72 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



namcntal, and at the same time protect the 

 fruit from rogues, a hedge of some kind is a 

 very good thing. 



In our climate we rather incline to some of 

 the rose family for this purpose. In the South 

 we have seen the most luxuriant growth of the 

 Cherokee rose, — as it is improperly called, for it 

 is an India rose, we learn — and it does cart.xin- 

 ly there make an enclosure which a sparrow 

 can not get into nor a hare penetrate. But 

 from an experiment we made with it some 

 years ago we doubt its ability to stand our win- 

 ters in Virginia, at least as far north as Rich- 

 mond. But the white, or — strictly speaking — 

 cream-coloured microphylla seems calculated to 

 meet the requirements specified above. It is a 

 rapid grower, will thrive on poor land, is quite 

 branchy and has sharp thorns. "We have one 

 now encbsing two acres of garden, and will 

 report progress as it progresses. We think it 

 will gain the necessary size by the time a fence 

 of old field pine will rot down, and will then 

 have taken complete possession of the space 

 the panels occupied. It may still be necessary 

 to fence against stock, but this hedge will be 

 apt to prevent human trespasses. 



ENLARGEMENT OF THE PLANTER. 



Our proposition to enlarge the Planter has 

 loeen so favourably received that we have deter- 

 mined to do it. Although we £id not ask it, 

 many persons have volunteered to express their 

 approval of the scheme, and their satisfaction 

 with the first number ; and one very liberal 

 gentleman urged us to continue and very ear- 

 nestly proposed to form one of fifty who should 

 guarantee us against loss — an offer which we 

 felt compelled to decline though very grateful 

 for the kindness which prompted it. 



But, as we expected, the increased price has 

 lost us some subscribers, though the increased 

 size has also gained us a few. To those gen- 

 tlemen who have volunteered to send us these 

 few we are of course grateful. But we trust 

 we will not be thought greedy when we express 

 a wish for more. A glance at our Subscrip- 

 tion Books would satisfy all that the circulation 

 of the Planter is far short of what it should be 

 for the good of Southern Planters in general, 

 and of The Southern Planter in particular. If, 

 as we have often before suggested, each well 

 wisher of the Planter would only interest his 



neighbour in its success much will have been 

 done to make it worthy of the cause and the 

 State. It was but recently that a Northern 

 Agricultural Journal spoke of its 125,000 sub- 

 scribers ! ! 



To those persons who will interest themselves 

 on pecuniary principles in the circulation of 

 the Planter we offer the most liberal induce- 

 ments — from 20 to 33£ per ct. — as may be seen 

 by reference to our "Terms." 



A DITCHING MACHINE. 



"Why is there no invention of a good ditching 

 machine? Such a thing is almost universally 

 needed. In the prairies of the West and 

 Southwest they want them that they may make 

 fences out of the ditch banks ; in the river 

 lands of the States further South they want 

 them to ditch, drain and dyke, and by this 

 means bring into cultivation the best cotton 

 lands of the world; in the older States we want 

 them for the purpose of ditching and drying 

 wet lands, and of under-draining a vast amount 

 of lands which now do not produce up to half 

 their capacity for want of this kind of improve- 

 ment, but which would now cost a good deal more 

 in most cases than the lancte are worlh. They 

 are also much needed as excavators on railroads, 

 and in digging out the foundations of houses 

 which in the large cities, are going deeper and 

 deeper into the ground. 



It is really strange that some good imple- 

 ment for these purposes has not made its ap- 

 pearance. We shall be pleased to hear of a 

 good one, and to give public notice of it. We 

 would promise a fortune to the inventor of 

 such a machine but for one thing, and that is, 

 that inventors never seem to thrive, except in 

 the rarest cases. The greatest geniuses hardly 

 ever do. They are generally a little poorer 

 than printers and editors. 



MANIPULATED GUANO. 



We have received from Dr. Reese of Balti- 

 timore, whose advertisement will be seen in our 

 advertising columns, a pamphlet copy contain- 

 ing an account of the ingredients of his guano 

 and his arguments in favour of the particular 

 mode of composition. 



Though we dissent altogether from that por- 

 tion of Dr. Reese's arguments, which, we think, 

 allow undue importance to the phosphates in 



