18 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
method, may he safely set down at $1.25 per ton, presupposing the 
use of the horse rake and good labor at $1 per day. What is wor¬ 
thy of remark, the expense is not materially raised by adverse wea¬ 
ther, which would render almost abortive any attempts in the old 
method. If farmers will try it, they will find that the old adage— 
“make hay while the sun shines”— Will have lost half of its impor¬ 
tance, and that the process of making hay will be going on in cloudy 
weather. They will also find that the operation is governed by such 
laws as cannot fail to give them good hay. The slight fermentation 
which is induced by the moisture or juice in the grass, subsides just 
so soon as heat enough is produced to evaporate it, and then the 
process is ended. 
Permit me to suggest to novices in farming a simple method 1 
have adopted, in keeping a daily register of all operations done on 
the farm, which will enable them to make statements without any 
admixture of conjecture and estimate, and to determine the profit or 
loss of any crop. 
A book cross-ruled—left hand margin, day of the month—allow 
then two perpendicular columns to each man, in which, opposite to the 
day of the month, in one column set down the amount of labor done, 
in the other, the time at each kind of work ; this is done in a very 
short note. This answers the other valuable ends of keeping accu¬ 
rately the time of hired labor, gives a connected history of the work 
of the farm, and is convenient on divers occasions, as a book of re¬ 
ference. Two minutes a day, is all the sacrifice of time—a trial of 
one year will be found the best commentator on its merits. 
I have written the foregoing in much haste; if you consider any 
of the suggestions worthy, they are at the service of the readers of 
the Cultivator. Yours truly, 
TRACY S. KNAPP. 
Skaneatelss, 2 d month 4th, 1837. 
Esteemed friend, —One of the good effects produced by the call of 
the State Agricultural Convention last winter, may be named the es¬ 
tablishment of an agricultural and horticultural society in this place, 
and, in the character of its corresponding secretary, I submit the fol¬ 
lowing summary of some of its proceedings. The meetings of the 
society are held monthly, and although some of them have been dis- 
couragingly small, yet in no instance have we returned from them 
without feelings of interest, and in most cases arising from an in¬ 
crease of knowledge on subjects in which all the members of the 
society are deeply and personally interested ; in proof of this, I will 
mention the subjects which being proposed at one meeting, have at 
the subsequent meeting afforded matter either for essays or for dis¬ 
cussion. On planting and preserving orchards, also the best mode 
of using apples, so as to realize the most profit in feeding of stock. 
The right time for cutting grass and making hay. On the best til¬ 
lage for the growth of wheat. On the comparative advantage of 
different breeds of sheep ; and at another meeting this subject was 
resumed, and the best mode of wintering sheep united with it. On 
root culture. On draining. Root culture resumed this day, when 
it was agreed to give prizes for crops of ruta baga, carrots and par¬ 
snips, grown the coming summer, to he not less than four competi¬ 
tors in each class ; the first premium $3, the second best $2 ; and 
for sugar beet to be three competitors, first prize $3, second $2 ; 
and should there not be the requisite competition, the society may 
award a prize for an extraordinary good crop of either root. It was 
cheering to see the facility with which the society raised the $20 
thus appropriated, and more could easily be obtained if needed. 
I do not know that I have more to communicate than expressions 
of thankfulness for thy services to the good cause, and a hope that 
the Convention, as well as the State Agricultural Society, may be en¬ 
abled by its recommendation of sound measures, and good principles, 
to promote the public weal. 
It would have heen very pleasant to have witnessed the delibera¬ 
tions of both bodies, but circumstances, over which I have no con¬ 
trol, deprived me of the gratification. , Thy friend, 
JAMES CANNINGS FULLER. 
ON TRAINING THE GRAPE. 
Schenectady, December, 1836. 
Dear Sir, —We are frequently told that grape vines must be kept 
from climbing high; that the fruit will be richer and better, than 
when the vines are high, and far from the ground and their roots. 
When Bishop Brownell left his professorship in Union College, he 
6ent to me a small grape vine with root. I set it near the paved 
walk from the street to my yard and garden, a south aspect. I 
erected a trellice frame over the walk and cistern, 10 feet high, and 
the part next the house on a slant to 15 feet high, and about 14 feet 
wide on the ground. The vine soon covered the frame, and bore 
grapes resembling the kind called Isabella grapes, but higher flavor¬ 
ed. It has been exposed to all the late hard winters, and suffered 
some in the small branches, and yet it has uniformly borne well. I 
have always noted that the bunches of grapes on the highest part 
of the frame, from 10 to 15 feet from the ground, were much the 
richest in flavor; when those from 5 to 10 feet from the root, per¬ 
pendicular, and most exposed to the sun and air, were very much 
inferior, and not well ripened. On seeing the Bishop some years 
since, he told me the grape was the Frontignac. 
If you judge the above may be useful enough to find a place in 
your Cultivator, you may give it a place. 
Most respectfully, DAVID TOMLINSON. 
BEET SUGAR. 
ROYAL AND CENTRAL SOCIETY OF AGRICULTURE. 
Report in the name of a special commission composed of M. M. 
Le Baron de Sylvester, the Due Decazes, Count de Chabrel, Dar- 
blay, Crespel Delise, arid Payen, reporter, with practical instruotions, 
and prize questions on the extraction of sugar from beets , adapted to 
rural establishments, and the means of improving and forwarding this 
branch of industry, made in 1836. 
[Translated from the French, by D. Spoor.] 
Gentlemen, —You have charged us with the examination of a 
question of the highest interest for the agriculture and industry of 
France. Permit us then to cast a rapid glance over the vast field 
that lies open before us. 
Numerous incontestible and undisputed facts show the immense 
advantages that will result from the increase of the culture of beets, 
and the extraction of the sugar, which they contain in abundance. 
It is only by the exchange of their crops into commercial pro¬ 
ducts of greater value, or capable of home consumption, that the 
cultivators can relieve themselves from the state of distress to 
which the successive reduction of the price of grain, as well as the 
deplorable condition of most of our ways of communication, have re¬ 
duced them. 
In this sense, a useful impulse may be given, by forwarding the 
connection, so desirable between the agricultural and manufacturing 
industry. Already the happiest results have been realized in the 
erection of starch manufactories (feculeries) several oil mills (huile- 
ries) and other manufactories, in the midst of districts adapted to 
furnish them with the raw materials. 
All these sources of industry together would not extend so rapid¬ 
ly the benefits of productive labor, and none of them assist so much 
in the progressive melioration of the soil, as the manufacture of in¬ 
digenous sugar. In fact, the commercial product which is obtained 
from it, does not produce any sensible diminution of organic azotic mat¬ 
ter, which is very justly considered by agriculturists of the present day, 
as the most valuable and precious agent of the fertility of the soil.— 
The beet has also this advantage over most, other cultivated plants, 
that it may, if required, be sown on the same ground for ten and 
even fifteen years in succession, without diminution, and even with 
increase of the crop, as has been proved by numerous experiments 
made by Mr. Coste, at Sailly, Delisse, at Bithune, Crespel Pinta, at 
Arras, Crespel Delisse, at Brevellers, Lesneur, at Abbeville. Their 
rapid growth, completed in four or five months, draws forth from the 
bottom of the vegetable mould the soluble manures, to be in the 
end applied to the surface, either in the formfof the decayed leaves 
or tops, the scum and dregs applied as a manure, or in the dung of 
the animals fed with the pulp after the extraction of the sugar. The 
plants require attention that will give useful occupation to individu¬ 
als of both sexes ; loosen the soil, destroy noxious weeds, furnish 
abundant herbaceous nourishment for cattle, disturb and destroy the 
different little destructive animals, which often multiply during the 
continued culture for several years on the same soil of such crops as 
do not require hoeing. It is thus, that the culture of the beet rea¬ 
lises the wish, so generally expressed by agriculturists, the intro¬ 
duction of a plant that requires weeding; the essential basis of a 
real improvement of the soil, 'fhe last stripping of the leaves (ef- 
feuilage) the digging, or pulling, (arrachage) and the storing comes 
opportunely at a season when almost all the other crops are housed. 
The residue of the beets, after the extraction of the sugar, con¬ 
sists, 1st. Of the pulp, almost as rich, and more easily converted in- 
