146 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
and recreation for the mind in hours of rest or of leisure; and when the 
habit of reading is once acquired, its pleasures and advantages become 
more and more perceptible and enticing, as we advance in useful know¬ 
ledge. Those who employ their time in their Own business, seldom find 
leisure or disposition officiously to intermeddle in the private concerns of 
their neighbors. But the mind is as liable to disease as the body, and a 
diseased mind is far more prejudicial to character and usefulness, than a 
sickly body. Evil communications corrupt good manners; and bad books, 
or useless books, are as injurious to the mind and manners, as bad com 
panions are, or as impure air, or obstructed perspiration are to the body. 
The adage teaGhes, that a man is known by the company lie keeps, and 
the maxim is true, applied to books as well as men. 
Having discussed the affairs of the family, let us go now to the farm:— 
For after all, our capacity for providing suitably forourselves and families, 
and of becoming useful to others, will depend, in no small measure, Upon 
the extent of our pecuniary means, and these means are to be acquired 
by the profits of our labors upon the farm. 
I would premise in the outset, that the business of agriculture has not 
kept pace with the other useful arts, in the march of improvement, and 
that it requires all our exertion and enterprise to overtake the spirit of the 
age. In the other arts of productive labor, the improvements of the last 
fifty years have been greaterin amountthan duringthe preceding century. 
No man prospers in the mechanic or manufacturing arts, at this day, who 
treads in the footsteps of his ancestors. By reason of the application of 
science, and the multiplication and great improvement of labour saving 
machines, old practices have been superseded by new and better ones— 
all has there been changed—all improved. A useful discovery in those 
arts is no sooner made in one country, or in one district, than a know¬ 
ledge of it is disseminated, by means of the press, through every civilized 
land, almost with 'he rapidity of the wind, and it becomes known and 
adopted wherever it can be useful. But in husbandry, the case has been 
different. We have, to a ruinous extent, in many parts of the country, 
persevered in the practices of our fathers, which, though adapted to their 
time, and the circumstances of a newly settled country, are illy suited to 
an exhausted soil, or to the present age of improvement. We, too, must 
call science and the press to our aid, if we would successfully compete 
in the business of farming, with the well cultivated countries of the old 
continent, or the highly improved districts of the new one. The agricul¬ 
ture of England has doubled its products in the last sixty years, and the 
agricultural productions of Scotland, have been more than quadrupled in 
the same period. In France, men of profound science, have successfully 
devoted their talents to the improvement of the soil, and the government 
has efficiently aided their efforts, by the establishment of schools of prac¬ 
tical and scientific instruction in husbandry, and by pecuniary aids to her 
agricultural societies. There, the soil has been improving under the new 
system of husbandry: here, the soil has been deteriorating under-the did 
system. The lands of Flanders have been preserved in unimpaired fer¬ 
tility six centuries, and those of China, for more than two thousand years 
Providence has provided for us tod abundant means for perpetuating the 
fertility of our soils, and has endowed us with capacities of applying them 
to advantage. We have received the talent. If we hide it, or do not 
put it at interest, the master will assuredly take from us that which we 
have, and give it to him who has already much. But the spirit of agri¬ 
cultural improvement is abroad in our land. The young farmer, in par¬ 
ticular, feels its vivifying influence. It has already done much, and with 
the aid of agricultural societies, and of agricultural periodicals, which are 
increasing in numbers and usefulness, its benign influence will soon be 
manifest in every department of husbandry, and in every section of our 
Country. We have the strength and enterprise of a young nation; and 
we possess advantages, and enjoy privileges, unknown to any other agri¬ 
cultural people upon the globe. It becomes us, then, to call promptly to 
our aid, the lights of science,and the diffusive influence of the press, that 
we may realize the high destinies seemingly allotted to us by a kind Pro¬ 
vidence. 
Allow me to make a farther digression, to speak of a means of improv¬ 
ing our husbandry, which is too much neglected, and too often contemned 
and ridiculed. I allude to what is sometimes, in derision, termed Book 
Farming, but which in reality offers the most substantial facilities to im¬ 
provement, and the acquisition of wealth. Let us inquire what this book 
farming is. 
A German, by means of study and observation, aided by a long course 
ot practical experience in husbandry, has been able to ascertain the de¬ 
gree of exhaustion in fertility which soils ordinarily undergo, from the 
growth of common grain crops—and how much their fertility is increased 
by given quantities of manure, and by pasture—thus teaching how to 
, maintain, or to increase, the fertility of the soil, and consequently its 
products and its profits, from the resources of the farm. 
Other men have been assiduously engaged for years, in studying, and 
have satisfactorily ascertained, the laws by which heat, air and water, are 
made to exert their best agency in preparing the food, and accelerating 
the growth and maturity of plants—and have published directions how to 
derive the highest advantage from these primary agents of nutrition. 
And others have invented new and improved implements and machine* 
ry, calculated to relieve agricultural labor of half its toils. 
A farmer in Ohio, raises fifteen hundred bushels of Swedish turneps on 
an acre of ground, enough to feed and fatten ten bullocks seventy-five 
days. A farmer in Massachusetts, by a new mode of managing his corn 
crop, has realized a nett profit of $150, on little more than an acre of 
land, while his neighbors, in the same season, and in adjoining fields, 
have not been remunerated, in their crop, for the expense of culture. A 
farmer in JNTew-York, has proved by experiment, that by a new process 
of making.hay, he can save ten per cent in weight, something in labor, 
and other ten per cent in the quality of his forage. Another farmer of 
my acquaintance, has cultivated twenty acres of Indian corn, and eight 
acres of beans the present season;—the former, estimated to average for¬ 
ty bushels the acre, and the latter giving more than an ordinary yield— 
without employing a plough, or a hand hoe, in the planting or culture— 
the whole work having been performed with the drill barrow and cultiva¬ 
tor, implements of modern introduction, thus-economising from one-half 
to two-thirds of the labor ordinarily bestowed. 
These are all matters of recent record, but as they happen to be print¬ 
ed, they very properly fall under the denomination of Book Farming .— 
But are they, on this account, less true, or is the information they con¬ 
tain less useful in your practice? If a neighbor makes a palpable im¬ 
provement, by which he doubles the value of his labor, you readily avail 
yourselves of his discovery, though you do it by stealth. Through the 
means of agricultural publications, the entire farming community stand 
in the relation to you of neighbors—you become acquainted with all their 
improvements, and are enabled to profit by their skill and- science. I 
might detain you for hours with details^of improvements in husbandry, 
which are essential and accessible to the farmer. Hundreds of men of 
profound science, and thousands of the best practical farmers, in this and 
other countries, are engaged in improving agriculture—in making two, 
three and four blades of grass, and two, three and four bushels of grain 
grow, where but one blade, or one bushel, grew before; and they are 
tendering you the benefits of their labors, in the agricultural works of the 
day. The accumulate^ experience, and the improvements of centuries, 
have been registered by the press, and their benefits are tendered to all 
who will read and profit bythem, almost without moneyand without price. 
He that will read, may learn .—(To be continued.) 
NOTICES OF CORRESPONDENCE. 
The request of the Secretary of the Home District Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, would have been attended to with pleasure, had the notice reached 
us-in time for our October number. 
Whitney's Stump Extractor, has been extensively used, we under¬ 
stand, in Washington and Saratoga counties, and highly approved. The 
price at Troy or Albany is $200—address S. Potter, Waterford, N. Y. 
The machine requires two yoke of oxen, one to move it and the other to 
draw the stump, and four men. It extracts green as well as dry stumps, 
no other digging being required than maybe necessary to attach the chain 
to a root. It will extract from 20 to 100 stumps in a day, according to 
their size and condition. 
Black Barley, 8fc .—We have received from J. Hamilton, of Newark, 
N. J. samples of black barlpy and southern corn, both handsome grain. 
Buc%thom .—Our Winchester, Ct. “patron” is informed, that the 
Buckthorn, for hedges, may be had of J. Hersy Derby, Esq. of Salem, 
Mass, at $4 per 100, and perhaps at some of the Boston nurseries. A few 
plants may be had at the Albany Nursery. 
Leicester Sheep .—Our Vermont correspondent A. will find notices of 
these sheep-in the Cultivator—of their price and hardness. 
Threshing Machines —We are inquired of, by A. Gugy, Esq. of 
Quebec, and Enoch George, Esq. of Saddler’s Cross Roads, Md. as to the 
relative value of the Threshing Machines which have been described in 
the Cultivator. We have spoken of those we have seen in operation with 
freedom, and we must refer to our paper for our opinions; yet it would be 
invidious, and an office for which we Bo not feel qualified, to pronounce 
definitively which is the best." And it is well to remark here, that a thresh¬ 
ing machine, and a horse power to propel it, are distinct articles, and that 
they are sold separate. Indeed, the horse power will soon, in our opi¬ 
nion, be made subservient to all the stationary purposes of the farm; and we 
expect, ere long, to lay before our readers, drawings and a description of 
a stationary horse power, which performs more than a dozen farm opera¬ 
tions, and among other, threshes, cleans and grinds the grain, bolts the 
flour, and cuts the straw, without the aid of any manual power, after the 
grain is delivered to the threshing machine. There are at present no 
threshing machines made, or on sale, at Albany. We cannot answer Mr. 
George in regard to Van Bergen's Cultivator, further than to say, that 
they are for sale by W. Thorburn, of this city, and that he sends them to 
order. 
The Sodom Apple Plant, described by Isaac Gibbs, as a pest on the 
farm, is wholly unknown to us. It is not the Canada thistle. 
