122 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
soil is twice as great as on the argilo-silicious soil; whence we should 
naturally conclude, that the faculty of imbibing the principles of ve¬ 
getation from the atmosphere, [and of combining with and dispens¬ 
ing them to the crop, from the manures furnished by art,] is much 
more powerful in the calcareous soils, and the vegetables it produ¬ 
ces, than in the argilo-silicious soil, and it is that which constitutes 
their greatest difference.” The great agriculturist, the late John 
Taylor, of Virginia, maintained, that the atmosphere was the great 
store-house of vegetable food, abounding in the elementary matters 
of plants; and the argument of M. Puvis goes to show, that calca¬ 
reous earth, or the matter of lime, siezes upon the elementary food 
in the atmosphere, and imparts it to plants, more readily and abun¬ 
dantly than clay or sand ; and in this position he is undoubtedly cor¬ 
rect. These facts go to multiply and strengthen the inducements 
for applying marl, or mild lime, to argilo-silicious soils, to increase 
their fertility. 
But though the soils of the west are better constituted, for the 
foregoing reasons, for .enduring bad treatment, than those of the . 
eastern and southern sections of the state; though they will wear 
longer, and can be more easily renovated, their fertility is by no 
means inexhaustible, as some seem to imagine. Even the beauti¬ 
ful lakes would in time be dried up, from evoparation, were their 
waters not constantly replenished by streams and springs. So will 
the soil become exhaus*ed of its fertility, if vegetable matter, the 
food of plants, is annually carried off, and none returned; and al¬ 
though a new stratum of fertility may be brought to the surface by 
the trench plough, or clover made to alternate with wheat, these 
will but prolong, not perpetuate, fertility. The substratum will in 
its turn become exhausted; and the clover, even should it not, as 
we suspect it will, soon fail in its accustomed returns, will but illy 
compensate, in the food it gives to the soil, for the exhausting ef¬ 
fects of the wheat crop. We here repeat, that within our recollec¬ 
tion, the whole of the wheat and flour sent down the Hudson from 
Albany, Troy, &c., and the quantity was great, was grown in the 
valley of the Mohawk, on the eastern borders of Lake Champlain, 
and in the counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Washing¬ 
ton,—and that these districts do not now grow one-fifth of the wheat 
required for the use of their population. 
It appeared to us, from superficial observation in passing through 
the country, and without making any pretensions to geological sci¬ 
ence, that the strata of West New-York was originally deposited in 
nearly horizontal layers, by a great aqueous revolution, the different 
strata of clay, sand and lime, and the intermediate gradations or 
mixtures, alternating with each other; that after having levelled it 
in surface, in the process of passing off, to a lower level, by the dis- 
rupture of some opposing barrier, the waters, by abrasion, formed in 
it basins or hollows, or, where operating with less force, left an un¬ 
dulating or rolling surface, and wore through, and carried off more 
or less, according to the depression of the underlaying strata ; and 
that no great internal convulsion of the earth had subsequently hap¬ 
pened to disturb the horizontal position of the layers. We inferred, 
from this conviction, that at the same elevation, upon each of these 
great plains, or basins, the character of the soils, as regarded their 
earthy constituents, were nearly similar. We noticed, that clay 
loam, sand loam and sand predominated as we ascended from the 
lower levels. And here we will quote an idea of M. Puvis, which 
we think is peculiarly applicable, and may be highly serviceable, to 
the west. It is—“that the formations in any one basin being com¬ 
posed of the same fragments, and owing to the same revolutions, the 
soils of these basins presents, through their whole extent, a great 
analogy; and consequently, the practices of agriculture which have 
succeeded in one point, may be applied, the difference of climate ex¬ 
cepted, to the analogous formations; agriculture perfected on some 
points of a basin, may give lessons almost certain for its whole ex¬ 
tent.” If the truth of our conjectures should be confirmed by geo¬ 
logical investigation, and the order and depth of the different depo¬ 
sits determined, the discovery will greatly aid the purposes of agri¬ 
culture, and facilitate the discovery of gypsum and other fossil pro¬ 
ductions. 
The farms in West New-York are of princely dimensions, varying 
from two hundred to twelve and fourteen hundred acres. The farm 
buildings, where the country has been long settled, are large, sub¬ 
stantial and often splendi ; too often lacking, however, the accom- 
paniments of a good garden, and those rural embellishments, which 
are ever an indication of comfort, taste and refinement. But of the 
fanning, we cannot say it is good—it is generally improvident and 
bad; and there are two cogent reasons, we anprehend, which will 
prevent immediate and extensive improvement, viz. the natural fer¬ 
tility of the soil and the great extent of the farms. The cultivators 
seem content with the ample patrimony which nature has provided 
for them, without heeding the admonition, with which older settle¬ 
ments are replete, that soils, under a reckless management, will di¬ 
minish in fertility. Their study is, rather to increase their acres, 
than to preserve the fertility of those they already possess. Nay, 
many affect to believe, that their lands will continue to produce 
great wheat crops, without deterioration, and without manure, es¬ 
pecially if this crop is alternated with clover. We will state a fact 
that will prove the fallacy of such calculations. One of the most 
intelligent farmers of the west, who has occupied a first rate wheat 
farm for about twenty years, near the outlet of Seneca Lake, told 
us that he had kept an accurate account of the product of his wheat 
crop; that dividing the time of his occupancy (he took it in its 
wild state) into three equal periods, he ascertained that the average 
product of the first period was 29 bushels of wheat per acre ; of the 
second period 25 bushels, and of the third and last period 20 bushels 
per acre—thus showing a diminution of products, and consequently 
of profits, in this short period, of thirty-three per cent, or one-third. 
This diminution, at the present price of wheat, would amount to 
twenty dollars the acre per annum. Thus two acres of land, in its 
j virgin state, gave as great a product as three acres do now, and 
i with less labor to the acre then, probabiy, than is required now. 
We ought to add, that our informant, contrary to common practice, 
has been in the habit of saving and applying his manure, and of al¬ 
ternating clover. With regard to the quality of farming, it is im¬ 
possible to manage a very large farm well, though it may be manag¬ 
ed with great present profit, with the hmited capital and labor, which 
it is there customary to expend upon them. The tendency must 
constantly be to deterioration, and to a consequent diminution of 
acreable profits. The vallies of the Hudson and Mohawk have 
been once as celebrated for their fertility as the west now is; but 
a reckless system of cropping exhausted it. But brighter times 
are dawning upon us; a better system of farming is restoring to 
the soil its wonted fertility; science is contributing her aid; and 
these vallies, at no distant day, will make as large returns to agri¬ 
cultural labor as any portion of our country. Let the west be ad¬ 
monished by these lessons, and learn to be provident of the muni¬ 
ficent bounties of Providence. 
Although, from the preceding considerations, we do not look for 
great and immediate amelioration in the condition of western farm¬ 
ing, yet there are improvements of such manifest advantage, and 
involving such trivial expense, that we may hope to see them gra¬ 
dually introduced. We will now speak particularly of two of the 
more prominent— manuring and draining, which lay at the founda¬ 
tion of good husbandry. 
We may as well expect our farm stock to become fat without the 
provident care of man, as to expect that our soil will continue to af¬ 
ford its accustomed yield, without returning to it something of the 
vegetable matter which we are annually taking from it. To make 
fat animals, we cultivate for, and feed them with, the grain, the 
| pulse, the roots and the grass of the farm. If we would make good 
crops, we must in like manner provide them with an abundance of 
nutritious food,—which is furnished to our hands in the dung, straw, 
and animal and vegetable refuse of the farm, which constitute the 
true aliment of plants. And yet, notwithstanding the self-evident 
truth of these propositions, we were astonished to see, in the whole 
route from Utica to Buffalo, a recklesss disregard of this primary 
maxim of good husbandry. We saw vast accumulations of manure 
in the cattle yards, and immense quantities of straw about the out¬ 
buildings and in the fields, seemingly regarded as incumbrances ra¬ 
ther than as precious sources of fertility and of profit, and we often 
saw neighboring cornfields literally starving for want of this vege¬ 
table aliment. On asking an inhabitant why piles of manure, which 
we pointed out, were suffered to accumulate, year after year, till 
I they rotted the cills and sides of the barn, and why they were not 
carried to the field, he replied, with great sang front, that the soil 
was already rich enough. We mean to except from these general 
remarks, many notable instances of judicious and enlightened hus¬ 
bandry. 
No country is better adapted to improvement by underdraining, 
' than many districts of West New-York. There are immense plains, 
gently sloping, either possessing a clay soil, or resting upon a sub¬ 
soil impervious to water, on which crops are liable to suffer greatly 
