THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



95 



be gathered daily from July until frost. There 

 is some trouble in picking them, but then nearly 

 every farmer has children ; his little boys — ay, 

 and his big ones, too — would not be the worse 

 for a little work. We should be glad to see the 

 experiment tried on. a larger scale than ours, 

 and to learn the result. 



SWEET POTATOES. 

 We observe that a correspondent of the " S. 

 Western Farmer," in Mississippi, declares, that 

 from a thorough trial he is fully satisfied that 

 sweet potatoes, as a food for stock, are far supe- 

 rior to ruta baga, and that he believes they as 

 far excel the sugar beet. Our early subscribers 

 will remember that a northern emigrant declared, 

 in the first volume of the Planter, that if the 

 northern people could raise the sweet potato, 

 they would abandon all other roots. 



TO PRESERVE FLOWERS FRESH FOR A 

 LONG PERIOD. 



Procure a flat dish of porcelain ; into which 

 pour water sufficient to nearly fill it ; in the wa- 

 ter place a vase of flowers : over the vase place 

 a bell-glass, with its rim in the water. This is 

 similar to a " Wards's case," in principle, al- 

 though different in construction. The air that 

 surrounds the flowers being confined beneath 

 the bell-glass, is constantly moist with the water 

 that rises into it, in the form of vapor. As fast 

 as the water becomes condensed, it runs down 

 the sides of the bell-glass into the dish ; and if 

 means be taken to enclose the water on the out- 

 side of the bell-glass, so as to prevent its evapo- 

 rating into the air of the sitting room, the at- 

 mosphere around the flowers will remain con- 

 tinually damp. This plan is designated the 

 " Hopean apparatus." The experiment may be 

 tried on a small scale, by inserting a tumbler 

 over a rose bud, in a saucer of water. 



Gardeners' Chronicle. 



TOBACCO. 

 We were struck with the views of a distin- 

 guished planter of Cumberland, who was speak- 

 ing to us a few days since upon the subject 

 of the tobacco crop. He thinks, under the 

 system that is now prevailing, it is destined to 

 be the great renovator of our worn out lands, 

 and that it will yet accomplish for Virginia 

 what turnips have effected for the county of 

 Norfolk, and British husbandry in general. He 

 contends that it is not an exhauster, but that, 

 being like the turnip a broad leaved plant, and 



being removed before it matures its seed, it 

 draws its sustenance, in a great measure, from 

 the atmosphere, and is, according to all estab- 

 lished principles, an ameliorating crop. That 

 the lands of our planters have grown poor, he 

 thinks, proceeded from other causes than the 

 abstract cultivation of tobacco. In the first place, 

 our ancestors were too prodigal of the gifts of 

 nature, and the treasures of the barn-yard were 

 too long permitted to waste their sweetness upon 

 the desert air. Secondly, when their successors 

 were driven by necessity to the collection and 

 use of manure, the tobacco planters concentrated 

 all of theirs upon their tobacco lots, which, on 

 account of their superiority, were immoveably 

 devoted to this valuable staple, and that so far 

 from the tobacco having exhausted, it is a noto- 

 rious fact that the best part of every plantation 

 is that which has been devoted to its growth. 

 It is in fact the corn and oats, cultivated by this 

 system without manure, that have exhausted 

 the land. But, says our author, there is no 

 crop, not even the turnip itself, that from the 

 saving of manure that it induces, and the high 

 degree of tillage it requires, forms as good a 

 preparation for succeeding crops ; and all that 

 is wanting, as he contends, to demonstrate its 

 value, is the new system, which makes every 

 portion of the farm that is to be improved a to- 

 bacco lot, alternately ; thus making a rotation, 

 of which tobacco shall form a constituent part. 



From the Connecticut Farmers' Gazette. 



FOR CORN— A RECIPE. 



Mix plaster, unleached ashes, and quick fine 

 lime together, in the following proportions : — two 

 parts plaster, two parts ashes, and one part lime, 

 and apply a small quantity of the mixture to 

 each hill of corn immediately after the first hoe- 

 ing, and see if it don't go a " leetle" ahead of 

 any thing you ever tried to make corn grow. — 

 Be sure to leave one row without the applica- 

 tion, "jest" to see the difference. 



Novice. 



THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES. 

 This valuable hebdomadal has come to us this 

 week accompanied by a spirited and faithful 

 portrait of W. R. Johnson, Esq., which in after 

 days will be worth a year's subscription to the 

 paper. In this age of cheap literature, the Spi- 

 rit of the Times stands " solitary and alone," a 

 monument of what an Editor can afford to do 



