190 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Virginia and south, and might be brought to northern markets be¬ 
fore the setting in of winter. We shall endeavor to domesticate 
these strangers, though we fear most of them are too tender for our 
climate. 
We subjoin an extract from the letter which accompanied these 
seeds, more particularly with the view of calling the public atten¬ 
tion to the cultivation of the madder crop, as one likely to insure 
profit to the cultivator, and as of moment in a national point of 
view. It will be remembered that our imports of this valuable dye 
have exceeded two millions of dollars in a year—that the home de¬ 
mand will increase with the increase of our manufactures—and that ■ 
our soil and climate have been proved to be congenial to its growth. 
The facts detailed in Gen. T’s letter, in regard to this plant, will j 
induce, we trust, new zeal in its culture among us. 
“ New- York, 25tli Dec. 1836. 
“To J. Buel, Esq.—S in—Your known zeal in augmenting the 
productions of our country, and your efforts to make an additional 
blade sprout where it was before barren, gives assurance that a 
package of foreign seeds, could not be placed in better hands, than 
when confided to your care. I have considerable hopes from the 
Asiatic Indigo. I beg your personal care and judgment for this 
package. Mr. Clay, the American charge, at St. Petersburgh, 
translated what has appeared in the Journal of the American Insti¬ 
tute, and he was under the full belief this indigo plant might be useful 
for his country. 
“’I had a package of madder seed, which I brought from Avignon, 
on the Rhone. It is but a few years since France purchased from 
Holland, Sic. the madder used in her dyes. Her production of 
madder now supplies her own demands, and furnishes a new agri¬ 
cultural product lor extensive exportation. France, I believe, sup- I 
plies this country with madder for our dyes. Its growth is suited to { 
our climate, and to the rich lands on our rivers. The attention of 
our farmers should be turned to this as a new and very profitable 
crop. A few years of peace in Europe, and the agricultural and 
mechanic labors of its subjects will surcharge our markets with their 
productions. It is a duty to supply, from among ourselves, our \ 
own wants. We have every variety of soil and climate. 
“ I am, Sir, very truly yours, Sic. 
__ “JAMES TALL MADGE.” 
CHINESE HUSBANDRY. 
The almost illimitable extent to which the soil may be rendered 
tributary to the wants of man, is no where better illustrated than in 
China. There necessity is truly the mother of invention. Crowd¬ 
ed with an immense population, mostly depending for subsistence 
upon the products of the soil, every expedient to induce or perpetu¬ 
ate fertility is resorted to. While we talk of worn-out farms, and 
exhausted lands, caused by the reckless management of the hus¬ 
bandman, in districts recently wrested from the fertilizing hand of 
nature, the soil of China has been made, by the art and industry of 
man, to yield an undiminished product for thousands of years. While 
we are accustomed to waste two-thirds, and often all, of the mate¬ 
rials which Providence has provided to sustain the fertility o r the 
soil—there every vestige of these matters—every animal and vege¬ 
table substance—is sedulously husbanded, and judiciously restored 
to the earth from whence it sprang, where it is speedily transformed 
again into lood for the human family. Here we leave grounds to 
rest, and to regain fertility, as though they were endued with the 
properties of animals; there the soil has no rest—it is constantly 
under tillage, and is made to yield two or three crops in a season. 
We find in the Farmer’s Register, some notes on Chinese hus¬ 
bandry, extracted from the travels of a philosopher. We do not no¬ 
tice them under the expectation that the Chinese modes of husban¬ 
dry are to be imitated among us, or that they are generally adapted 
to our condition; but as matters of curiosity, and as affording, with¬ 
al, important suggestions to cultivators every where. 
The secret art of the Chinese, says our author, of multiplying the 
grain and provisions necessary for the nourishment of their immense 
population, consists principally in manuring their fields judiciously, 
ploughing them to a considerable depth, sowing them in a proper 
season, turning to advantage every inch of ground which can pro¬ 
duce the most inconsiderable crop, and by preferring to every species 
of culture that of grain, as by far the most important. They have 
no meadows, natural or artificial—insisting, that a field sown with 
grain, will yield as much for the nourishment of cattle, in the straw 
it grows, as it would have produced in hay. Fallows are unknown 
among them, as they are considered an abuse, destructive of plenty 
and population. All the grounds in the northern provinces, yield an¬ 
nually two crops, and in those towards the south, often five m two 
years, without one single fallow season, during the many thousands 
of years that they have been converted to the purposes of agricul¬ 
ture—and yet they fail not—because all that is taken from them, af¬ 
ter it has subserved the purposes of man, is restored again to their 
bosom. They employ salt, lime, ashes, and all sorts of animal dung, 
but above all that which we throw into the rivers ; they make great 
use of urine, which is carefully preserved in every house, and sold 
:to advantage; and occasionally renovate fertility by trenching the 
ground with a spade, thus bringing to the surface a new soil, en¬ 
riched with the juices of that which descends in its room. Every 
inch of ground is cultivated—even the most precipitous hills and 
mountains are cut into terraces, and sown with grain, and the wa¬ 
ters of rivers and canals at their base, are raised from terrace to 
terrace, even to the summit, by means of a simple portable ma¬ 
chine, which two men with ease transport and put in motion. And 
finally, agriculture is nurtured and dignified there, as it ought to be 
every where, as constituting the first and noblest pursuit of man, by 
the government of the empire. The Emperor himself, goes annu¬ 
ally to the field, and turns the first vernal fallow. 
EXPERIMENTS. 
James M. Garnet, Esq., president of the agricultural society of 
Fredericksburgh, Va., gave, in a late address to that society, the 
results of some of his experiments in farming, a part of which wc 
■ here insert, as matters of general interest. 
1. He ploughed a part of his corn ground in the fall, and another 
part just before planting, (the character and condition of the soil not 
stated) the corn upon both parts was planted and treated alike— 
but no difference was perceived in the product. 
2. He dressed one part of a field of corn with the cultivator, and 
another part with a plough, and finished both with a hand hoe. He 
• perceived no difference in the crop, though some said the corn made 
■ with the cultivator was the best. The saving of labor, however, by 
the use of the cultivator, he thinks, was two to five and a half or 
six. 
3. His skinless oats produced little more than the seed. 
4. An experiment in drilling wheat proved nearly a total failure : 
he hardly got two for one. 
t Mr. Garnet thus notices a class of farmers, not confined to Vir- 
i ginia, whom he denominates “ Procrastinators.'' 
“A family, by the way, (says he) which, I fear, has more mem- 
; bers in our dear state, than in any other that can be named. I 
■ speak understandingly (as congressmen say) on this subject, being 
1 1 at least cousin-german to some who rank very high among the bro- 
■ therhood; although I must confess 1 do not pride myself much on 
f I the relationship. Among planters and farmers this family does quite 
f ! as much mischief as the Hessian fly, the wheat-worm, the chink- 
i bug, and all other flies, worms and bugs put together, that war upon 
- their crops; and the man who could devise an effectual cure for 
) their besetting sin, would justly merit the highest civic honfirs which 
- could be conferred on him. Cure this, and we should no longer 
1 «postpone to a more convenient season,’ (as unbelievers do the con- 
1 sideration of religion) matters that imperatively require our imme- 
) i diate attention. We should never lose, as now frequently happens, 
: a subordinate and subsidiary, but still important crop, by delaying to 
i secure it at a critical time, merely because (as we say) it would he 
working out of turn. We should do every thing at the right sea- 
- son, but the particular order in which they were done, should always 
- be varied according to the changes of the weather, and the condi- 
- tion of our arable lands. Thus to act, at all times, is the great art 
1 to secure success in all the branches of husbandry; and none who 
- practise it constantly, will ever be under any necessity to abandon 
their native homes, their friends and their kindred, for strange lands, 
; in pursuit of riches.” 
; We make another extract from Mr. Garnet’s address, descriptive 
, of some of the ruling passions of the day, abounding in truth, and 
r full of admonition. 
“Thousands of these (northern farmers) are making fortunes—if 
3 not as rapidly as the cotton and sugar planters of the south, yet with 
3 all reasonable speed, and moreover, in peace and safety ; while the 
i latter are making them at the daily hazard of their lives—hazards 
/ inevitably produced by climate, or incidentally, but not the less cer- 
i tainly, by such universal laxity—nay, total inefficiency of legal re- 
