Address of Humphry Howland, 
President of the Cayuga County Agricultural Society, at their 
Annual Fair, held at Auburn, Oct. 14, 1841. 
My Brother Farmers an Fellow Citizens :—Agriculture is the 
most dignified vocation of man, for which we have the highest 
authority. Our primeval ancestor, after receiving the magnifi¬ 
cent domain, the whole earth, was placed in Eden to dress it. 
Man left to himself would have lived on its spontaneous pro¬ 
ductions, or the chase, but he was to have the delightful occu¬ 
pation to till the soil. Nations in proportion to their civiliza¬ 
tion, advanced in agriculture. The King of Persia, every ver¬ 
nal festival, addressed the farmers to the following effect, “I 
am one of you ; my subsistence and that of my people, rests on 
the labor of your hands.” From Egypt the art passed to Greece. 
Some of the most distinguished Romans were versed in agricul¬ 
ture, among'whom were Cato, Cicero and Cincinnatus. Yirgil 
has left us a beautiful practical description of rural occupa¬ 
tions. In England, Dr. Johnsonhas written at large on the sub¬ 
ject, which Thomson and Bloomfield have glowingly described. 
Penn, who had seen much of men and things, expressed to his 
children that he preferred an income of £100 in the country to 
£1000 in the city. In our own country, Washington was the 
largest, best practical farmer of his day. Madison was a prac¬ 
tical farmer on a large scale, for twenty years, and a president 
of an agricultural society. Mount Vernon, Quincy, Monticello, 
Hermitage, and the North Bend, were well cultivated by their 
illustrious proprietors. 
.In England formerly the Ox weighed less than 500 lbs. now 
more than 2000 lbs. Extensive progress has been made there 
in agriculture within half a century. Tull prompted it, Bake- 
well improved live stock, the persevering labors of Sinclair ac¬ 
complished much, and above all on the establishment of a Na¬ 
tional Agricultural Society, a laudable emulation seized all 
ranks. That board brought forward a great number of new men 
whose names Otherwise would not have been heard of. They 
were practical people; it made distant farmers acquainted, and 
increased one-fourth the comforts of life. Our County and State 
Agricultural Societies, if attended to, will make our march on¬ 
ward. 
Cayuga County, which we have to cultivate, contains 697 
square miles, with less than one square mile of waste land; 
nearly every other part is suitable for a garden. Lime stone, 
calcareous soil, a never failing indication of fertility, surface 
moderately variegated, undulating east and west. Poplar ridge 
rises 700 feet above the beautiful Cayuga lake of pure water 
stocked with trout, which in the middle is 700 feet deep. The 
surface is 370 feet above tide-water, so the bottom is 300 feet 
lower than the surface of the ocean. Thirty miles of the Cayu¬ 
ga does not freeze over, one winter in seven, and then only for 
a few hours. The Owasco lake lies within this county—well 
described in “ Ensenore.” We have large mines of Gypsum, on 
examination pronounced by Professor Vanuxem of the best 
quality, and salt springs from which are manufactured salt su¬ 
perior to that of SalmA Those minerals are of more value 
than mines of the precious metals. A climate salubrious and 
mild, in which the peach flourishes luxuriantly, 
This county was the seat of the Cayuga nation and produced 
renowned chiefs. Those in modern times were Cornplanter, 
Fishcarrier, and the pathetic, eloquent Logan. This tribe was 
one of that remarkable confederation, or Six Nations, who con¬ 
quered and held in subjection the aboriginees from the Atlantic 
to the Mississippi, and from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson’s Bay. 
What did it avail them ? Barbarism. Had they occupied their 
mental and physical faculties in cultivating this beautiful coun¬ 
try, we should not have been here. They are gone—not a trace 
of them remains. There are some ancient ruins indicating a 
previous people; a small one on a hill in this village, and a 
chain of them east and west near the trail of the Six Nations, 
and the present traveling ground of the states, by turnpike ; ca¬ 
nal and rail-road. This people, who, according to the tradition 
of the Six Nations, they drove out seventeen centuries ago, after 
a war of 100 years. So it seems we are the third race. If those 
had their faults, they also had their virtues—we will not only 
tread lightly on their ashes, but drop a tear as we pass. Let us 
remember this instructive precept, that like causes will pro¬ 
duce like effects. What happened to those nationally, will hap¬ 
pen individually to such of our descendants, as do not occupy 
their mental and physical powers, and the fair domain which 
they inherit. They will be wandering in a foreign land. 
In 1779, Gen. Sullivan marched by the way of the Susquehan- 
Hah to the head of Seneca lake. A detachment from his army 
passed through this county, drove the Indians to Canada, burn¬ 
ed their wigwams and cornfields, from which some of the sol¬ 
diers selected large ears of corn and carried them in their 
knapsacks to New-England; an advertisement in legible cha¬ 
racters of this fertile country, -which subsequently profited 
by it. 
In 1784, the United States held a treaty with the Six Nations at 
Fort Stanwix; four of them had taken sides with Great Britain 
in the late war, and were considered a conquered people. Many 
were for confiscating their lands, but the humane feelings of 
Washington revolted at such a measure. But the hatchet was 
not entirely hurried. Judge Benson, a commissioner for treat¬ 
ing with the Indians, informed me, that there were remarkably 
well defined boundaries every where existing and understood 
between those tribes, except the mouth of Oswego river, the 
whole of which, with the fishery, the Oneidas claimed, and 
likewise so did the Onondagas. The comissioners observed to 
them, “How is this? you both claim the river.” “Yes,” they 
replied, “ that has been a subject of difference between us for 
ages, but you purchased of us both and you will own it.” The 
ten years following that treaty u r as full of stirring events re¬ 
lating to this country. Massachusetts directly sent out its 
agents to claim Western New-York, by their ancient charter. 
Persons in the lower part of this state, u r ere negotiating with 
the Indians for a lease. In 1786, this state ceded to Massachu¬ 
setts the property in the soil west of a meridian which was 
drawn through Seneca lake. In 1787, J Livingston, Ryckman, 
and associates, obtained a lease from the six nations for 999 
years, including a large portion of the western part of this state, 
which the legislature at their next session in effect declared void, 
as the constitution had prohibited individuals from purchasing 
lands from the Indians, a lease for that time being considered 
equivalent to a purchase in fee; but the Lessee Company, as they 
were styled, persisted and invited settlers. 
Early in the spring of 1789, R. Franklin and a few others with 
their families set out from the disputed lands claimed by Con¬ 
necticut in Pennsylvania. From the Susquehannah they travers¬ 
ed the forest to the head of Seneca lake, descended it in bat- 
teaux through the outlet into Cayuga ; then up the lake to where 
the village of Aurora now stands. This was the first settle¬ 
ment by the white inhabitants in this county. It had been the 
site of an Indian town. They were followed the same year by 
Richardson and others, who settled north along the east side, of 
the lake under the Lessee Company, and surveyed it into town¬ 
ships six miles square. This State also commenced surveying 
this county, laid off the Cayuga Reservation, on which those 
settlers had located, and appropriated the adjacent lands to be 
granted, one lot of a mile square to each soldier of their stand¬ 
ing troops in the Revolution. This appeared well in theory, but 
in the sequel caused much litigation of titles, and only about 
one soldier in fifty retained and settled on their lands. The 
other soldiers sold their lots for about $25 each, which in their 
present improved state are worth from $30 to $60 per acre. In 
a year after the first settlers arrived, the Indians returned from 
Canada. Our affairs with them were in a most unhappy state. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Gen. HaTmer was defeated by the Indians about that time, north 
of the Ohio. They complained to our State government of the 
intrusion on their reservation. The Governor sent the Sheriff 
of Herkimer county with the posse comitatus, who burnt out 
those settlers in October, 1790. They then settled on the mili¬ 
tary lands, which progressed notwithstanding fear; as an Indian 
war, fierce and bloody, raged south of Lake Erie, at no great 
distance. In 1791, Gen. St. Clair and army were disastrously 
defeated by the Indians. All the sympathies of the Cayugas 
who had not been satisfied with the late treaty, were with their 
brethren of the west. Our pioneers endured many hardships 
and privations; often without meat and sometimes without 
bread; and when their little crops were gathered, were desti¬ 
tute of mills, the stump of a felled tree excavated served as a 
mortar, and was a substitute for the mill. They were united, 
rejoicing in the prosperity of each other. I see some here who 
can recollect this place when it only contained a cottage, built 
with clay and sticks, by J. Hardenburgh, and a log tavern by W. 
Bostwick. The cottage yet remains in Market-street, but en¬ 
closed in a new dress, is hardly recognized by its old acquain¬ 
tance. The settlement progressed rapidly ; a turnpike was 
made, and that grand work the Erie Canal, after a lapse of 
years, was commenced in 1317, by the enterprise of De Witt. 
Clinton, and other distinguished men who are mostly gone; 
which in effect as to the cost of transportion has brought this 
county within 30 miles of tide water, and gave accelerating 
stimulus to agriculture. And lastly, was constructed by indi¬ 
vidual enterprise, the iron road. 
The aggregate value of the articles arriving through all our 
canals at tide-water on the Hudson river in 1840, was $23,213,- 
573, and there were the same year exported exclusively from 
Cayuga lake, first entered at Montezuma, $1,780,105, half of 
this flour and wheat; butter and lard, $153,000; Pork, $94,000; 
wool, $71,000; the balance in lumber and sundry articles. That 
from Cayuga lake alone is equal to one-twelfth of all the exports 
through all our canals, from Lake Champlain, Vermont, this 
State, Ohio, Michigan, and the far west. 
The population of this county by the census of 1S40, was 
50,362, which is 72 persons to a square mile, now a denser popu¬ 
lation than Connecticut, and a capacity to sustain quadruple 
that number following their present occupations. Yet numerous 
emigrants scattered over the hills and plains of the west, have 
reluctantly gone forth from every neighborhood among us, not 
with a view to find a richer soil or more congenial climate, but 
to enlarge their borders, some of whom could say, “with my 
staff I passed over this Jordan, and now have I become two 
bands.” A farmer having 100 acres with several children and 
grand-children, not having the capital to settle them here, sells 
his land for $50 per acre, purchases in the west for one and 
one-fourth dollars, settles his children, who after a lapse of 
years return strangers to revisit their native roof, and the 
graves of their ancient departed friends. There are in this 
county about 260 public schools in which are taught 14,721 scho¬ 
lars. Three flourishing academies. One Theological seminary, 
and the Regents of the University have granted a charter for a 
a college at this place. Such is the system of education which 
exalts society; and agriculture flourishes best where the people 
are best educated. The temperance societies have done much for 
the cause. Our harvests are now ingathered without alcohol, 
an article now hardly creditable to use. 
In 1825, by the State census, the population of this State was 
1,164,458. A meridian then drawn five mlies west of Canajoharie, 
would divide the inhabitants into about two equal portions. In 
1840, the population was 2,534,135,and a meridian now drawn five 
miles east of Utica, would divide the inhabitants into two equal 
portions. That meridian is traveling west, and in a few years 
will probably rest in this village, entitling it to the capitol, an 
event to this county to be anticipated. When we take a retrospec¬ 
tive view of what has been accomplished, we have every stimu¬ 
lating encouragement to persevere in improving this county, 
every part of which is rising into notice. 
On the details of agriculture I shall be brief, because volumes 
would be required to describe it; nor do I profess to understand 
it, although I have given it much thought for many years, and 
have been trained to it from childhood. It is a living science, 
susceptible of improvement in every age. It is included in 
three principal rules. First, that tire soil ought to be dry, or in 
other words, free from ail superfluous moisture. Secondly, that 
it ought to be kept clean, in other words, free from noxious 
weeds. Thirdly, that it ought to be kept rich, or in other words, 
highly manured. 
I am anxious to impress upon the society the importance of 
the first rule. Our county particularly requires it. Even our 
hill lands would be much benefited, the declivities and vales 
ameliorated by open ditches to conduct oil'the surplus water, 
and blind ditches, the water from the soil. This system is ob¬ 
taining with good farmers, which will abundantly improve our 
rich soil and salubrious climate. The frost -of winter performs 
an important operation by leaving the soil pulverized and 
spongy, easy of access to plants which send out tender roots to 
gather nutrition. But if there is early in the season a supera¬ 
bundance of water, it settles the soil down, an unfavorable 
compact mass. A considerable portion of each of a few suc¬ 
ceeding years should be appropriated by every farmer for drain¬ 
age, will prove an investment worth 20 per cent per annum. Al¬ 
though water is indispensable to vegetation, too much of it is 
as hurtful as too little. It is necessary to germination of the 
seed, to the decomposition of vegetable matter in Lhc soil, to 
transmission of the food from the soil to the plant, to its circu¬ 
lation. But when water remains in the soil to excess, the vege¬ 
table matter remains insoluble, in consequence of the absence 
of heat and air. 
The 2d rule, with regard to noxious weeds, I am sorry to have 
to acknowledge that the Canada thistle, St. Johns Wort, (Hy¬ 
pericum perforatum,) Red root, (Lithospermum Arvense,) Ac. 
are invading our fields. Those weeds must be extirpated. Sum¬ 
mer fallow particularly in dry seasons will destroy the Canada 
thistle, if when it makes the least appearance, or rather pre¬ 
vious to its being expected plow it once in ten days for half a 
dozen times. If it cannot respire during that time in summer, 
it must die, and a remuneration for extra labor in the well 
prepared ground, willbe reaped the next harvest. The free use 
of plaster will drive out St. Johns Wort and daisy with the usual 
rotation in crops. 
For the 3d rule, we have inexhaustible materials in those in¬ 
valuable minerals, plaster and limestone. They should be more 
used ; they will increase the quantity of hay and straw, the basis 
of manures; the sub-soil contains lime, it would be beneficial 
to loosen it up. Beds of marl 4 feet thick nearly pure, shells 
partially decayed, within 4 feet of the surface, underlay 10,000 
acres along the Seneca river, which was formerly a part of Ca¬ 
yuga lake, now filled up. This marl will be extensively used. 
A good farmer will turn every attention towards enriching the 
soil. 
As to the material for fencing, we are not as well provided. 
I.ocust trees should be planted along the borders of our nume¬ 
rous roads, which would require no land from our enclo¬ 
sures. They are ornamental, affording a cooling shade. The 
grass is sweet under the acacia, the timber enduring, and al¬ 
though the insect has severely attacked it for the last five years, 
I observe that most of the trees are gaining the ascendancy. 
They are not injured after they attain six inches diameter. And 
we may remember the fact, that hurtful insects only prevail a 
very few years at a time. They have their day, and disappear 
for a long interval of years, or forever. The borer has long 
since disappeared in the southern part of this state; no longer 
there injurious to the locust. 
IP 
Wheat is our staple and most important product. It is founu 
on analyzing to contain more saccharine matter, than southern 
wheat. We may expect a heavy crop, if we repeatedly plow 
deep, and manure with clover and plaster, or other material; 
sow as early as the first of September, or before, with 2£ bushels 
per acre ; a less quantity of seed would cover the ground with 
plants, but offsets or suckers are not as vigorous as the parent 
stock, which will have a longer head. Seeds of all kinds should 
be skillfully selected. 
Injurious fluctuations in prices may in some measure be pre¬ 
vented, or profitably available. When produce is at a low price, 
not a fair remuneration, farmers should not remit growing it, 
but persevere in keeping their past crops of wheat in various 
methods. If well stacked it will'keep with trilling loss in good 
condition for three years, until a good market offers, which 
never has failed after a while to occur. This would also be 
found to be a public benefit to equalize prices. . 
Our Cattle want improving. Those superior animals lately 
introduced into this county, by J. M. Sherwood, are a valuable 
race, a public acquisition, and merit attention, as well as an 
eligible selection from our native stock. The Merino brought 
from Africa by the Moors into Spain, hence by Humphries to 
Connecticut, and in 1S06 introduced into this county by J. Coe, 
and subsequent additions by others, is also a valuable acquisi¬ 
tion. They are a healthy sheep, but require shelter in winter; 
indeed sheds are indispensable for all our cattle. And here let 
me speak a word for that useful animal the horse, and call your 
attention to building more sheds around your meeting-houses 
to protect him from the burning sun and pelting storm. In 
traveling through a country where we observe houses of wor¬ 
ship in good order in every settlement, there agriculture flou¬ 
rishes. 
The Mechanic arts are the handmaids of agriculture. They 
have made rapid advances within a few years, and will continue 
to do so, by the aid of our system of education and machinery. 
They now rival older countries. All agree that we ought to 
manufacture the produce of our own soil, forest and mines ; for 
our own use. All prosperous nations in Europe, prohibit by 
heavy duties the introduction of such articles as they can grow 
or manufacture. They will no doubt take care of themselves, and 
if we do not take care of ourselves, we shall come poorly 
off. If our government should, by countervailing duties pro¬ 
tect American industry, every citizen would be benefited. Ex¬ 
perience has abundantly proved, that domestic competition, 
machinery and skill, furnishes articles cheaper to the consumer 
than those from abroad. 
Agricultural implements have been improved and others in¬ 
troduced within a few years. The threshing machine. For 
the cast iron plow, the public are much indebted to the ingenuity 
of the late Jethro Wood, of this county. The revolving horse 
rake, invented by a colored man, abridges the labor of haying 
one-fourth. No farmer should be without one. Farther improve¬ 
ments are wanting. A machine for spreading hay_, and another 
for mowing and reaping, have been put in operation, which in 
time will succeed. 
A word to my young friends. I)o not crowd into the profes¬ 
sions and trades; they are overdone. It has been supposed by 
those who have long observed the course of things, that to take 
40 lads, divide them, all things considered, into two equal com¬ 
panies, place half of them in the professions and merchandise, 
the other half in agricultural pursuits; the result will he, after 
a lapse of years, the latter will have the greatest aggregate 
wealth, diffused among the whole; while perhaps a fourth of 
the former may make large acquisitions, the families ol the 
other three-fourths may be found in rather straitened circum¬ 
stances. It is the opinion of those who have long held situa¬ 
tions favorable to such observations as to enable them to come 
to correct conclusions on this subject, that only one in four of 
the trading classes, perhaps from causes beyond their control, 
escape insolvency, or are successful in the professions. Is it 
not strange that young men are willing to enter into schemes 
where only one in" four succeeds, while the farm is like the inex¬ 
haustible cruise of oil. We are directed to draw from the 
constantly productive earth, a bank which may be drawn upon 
at all times, and will not fail while seed lime and harvest re¬ 
mains. It is the main spring that sets the whole machinery in 
motion. Therefore apply all your energies with increasing vi¬ 
gilance to rural pursuits. The brief period of youth is invalu¬ 
able. Take each day into the account. It is barely sufficient to 
lay the superstructure of literary education, and habits of 
manual industry. The edifice must be raised by the assiduous 
attention of after years. 
And here permit me to remind my female friends of the high 
responsibility resting upon them. On you devolves the care 
and training of the infant mind. That most important period 
for forming the habits and principles of the man is confided to 
your care and superintendance. Kememberitis your duty as 
well as privilege to imbue the youthful mind with high toned 
morals and love of virtue. 
And having sown the seed in the mellow soil, and done all, let 
us remember to look up to that benign Providence, who alone 
can bless the labors of the Husbandman. 
^Berkshire Pig;.— (Fig. 94.) 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —Accompanying this is a drawing 
of “Hetty,” a Berkshire pig in our possession, six months old, 
weighing 190 pounds, and a beautiful specimen of this breed. 
She is from “ Lady,” (a portrait of which we will send you at 
some future time,) a sow from the piggery of A. B. Allen of Buf¬ 
falo, a real lady of the hog kind, not very large, but very fine 
in all her points. I think that “Hetty,” with Dr. Martin’s sci¬ 
entific feeding, would nearly equal in size, and quite excell in 
beauty, his celebrated “Bernice.” Her food has been corn- 
meal, with bran and soaked coin. W. & F SCOTT. 
Maumee Oily, Ohio , Oct. 30, 1841. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker—I see it stated in the Cultivator, 
that the Hon. G. V. Socket of Seneca Falls, bred my two year 
old bull that took the first prize at Syracuse. Now I think I 
bred him myself. I bought the mother, when a yearling, from 
Judge Socket, and paid for her; the next season she had this 
calf, sired by a bull raised by Thomas Weddle, Esq., from his 
pure imported stock, and bought at his sale by Judge Sacket. 
Now if my bull was not bred by me, he could not be bred by the 
Judge, as the heifer I bought from him was in her mother’s bel¬ 
ly, Silvia, when he bought her from C. N. Bement, Esq. of or 
near your city. Yours respectfully, JOHN JOHNSTON, 
Near Gcvena , Nov. 9, 1841. 
