A CONSOLIDATION OF DUEL'S CULTIVATOR AN D THE GENESEE FARMER, 
» agriculture, at once the cause and evidence OF CIVILIZATION.” _ 
Cult. Vol. YII No. 3. ALBANY, N\ Y. MARCH, 1840. Cult, and Fail Vol. I — No. 3. 
PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 
BY JESSE BUEL & CO. PROPRIETORS, 
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volume. (For special Agents, see last page.) 
fig OTMIVAT®]®. 
WILLIS GAYLORD &. LUTHER TUCKER, Editors. 
Notice to Subscribers. 
Our first edition of 12,000 having been entirely ex¬ 
hausted by the immense press of subscriptions, we are 
compelled to delay sending the January number until 
we can reprint it, which will he done as soon as stereo¬ 
type plates can he procured for that purpose; when it 
will be forwarded to all who are entitled to it. 
JESSE BUEL & CO. 
gtf- The continuation of Durand’s Report, the Dic¬ 
tionary of Agricultural terms, and several papers, com¬ 
munications, &c., which we had intended for this month, 
have been omitted, to give our readers the early pro¬ 
ceedings of the State Agricultural Society, and Conven¬ 
tion, at Albany, on the 5th of February. These pro¬ 
ceedings will he found of interest; and the Eulogy of 
Mr. Dean, on Judge Buel, who may he considered the 
founder of the Society, will be read with a feeling of 
regret proportioned to the loss sustained by the agri¬ 
cultural community, in the death of that eminent indi¬ 
vidual. — 
OH” We are gratified at being able to assure our rea¬ 
ders and friends of the fair prospect of success, equal 
to our most sanguine expectations. Notwithstanding 
the iron pressure of the times, our subscription list ex¬ 
ceeds by several thousands that of any previous year 
in the same period of time; and there is every indica¬ 
tion that our endeavors to deserve, will he rewarded with 
an ample if not an unprecedented support, from the far¬ 
mers of our broad and rich country. We are pleased 
to learn that our brethren of the agricultural press, ge¬ 
nerally, are on the full tide of successful experiment; 
a gratifying proof that the usefulness of such journals 
is beginning to be appreciated. The great addition of 
new correspondents to our list, and the continued favors 
of the former ones, gives the most ample guaranty 
that the friendly feelings cherished by the agricultural 
community towards this journal, have not decreased ; 
and that its high eminence, in this respect at least, will 
be fully sustained. 
Census of Agriculture in the United States. 
We are happy to perceive that this important subject 
has been taken up in the proper quarter, and that we 
are at last to have such an enumeration of the agricul¬ 
tural products of this country, as will furnish some safe 
estimate of the quantity produced, and the districts in 
which they are grown. In reply to some suggestions 
made by us on this subject, Mr. Deberry, the chairman 
of the committee of agriculture, has kindly forwarded 
us a copy of the instructions for the use and direction 
of the marshalls and their assistants, from which we 
find that the following series of inquiries are to be 
propounded to every farmer. Although there are some 
products it would be perhaps desirable to have intro¬ 
duced into this list in order to render it complete, yet it 
contains all the most essential items, and if carried out 
in the spirit in which it seems to have been conceived, 
it will be a collection of vast importance and value to 
the country. Had such a census of our agriculture been 
taken at every ten years, the comparison of the tables 
at different times would be of the greatest interest, as 
determining the increase in the product of our fields, 
and the districts in which the greatest fluctuations have 
taken place. 
We have one suggestion to make in regard to this 
matter, which we consider of very great importance. 
It is this. Let every printer of a newspaper in the 
country, and all in the cities that print journals for dis¬ 
tribution in the country, give a place to the questions 
which we copy below, and which will he propounded to 
every farmer in the United States. As it is to be hoped 
that there are few or no farmers who do not receive 
some journal, agricultural or otherwise, such a course 
would be the means of bringing the subject to their no¬ 
tice, and enable them to prepare their answers with 
greater correctness than they might otherwise be able 
to do. If every farmer who receives a copy of these 
interrogatories, would at his leisure sit down, and write 
against each one the proper reply, not only would the 
labors of the marshalls be greatly expedited,hut, which 
is of more consequence, a greater degree of accuracy 
3 
would be secured. The marshalls will commence in 
June next, and proceed through their districts as soon 
as consistent with accuracy. The interrogatories refer 
to the crops of 1839, and to the products of that year 
must the answers relate. 
AGRICULTURE-INTERROGATIONS. 
What is the number of your horses and mules ? 
How many neat cattle have you? 
How many sheep ? 
Flow many swine ? 
What is the estimated value of your poultry of all kinds ? 
How many bushels of wheat did you grow in 1839 ? 
Flow many bushels of barley ? 
How many bushels of oats ? 
How many bushels of rye ? 
How many bushels of buckwheat ? 
How many bushels of Indian com ? 
Flow many pounds of wool ? 
How many pounds of hops ? 
How many pounds of wax? 
How many bushels of potatoes? 
Flow many tons of hay ? 
Flow many tons of hemp and flax ? 
How many pounds of tobacco ? 
How many pounds of rice ? 
How many pounds of cotton have you gathered ? 
How many pounds of silk cocoons ? 
How many pounds of sugar ? 
How many cords of wood have you sold ? 
What is the value of the products of your dairy ? 
What is the value of the products of your orchard? 
How many gallons of wine have you made ? 
What is the value of your home-made or family goods ? 
As intimately connected with these, ma 3 r be added 
those relating to horticulture—which are as follows: 
What was the value of the produce of your market gar¬ 
den in 1839 ? 
What was the value of the produce of your nursery and 
green house? 
It is hoped that editors friendly to the cause of 
agriculture, or who have readers in the agricultural dis¬ 
tricts, will give a place to the above interrogations, and 
invite the attention of those interested, that they may 
be in readiness with their replies. Let the first effort 
for an agricultural census of the United States, be met 
in a manner that shall ensure the desirable accuracy 
of the measure. 
Working and Training Oxen. 
The comparative profits of working horses or cattle 
on farms, has excited much attention and discussion on 
both sides the Atlantic; and as was to have been ex¬ 
pected, has been answered as the experience or the pre¬ 
possessions of the parties have dictated. In some few 
instances the advantages have been determined in favor 
of the horse team, but in most cases, oxen, all things 
considered, have been found preferable for farm labor. 
In the agricultural surveys made of the English coun¬ 
ties, such as Berkshire, Sussex, and Hereford; and 
West Lothian in Scotland, we find the results of many 
experiments intended to elucidate this subject, made 
with great care, the various items of first cost and ex¬ 
pense of keeping, &c. being detailed with great minute¬ 
ness. 
The general result would seem to be, that oxen cost 
less at first; that the annual expense for harness, far¬ 
riery and food, is less for oxen than for horses; that 
they perform more work in proportion to their annual 
cost; that they increase in value from the beginning of 
working; are worth more at last than at first, going at 
last to the butcher, while the horse is good only for his 
skin. The ox is also much less liable to disease or ac¬ 
cident than the horse, and if an accident does occur it 
rarely entirely destroys his value. 
On the other hand it may be urged in favor of the 
horse, and very justly, that if more expensive, their 
work is performed generally better, and always more 
expeditiously; that they are more fit for use on roads 
or to encounter bad weather; that they suffer less from 
extraordinary exertion than oxen, and they are appli. 
cable to many purposes for which cattle are unfit. 
Some few instances are on record, in which cattle 
have been able to work against horses on a farm, team 
for team, but every farmer is aware that such a result 
cannot be calculated upon with any confidence. On the 
contrary nearly double the number of oxen, will be re¬ 
quired to accomplish a given piece of work, than of 
horses. Mr. Billingley, in the Minutes of Agriculture, 
has entered into a minute estimate of the comparative 
profit of ox and horse labor, and finds, that while it re¬ 
quires eight oxen to do the work of five horses, the 
balance of cost and expense, would be from twelve to 
fifteen dollars in favor of the ox teams per annum. Ac¬ 
cording to a calculation in the Lothian report, made 
from many years experience on an extensive farm, 
where several teams of both cattle and horses were con¬ 
stantly employed, three oxen were found equal to a pair 
of horses at every kind of farm work, and the balance 
in favor of oxen in four teams for twelve years, was about 
two hundred and thirty dollars. In the North Wales 
Report, an Anglesey farmer, who says he worked 
twelve horses and twenty oxen during three years, and 
performed an equal quantity of work with that number 
of teams, states the difference in favor of the oxen, dur¬ 
ing that time at 236Z. or $1,047. 
Thus it seems that for actual labor on the farm, there 
is a decided profit in using oxen; yet still the farmer 
will find horses indispensable, particularly on the wheat 
farms of this country, and on those that are at some dis¬ 
tance from market. In making the comparison between 
horses and oxen for farm labor, the English farmer 
leaves out one of the most important items in the reck¬ 
oning, so far as the American farmer is concerned, and 
that is the greater capability of the horse to endure heat. 
Here, during the intense heats of our summers, when 
a large portion of farm fallows must be fitted for wheat, 
the ox is almost incapacitated for labor; there, the lower 
temperature prevents any inconvenience from heat, ex¬ 
cept in rare cases. There can be no doubt however, but 
that on all farms where summer fallowing for wheat is 
not extensively practiced, or on such as are subjected 
to a course of mixed husbandr} r , and where of course 
most of the plowing is done in the spring and fall, cat¬ 
tle might to a great extent be most beneficially substi¬ 
tuted for horses. 
There are multitudes of small farmers aboutthe coun¬ 
try, with from 50 to 100 acres of land, who find it ne¬ 
cessary or convenientto keep more than one team. We 
believe, that if such, instead of keeping two pair of 
horses would replace one of them with a yoke of oxen, 
the business of the farm would go on quite as well, 
and a respectable annual profit from the substitution be 
realized. A pair of horses may be necessary for work 
that the ox cannot so well perform, such as road travel, 
or plowing in extremely warm weather ; but for the or¬ 
dinary business of the farm, the ox, with less danger 
from disease or accident, with less expense for food, 
harness, &c. and with the certainty that his value is not 
lessening materially from age, may, and should take 
the place of the horse. It should also he remembered 
that cattle, as well kept as they usually are by our far- 
mers, will thrive the better for being moderately worked,- 
The grand objection to the use of cattle is, they are 
so slow ; and this is so true inmost cases, as to prevent 
their use where a certain quantity of labor is to be per¬ 
formed in a short or limited time. But why are they 
so slow? The unbroken, unworked steer, walks about 
as fast as the unbroken horse. Whence, then, the diffe¬ 
rence when put in the team? The steer is broke to the 
yoke before his strength is matured, and compelled to 
draw burdens which he is unable to move except at a 
snail’s pace ; or he is put to labor with older cattle, bro¬ 
ken down by the same treatment, and of course he is 
compelled to adapt his movement to theirs. The powers 
of the colt are rarely tested till he has reached maturi¬ 
ty; light loads, easy carriages, and rapid driving fall to 
his lot, and his whole treatment is as well calculated to 
render him active, as that of the steer is to make him 
dull and heavy in his movements. By breaking the 
young steer to a lively step, by not tasking him so 
severely as to render such a step impossible, and by ac¬ 
customing him to activity in his movements so as to form 
a habit, a thing every cattle breeder knows to he prac¬ 
ticable, this complaint of slowness, might in a very 
great degree be remedied. No animal shows the treat¬ 
ment he has received in training more decidedly than 
the ox, nor is there any that acquires good or bad habits 
more quickly. 
Every farmer, almost, has his peculiar mode of train¬ 
ing steers. Some break them in pairs alone; some use 
a steady horse before them; some commence yoking 
them while very young, and if treated gently, and not 
put to labor too early, this is probably as good a way as 
any; while some pair them with older and steadier ani¬ 
mals. Working steers with oxen has this disadvantage; 
it is apt to make them slow, while alone or with a horse 
before them they acquire a lighter and more active step. 
In order to induce steers to take kindly to their work, and 
to accustom them to the yoke or harness, some of the 
best foreign trainers of cattle adopt the method shown 
in the cut below, which we have copied from the British 
Husbandry, vol. 2, page 218. 
“ According to this plan the animal is harnessed ; and 
fastened by the collar to a cord or chain, which runs 
in a ring, to which a weight is appended at the manger, 
which he can approach or retire from at pleasure. An¬ 
other weight is then hung to his traces by the centre of 
the splinter bar, and rests upon the ground passing over 
a pulley on which it moves. The weight to which the 
steer is thus attached may be about a cwt. or more, and 
he is then placed at the full length of his chain from the 
manger, which is filled with provender, and he cannot 
approach to eat without drawing the weight after him. 
In this manner he soon accustoms himself to move the 
load, and in the course of a fortnight he will probably btf 
