220 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



between the five rows and the remainder of the 

 field. 



Mr. M. also stated the result of another expe- 

 riment. He has a fine, thrifty, healthy apple 

 tree, about twenty-five or thirty years old ; but 

 it has never, in any one year, produced over 

 about two bushels of apples. While in blossom 

 last spring, he ascended the tree and sprinkled 

 plaster freely on the blossoms, and the result is 

 that it will this year yield twenty bushels of 

 apples. — Concordia Intelligencer. 



For three years we have published from time 

 to time experiments and statements showing the 

 value of the saltpetre soak for corn and other 

 seeds, and yet probably not one-tenth of our 

 readers use this or any other soak. For several 

 years we have soaked all our corn with the most 

 gratifying results. None of it has ever been 

 touched by the grub, against which we, there- 

 fore, regard the saltpetre as a perfect protection, 

 and it grows with a rapidity that shames the 

 sluggishness of grass and weeds. We planted 

 some corn this year, on the 6th of May, soaked 

 as usual, and in just twenty-eight days it stood 

 twenty-two inches high — ground rich but not 

 manured this } 7 ear. A pound of saltpetre in 

 enough water to cover a bushel of corn is about 

 the proportion. — Louisville Journal. 



CHERRY BOUNCE. 

 The best we ever saw was made as follows : 

 A demijohn was filled with ripe morello cherries, 

 and the very best apple brandy was poured on 

 them until it ran over. After standing long 

 enough to extract the flavor of the cherries, it 

 may be drawn off as it is wanted, and sweetened 

 to the taste. In this way, without the admix- 

 ture of sugar, the brandy and cherries will keep 

 and improve for an indefinite period ; in a tem- 

 perance neighborhood at least, but not in the 

 region in which we obtained this recipe. 



WEEDS. 



Now is an excellent time to destroy weeds, 

 as the rankest and most pernicious of them are 

 in flower, and you thus prevent their seeding 

 your own and neighbors' land. If cut down 

 close to the ground in full bloom, some kinds 

 will be totally destroyed ; others will not. rise 

 again that year, or if they do, so feebly as to do 

 little injury, and there is no danger of scarce 

 any running to seed. The most effectual means 

 which we have found to destroy the hardier 

 weeds, such as mulleins, thistles, burdocks, &c, 

 is to place half a table-spoonful of salt upon 

 each stem immediately after being cut close to 

 the ground. If there be a great number, after 

 mowing them, scatter salt plentifully upon the 



land, pasture sheep there, and they will most 

 invariably be destroyed in a season or two. The 

 salt acts beneficially with the sheep-dung in en- 

 riching the land. To increase the feed, plaster 

 may be sown at the rate of 1^ to 2-| bushels 

 per acre. — American Agriculturist. 



GIVING CREDIT. 



The American Agriculturist takes us to task 

 for not giving him credit for an article in our 

 last number upon the use of Lime and Char- 

 coal. We were not aware that it was customa- 

 ry to credit an extract from a public address to 

 any but the author. However we take great 

 pleasure in awarding to Mr. Allen all the honor 

 that he conceives to be clue him for being the 

 first to make the extract from Mr. Partridge's 

 address. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 IMPROVEMENT. 



Mr. Editor, — It having been my misfortune 

 to own poor land, and to be without money to 

 improve it, I was much cheered at the following 

 caption of an article which appeared in the last 

 number of the Southern Planter, to wit: "How 

 Poor Men may Make Poor Land Rich." This 

 struck me as being the desideratum at which I 

 had so long aimed ; I, therefore, read the article 

 with avidity, but lo ! my spirit quailed when I 

 found that lime and plaster were "indispensa- 

 ble." It is true your correspondent has sug- 

 gested an economical way to obtain these arti- 

 cles under certain circumstances ; but suppose I 

 am located in a neighborhood where there are 

 no oyster-shells and oyster-houses, and without 

 money to buy plaster ; I am barred these bene- 

 fits. Permit me, therefore, to suggest a course, 

 which is better calculated to attain the end pro- 

 posed by your correspondent. The wife and the 

 necessary farming implements being obtained, 

 to put his land (the poor man's) in good arable 

 condition, let him plant his corn in well pulver- 

 ized earth, and go to his ash banks and piles of 

 horse manure, and take therefrom a quantity 

 sufficient to drop in each corn hill, one quart (a 

 pint of leached ashes will suffice) so long as his 

 manure lasts, and work his corn without refer- 

 ence to the application of manure, and my word 

 for it, he will improve double the quantity of 

 land and make double the quantity of corn that 

 he would have done had he have applied his 

 manure broadcast ; and I have little doubt but 

 that the double quantity of land thus manured 

 will yield more wheat ; for from my experiments 

 in this way, I find the manure diffused through 

 the beds to an extent that no one can conceive, 



