THE CULTIVATOR. 73 
the profits of his labor. If through ignorance or sloth he produces on¬ 
ly what is necessary for the sustenance of his household, he can buy 
neither of the merchant, the manufacturer or the mechanic,—nor con¬ 
tribute to the support of the learned professions; or, if he buys, he can¬ 
not pay. But if his produce is double what is required for the consump¬ 
tion of his family, the surplus half may be employed for the benefit of 
the other classes—in purchasing from them the comforts and elegan¬ 
cies of life. The other classes, on contra wise, cannot thrive, as such, 
without the aid of the farmer; he furnishes the raw materials for the 
manufacturer, he feeds the mechanic, and freights the bark of com¬ 
merce; and is besides the principal customer to them all. It follows, 
as a corollary, that, 
2. The prosperity of a state is determined by the good or bad state of 
its husbandry. 
We see every where, in districts as well as in entire states, the strong¬ 
est proofs of the correctness of this proposition. Contrast Dutchess, 
Orange and Columbia, with any three counties where agriculture is ne¬ 
glected, or managed in the old slovenly manner. In the first, all clas¬ 
ses thrive and prosper, if they are industrious and prudent; because 
there the body is in healthful vigor. In the latter, you will find the 
body lethargic, diseased, and covered with putrefying sores, and the 
members partaking of all its infirmities. The last winter’s experience, 
in our cities and towns, shows their extreme sensitiveness to the fluctu¬ 
ations in the supply of agricultural products. Some of the farmers’ 
crops were last year deficient in their accustomed yield, and the conse¬ 
quence was, the buyer had to pay 25 and 50'per cent above the ordina¬ 
ry prices for many articles of the first necessity. Had the products of 
the soil been double what they were, prices would have been low, and 
the buying classes would have subsisted cheaper and better, and the 
farmer would have purchased of them, in return, more liberallv. 
3. The improvements and profits of agriculture, and the consequent 
prosperity of a state, are in the ratio of the measure of intelligence 
which guides its labors. 
The head can do more than the hands. The animal strength of 
the ox and the horse would effect no useful purpose, without the con¬ 
trivance and direction of man. In many countries on the old continent, 
where the cultivator is debased by ignorance and despotism, the awk¬ 
ward, ill-contrived implements of the primitive ages are sill in use; and 
in some parts of our own land, the hoe, or the rudest machine of a 
plough, is still substituted for the greatly improved implements of mo¬ 
dern times, because the cultivator is ignorant and servile. There is 
not a manufacturing employment, nor a mechanic art, but has been 
greatly abridged in its manipulations, and had its fabrics improved in 
quality, and reduced in price, by the aid of modern science. We say 
modern science, because we consider that some branches are but begin¬ 
ning to develop their practical advantages to useful labor. We verily 
beleive, that science can do more, and will do no more, in the coming 
thirty years, to improve the condition of agriculture, than has been efi 
fected in the two last centuries. An intelligent head is deemed of more 
importance, and commands a higher compensation, in many of our 
large establishments, than half a dozen mere sinewey arms. Mind is 
the lever that moves the material world,—the master-spirit that civilizes 
man, and multiplies his comforts and enjoyments. We acquire know¬ 
ledge in our business, mechanically, but slowly. The acquisition may 
be accelerated and augmented, to an amazing extent, by the experience 
and teachings of men who have made natural and ehemical science 
their study and employment for life. There is another consideration 
which renders the improvement of the mind of public benefit; igno¬ 
rance begets indolence, and indolence begets vice. If we would, there¬ 
fore, inculcate virtue, we must foster industry; and if we would make 
industry respectable and desirable, we must throw light upon its paths 
and secure for it merited reward. 
If we have succeeded in establishing our propositions, it results as a 
consequence, that the improvement of dur agriculture is of the first im¬ 
portance to every class of our population ; and that this improvement 
can in no way receive such efficient aid, as by instructing the youth 
who are hereafter to manage its concerns, as well in the science as in 
the practice of their business. 
We have drawn the reader’s attention to the subject at this time, that 
the measures necessary to produce the desired result may undergo a 
thorough and timely investigation, and that our citizens maybe prepar¬ 
ed to co-operate in such of them, as may seem best adapted to subserve 
the public weal, before the coming winter. The distributive share to 
New-York, of the surplus revenue, which congress, with great unani¬ 
mity and wisdom, has directed to be divided among the states, will pro¬ 
bably amount to between two and three millions of dollars. And the 
question will present itself to our next legislature, and upon which they 
will want an expression of the public wish, to what objects, and in 
what manner shall these moneys be applied ? Shall they be expended 
on internal improvements, on education, and in improving our agricul¬ 
ture, upon either or all of them, exclusively, where there benefits can¬ 
not fail to be general, and important, and abiding,—or shall they go in- 
Vol. III. 10* 
to the general fund, where their benefits are likely to be more partial 
and transitory ? 
As pertinent to this subject, we would ask the reader’s attention to 
the extract in our young men’s department, from “First Lessons in 
Political Economy,” by Professor M’Vickar, of Columbia College, a 
little work which the man as well as boy may peruse with profit. 
BEET SUGAR. 
We have received, from E: C. Delavan, Esq. a specimen of sugar 
manufactured in France from the beet root, which may be examined 
at the office of the Cultivator. It is superior in quality to the best 
American refined sugar that we have seen. Dr. Spoor, of Coxsackie, 
has promised us another sample, which he recently procured at the 
manufactory in France, and for which he paid a franc, about 18 cents, 
the pound. We gave in our last volume, the course of culture, and pro¬ 
cess of manufacture, fromChaptal. But the maufacturing process has 
been simplified and cheapened, since Chaptal wrote, and the manufac¬ 
ture has been brought down, like the silk business, to the adaptation of 
household labor and family economy. We are not yet in possession of 
the new process; but as soon as we obtain it, we intend to give it circula¬ 
tion in the Cultivator. The business is not likely to interfere with the 
inter ests of the south. The amount of foreign sugar imported is very 
great; and the consumption is likely to increase with the domestic sup¬ 
ply. The advantages which the fabrication of sugar beet promises to 
the far west, must be particularly great. 
The culture of the beet, and the labrcation from it of sugar, as a branch 
of national industry, and a source of national wealth, is not only exciting 
great interest in France, but in Prussia, and in other states on the con¬ 
tinent. Gen. Tallmadge has transmitted to the American Institute ma¬ 
ny facts in confirmation of these truths ; and the letters of Mr. Pedder, 
who went to France to obtain a practical knowledge of the business, 
abound with valuable notices of its improvement and extent. The 
Royal Central Society of Agriculture in France, awarded in April a 
premium to M. Lecerf, for having established a small manufactory of 
beet sugar, where he prepared daily, without other aid than that of his 
family, 50 kilogrammes (137£ pounds) of sugar, ready for immediate 
family use. The society have offered premiums to the value of 7,200 
francs, ($1,296,) besides medals, as a further inducement to enterprise 
and improvement in the business. The cultivation of the beet, says Mr. 
Pedder, embraces three grand distinct objects: 1st. the making of sugar; 
2d. the feeding of cattle; 3d. the improvement of agriculture: for it 
affords an excellent material, and a substitute for turnips and carrots, 
for stock, and a suitable root crop to alternate with grain and grass. 
It causes a cleansing and perfect pulverization of the soil, and wheat is 
found to succeed it admirably well. It is considered the foundation of 
all good husbandry, as the turnip is in Norfolk. 
Mr. Pedder had visited many of the beet and sugar establishments, 
some of which were on an immense scale producing two or three mil¬ 
lions pounds of sugar annually, and had joined in the manual labor of 
raising the beet. From the washing of the roots to the pouring of the 
juice into crystallizing pans, is only the work of 10 hours. 100 lbs. of 
beet y ield 85 lbs. of juice. Some machines crush 50,000 to 75,000 lbs. of 
roots in 24 hours. The pressed cake sell at about 10 cents the bushel, for 
feeding cattle. Mr. P. saw in one place 57 horses and 30 fatting oxen, 
fed wholly upon the cake and cut straw, the oxen being finished off with 
oil cake. It is now estimated, that under the improved process, the 
beet yields 10 per cent, of saccharine matter. One gentleman had a 
crop of 400 acres of beets. A perfect drill barrow has been invented, 
which sows five rows at a time, covers the seed and rolls the ground. 
Fifty pounds of the cake, mixed with one pound of oil cake, are given 
daily to ten sheep. 100 pounds of beets, valued at 25 cents, give 6 
pounds of sugar, 4 pounds of molasses, and 25 pounds of cake. There 
are 64 manufactories at Valenciennes and its neighborhood: and be¬ 
tween this town and Arras, and to Belgium, the country, says Mr. P. is 
covered with beet fields and sugar houses; and he counted six or eight 
of these large buildings together, and twenty-eight were counted at one 
time in sight. 
Mr. Pedder closes one of his letters as follows: “I believe that two 
persons cannot meet without the first topic being Betterave, (beet root.) 
Indeed I am not sure that the parson did not preach about it last Sun¬ 
day. Nothing else is thought or spoken of; and no wonder, for from 
100 pounds of beet root they make six pounds of sugar, besides eight 
pounds of molasses, with which to make sugar of the second quality, 
and fifteen pounds of cake, sufficient to keep three sheep a day. 
“Three years ago, there were 13 manufactories at Valenciennes, 
there are now 64. Land which was then 500 francs an arpent, now 
brings 1,200; the price for labor is much risen, and the people are get¬ 
ting fat on the mutton and beef made upon the cake, or caput mortuum 
of the root. What will this not do for America.” 
MARL. 
Through the kind aid of Dr. James Eights, we are enabled to pre¬ 
sent an analysis of various specimens of marl which have been for- 
