170 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
balances due us, which constitute, in the aggregate, a sum greater 
than the profits of our labor. 
While writing this article, we received our mail letters of the day, 
of which five from different post-ofiices, are applications for the Cul¬ 
tivator, with promises to remit the subscriptions “ the first opportu¬ 
nity,” or when the subscriptions amount to a five dollar bill. Five 
a day, and this does not vary much from the average, would make 
more than 1800 in a year. And yet it would be discourteous for us 
not to comply, under -such fair promises. We only want our pat rons 
to appreciate the aggregate of these items, for which we depend 
upon the honor and punctuality of strangers, to become satisfied of 
the necessity of our rule, and to render to it a cheerful compliance. 
We shall enclose memoranda of these balances in the present rr 
next number, and have to beg, that they may be sent to us with the 
remittances for the fourth volume. The circulation of the present 
volume exceeds that of the preceding one, two to three thousand; , 
from which it may be inferred, that our efforts to merit public favor 
have been generously sustained. Our edition is now 18,000. We 
trust that, for the sake of the agricultural improvement of our coun¬ 
try, we shall not be obliged to reduce the number. 
AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR 1836. 
The general products of the soil have been far less bountiful this 
year, than has been usual; yet there is still abundant cause of gra¬ 
titude for the providential care which we have experienced, and a 
sufficiency for our wants and comforts, if we husband well our means, 
and expend them with prudence and economy. A series of propiti¬ 
ous seasons is not to be expected, and perhaps ought not to be de¬ 
sired,—as they would tend to relax industry, and to introduce a 
recklessness in our expenditures and mode of living, prejudicial to 
individual enjoyment, and to the good of society. We mean, that 
the occasional chastenings of adversity are oft times more beneficial 
than an uninterrupted flow of prosperity. They serve to recall us 
from our wanderings, and to admonish us, that the true enjoyments 
of life are likely to bo meted out to us only as we merit them, by the ! 
honest and lively exercise of our best faculties. They should teach 
us, too, our mutual dependence; and that the best way to secure 
the aid and good will of others, in emergencies which happen to all, 
is to deserve them, by first dispensing to our fellows, and to society, 
those good offices which Providence has enabled us to bestow. 
The failure in our harvests may be ascribed to three prominent 
causes, viz: 
The unpropitious season; 
The depredations of insects ; 
The diminution of agricultural labor. 
The first, as we have observed before, could not have been avert¬ 
ed—it was a providential dispensation—but the magnitude of the 
evil which it has produced, might have been sensibly lessened, by 
intelligent industry. The unpropitiousness of the season resulted 
mainly from a severe winter, an excess of rain, at the critical period 
of seed time in spring, a diminished temperature in summer, and 
early frosts in autumn. The fields were generally too wet for the 
early deposit of seed, and when it was deposited, the germination 
and growth, from this cause, and the coldness of the season, were 
either prevented or greatly retarded. This was particularly the 
case upon flat surfaces, with retentive soils or subsoils. Ridging 
and underdraining would not only have diminished the evil effects of 
water, but they would, in many cases, have rendered the ground fit 
for the seed much earlier, and, by leaving it more dry and porous, 
have considerably increased its temperature,—a consideration of 
great weight in the culture of Indian corn, and some other farm 
crops. Underdraining enabled us to plant a level piece of land, na¬ 
turally abounding in springs, with corn, from the 12th to the 15th 
of May, which ripened well, and was harvested without the inter¬ 
vention of frosts. Grounds well drained, are less subject to late 
and early frosts, than those which abound in moisture ; while drain¬ 
ing and ridging tend to counteract the evil effects of severe winters 
upon small grain. It is the water in the soil which causes it to 
heave by frosts, and the alternate expansion and contraction, which 
breaks and bares the roots of winter grain. 
We will here refer the reader to our notice of Baron Von Voght’s 
practice, in vol. 2, No. 1, of the Cultivator, as affording a good illus¬ 
tration of what can be done, to avert calamities to the farmer, inci¬ 
dent to bad seasons. The Baron commenced on a worn-out farm, 
of a wet thin soil, which did not repay the labor bestowed in its cul¬ 
ture, and by the kind of intelligent industry we speak of, in a few 
years he converted it into one of uncommon productiveness, which 
became noted as a pattern farm in the north of Germany. He in a 
great measure effected his improvements-—1. by efficient underdrains; 
12—by increasing the depth of the tilth ; 3—by ridging ; and 4—by 
alternating and turning in green crops. By underdraining, he tells 
j us, he was enabled to gain three weeks in his spring work, and 
secure his seed and his crops from an excess of rain afterwards. 
By throwing his land, in autumn, into one bout ridges, for his spring 
crops, a perfect drainage was provided for the rains of winter, and 
the ground remained light and dry, for early cultivation. By in¬ 
creasing the depth of the tilth, or soil, he gave greater scope to the 
roots of his plants, increased the amount of their food, and provided 
against the contingency of drought. By turning in green crops, he 
increased the fertility of the soil, and rendered it more porous, and 
pervious to the genial influence of the air, the sun, and the dews. 
What has been done in Germany, may be done in the United States. 
The insects which have been most prejudicial, are the Hessian 
fly, the grain worm, and the cut Avorn. 
The best preventives against the depredations of the Hessian fly , 
seem to be, good soil and good culture, which shall ensure vigorous 
growth,—and sowing after autumnal frosts, by which the young 
wheat is believed to escape the fly in the fall. Some experiments, 
recorded in the third volume of the Memoirs of the NeAv-York 
Board of Agriculture, and elseAvhere, of sowing caustic lime upon 
the grain in the spring of the year, seem to encourage the idea that 
it saves the crop, at least partially, from the fly ; but these will hard¬ 
ly justify us in pronouncing the remedy efficient. It is worthy of 
further trial; and we should like to be advised of any results that 
may strengthen the probability of success. 
The grain worm is yet unknoAvn in the south, and but partially 
knoAvn in the Avest. In this vicinity it has been far more formidable 
than the Hessian fly. It has greatly diminished the culture of the 
wheat crop among us, and caused a serious diminution in the pro¬ 
duct of the little sown. The insect abides in its destructive state 
but a short time ; and the observations which haA'e been made upon 
its habits give weight to the conjecture, that wheat sown early in 
the autumn, or late in the spring, will be most likely to escape its 
ravages ;—the grain of the first becoming hard before the fly makes 
its appearance, and the late spring-sown not coming into bloom un¬ 
til the insect has assumed its chrysalis form. 
The cut worm has been universally destructive, not only to corn 
and other grain, but to grasses and garden crops. The heavy 
snows, by protecting them from the severity of the Avinter, probably 
tended to increase the ravages of both the cut worm and the fly. 
Lime and ashes seem to afford the best remedy against the cut 
worm, applied in the ground Avith the seed, or, what we would pre¬ 
fer, at the surface of the ground above it. We have recorded se¬ 
veral instances of these proving efficacious. In May we transplant¬ 
ed a hundred seedling Dahlias, and a number of cabbages, into our 
garden. The first night, ten or dozen of the dahlias, and a number 
of the cabbages, were eaten off at the surface of the ground by the 
the grub. We immediately covered the surface of the ground with 
powdered lime, and lost no more plants, save a couple, and round 
the stems of these the lime did not happen to be spread. The Avorm 
attacks the plant at or near the surface of the ground. The alkali 
not only presents a barrier at this point, but the soil underneath be¬ 
comes saturated Avith it, and destroys or drives them away. We 
think there is reason in the remark of a correspondent in our last 
number, that if the worm can feed upon succulent grass, under the 
surface, it Avill not care to come above the surface to destroy the 
young corn, and that planting upon a fresh ploughed clover ley is a 
pretty sure way of escaping their depredations. We have often 
planted upon such a ley, without experiencing any injury from the 
grub; but we do not remember to have planted on an old sAvard, 
turned over the previous fall or summer, without having suffered se¬ 
verely from them. 
j The labors of agriculture have been diminished by the multiplicity 
of public works going on, which have employed a great number of 
laborers ;—by the great extent of emigration, which transformed ma¬ 
ny thousands of producers into mere consumers,—and by the unpre¬ 
cedented spirit of speculation. Men have not been contented with 
doing well enough, when they believed their neighbors were doing 
better. This disquietude has unsettled many in their staid plans 
and habits of business, and induced them to quit their farms and 
i their comforts, to become adventurers in the lottery of speculation, 
1 in which there is generally «two blanks to a prize.” These cir- 
