6 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
accumulating for them, and above all, to enjoy it as rational men. 
These objects are best effected, by vesting a part of this augment¬ 
ing capital in mental stock —in giving to their children the ad¬ 
vantages of a good education. Other property is liable to many 
casualties, and may be wasted or destroyed ' but the treasures of 
the mind are stable, and are certain to endure while reason holds 
the rein. There is not a thriving farmer but can have his sons in¬ 
structed in the general principles of physical science—in the laws 
which God has instituted for the government of the animate and in¬ 
animate matter of which our globe is composed. The brutes are 
tauo-ht, by instinct, to provide for their wants, and to take care of 
their young. But man is endowed with intellect, capable of vast 
expansion, and of a scale of enjoyment of which the brute must 
ever bean utter stranger. Possessing these high capacities, can a 
father consent to see his children forego the pleasures and moral 
improvement which education may confer, and which should dis¬ 
tinguish our species, and to grovel through life almost on a level 
with the inferior orders of beings 1 The investment which we advo¬ 
cate, will not only constitute a business capital, sewing to increase 
the profits of labor, but an intellectual capital, serving to increase 
the happiness of man. Knowledge is multiplex in the benefits it 
confers. It may be dispensed to thousands without impoverishing 
him who dispenses it. Hence whoever will, may profit by its 
teachings. 
Again. What father is there who would not like to see his son 
distinguished for talent and usefulness, exerting a benign influence 
upon the condition of society, and enjoying the respect and esteem 
of his fellow-citizens ? Can he reasonably expect to see this un¬ 
less he dispenses to him the advantages of education ? Can he ex¬ 
pect to reap the harvest, without sowing the seed, and without 
sowing the seed too in the spring-time of life 1 
AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION IN VIRGINIA. 
An agricultural convention was held at Richmond, Va. on the 
11th Jan. James Barbour, late governor, was called to preside, 
and Edmund Ruffin, editor of the Farmers’ Register, was appoint¬ 
ed secretary. About 200 persons were in attendance. The meet¬ 
ing was addressed by Gov. Barbour, a lengthy memorial to the le¬ 
gislature was reported by Mr. Garnett, and a resolution adopted to 
call another agricultural convention, at the capitol, on the first 
Monday in January 1887. The object of the convention was to 
improve the condition of Virginia husbandry, and the memorial, 
which is ably written, points out three modes of effecting this de¬ 
sirable object. “The only things,” says the memorial, “which 
can save our state from sinking to the very bottom of the federal 
scale,” “ are popular education and internal improvements, at the 
head of which stands agriculture.” The measures prayed for in 
the memorial, are 
1. “ The establishment of an agricultural professorship in their university, 
never to be filled by any but by a scientific and ‘practical agriculturist, with a sa¬ 
lary of SljoOl), to be paid out of the unappropriated balance of the literary 
fund; and in connexion with this an experimental farm, of one or two hun¬ 
dred acres, to be purchased with the same fund; upon which farm the pupils 
of the professor should be required, as a part of their duty, to labor a certain 
number of hours every day. Such an institution would furnish in a few years, 
a body of hardy young men, skilled both in the theory and practice of agricul¬ 
ture,” “ qualified at once to become proprietary cultivators.” 
2. “ To establish a state agricultural society, or board of agriculture, some¬ 
what similar to that of New-York.” 
3. “ To employ a competent person, with a sufficient salary to defray all 
necessary expenses for two years, to make an agricultural survey, or critical 
examination, of all the best cultivated parts of the Atlantic States; and to make 
a written annual report to the legislature, of all the most approved methods 
within each state, of clearing, draining and fertilizing land; of cultivating, 
harvesting and preserving the staple crops of the same; of improving, rearing 
and keeping farm stock of every kind; together with a particular description 
of all the best agricultural machines and implements,” to form a body of hus¬ 
bandry like the works of Young and Marshall. 
It affords us high gratification to find, that the necessity of en¬ 
larging the sphere of agricultural knowledge, by affording to the 
cultivators of the soil a better education, at the public expense, is 
every where becoming manifest, and attracting the public attention. 
We doubt, however, whether the plan suggested by the Virginia 
convention, of appending an agricultural professorship to a literary 
institution, will ever answer any beneficial purpose. The literary 
or agricultural class must become subordinate ; and when we con¬ 
sider the disrepu’e which attaches to labor by the young, it is very 
evident which will be ascendant. Agriculture will never flourish 
in the shade, or as a subordinate study. You must make it the 
great and paramount object of an institution, if you would make it 
honorable, and useful, and praiseworthy. 
STATE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION. 
The Agricultural Convention which convened at Albany on the 
8th February, we have reason to believe, would have been very nu¬ 
merously attended, but for the almost unprecedented snow storm 
whichpreceded its day of meeting, and which prevented the attend¬ 
ance ot many delegates even from neighboring counties. Not¬ 
withstanding the difficulty of travelling, the names of about 140 
gentlemen were handed in to the secretaries as in attendance, and 
these were from most of the counties in the state. Much good 
feeling, and an anxious desire to forward the objects which engag¬ 
ed the attention of the convention, were manifested, and confident 
hopes were indulged, that their deliberations would result in much- 
positive good to the community. It will be perceived that another 
agricultural convention is appointed to be held on the first Thurs¬ 
day in February 1837. 
MAPLE SUGAR. 
Every sugar boiler knows how to make maple sugar, but every¬ 
one does not know how to make good maple sugar. The material 
of foreign sugars is the same • the difference in quality and price, 
results from the difference in the processes by which it is manufac¬ 
tured and refined. The art of making good sugar consists in free¬ 
ing it from all impurities, which may affect its flavor or appearance. 
With the same eare the juice of the maple will make as good su¬ 
gar, and as white, as the juice of the cane. Every family who 
make maple sugar, may add one-third to its market value by the 
simple process we are about to detail, and which it will cost them 
but a trifle to adopt. It is the process by ivhich Havana sugars 
are brought, to the purity and whiteness which we see them in our 
market. We take it from Chaptal, who manufactured sugar ex¬ 
tensively from the beet, and who here describes the process he suc¬ 
cessfully pursued. 
We will lirst give the processes of purifying the juice and the 
syrup. The juice (of the beet) is first heat to a temperature of one 
hundred and eighty deg., thirty-two deg. below the boiling point, 
when some milk of lime, prepared by throwing some warm water on 
to lime, is thrown in, and the liquor well stirred. As soon as the first 
bubble makes its appearance, the fire is extinguished, and the liquor 
left at rest. A scum rises, thickens, dries and hardens. The liquor 
becomes clear. The lime unites with the mucilage and settles to the 
bottom. The scum is removed, and the clear liquor drawn off. The 
process requires an hour, and sometimes much more. The syrup is 
afterward refined by animal charcoal and the whites of eggs, and fil¬ 
tered thi-ough a coarse, thick, rough cloth. Moulds of tin or other 
material are prepared, of any size, of a conical shape, like the form 
of a sugar loaf, with a stopper in the small or lower end. When 
sufficiently reduced, the syrup is turned into them ; as soon as gra¬ 
nulation has began on the surface and sides, the er^st is broken with 
a spatula, and the whole stirred well ; after which it is left, alone. 
After this the process of whitening or claying is thus managed: 
The clay is first thoroughly washed, till it requires such a degree of 
consistency as not to flow when placed upon a smooth and slightly 
inclined board. It is then thrown on to the sugar in the moulds. 
The moisture penetrates the loaves, deprives the sugar of its color, 
and passes out at the point of the mould, which should now be un- 
stoppe ‘. The clay, deprived of its water, shrinks and dries, and is 
removed. A iecond, and sometimes a third application of clay is 
made, before the sugar attains the desired whiteness. 
Hot Beds. —The season for preparing these, in this latitude, is 
from the 20th to the last of March, for early cabbage, and sallad- 
ings—and earlier as we progress south. Cucumber frames may 
also be prepared by those who wish tht m early, or who employ a 
professional gardener. For tender plants, which it is desirable to 
have early for the table, or for ornament, and which are to be grown 
in the open ground, as peppers, celery, tomatos, egg-plants, okra, 
melons,—or balsams, asters, coxcombs, xeranthemums, marygolds, 
&.c. in the floral department, the sowing in frame may be omitted 
till the 10th or 15th April. Dahlias and tuburoses may be planted 
in pots of earth, and kept in the dwelling where the sun will come 
■upon them, or placed under a frame, to expedite their growth and 
