THE CULTIVATOR: 
A MONTHLY PUBLICATION, DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE. 
Yol. IV. 
PUBLISHED BY THE N. Y. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
J. BUEL, Conductor. 
O* Office No. 8 WasMngton-street, opposite Congress Hall. «£jj 
TERMS.— Fifty Cents per annum, to be paid in advance. 
Special Agents .— Judah Dobson, Philadelphia—Messrs. Hovey, Boston— 
Israel Post & Co. Booksellers, 88 Bowery: Alex. Smith, Seedsman, Broad¬ 
way, and G. R. Garrktson, Seedsman, 111 Fulton-street, New-York.— 
Alexander Walsh, Lansingburgh, gratuitous agent. Any gentleman who 
will enclose us $5, free of postage, will be considered also a special agent, and 
will be entitled to every eleventh copy, or its equivalent, as commission. 
0“ The Cultivator, according to the decision of the Post-master General, is 
subject only to newspaper postage, viz: one cent on each number within the 
state, and within one hundred miles from Albany, out of the state—and one 
and a half cents on each number, to any other part of the Union. 
THE CUJLTI V AT.01$. 
TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. j 
In pursuance of the recommendation of the State Agricultural Society, 
the subscribers, a committee appointed for the purpose, will meet at the 
City Hotel in Albany, on the second Tuesday in July next, at 10 o’clock 
A. M. to examine and test any agricultural implements which may be of¬ 
fered for their inspection; and to certify to the merits of such as they may 
find deserving of public patronage. Inventors and venders of new imple¬ 
ments and machinery are invited to attend, and previously to notify the 
secretary, J. K. Paige, Esq. of the implements they intend to exhibit, by 
-letter, post paid. June 1, 1837. JOEL A. NOTT, 
A. VAN BERGEN, JESSE BUEL, 
H. BURDEN, J. P. BEEKMAN. 
Cd- Publishers of newspapers will render a public benefit by giving a 
gratuitous insertion to the above notice. 
THE TIMES! THE TIMES! ! 
Are truly distressing, and call for all our fortitude, forbearance and sym¬ 
pathy: fortitude to support us in our own trials; forbearance towards those 
whom misfortune has placed in our power; and sympathy for the general 
distress. Although bad—very bad—the times may be worse before they 
are better. The merchant has felt the first shock, the manufacturer is 
staggering under the blow, and the mechanic, the farmer and the laborer, 
are neither of them to escape unhurt. Yet, amid the wreck of fortunes 
and the consequent distress, there are many individuals, in all classes of 
society, who have cause to felicitate themselves on their forethought and 
prudence, in leaving well enough alone, without having hazarded their all 
to do better. Yes, prudent industry has ample cause of felicitation; and 
in no class is this exemption from dire calamity likely more to abound, 
than among the farmers of the middle and northern states. While the 
recocious plant, that, like Jonah’s gourd, grew up in a night, is blasted 
y the storm of adversity, the more humble oak of the farm, whose growth 
has been slow but sure, will remain firmly rooted in its native soil, in de¬ 
spite of the whirlwind, with but perhaps a partial loss of limbs and foliage. 
How far the measures of the government have contributed to the pre¬ 
sent distress, or how far it is in the power of the administration to afford 
relief, by the revocation of the specie circular or other means, are ques¬ 
tions which it is not our province or intention here to discuss. Yet there 
are causes, not political, which we may with propriety canvass, and which 
have had considerable influence in producing the present unexampled 
commercial embarrassments. It is the province of philosophy, as well as 
of Christianity, to profit by past errors, and, like the bee, to extract honey 
from the noisome weed. Adversity is a better teacher of wisdom, often, 
than prosperity, while it is the only school in which many can be induced 
to learn. 
One cause of existing evils, has been a prevalent impatience to get rich 
faster than one’s neighbor, and to live more ostentatiously and extrava¬ 
gantly—as if our happiness, the great object of pursuit, depended more 
upon reputed werlth and lavish expenditure, than upon a snug competence 
and a disposition to enjoy it rationally, in the temperate indulgence of our 
appetites, and the faithful discharge of our duties. The dull, plodding 
pursuits of labor did not promise soon enough to realize, to many, their 
golden dreams. Commercial and other hazardous speculations were gone 
into, and their success was heralded upon the four winds. New adven¬ 
turers started; property acquired a fictitious value; the unreasonable mul¬ 
tiplication of banks and chartered companies opened new facilities of cre¬ 
dit, and new fields of speculation; and the belief daily gained ground, that 
the ruling passion might be soon gratified to an indefinite extent. 
NO. 4 -VOL. IV. 
No. 4. 
The consequence has been, that too many sought to get fortunes by 
their wits—by speculation—and too few to earn them by their labor. The 
professions were overstocked—commerce was pushed to an extreme point 
—the imports in a single year exceeding the exports sixty-four millions of 
dollars—our citizens became greatly in debt, at home and abroad, and spe¬ 
culation was rife in every quarter of the country , and in every description of 
property. The shopman, aspiring to the condition of the wholesale mer¬ 
chant, quit the station where his capital and his qualifications fitted him to 
be useful. Mechanics and farmers, in countless numbers, deeming the 
employments in which they had prospered too humble for their ambition, 
and lured on by the successful example of others, either thenjselves quit 
their business for more lucrative or fashionable employments, or raised their 
sons to the dignity of the learned or mercantile professions. In this way, 
multitudes were transferred from the producing to the consuming classes. 
The latter consequently increased beyond their due bounds, and the for¬ 
mer were correspondingly diminished. Extravagance kept pace with the 
fancied accumulation of wealth; agriculture, the great business of our 
country, and the main source of our wealth, was greatly curtailed in its 
products; provisions doubled in price, and the importations of foreign grain 
became necessarily extensive; until at length settling day has come, and 
thousands are reduced to bankruptcy, who believed themselves secure in 
opulence, either by their own indiscretions, or the indiscretions of others. 
General distrust has taken the place of general credit; commerce is in a 
manner paralyzed, manufacturers are suspending their operations, and 
discharging their workmen; the mechanic is curtailing his business; and 
many thousands are thrown out of employment, who depend on their la¬ 
bor for bread; and property of all kinds is depreciating to its minimum va¬ 
lue. , 
We are not among the number who believe, that an increase of banks 
in such a crisis would afford relief. To multiply them now, would be like 
administering opium to a patient whose frame had been wasted, and his 
health destroyed, by the habitual use of the drug. It might mitigate pain, 
but it would never restore sound health. We are sick—the disease is 
seated, and will run its natural course; and when the crisis has passed, the 
patient will regain his strength and vigor, if he is not dredged with quack 
nostrums. All that can be done safely, is to make him as comfortable as 
possible; to watch and profit by the first symptoms of convalescence, and 
to guard against a relapse. 
And what are the lessons which the times teach us? What the means 
of restoring sound health and vigor to the body politic? We will enume¬ 
rate some which fall within the particular province of our journal. 
And in the first place, and as of the first importance, 
We must enlighten, and specially patronize agriculture, by schools of 
practical and scientific instruction, and by pecuniary bounties—that it may 
be rendered more productive, more inviting, and more honored. We 
must wed the hands to labor, and the head to knowledge. Those who 
have forsaken rural labors, and been disappointed in their utopian dreams 
of riches and happiness, should return, with the humility of the prodigal 
son, to a forgiving parent. They will be kindly received, and amply re¬ 
munerated, on resuming their former duties. Thus we may save to the 
country the millions which were last year sent abroad, or for which we are 
still in'debt, for foreign bread-stuffi, and bring down the price of provi¬ 
sions to a fair medium standard. 
We must protect our manufacturers. Although they have in some 
cases acted unwisely, and illiberally towards the farmer, and have, in the 
plenitude of temporary power, forgot right, still they are likely to be suf¬ 
ficiently chastened by present adversity. Their well-being is identified 
with the prosperity and independence of the country. They work up 
much of the cotton of the south, the wool of the north, and consume the 
surplus provisions of all the states. They transform the metals of our 
mountains into the necessaries of civilized life. They make up the bulk 
of our domestic commerce. They give employment to millions of worthy 
citizens, and virtually clothe the nation. They are our brethren, possess 
with us a common interest in the welfare of our country, and we must rise 
or fall with them. And we are inclined to think, that resolutions of pub¬ 
lic meetings of our citizens, to give a preference, to every reasonable ex- 
tentj to domestic over foreign fabrics^ would be alike prudent and patriot- 
ic. Many millions of dollars have been embarked in these branches of la¬ 
bor, which must be lost to our country if our manufactories arc suffered to 
go down, to say nothing of the abject dependance their loss will bring us 
under upon foreign nations, for many of the absolute necessaries of life. 
We must live more within our means, and upon our means, and be¬ 
come examples of prudence and economy to our less opulent neighbors. 
This remark is particularly intended for our cities and villages. Example 
in the higher orders is contagious, be it good or evil; and those who 
squander with princely extravagance, inflict the direst evils upon commu- 
ALBANY, JUNE, 1837. 
