THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 



69 



either of you, or your readers, has had any ex- 

 perience in the application of coal-tar, and if so, 

 what is the result of that experience ? 

 Very respectfully, 



An Inquirer. 



P. S. — If I mistake not, I think I have seen 

 both of the above applications objected to. 



An Inquirer. 



We should be glad to receive any information 

 upon the subjects alluded to above. 



GARDENING. 



Gardening time is upon us. And why should 

 not farmers have as good gardens as villagers ? 

 We always expect when we see a large enclo- 

 sure attached to a village residence, that a well 

 cultivated garden will be found within it ; and 

 why should we not expect the same on every 

 farm? There is no good reason why. But 

 sadly different, in many instances, is the case ! 

 You see often the large farm and the small farm 

 well cultivated, and the garden almost entirely 

 neglected. Is the latter of less importance in 

 its place than the former ? By no means. Do 

 the farmer and his family relish the products 

 and fruits of the garden less than others, when 

 they have them? Not at all. Then why this 

 neglect? It proceeds entirely from a mistaken 

 estimate of horticulture. The products of the 

 garden are deemed of little moment, and those 

 of the farm every thing. All hands are hurried 

 and driven day after day on the farm, and the 

 garden, which perhaps has only a wretched lit- 

 tle bed or two, is often permitted to go to weeds, 

 unless cultivated by the poor women, who gen- 

 erally find their hands full with their children 

 and domestic labors. Never was there a greater 

 blunder than this in the cultivation of the earth. 

 There is nothing furnishes a richer amount of 

 healthful and delightful sustenance to a family 

 than a good vegetable garden. Indeed, some fa- 

 milies with very small garden spots, who carefully 

 cultivate them, receive from them their chief sup- 

 port. Go into their dwellings when their tables 

 are set and you may see a profuse display of vege- 

 tables ; and perhaps on entering the house of a 

 neighboring farmer about the same time of day, 

 and though there be an abundance of meat and 

 bread, the display of vegetables will be lean and 

 stinted ! 



A little judicious expenditure of time would 

 entirely correct this incongruity, and furnish to 

 every farmer a rich and delightful table of ve- 

 getables through the year. In the first place he 

 must have his little garden spot fenced off with 

 rails, if he is not yet able to do it with pickets. 

 It must be a separate enclosure from the rest of 

 the farm, and kept so faithfully. He must ap- 

 propriate a day to ploughing and preparing and 



sowing his earliest beds — no matter what the 

 hurry of business. After these are done well, 

 as the season advances, and the time arrives for 

 putting in the later vegetables, if he cannot 

 spare time in the morning, let the team stop in 

 the course of the day, and let them be well 

 finished also, and the business is done until 

 weeding time. When this comes, an hour in 

 the morning early for two or three mornings in 

 a week for a very few weeks, will keep the beds 

 perfectly clean, until the vegetables are fit for 

 the table, and then what will be presented? — one 

 of the finest spots on the whole farm — a luxu- 

 riant garden, from whence a rich and healthful 

 treat may be gathered — rendering comparative- 

 ly but little animal food necessary, and furnish- 

 ing decidedly the most economical as well as 

 pleasant living for a family. 



To those farmers who have been in the habit 

 of getting along for years with a dwarfish half- 

 cultivated bed or two for a garden, we say, try 

 the recommendation here given for one season, 

 and we are sure you never need be urged to it 

 again — for the advantages will be so sensibly 

 felt, that of the two, the work of the farm will 

 be rather suspended for a day, or a part of a 

 day, if necessary, than the garden should not 

 be seasonably and thoroughly attended to. 



A spot on the north side of the garden may 

 be advantageously kept as a temporary nursery 

 for choice fruit trees, (such as cherries, plums, 

 and pears,) as they may be obtained from lime 

 to time from neighbors and acquaintances, until 

 permanent places may be selected for their future 

 location. Having paid a good deal of attention 

 to trees and agriculture, we write from observa- 

 tion and experience. — Baptist Register. 



THE HARD TIMES. 



" It is an ill wind that blows no good," and 

 we heard a shrewd old farmer observe the other 

 day, that the low price of agricultural produce 

 was already inducing many farmers to pay 

 great attention to the improvement of their lands, 

 who were formerly tempted to "skin" them for 

 the large returns the market afforded. 



The idea is not an unreasonable one ; such 

 is the cupidity and short-sightedness of human 

 nature, that extra prices will always excite ex- 

 tra production at the expense of improvement. 

 It is true, that money making is the great ob- 

 ject of agriculture, but it by no means follows 

 that the most certain way to effect it is to im- 

 poverish the land for the sake of a single crop. 

 There is no state of the market in which a far- 

 mer may not prejudice his own interest by rob- 

 bing his land, but it frequently happens, as at 

 present, that prices of produce are so low, that 



