A MONTHLY PUBLICATION, DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE. 
Vol. IV. ALBANY, DECEMBER, 1837. No. 10. 
PUBLISHED BY THE N. Y. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
J. BUEL, Conductor. 
EF Office No. 3 Washington-street, opposite Congress Hall, 
TERMS.— Fifty Cents per annum, to be paid in advance. 
Special Agents. — L. & R. Hill, Esqs. Richmond, Va.; Messrs. Bell & 
Entwisle, Alexandria, D. C.; Gideon B. Smith, Baltimore, Md.; Judah 
Dobson, Philadelphia, Pa.; Messrs. Hovey, Boston, Mass; Israel Post & 
Co. Booksellers, 88Bowery; Alexander Smith, Seedsman, Broadway, N. 
Y. Alex. 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. 
EP 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. 
_T HE CULTIVATOR. 
TO IMPROVE THE SOIL AND THE MIND. 
An absence from home, and a severe indisposition, which Irave in¬ 
tervened since the publication of our October number, have prevented 
that personal attention to our correspondents which we have been desi¬ 
rous to bestow, and which we hope hereafter to be able to give them. 
PROPOSED IMPROVEMENT. 
We intend to enlarge our sheet on the commencement of our fifth vo¬ 
lume, in March next, and to advance the subscription price of the Cul¬ 
tivator to One Dollar a year. As our patrons are scattered over a 
territory of more than fifteen hundred miles in extent, we give this early 
notice that we may be able, from the returns that shall be made, to gra¬ 
duate our edition of the fifth volume by the extent of our subscription list. 
The Cultivator will then be printed on a sheet of twenty-eight by 
forty inches, of improved quality of paper—costing $8.50 per ream—its 
contents will be considerably increased—its pictorial illustrations multi¬ 
plied, and its intrinsic value greatly enhanced. In its new form, a month¬ 
ly number of the Cultivator will contain as much letter press printas 
a monthly number of the Penny Magazine, published by the British So¬ 
ciety for promoting useful knowledge, and which, at two dollars a year, is 
reputed to be the cheapest periodical published in the world. 
Several considerations have rendered the proposed alterations expedi¬ 
ent. The value of our subscription is diminished ten per cent by com¬ 
missions', it has been reduced other ten per cent, during the last year, by 
the depreciated value of foreign bills remitted to us in payment; and, 
though our rules would otherwise indicate, much is lost in bad debts, and 
a large amount absorbed in postage. But pecuniary considerations are of 
minor weight, except as they enable us to enhance the value of our pub¬ 
lication. The object of our establishment was to instruct, encourage and 
elevate the great producing class—to improve the moral and social condi¬ 
tion of society. Its utility in promoting these great objects, has been 
demonstrated, in the most satisfactory and flattering manner, by a sub¬ 
scription list of nineteen thousand names. We would now essay to en¬ 
large the measure of its usefulness; which we are persuaded we can do, 
with the aid and co-operation of those generous and patriotic citizens, who, 
justly appreciating our motives, have hitherto ably and efficiently second¬ 
ed our efforts. If patriotism is aught but a name, it consists in bettering 
the condition of society at large; and this is in no way so likely to be ef¬ 
fected as by improving the state of our agriculture. “I know of no 
pursuit,” says Washington in a letter to Sir John Sinclair, “in which 
MORE REAL AND IMPORTANT SERVICES CAN BE RENDERED TO 
ANY COUNTRY, THAN BY IMPROVING ITS AGRICULTURE.” We 
indulge the hope, that influenced by this noble sentiment, which we quote 
from the father of our country, the gentlemen, in different parts of the 
Union, who have so far sustained our efforts, will not relax in doing 
GOOD. 
Our subscriptions for the fifth volume will be forwarded with our Janu¬ 
ary number; and every eleventh copy, or its equivalent, will be allowed 
to gentlemen who forward to us subscription monies free of charge. 
AN AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION 
Is appointed to be held at the City Hotel, in the city of Albany, on the 
first Thursday of February next, at 10 o’clock A. M. and the anniversary 
of the New-York State Agricultural Society will be held at the City Hall 
on the same day. 
Whether these meetings will be well attended, or whether, if well at¬ 
tended, they will result -in any measures favorable to the great interests 
NO. 10 —VOL. IV. 
of agriculture, remains to be seen. - The exertions of a few individuals, 
however well intended, or well directed, can effect but little, without the 
co-operation of the legislature, and of the people at large. 
Agriculture is a non-combatant in party warfare. She regards the 
whole of the community as her children, and as entitled equally to her 
affections; and has, therefore, no political favors to bestow, and none to 
ask. She is like the good natured mother, who, slighted and neglected by 
the children she has nursed and brought up, nevertheless preserves her 
good temper, from the hope of returning affection in her deluded offspring. 
But the patience of the good old lady is nearly exhausted, and we-opine, 
that if she would maintain her maternal rights, she must again resume her 
parental authority. 
But to come to plain matters of fact. What is the state ;;of our agri¬ 
culture, upon the products and profits of which every class of the 
community must ultimately depend for prosperity in life? Is it improv¬ 
ing, in proportion to our increasing wants, or the facilities adorded by the 
intelligence of the age? Is it sufficiently enlightened, encouraged and 
respected? Do the people, does the government, give that attention to 
its improvement, which sound policy suggests, and which its importance 
imperiously demands? Decidedly the most agricultural people in the 
world, in our habits, do we raise our own bread-corn, the first requisite to 
national independence? We do not put these questions to individuals,or 
to isolated districts—for there are such, we know, that might answer 
them affirmatively—but we put them to the state—to the nation. To 
speak in general terms, our cultivated lands have been deteriorating, by 
an exhausting system of husbandry, from the time of their first occupancy, 
until not only farms, but entire districts, have been in a measure abandon¬ 
ed, as unfit for the habitation of man. This should not be—need not be. 
What would be our condition, in regard to wheat, the great staple of our 
state, were it not for the virgin soils of the west, brought under cultiva¬ 
tion within the last forty years? The old districts once produced this 
grain, far beyond the home consumption. They do not do it now. But 
they can be made to do it under an improved system of husbandry. The 
valiies of the Hudson and Mohawk, and the basin of Lake Champlain, can 
be made to yield again their tribute in this grain, by the same means 
which have renovated the fertility of modem Europe, and which are now 
successfully employed in renovating the worn out soils of many districts 
of our own country. 
Some of the once most fertile portions of the old continent are now vir¬ 
tually desert, by reason of the ignorance, the indolence and the violence 
of man. Are not portions of our own country threatened with a like ca¬ 
lamity? There are other portions of the old continent, on the other hand, 
where the fertility of the soil has been preserved, and there are others 
vvhere it has been doubled, trebled and quadrupled, by the intelligence 
and industry of the rural population, encouraged and rewarded by the pa¬ 
tronage of government. These examples of wisdom and foresight we can 
imitate, we ought, and we must imitate, if we would be a free, a prospe¬ 
rous and a happy people. It were folly to erect costly hydraulic struc¬ 
tures where there is no water to propel the machinery. Our cities and 
villages—and the non-producing classes of the community—may be com¬ 
pared to the hydraulic structures, and agriculture to the stream—which 
gives to them power and utility. If the stream fails, the machinery stops, 
and is useless. If agriculture languishes, towns decline, commerce di¬ 
minishes and want pinches. 
We will state a plain proposition. An acre of land, managed under the 
old exhausting system, yields a nett profit of five dollars per annum. Ap¬ 
ply this to twenty millions of acres, and you have an aggregate of one 
hundred millions of dollars, which is annually added to the stock of na¬ 
tional wealth by the labors of agriculture, and which is perhaps squandered, 
or thrown away, by the idle and licentious portion of community. Now 
if, by legislative encouragement—by a better system of education, and 
by those stimulants to industry which have been successfully applied else¬ 
where—each acre of land can be made to double its nett profits—a sup¬ 
position neither unreasonable nor improbable—our stock of national 
wealth will be increased one hundred millions of dollars a year beyond 
what it now is, our lands will be improving, instead of deteriorating, and 
the nation will be correspondingly prosperous and happy. 
We seriously commend this subject to the notice of the editors of our 
public journals, and to all classes of our population; and hope that the 
coming winter will show a better spirit towards agricultural improvement 
than has been witnessed in years past. 
PEAT EARTH AND PEAT ASHES, 
IMPORTANT SOURCES OF FERTILITY TO THE FARMER. 
Peat earth and swamp muck, from our marshes and swamps, are com¬ 
posed princ'pally of decayed vegetable matters, washed in from higher 
