THE CULTIVATOR: 
A MONTHLY PUBLICATION, DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE. 
Vol. IV. ALBANY, AUGUST, 1837. No. 6. 
PUBLISHED BY THE N. Y. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
J. BUEL, Conductor. 
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the cultivator;: - ' ■ 
TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AM) THE M I ND. _ 
THE CONTRAST, 
BETWEEN THE HUSBANDRY OF NEW AND OLD SETTLED DISTRICTS. 
The farmers in newly settled districts,, forgetting that the fertility 
which gives them great crops, is the accumulation of ages, act .as 
though it was inexhaustible; and, like the prodigal son, they go on 
living upon the patrimonial wealth of Providence, till its value be¬ 
comes seriously impaired, or is wholly gone. They do not consider, 
that land, like every thing else, will wear out, by bad husbandry; 
and that it is'the duty, as well as the interest, of the husbandman, to 
endeavor to preserve and to perpetuate its fertility. Their system 
is that of exhaustion. The lamentable effects of this system are seen 
all along the Atlantic border; where large districts, once teeming 
with fertility, have become poor and sterile. And even in the com¬ 
paratively new states of Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee, whose 
admission into the Union as states is fresh in our recollection, we 
already hear of exhausted fertility—of worn out lands ; and the in¬ 
habitants of these states, in countless numbers, are pushing to the 
far west, in search of new and virgin soils, which, under a bad sys¬ 
tem of management, they may in turn feed upon and exhaust.- The 
remark applies with like force to many districts of New-York. West 
Vermont and the valley of the Mohawk were,, within our recollec¬ 
tion, the great wheat districts, and furnished principally this impor¬ 
tant staple to the New-York market. Now they do not raise this 
grain in sufficient quantity for the domestic demand. Whence this 
change 1 Why this diminution in the products of the soil ? The 
cause is too palpable to the most superficial observer. The farmer 
has been constantly going to the meal chest, without thinking of the 
necessity of replenishing his stores, till the meal is exhausted—he 
has been constantly drawing upon the riches of the soil, without em¬ 
ploying those means, which Providence has placed abundantly with¬ 
in his reach, of preserving, or improving, its fertility. Had this sys¬ 
tem of exhaustion prevailed in Flanders, or in China, how;lamenta¬ 
ble would now have been the condition of their population 1 The 
lands in those countries were naturally no better than ours; and yet 
hastheir fertility not only been preserved, unimpaired, for thousands 
of years, but it has been increasing, with the increase of population, 
and the increasing wants of the human family. 
In the old settled districts of our state, a very different course, 
from that practised in the newly settled districts, has, from necessi¬ 
ty, to be adopted. In these, the fertility of the soil, having been 
greatly impaired, or exhausted, by the bad management of the pio¬ 
neer settlers, it has become necessary to renovate and augment its 
roductiveness; and where the experiment has been fairly tested, 
y industry, intelligence, and good management, the benefits have 
been so palpable, and success so encouraging, that improvements 
have increased in a progressive ratio, until many of the old districts, 
though once exhausted, have not only gained their natural fertility, 
but have been made to surpass it, and now exhibit examples of the 
most profitable husbandry in our land. The counties of Dutchess, 
Orange, Columbia, and a portion of Long Island, in our own state, 
and many districts in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, &c. sufficiently 
attest this fact. In these, exhaustion has given way to a system of 
augmentation and improvement. 
NO. 6—VOL. IV. 
The deterioration of lands, by constantly cropping, without re¬ 
turning to them the means of fertility—the dung of the farm—is as 
inevitable, as is the starvation of animals, from whom we withhold 
the food necessary to their existence. The augmentation of fertili¬ 
ty, by draining, manuring and alternating crops, is matter of as equal 
certainty. We possess the means; we have abundant examples to 
guide us in their application; and if we will but exercise intelligence, 
industry and perseverance, we shall preserve fertility and plenty in 
the new, and augment them in the older settled districts of our coun¬ 
try. 
COAL ASHES AS A MANURE. 
From the favorable result of an experiment made in Ohio, of em¬ 
ploying coal ashes for manuring corn, noticed in another column of 
this day’s Cultivator, we have been induced to inquire to what ex¬ 
tent, and with what effect, this material has been elsewhere applied, 
and we now communicate to the reader the result of our inquiries. 
There are two kinds, of fossil coal—bituminous and anthracite.— 
Whether the ashes of the two kinds differ in their fertilizing proper¬ 
ties or not, we are unable to say. But the facts we are about to 
state refer to ashes of the bituminous coal, which is the kind princi¬ 
pally used in Great Britain, as well as in the vallies of the Ohio 
and Mississippi. 
Davy says, that coal, on distillation, gives carbonate and acetate 
of ammonia, which are said to be very good manure; and that soot, 
derived from the burning of coal, and known to impart fertility to a 
soil, owes a part of its efficacy to the ammonial salts which it con¬ 
tains.—p. 35. 
“ The ashes of coals and cinders,” we are advised in British Hus¬ 
bandry, “ have the very perceptible effect of loosening, as well as 
stimulating those soils, [clays and heavy tenacious loams,] and when 
they can be procured in sufficiently large quantities, in the neighbor¬ 
hood of great towns and manufactories, they are ploughed in with 
great advantage, to the extent of fifty or sixty bushels, or even more, 
to the acre. The ashes of coal, wood and turf, when used for do¬ 
mestic purposes, are, in almost all country places, mixed up by the 
consumers with the dunghill, and, unless they form an unusual pro¬ 
portion of the heap, occasion but little sensible difference in the pro- 
perteis of the manure ; but when applied alone, as top dressings up¬ 
on grass, they both strengthen the herbage, improve its quality, and 
encourage the growth of white clover ; they are also used for many 
other crops, both of corn and artificial grasses.”—p. 332. 
“ Coal ashes,” says the Complete Grazier, p. 565, “ when proper- 
lypreserved, supply an excellent top dressing for clover, on dry, 
chalky soils, in the quantity of fifty or sixty bushels the acre, scat¬ 
tered in March and April; and are equally beneficial on grass lands, 
on which they are spread either during the winter, or in the course 
of the following spring. The quality of coal ashes may be much 
improved, by covering up, in every cart-load of ashes, one bushel of 
lime, in its hottest state, for about ten or twelve hours, when the 
lime will be entirely fallen. The whole is now to be well mixed to¬ 
gether, and turned over two or three times, when the cinders, or 
half burnt pieces of coal, which would otherwise be of no use, will 
be reduced to as fine a powder as the lime itself. It should, how¬ 
ever, be remarked, that in order to obtain this benefit from coal 
ashes, they should be kept perfectly dry; and when thus prepared, 
they are stated to improve swampy, moorish soils very materially, 
and in a very short time.” 
LEACHED ASHES AS A MANURE. 
Leached or drawn ashes possess a highly beneficial effect, particu¬ 
larly when applied to lands deficient in calcareous matters, as lime 
or marl. They serve to improve the permanent texture of such soils. 
The ashes from the soap boilers of London yield 90 parts in 100 of 
calcareous matter. They serve to free light lands of sorrel, and in 
swampy soils they effectually destroy rushes and other aquatic 
weeds. They are extensively used on the light sands upon the At¬ 
lantic coast, and are bought up at a shilling a bushel, in the towns 
and cities upon our navigable waters, and transported thither. There 
are immense quantities of these ashes in the interior, on the sites of 
