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THOROUGH CTJLTUEE. 



Muscatine County, loiva. — The past season, together with that of last 

 year, has taught fiirmers the benefits that arise from thorough culture. 

 Tlie old, but none the less true adage, " plow deep while sluggards sleep," 

 «S:c., has been most thoroughly exemplified. We trust the da^^ of "slip- 

 shod" farming is about at an end. When we more thoroughly realize that 

 working one acre at a profit, is better than working two at a loss, then 

 will have arrived the agricultural millenium. 



THE COLORED ACtRICULTURISTS IN LOUISIANA. 



St. Tammany County, La. — I have just returned from a six days' ride 

 in the couuty and was much surprised at Avhat is being done on the 

 l^oor pine lands. Heretofore 1 have only visited those farms and plan- 

 tations on the bayous and rivers. I found through the parish a large 

 number of colored men who have taken the benefit of the homestead 

 act and settled miles from any of the villages, consequently being 

 dex)endent on what is produced from the land. They have succeeded 

 this year in producing potatoes and corn enough for the winter and 

 spring use. In most places they build fires on the land they wish 

 to cultivate the following year, in order to attract the cattle which are 

 at large in the woods. They also Avheel out muck from the swamps in 

 the summer to mix with the cattle manure. Some use fine straw also. 

 They break up the land in the fall, covering with each furrow the straw 

 placed there. The next spring they i^low again and in a few days after 

 throw it into ridges and jilaut. On some of the older farms I saw as 

 good cotton as is generally raised on bottom land. This is brought to 

 market thirty miles by ox teams. Nearly all raise their own meat and 

 send dozens of eggs and chickens to market, besides hundreds of pounds 

 of honey. I saw one colored man who had over two hundred hives of 

 bees, and he told me that he always gets at least twenty -five cents per 

 pound for his honey. 



THE "GARDEN OF LOUISIANA." 



N'eic Iberia Parish, La. — We possess here the most fertile soil in 

 America that is not subject to inundation, and a climate unsurpassed 

 for promoting vigorous vegetable growth. The five jiarishes, (St. Mary's, 

 Iberia, St. Martin's, Fayette, and Vermillion,) formed of the old Spanish 

 l^arish of A ttakapas, comprise the richest lands, the most thorough natural 

 system of navigation, and the greatest natural and commercial advan- 

 tages of any equal surface in the world. This fact is comparatively 

 little known ; but as it is susceptible of clear and easy proof, all that is 

 needed is an opportunity of afibrding the greatest publicity to the same 

 to render Attakapas the aim and center of a prodigious emigration, and 

 the consequent prosperity and happiness of our section. I am a native 

 of Illinois, and my eyes have ranged over the reputed "choice spots" of 

 the Union, but no other can, in my opinion, bear comparison to Attaka- 

 pas, justly the "garden of Louisiana." 



DESTROYING TOMATO AND OTHER WORMS. 



Cecil County, Md. — I see recommended the picMng off of the tomato 

 and other worms and killing them with the foot ; but we know of a 

 much better plan. When the worms are bad we kill them by merely 



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