THE CULTIVATOR. 
153 
Now then, when by the receipt of millions, every anticipated or pro¬ 
bable deficiency of funds is done away; when every other interest has 
been, or may be amply provided for, and the treasury still remain 
overflowing; let the voice of the agriculturist be heard, and the class to 
which all others are indebted, not find their well founded claims re¬ 
jected. 
What do we as agriculturists require of the state ? Nothing that is 
not clearly right—nothing in the least degree unreasonable—nothing 
that will not be clearly and amply repaid by the increased revenues re¬ 
turned to the source of the disbursements. We require in the southern, 
and in the western districts, agricultural schools, endowed as is the 
central one at Albany ;* and diffusing equally to every section of the 
state, the advantages expected to be derived from that. The agricul¬ 
turists of this state require, and it is to this point our efforts as farmers 
should be principally directed, an annual appropriation from the trea¬ 
sury, for the encouragement and support of county agricultural associ¬ 
ations, which the experience af the past has proved to more rapidly ad-| 
vance the interests of agriculture than any other method yet devised ; 
proof that is yearly accumulating from the experince of such societies 
as those of Berkshire and Worcester, in Massachusetts, and the long 
established ones of England and Scotland. 
Discouraged by the failure of past applications in favor of agricul- 
ture, some may deem all exertion at the present time as premature, 
and hopeless. Such should not be the feeling among farmers, or their 
friends. Many of the causes which have had an unfavorable influence 
heretofore, have ceased to operate;—a sense of the value and impor¬ 
tance of agriculture as a national interest, and the necessity of taking 
higher and more liberal ground in regard to it, has been gradually in- 
creasing among well informed and influential men; an opinion dictated 
in part by a more correct view of its relative magnitude, and in a great¬ 
er degree by the more extensive diffusion of agricultural knowledge 
through journals devoted to the interests of the farmer. 
To accomplish the desirable objects we have in view, nothing more 
is necessary for the purpose, than for farmers, and those devoted to 
agricultural pursuits, to make their wishes known, and their voices 
heard by the constitutional and legitimate method of petition, in our 
halls of legislation. Let some public spirited individual in every school 
district in the state, circulate a petition, having for its object legislative 
aid to agriculture, and these be early forwarded to that body.f Let 
this step be taken, and farmers, we are confident will no longer have 
reason to complain that they are unnoticed, and their interests disre¬ 
garded. Our legislators have not so far forgotten their relative situa¬ 
tion, as to need to be taught the truth, that they are the servants, and 
the people the masters: all they desire is the public will clearly ex¬ 
pressed, and to that they will readily bow. 
Agriculturists do not come before the legislature as mendicants, cra¬ 
ving these appropriations as gifts, or as charity. They claim liberal 
portions of the treasury surplus as their own, the produce of the 
sweat of their brow; and which, if not required for the necessities of 
the state, should, in the shape of. appropriations asked for, be at once 
returned to the rightful owner. A FARMER 
December , 183 6. _ 
Salem, Fauq'r co. Va, 26th Nov. 1836. 
Dear Sir—I wish to inquire, through the Cultivator, what effect 
close confinement will have upon cattle designed for beef? Whether 
they will thrive when kept constantly confined ? I shall build a barn for 
the purpose of stall feeding, and from the number designed to be fed, I 
shall not be able to give them exercise at all. They will be kept hal¬ 
tered in stalls from the commencement of winter until they can be turn- 
ed to grass in the spring. I have no experience on this subject, and do 
not wish to proceed with a work so expensive as my barn will be, with¬ 
out being satisfied. I therefore respectfully request your opinion and 
that of your subscribers who have experience on the subject. 
The house will be so constructed as to be well ventilated. The cat¬ 
tle will be kept clean, and supplied with pure water by means of pipes. 
Very respectfully, JNO. BAKER. 
Reply. —Mr. Baker may, with propriety and advantage, fatten his 
cattle in stables, in winter, and without giving them exercise, provided 
the stables are kept clean and well ventilated. We have had oxen two 
months at a time in stables, without intermission; and being fed upon 
* Our respectable correspondent is under a mistake. No appropriation has 
ever been made for an agricultural school at Albany. 
f Any one may perform this duty. Take, for instance, the following 
caption : 
To the Legislature of the State af New- York —The undersigned, inhabitants 
of the town of—--respectfully petition. 
That an appropriation of moneys may be made from the state treasury, to 
encourage the establishment of County Agricultural Societies,—and to pro¬ 
mote otherwise the diffusion of agricultural knowledge, and the advancement 
of improvements in husbandry, as an act of justice to your petitioners, and as 
a'certain and direct means of increasing the wealth, the commerce and the re¬ 
venues of the state. 
VOL. III. 
ruta baga, they did not even obtain water; and yet they were healthy 
and fattened rapidly. Confinement facilitates the fattening process, 
where due regard is paid to pure air and cleanliness. But we caution 
Mr. Baker not to turn them to grass, till it has acquired growth and 
substance, lest they suffer by the change. But why not complete them 
for the shambles in the stable, and supply them there with green food ? 
Lawrence, as we shall show by an extract to be inserted in this or our 
next number, gives some cogent reasons in favor of stall feeding in 
summer as well as in winter. But in changing to green food, it will be 
well to do it by degrees, by mixing with the green, for a time, a portion 
of dry forage.— Cond. 
SYSTEMATIC FARMING—UNDER DRAINING—RUTA BAGA. 
Judge Buel —Dear Sir—When I had the pleasure of seeing you in 
Albany, you requested me to give you some account of my farming 
operations, and particularly in relation to underdraining, and the cul¬ 
ture of the ruta baga. The short time I have been engaged in agri¬ 
cultural pursuits, and the little practical knowledge I have obtained, 
will necessarily render any communication from me at this lime, com 
paratively of little interest—yet such as I can give, is at your service 
My farm contains 400 acres of upland, and consists of several varieties 
of soil, but mostly a deep gravelly loam, upon a very tenacious clayey 
sub-soil. I came in possession of this farm, and first turned my atten¬ 
tion to agriculture, in the spring of 1835. None of the land had been 
half tilled, and some of it had been cropped so long without being ma¬ 
nured, that nature had rebelled against the thankless task-master, and 
refused to produce any thing worth the husbandman’s notice. I eom. 
menced a thorough and uniform system of improvement, by ditching, 
seeding, and manuring,—dispensing my favors with an unsparing hand, 
| and without other regard to the expense, than noting the amount in my 
i journal. The consequence has been, I have brought lands that did not 
produce enough to pay the expense of cultivation, to a state of beauty 
land fertility, and obtained a rich reward for my labor. And what is 
worthy the attention of those farmers, who say they cannot afford the 
expense of improving their lands, is this fact, that the increased pro¬ 
duct of a single year has more than paid the whole cost. As a speci¬ 
men, I will give an account of a lot of 14 acres, which had been mow- 
suceessively for near 30 years, and the year before it came into my pos¬ 
session, cut but six tons. One third of the field was too wet to grow 
any thing but swamp grass, and its improvement was mainly brought 
about by under-draining. 
My account with this lot for the years 1835-6, stands thus. 
Dr. Lot No. 3—14 acres. Cr. 
1835, April 20—100 rods under-, 1835, July 20—30 tons pretty good 
drain a 4s.$50 00 
6 days drawing stone a 16s. 12 00 
300 loads manure a 3s .... 112 50 
£ ton plaster a $8......... 400 
Grass seed,. 10 00 
July 20—Getting in hay,.. 31 50 
Interest on land,. 49 00 
To balance,. 31 00 
$300 00 
1826, March 17—50 loads manure 
a 3s....$18 17 
Grass seed,. 2 50 
Aug. 2—Getting in hay, .. 37 50 
Interest on land,. 49 00 
To balance,. 343 25 
hay a $10. $300 00 
Profit,,-- 31 00 
1836, Aug. 2—35 tons supe¬ 
rior hay a $12.,.. 420 00 
$451 00 
Profit,. $343 25 
$451 00 
Contrast this with the product of 1834, 
Labor getting hay, say. $20 00 
Interest on land,.. 49 00 
Credit by 6 tons inferior hay, say $8. 
$69 00 
48 00 
20 * 
Actual loss,. $21 00 
The same result has followed all my efforts to improve my fields, 
and I am fully persuaded, that no amount of labor or money can be 
expended in the cultivation of the soil, that will not return four fold 
to the granary, or the store house. Yet these facts are lost upon the 
mass of farmers, already too wise to learn—who are contented with ob¬ 
taining from their lands, one-third the quantity they are capable of pro¬ 
ducing—apparently contented too, to deprive themselves of the comforts, 
luxuries, and rural embellishment, that make a home pleasant, and life 
a blessing; and continue to jog on in the path their fathers trod, turn¬ 
ing neither to the right hand nor the left, though the bright goddess, 
plenty, with happiness and honor in her train, invites them at every 
step. 
