\merican Agriculturist 
THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS THE FARM NEWS 
“Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man.”— Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. 
Established 1842 
ime 113 
For the Week Ending April 5, 1924 
Number 14 
I he Good Old County of Dutchess 
Whose History Began With Those Good Farmers, The Dutch Patroons 
I WELL remember my first visit to Dutchess 
County. It was glorious June weather in 
1891—thirty-three years ago. I was a 
member of the senior class in agriculture at 
Cornell. Professor Wing, himself a Dutchess 
County boy was then, as now, teaching animal 
husbandry and he personally conducted the class 
on a little tour around New York State in order 
that we might see something of the most famous 
farms and herds. 
We took a sleeper on a late train out of Syracuse 
and after a brief and hectic night we tumbled off 
the train in Poughkeepsie at about 5 A. M. We 
had an early and hasty breakfast—I have for¬ 
gotten where—and our conductor out of his ex¬ 
ceeding kindness of heart and his 
sympathy with the eternal weak¬ 
ness of student youth had ar¬ 
ranged that we should first 
encircle the classic walls of Vassar 
College which we duly accom¬ 
plished, unfortunately before the 
earliest damsel was abroad. This 
last fact was a great disappoint¬ 
ment to all of us. I cannot 
remember if we delivered the 
Cornell yell but if we did not it 
was only because wiser counsels 
restrained us. 
Today another generation of 
maids throng those walks under 
the evergreen trees and their life 
goes by like a song. I hope it is 
given to them to know that come 
what will in future years it is 
impossible that there shall ever 
be any other days as golden as 
school days. 
Of course this was long before 
the first automobile, but we had 
a couple of good teams and it 
By JARED VAN WAGENEN, JR. 
The next morning we went down the Harlem 
and visited the farm of Mr. John B. Dutcher at 
Pawling. If my memory serves me right it was 
then the home of the two cows hailed as the 
leaders of the world. One was Pauline Paul. 
She is credited with a production of 1153 pounds, 
15^ ounces of butter in a year although of course 
this was before the day of carefully supervised 
records. ... In any case the impression that she 
has left on Holstein history through her descend¬ 
ants would indicate that she was a most wonder¬ 
ful animal. 
It seems to me that the farm also had old 
in Massachusetts goes the Arms one better by 
claiming to date back to 1685. In any case, many 
a man and beast has found shelter and food (to 
say nothing of drink) at these old hosteleries since 
they were young. Then out at Clinton Corners, 
only a few miles from Poughkeepsie, the Grange 
and the Institute gather in the old Quaker meet¬ 
ing house. This ancient place of worship, with 
stone walls more than two feet thick, was built in 
1777 and it still stands as an enduring monument 
to the sturdy faith of the men who reared it. 
All around it beneath the drooping evergreens are 
the simple white headstones which mark the 
graves of the Quaker dead. They are very lowly 
markers, these, for according to their custom 
s no Friend may lie beneath a 
towering or laudatory monu¬ 
ment. I have come in con¬ 
tact with the Society of Friends 
in several states and like to 
believe that a number of them 
are friends to me and I have con¬ 
ceived for them an admiration 
and respect that I find it hard to 
express. Nowhere can there be 
found finer examples of a digni¬ 
fied, cultured farm folk than 
among their most unpretentious 
fellowship. Let me add that 
this old community around 
Clinton Corners is still worthy 
of the best traditions of their 
“Dutchess County is emphatically a land of hill and dale and ... I remember 
pictures ... of homing cattle trailing down the winding road.” 
Dutchess County is emphat¬ 
ically a land of hill and dale and 
the country roads have a habit 
all their own of winding and 
crooking among the often rather 
rugged but seldom very high hills. 
So far as soil fertility is con¬ 
cerned, I do not feel that it 
, ,, , j, cernea, l ao not leel that it 
Z ! ?! nd rS h TT l0r t courtesy we were Pietertje, with a record of nearly 30,400 pounds of compares very favorably with the best of central 
naebted to Dr. G. Howard Davidson who was milk, although I may be mistaken in this as I do or western New York. Much of the soil is rather 
then as now a prominent figure in Dutchess County not find that she was ever owned by Mr. Dutcher. light and open and there are only a few localities 
grieulture. All that long, golden June day we At any rate, somewhere on this trip we saw and where there is naturallv lime enough to grow 
ro\e east across the county, visiting some farms passed our hands over both of these famous alfalfa well and there are many parts much 
y the way and sleeping that night—-a very tired matrons. I remember more distinctly that we broken by rocky outcrops. 
.W" i 0t ? bo Y s ~ at Dover Plains. Memory were luxuriously dined at the Dutcher Hotel as Still—there are a large number of fine, dignified 
'f a ,°j f, century is not always vivid but guests of the owner and I have an impression that old homes—big generous houses going back many 
e t etails ot that trip will always go with me. the ability of those healthy, hungry college boys years and that speak unmistakably of an old time 
l l - ai ti‘ ora the center of the county of Mill- to store food was a source of amusement not un- prosperous agriculture. But here sometimes—as 
orook is the historical > agricultural estate of mixed with wonder on the part of the dignified, everywhere else these old houses may shelter 
norndale. . 1 erhaps it is not too much to dress-coated Ethiopian waiters. what I cannot but think of nc * crwfiaTtro^rkr 
_ -r-— • - _ what I cannot but think of as a social tragedy. 
Well, that was a long time ago and since then a It happened one day that we were in doubt as to 
great deal of water has gone over the dam. Since which road to take and I got out of the car and 
then I ha\ e been in the county a half a dozen went to inejuire. It was a large and rather pre- 
different times on Institute work and last week tentious house set on a little knoll in a grove of old 
I went back once more. I am sure there is no trees—literally “beautiful for situation.” Its 
county in the State with more interesting country roof was covered with slate, the fashionable arclii- 
snrm oft *i.~ • 7* 777“ 7 uv “k ,v 'T il t‘. roads. Measured by our American standards, tecture of fifty years ago and every external—a 
’ f' te J 1 , im P° rta b°n from England m t853 Dutchess County may fairly be called ancient little decayed perhaps—spoke of a successful and 
7 bred, a long line ot Dutchess Shorthorns — for the Dutch PntrnniK came here net CA 1 An CP Alllf m»nrl lo nne life iLe. n ^ — T1 l- 
say that agriculturally speaking there is in all 
America no more classic ground. This estate 
lor three generations has been in the hands of a 
family of great wealth and it has been beautified 
oy all the arts of the architect and the landscape 
gardner and yet withal it has enjoyed the very 
best traditions of American stock-breeding. Here 
^as bred a long line of Dutchess Shorthorns— 
die Dutchesses of Thorndale, a bovine family that 
w as destined to write the most famous and 
romantic page in all the long story of the Short 
Born breed. Here also was the cradle of certain 
horses noteworthy in their time. At the date of 
Aim i 1 i 
for the Dutch Patroons came here not so long cultured farm ‘ life—the sort of civilization that 
after 1600 and the Beekman Arms at Rhein- we wish might be found on all our farms but the 
beck, built in 1700, widely proclaims itself as “the woman who answered my knock was of some 
oldest hotel in America. I have lodged there eastern European breed, swarthy and low- 
when it was just a comfortable country tavern, browed and her knowledge of English so scanty 
To-day it has been metamorphized into a gilded that scarcely could she comprehend my question 
O V1 /* 1 T ▼ 7 A\r 1 ^ ■'r ▼ A A A s \ U a « « a a a v. a -- I _ I ] t 1 1 _ T 1 1 1 1 1 . 1" 7 
JerJ? Slt m u T aS a herd ° f r , egist 1 ered and very expensive road-house open only half the or I her reply. The glimpse that I caught of the 
f 7tr loda y 1 am told there are only white- year. Sometimes we quarrel for the privilege of «rmnW fm3 aI.ow ™,i Hi-t witUn a,a 
eci Hereford steers. being old. I note that the famous Sudbury Inn 
(Continued on page 353) 
