THE CULTIVATOR: 
A N\ontYvVy Publication, devoted to A^vicuttuvo—cac\\ Xo. lb \va^cs. 
You. Ill, ALBANY, MARCH, 183ft. No. 1, 
PUBLISHED BY THE N. Y. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
J. BUEL, Conductor. 
TERMS.— Fifty Cents per annum, to be paid-in advance. 
Special Agents. — Judah Dobson, Philadelphia—Messrs. Hovey, Boston— 
George C. Thorburn and Alexander Smith, New-York, and Samuel S. 
Glenn, office of the National Intelligencer, Washington. Any gentlemen 
who will enclose us $5, free of postage, will be considered also a special agent, 
aad will be eRtitled to every eleventh copy, or its equivalent, as -commission. 
O’ 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 eaeh number, to any other part of the Union. 
_ THE CULTIVATOR, _ 
To Improve tlxe Soil and the Mind. 
OUR THIRD VOLUME 
Commences with this number. We feel extremely grateful to 
the gentlemen who have assisted to give a high character to the 
Cultivator, by their communications; and the many who have con 
tributed to ext- nd its circulation, are no less entitled to our warmest 
thanks. We trust and believe, that they have all felt a high gra¬ 
tification in the consciousness, that they have done a substantial 
public good, and that this consciousness, to men of enlarged and 
philanthropic minds, is to them a greater source of pleasure, than 
any acknowledgments we can make to them. If we are right in 
this conclusion, any request on our part, that they will continue 
their useful labors, will be wholly superfluous. 
The Cultivator was not established from pecuniary considera¬ 
tions. The object was truly to disseminate useful information, to 
the agricultural community, in the cheapest possible form, in order 
to increase the profits and respectability of agricultural labor.— 
It was hoped, that it might at least contribute to excite in. the 
youth of our country, a desire to improve the mind as the readi¬ 
est way to improve and render profitable the culture of the 
soil. In aiming at this object, our calculations were graduated 
in the outfit, too low; for, notwithstanding that the services of the 
conductors were gratuitous, the establishment, at the close of the 
first year, was more than five hundred dollars in debt. The 
second year, the advance of price has enabled us not only to extri¬ 
cate it from debt, but to afford a moderate compensation for its ma¬ 
nagement. Although the subscriptions must necessarily be renew¬ 
ed at the commencement of each volume, the subscribers amounted, 
for the last year, to nearly 12,000. It is the intention of the con¬ 
ductor, to expend, in pictoral embellishments and illustrations, and 
in other improvements, any excess of means which may arise from 
increased subscriptions; and at all events to make the coming vo¬ 
lume as valuable as the last. 
We commence, in this number, several essays on interesting 
subjects, which we shall be obliged to continue, on account of their 
length, in several consecutive numbers. Of these, the treatise on 
lime, is one of the most valuable of the kind we have met with.— 
That on the silk business will be interesting to a great portion of 
our readers. The subject of grasses is one of universal interest, 
and the authorities from which we draw our facts, are of undisputed 
pre-eminence. The compend of Flemish Husbandry will be worth 
an attentive perusal, as it gives the practice of probably the best, 
cultivated agricultural district in Europe, and will afford many bints 
serviceable in our practice. It will be remarked, that the analysis 
of the soil is always given, as determining the mode of culture, and 
rotation. The extracts in regard to Sheep Husbandry will be found 
valuable to all who are engaged in this department of husbandry. 
We have also in store for our readers, many valuable articles from 
Low, Chaptal and Loudon, suited to our husbandry. We promise, 
too, more attention to the young men’s department; and, though 
last in the enumeration, not least in our regards, the floral and 
household departments of the ladies shall not escape our notice.— 
The works from which we extract the pith and marrow, would cost 
the reader a large sum, and some of them are either not accessible 
NO. 1.-VOL. III. 
to the many or are beyond their means. From a computation we 
have made, we find that a volume of the Cultivator contains as 
much matter as five volumes of ordinary duodecimo, which sell at 
eight to ten shillings a volume.' We have adopted the two column 
form in the page, the better to receive the cuts; though the matter 
is not thereby decreased, hut will be rather increased, by the intro* 
duction of more small type than usual. 
NOTES ON FLEMISH HUSBANDRY. 
East and West Flanders, to whose agriculture our notes refer, 
is a district of fiat open country, of about eighty miles by fifty, 
bounded north-west by the North Sea, north-east by Holland, south 
by French Flanders, and east by Dutch Brabant, lying between fifty 
deg. forty-five min. and fifty-one deg. twenty min. north latitude, 
the climate much resembling that of latitude forty to fbrty-two deg. 
here. The soil is of various qualities, but in general naturally poor 
and sandy, resembling, in no small degree, the maritime districts 
of New-Jersey and Long Island, and the sandy districts of Saratoga 
and tlm upper level on the Connecticut river.. The country is inter¬ 
sected by canals, which serve to facilitate the transportation of ma¬ 
nure from the cities and villages, of which there are many, and of 
farm produce to market. Notwithstanding the natural infertility 
of the soil, these provinces are made to yield the most abundant re¬ 
turns to agricultural labor. In the Low Countries, of which Flan¬ 
ders comprises a par', and in tire valley of the Po, in Italy, agricul¬ 
ture first revived after the overthrow of the Roman empire, was re¬ 
duced to system, received its earliest improvements, and probably 
still maintains an ascendency. The practices of such a country 
cannoc but afford some useful hints to the farmers of our own. 
The high commendation bestowed upon Flemish husbandry by 
Sir John Sinclair, induced the directors of the Farmer’s Society in 
Ireland to commission the Rev. Thomas Radcliff to visit that coun¬ 
try, and to report on the condition of its husbandry. It is from his 
report that we have drawn the facts which we are about to narrate. 
Among the characteristics that distinguish Flemish husbandry, 
is the perfect pulverization of the soil, by frequent and deep plough- 
ings, or by trenching;—the subjecting most of the lands to alter¬ 
nate husbandry;—the extensive culture of clover, of root crops, and 
tares, for soiling and winter feeding their cattle;—the careful extir¬ 
pation of ail weeds;—a remarkable attention to the saving, and a 
judicious application of manures, particularly of liquid manures;— 
the constant occupation of the ground with crops;—and a judicious 
rotation, varying in almost every district, on account of the diffe¬ 
rence in soil, and adopted and settled after long experience, such 
as is best suited to the local market—as will best repay the farm¬ 
er’s cost and toil by an abundant return—best cultivate the soil for 
a succeeding crop—best enrich it for the purpose of increasing fer¬ 
tility, and most effectually prevent, by judicious alternation, that 
natural disgust which even good soils manifest to reiterated sow¬ 
ings of the same description. 
Our author has divided the country into eleven districts, distin¬ 
guished by peculiarities of soil, and treated of each separately. 
We shali follow his arrangement, and quote whatever may seem 
calculated for our improvement. 
District JYo. 1 — Wheat soil, containing fifty-two and a half 
parts alumine, or clay; twenty-one silex or sand; nineteen carbo¬ 
nate of lime; and seven and a half oxyde of iron. This is the 
strongest and heaviest soil described. The crops which are culti¬ 
vated in this district, are wheat, horse beans, winter and spring bar¬ 
ley, oats, and partially potatoes and flax. The average product is, 
of wheat twenty-eight bushels, beans nineteen, barley forty-seven, 
oats fifty-nine bushels per English acre. There is sown per acre, 
two and a half bushels of wheat, four of beans, two and a half of 
barley and oats. Here fallows are resorted to. The rotation is so 
arranged as to have a root, bean or clover crop intervene between 
the wheat, barley and oat crops. A considerable portion of this 
district, laying at the mouth of a stream, has been reclaimed from 
the water by drains and embankments. Manure is applied to the 
