80 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
such matters, to attend to small agencies, in the way of transmitting 
small parcels of grass-seed, choice stock, &c. should I think proper 
to send for them. It has struck me that my professional brother, Dr. 
Beekman, might be the man. I leave this matter to you.* 
Allow me now, sir, in tendering to you assurances of my highest 
personal respect, to associate therewith my warmest wishes that the 
Cultivator may find its way into every house in Virginia, and thus 
become a strong tie between two states, in danger of being dissevered 
in feeling, by papers of a very different description. 
Your most ob’t, &c. ' W. S. MORTON. 
Near Farmville, Prince Edward, Va. 30 th June, 1836. 
ADVANTAGE OF ALTERNATING CROPS. 
Mr. Buel—F eeling a desire to lend my aid in improving the condi¬ 
tion of agriculture, I have attempted to write a few lines on that sub¬ 
ject. It is painful to see the tardiness with which many advance in 
this cause; they continue to follow in the beaten paths of their fathers, 
and to pursue the same system, although they receive but a scanty re¬ 
muneration for their labor. These remarks I think are peculiarly ap¬ 
plicable to those who continue to apply their unfermented manure as 
a top-dressing to their grass ground. In order to see more clearly 
the error of their practice, let us enter into some estimates as to the 
profits they receive, in comparison with the profits received under a 
different system. We will suppose their annual product two tons of 
hay per acre, which is about the quantity from the acre in this vicini¬ 
ty, in a season; this, at $22 a ton, makes.. $44 00 
Fall feed,. 2 00 
Income,.$46 00 
Expense of cutting, drying, &c. a ton, say $5,.$10 00 - 
12 loads of manure at the barn, at $2 a load,. 24 00 
Carting and spreading the same,. 2 50 
Interest on land, allowing it worth $100 per acre,.... 6 00 
Expense on the acre,__ 42 50 
Leaving a clear profit of... $3 50 
or 9£ per cent on the land per acre. 
Now let us estimate the advantage derived from applying the ma¬ 
nure to corn ground, and will allow the land to be worth the same as 
in the preceding estimate. 
24 loads of manure, at $2 per load,. $43 00 
Carting and spreading,. 5 00 
Expense of raising and harvesting corn-crop,. 8 00 
Interest on land,. 6 00 
$67 00 
60 bushels of corn, at $1 per bushel,. 60 00 
Loss, first year,.... $7 0Q. 
Perhaps some will smile, as they look at the result of the first year, 
and say their system yields the most profit; but let us continue our 
system three years longer, and then look at the result: 
2d year—Oats, say 40 bushels per acre, at 60 cents the pre¬ 
sent price,. $24 00 
Seed, sowing and harvesting,... $4 00 
The straw will pay for carting, thrashing, &c. 
Clover and herds grass seed, as we would advise they 
should be sown with the oats,... 3 00 
Interest on land,. 6 00 
- 13 00 
Gain, second year,.... $11 00 
3d year—Three tons of hay may be expected this year, from two 
mowings; this, at $18 a ton, amounts to. $54 00 
Expense of cutting, drying, &c. $5 a ton,.... $15 00 
Interest on land,. 6 00 
- 21 00 
Gain, third year,.$33 00 
4th year—Clover and herds grass, 2 tons at $18 a ton, amounts 
to. $36 00 
Expense of cutting, &c. $5 a ton,. $10 00 
Interest on land,... 6 00 
- 16 00 
Gain, fourth year,. $20 00 
Average clear profit, $144 per year, or 204 per cent interest per 
acre yearly, which makes more than twice the profits per acre obtained 
by applying the manure to mowing ground._ 
* We have not heard of any experiments being made with either of these 
plants, except with the first, and the culture of that has not been persisted in. 
We tender our services to Mr. M. in the way asked, till our friend Dr. B. or 
some other better man than ourselves shall ofler.— Cond. 
Perhaps it may be said that the price put down for the manure is 
too high—if so, the profits would be still greater. 
If my estimates are not correct, (they are estimates made from 
observation and practice,) I hope some of the friends of agriculture 
who are in favor of applying their manure to grass grounds, will point 
out my errors. Yours respectfully, W. CHAPIN. 
Williamsett, June 20, 1838. 
EDUCATION—FEMALE HABITS. 
J. Buel, Fsq.—When I take into consideration the philanthropic ob¬ 
ject and office of your paper, in calling up the instruction of past ages 
and of diffusing the improvements of the present, I am compelled to 
tender my acknowledgment of its merits and usefulness. At a period 
when public and private patronage was almost withdrawn from the 
great subject of Agriculture in this state, you volunteered the high and 
arduous office of rescuing it from declension ; and of instituting a me¬ 
dium of disseminating information at the cheap rate, which should be 
accessible to all those who have curiosity and interest. 
I have read, with intense interest, your papers and recommendations 
on the education of youth, and on the improvements of roads. If some 
few of the older members of our community are wedded to their old 
opinions and habits, I would leave them undisturbed. But as it is a 
matter of necessity that the human mind should be always active, let 
us train the rising youth to the highest degree of perception, and ne¬ 
cessarily of enjoyment. And if this patrimony should be ill received or 
misused, with stoic firmness, let us bear unmerited reproach. Let 
their attention be awakened to the most lively curiosity, and a fixed 
and inflexible determination to a single object of pursuit. This has 
guided all the great men of former days to eminence and usefulness. 
Vascillation and irresolution are abortive. Man requires the strong 
impulse of necessity, or the enkindling fire of curiosity, to bring his 
energies into operation, and preserve him from the enervating and de¬ 
bilitating influence of indolence. 
I have sometimes been influenced or subjected to the restraint impos¬ 
ed by the pressure of business, and the selfish inducement of not going 
out of one’s own concerns. But the grand progress of modern improve¬ 
ment is such, that a man of taste cannot refrain from going abroad, 
(whether viewed as the attainment of human intellect, or as the dis¬ 
closures of Almighty beneficence,) to see the wonders of canals, rail¬ 
roads, the magic power of steam, husbandry, &.C. &c. And a man of 
philanthrophy cannot restrain the sentiment of diffusion —to extend 
these benefits to every son and daughter of Adam, who will receive 
them. 
I have read in your paper the eloquent recommendations of the Rev. 
H. Colman; they are harmonious to my ear. I wish they may vibrate 
to the extremes of our common country. 
While we are importing Durham Short-Horns and Saxony Sheep, I am 
gratified to see that you are importing Prussian School Systems, (the 
probable offspring of the energies of Frederick the Great.) Will we 
be so tenaceous of improving our farm slock, and leave our children 
to the influences of the moon, witches, ghosts, and unlucky Fridays? 
You have said in your prospectus to the present volume, March No. 
you had something in reserve for the Ladies. I do not know what it is 
—but I have no doubt it will be acceptible, for kind hearts are surely 
good recipients. Doct. Rush, in his lectures, observed, “Our Saviour 
was never abused by a woman.” I believe that could not be said of 
Job. It is stated, man was solitary in the Garden of Eden, without a 
help meet. It must assuredly be the worst degree of heresy, to pre¬ 
tend that Supreme Benevolence created woman to abridge the enjoy¬ 
ment of man. 
The kindness of a woman is not only the highest delight of life, but 
it is the sweetest, softest and most soothing, in suffering disappoint¬ 
ment and affliction. When we are forsaken, traduced, defrauded, ca¬ 
lumniated, to have one warm-hearted bosom friend, to whom we can 
disclose, with whom we can advise and reciprocate—my God, what 
more can we ask ? In sickness, how much soothing—in old age, how 
much devotedness. Look at the Indostan funeral pile ! 
Permit me now to suggest the consideration and disclose the obser¬ 
vation, whether Fashion is not imposing on the females of the present 
day, the debilitating discipline of the yellow bird and canary bird? 
And is it not an abridgement of their enjoyment of life, and a deterio¬ 
ration of our offspring? All the foreign women who have come under 
my observation have stronger constitutions, and are habituated to 
more rugged exercise. There are tendencies and consequences in civi¬ 
lized life, of a hurtful character, which are apt to be unobserved or un¬ 
heeded, in the crowd of concerns; and while mingled with the ten 
thousand delights of social life, become so amalgamated as to lose more 
of their original character, than of their baneful influence. 
Without going into comparisons that might be odious, when man is 
lord and master of animals, I feel justified in the inquiry, where in the 
whole circle of Natural History, is the female decidedly marked by im¬ 
becility? Whence, then, the imbecility of the sternum and spine? re¬ 
quiring the support of whalebone, and the desperate constraint of laced 
