A CONSOLIDATION 
OF BUEL’S CULTIVATOR AND THE GENESEE FARMER 
“AGRICULTURE, AT ONCE THE CAUSE AND EVIDENCE OF CIVILIZATION.” 
Cult. Yol. YII— No. 2. 
ALBANY, N. Y. FEBRUARY, 1840. Cult, and Far. Yol. I — No. 2. 
PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 
BY JESSE BUEL & CO. PROPRIETORS, 
Office JYo. 7 Exchange Buildings , Second Floor . 
TERMS— One Dollar per annum —Six copies for $5— 
the money to be remitted in advance, free of postage. A 
commission of 20 per cent will be allowed to Agents who ob¬ 
tain 25 or more subscribers, and 25 per cent to those who 
obtain 100 or more. All subscriptions to commence with a 
volume. (For special Agents, see last page.) 
MIS OTZLTEYATOIEo 
WILLIS GAYLORD & LUTHER TUCKER, Editors. 
NOTICES. 
We cannot refrain an expression of satisfaction at the 
general and flattering terms of approbation which the 
union of the Cultivator and Farmer has called forth from 
the most able and efficient of the agricultural as well as 
other j ournals of the country. We are still more gratified 
at the prompt and large subscription we have received, 
indicating an increase, which, considering the peculiar 
state of the times, is as welcome as unexpected. Our 
thanks are renewedly due to our numerous correspond¬ 
ents, whose favors we are most happy to receive and 
publish. We consider all these things as decisive indi¬ 
cations of approval, to be repaid by us, by increased de¬ 
votion to, and zeal in the great cause of agriculture. 
Some of our Mends have expressed a fear that by re¬ 
moving the publication to Albany, it would not give that 
particular attention to the western district, which charac¬ 
terized the Genesee Farmer. We will prove this fear 
to be groundless. Our journal belongs to our country, 
in its largest sense; we have subscribers and contribu¬ 
tors from every state and territory in the union; yet we 
hope to contribute useful information to every section. 
The quantity of matter each number of the Cultivator 
contains, will enable us more fully to do justice to all, 
without neglecting any. 
To Correspondents. —Notwithstanding we have fill, 
ed this sheet, as we did our first number, entirely with 
original articles, we have still on hand several valuable 
communications, which will appear in future numbers. 
To Agents. —Having been assured by several of our 
friends, that they could greatly increase our subscription 
list, were they permitted to receive subscribers without 
insisting on advance payments, we would give notice that 
the paper will be sent to all such subscribers as our agents 
may be willing to become responsible for—the money to 
be remitted in the course of a few months, or as soon as 
received from the subscribers. The liberal terms allow¬ 
ed to agents will, we trust, induce many of our readers 
to interest themselves in enlarging the circulation of the 
Cultivator. 
Receipts. —The publication of the list of receipts for 
the Cultivator, we have thought best to omit the present 
year, on account of the space it would occupy, to the 
exclusion of more important matter. The usual list for 
the past month, would fill nearly a page. Receipts will 
be sent to all those who may particularly desire them. 
Proprietors of the Cultivator. —We neglected to 
state, as we should have done, in our first number, that 
the firm of Jesse Buel & Co. consists of Luther 
Tucker and Jesse Buel, who are sole proprietors and 
publishers of the Cultivator. 
Establishment of a Board of Agriculture. 
The events of the last few months have convinced 
those who reflect at all, that the only way in which this 
people can extricate themselves from the embarrassments 
in which they find themselves, discharge their immense 
foreign obligations, and restore that healthful state of 
feeling so necessary in every transaction of business, is 
to rely on the productive resources of the country, rather 
than on those of a mere financial nature. The people 
of the states have learned that it is far easier to create 
a debt, than to reduce or pay it—that a transfer of an 
obligation is not a cancelling of it; and that nothing but 
labor, productive industry of some kind, can be safely 
relied upon. They are beginning to feel the importance 
of giving to this labor the most profitable direction, of 
ensuring to industry the returns to which it is ever enti¬ 
tled. 
The state of New-York has long taken an active and 
leading part in all the great measures that have con¬ 
ferred so much honor on the country and so signally be¬ 
nefited the community. We need only to refer to our 
system of internal improvement; our noble foundation 
for the education of every individual in our state; our 
system for placing ample means of useful knowledge 
within the reach of the most remote or most humble of 
our citizens; and the aid which has at different times 
been granted to the cause of agriculture. 
Of the importance of agriculture to the community 
•very one is aware. It is at “ once the cause and the evi¬ 
2 
dence of civilization;” it is the base on which the whole 
social superstructure rests; when agriculture prospers, 
all goes well; when that fails, and the earth, no matter 
from what cause, does not yield her increase, depression, 
panic, and ruin ensues. That the nation depends for its 
bread on agriculture is obvious to all; that it is not less 
dependent upon it for commercial and financial pros¬ 
perity is equally so to every one, who has attentively 
considered the signs of the times. On the surplus pro¬ 
duce of his fields the farmer relies for the extinguish¬ 
ment of his debts, and the accumulation of wealth; on 
that same surplus must the nation rely to produce the 
same effects; and to increase this surplus, to develop 
and bring out our resources, and of course to create new 
additional means, is one of the most important objects 
that can engage the attention of our legislature and the 
country. 
We think that for the accomplishment of these objects, 
and others more or less connected with them, the estab¬ 
lishment of a Board of Agriculture, to be under the 
control and receive the patronage of the state, to be es¬ 
sentially necessary. That if properly constituted and 
conducted, it would be of the greatest service to the 
cause of agriculture there can be no reasonable doubt. 
Connected with the Board and under its supervision, 
might and would be soon collected an agricultural mu¬ 
seum, embracing models of all the most approved im¬ 
plements; specimens of the various seeds, roots, and 
vegetables, most important to the farmer; forming al¬ 
together one of the most instructive and interesting of ex¬ 
hibitions to the agricultural visitor at the capitol of the 
state, and combining in one view the various sources 
from which our substantial property is derived. 
Every one acquainted with the history of our country 
knows that there is scaree a section of it, in which the 
main articles of its produce, and of course the sources 
of its prosperity, have not materially changed within the 
lapse of half a century. New-England formerly ex¬ 
ported grain and cattle; now her productive industry is 
turned into a different channel, and manufactures are 
the chief source of her strength, and constitute her dis¬ 
posable surplus. The middle states have changed their 
staples less than either the north or the south. Grain 
has been, and will probably continue to be, the principal 
object of attention and culture. It is but comparative¬ 
ly a few years since the great products of the south 
were rice, indigo, and tobacco. With the exception of 
the last, these staples have sunk into comparative insig¬ 
nificance, and cotton has not only become the grand pro¬ 
duct of the south, but the great article of export to other 
nations. Sugar and silk, at the present moment, appear 
to be pushing their claims to public notice successfully, 
and there is every indication that ere long these two arti¬ 
cles will be struck from the list of our imports, if not added 
to those of our exports. That we can grow our own 
silk and sugar is certain; that we shall do so, present 
indications render very probable. What others can do, 
the people of the United States can do; and embracing 
almost every variety of climate and soil, the same prin¬ 
ciple that prompted the declaration of independence 
should now enforce the adoption of the only means by 
which that independence can be maintained. This state 
has not escaped the fluctuations and changes in the pro¬ 
ducts of its several sections, that have existed elsewhere. 
For a time the eastern part of the state almost suspended 
the growing of grain, and allowed it to be confined to 
the newer and less worn districts of the west. Under a 
better system, grain in abundance is now produced, 
while the counties of the west are beginning, and with 
reason, to inquire whether there is not on the whole a 
decline in the productiveness of their lands. 
In giving the enterprise and energy of our citizens a 
proper and successful direction in relation to those topics 
enumerated above; in introducing from abroad such new 
varieties of seeds, plants, or trees as promise to be 
valuable, or are suited to our climate ; in testing by ex¬ 
periment the value of different agricultural implements, 
and their adaptation to the purposes for which they have 
been introduced, by which an immense sum would be 
saved to the agricultural public annually; in short, by 
taking the lead in our efforts to improve the state of ag¬ 
riculture, a Board could render the most essential ser¬ 
vice. 
The rooms devoted to the museum would soon become 
the resort of all that take an interest in the promotion 
and success of agriculture. The most valuable works 
on this oldest of arts would soon accumulate; the choicest 
specimens of our crops would there find a place; the 
portraits of animals of the most celebrated breeds might 
line the walls; and the whole made worthy of the visits of 
persons of taste, as well as become of permanent utili¬ 
ty. The cost of accomplishing all this would be little, 
only some five thousand dollars annually. Enough to 
defray the expenses of a secretary, and charges for car¬ 
rying out the designs of the board. One of the acts of 
which this state may be proud, is the Geological Survey 
now going on. That it will many times repay, in de¬ 
veloping the hidden resources of the state; in prevent¬ 
ing useless expenditures; in diffusing useful knowledge 
respecting the character and mode of treating our seve¬ 
ral soils; and in throwing light on all those subjects 
which render a more complete knowledge of the earth 
and its constituents desirable, any expense that may be 
incurred, cannot be reasonably doubted. 
Wherever the plan of a public Board of Agriculture 
has been tried, the effects have been of the happiest 
kind. So self-evident is this fact, that there are few 
European countries which have made any considerable 
progress in agriculture, that are now destitute of them, 
or which has not some arrangement to a similar effect. 
Propositions have been, or are, before the legislatures 
of several of the states designed to organize such bo¬ 
dies ; and we can see no good reason why in a course 
which promises so much good at so cheap a rate, New- 
York should be behind her sisters of the confederacy. 
The times are hard, it is said; but let us improve the 
times by improving the soil, and by furnishing its culti¬ 
vators the most efficient means of doing it. 
In reply to the question, “ In what way would a Board 
of agriculture benefit the state V’ Judge Buel gave 
the following satisfactory answer: 
“A Board of Agriculture should consist of three or more in¬ 
telligent men, and a secretary, meet perhaps quarter-yearly, 
and receive a fair compensation for the time necessarily de¬ 
voted to the duties of their office. The secretary should de¬ 
vote his whole time, under the direction of the Board, to 
the interests of agriculture—*• 
1. In collecting, arranging and publishing statistical and 
other useful information in regard to rural affairs. 
2. In collecting and distributing seeds of such kinds of ag¬ 
ricultural products, as may promise to profit our husbandry: 
together with the modes of their culture, management and 
preparation for market. 
3. In receiving, labelling and arranging, models of imple¬ 
ments, geological specimens, seeds and samples of rare or 
excellent products of the soil, portraits of fine animals, do¬ 
nations of books, &,c. and in exhibiting them to visitors, and 
explaining their objects, qualities and promised advantages. 
4. In answering the inquiries of agricultural men, on all mat¬ 
ters relating to any branch of husbandry, or any article of 
culture. 
5. In corresponding with societies and individuals, on mat¬ 
ters promotive of the interests of agriculture. 
The due performance of the above enumerated duties could 
not fail to be very serviceable, to the state, in promoting the 
improvement of her agriculture. But there are other duties 
which might be performed by the board, of unquestionable 
benefit, should one be instituted, and the legislature think 
proper to confide such to them, to wit: 
6. Examining, testing and deciding upon the merits of all 
new implements of husbandry, offered for their inspection— 
and upon which the board might be authorized to award dis¬ 
cretionary premiums, where the articles should be judged 
highly meritorious 1 —and thereby giving them a character upon 
which the public might rely. And 
Last in order, though perhaps first in importance, a Board 
of Agriculture might write, compile, or procure to be writ¬ 
ten, and printed, books upon agriculture, the veterinary art, 
orcharding, gardening, rural embellishment and household 
economy, suitable for the common school libraries of an ag¬ 
ricultural population. 
In the several duties above enumerated a Board of Agri¬ 
culture would do much good. Such a board has been emi¬ 
nently useful in Great Britain. Such virtually, in France, 
is the Royal Central Society of Agriculture—its premiums, 
and its laboring members, being paid from the public trea¬ 
sury.” 
“ What should a Farmer he ?” 
An important query this, and one that deserves to bs 
well pondered. We answer it thus :— 
A Farmer should be Industrious .—In no department 
of life, without industry, can any thing valuable or im¬ 
portant be achieved. There is such a Ihing as an idle 
farmer, “ true it is, and a pity Tis His true ;” but an idle, 
successful farmer, is something the world has not yet 
seen. No where is persevering industry more indispen¬ 
sable than on the farm, and no where is well directed 
labor belter rewarded. When we say the farmer should 
be industrious, we do not mean he should be a slave.— 
There is, among some farmers, perhaps a majority at 
the present time, a feverish anxiety to become rich, a 
disposition to go ahead which renders rest impossible, 
and hardly allows time to eat or sleep—such men are 
subject to a task-master of the most imperious charac¬ 
ter, and one from which they should make no delay in 
freeing themselves. The farmer can have, and he who 
manages his affairs well, will always have, his hours of 
relaxation—hours to spend with his friends, and hours 
to devote to the improvement of his mind. The way to 
ensure this, is always to be beforehand with the labor 
of the farm, and never allow himself to be crowded.— 
More work should never be laid out than is compatible 
with this rule ; and the work that is required to be done 
to-day should never be deferred till to-morrow. The 
difference in the ease with which labor is performed, 
when done in the right time, or when we are driven 
to it by urgent necessity, is so great, that attention to 
