrinsic value, the parent flocks of Spain.— 
French merinos, at the public sales at Rambouillet, in 1834, sold, rams 
at about $100, and ewes at $50. They were of course select animals. 
The writer on sheep, in the Farmers’ Series, which has just come to 
hand, speaking of the relative merits of the Saxon and Spanish meri¬ 
nos, says in strong language, “ The Saxony sheep are decidedly superior 
to those brought immediately from Spain, not only in their wool, but their 
general form and propensity to fatten.” Without a particle of interest 
to influence our opinion, we do not hesitate to say, that we consider the 
