THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



always be saved from the first beans you 1 1 

 plant. 



Cucumbers, watermelons, and musk- ! 

 melons, although they can be raised in a < 

 garden, should never be planted there. — 

 The reason is obvious— if a garden is 

 not rich land, it should be made rich; 

 this sends up grass and weeds very fast, 

 and vines, after they get properly to run- 

 ning, should never be interrupted, and it 

 would be impossible to keep them free 

 from grass in a garden without moving 

 them ; therefore, select the poorest sandy 

 old field you have, fence in your patch, 

 lay it off with a plough twelve or fifteen 

 feet square, in December; dig a horcrvn 

 every cross, two feet deep and two feet 

 wide, (or wider,) fill it up as soon as con- 

 venient with com cobs about two-thirds 

 full, and beat them down with a maul or 

 crowbar. Let your holes stand open all 

 winter. In the first of March, fill up the 

 remainder of the hole with manure, (that 

 from a hog pen is best.) Plant from the 

 1st to the 20th of April; put eight or ten 

 seed in a hill, some of them ten or twelve 

 inches apart. But before you plant your 

 seed, mix some of the earth or sand with 

 your manure on the top of the hill, raise 

 your hill about three or four inches above 

 the level of the earth, for fear of rain set- 

 tling it below the surface, and drowning 

 your seed or plants. When they are up 

 and have four or five leaves, thin them to 

 two stalks, letting the farthest apart thrifty 

 plants stand. When they commence run- 

 ning, lay them so as to run in different 

 directions, so that one vine will not inter- 

 fere with another. By the time they be- 

 gin to run, they should be laid by, having 

 your ground perfectly clean. Generally 

 two ploughing? and two hoeings will do 

 them. After they have run three or four 

 feet, they should be confined to the ground 

 with cross sticks, to keep the wind from 

 turning them over, (I mean the water- 

 melon vines.) No sickly or deformed 

 melon should be allowed to set on a vine. 

 If } 7 ou wish to raise large watermelons, 

 let but one melon set on a vine till it nearly 

 gets its growth ; also top }'our vine. As 

 seed is of the greatest importance, save 

 your seed from those melons or cucum- 



bers, which grow nearest the root of your 

 vine ; these are decidedly the best. Vines 

 from these seed will yield more and come 

 earlier. 



The above imperfect experience I hum- 

 bly beg to submit. 



Matthew Hall. 



LIME AND RATS. 



A gentleman of this city says the Mem- 

 phis Appeal, who had occasion to use 

 considerable lime about his premises which 

 had heretofore been much infested with 

 rats, informed us that these destructive 

 little animals had suddenly ceased to ap- 

 pear or to annoy him. " Before using the 

 lime," said he, "you could scarcely walk 

 across the yard after night without tread- 

 ing on them." He showed us several of 

 their principal holes around which he had 

 deposited a small portion of fresh or un- 

 slacked lime, which evidently had the ef- 

 fect of driving them from these places, 

 which they had before resorted to in great 

 numbers. The above is a simple and 

 cheap method of getting rid of this an- 

 noying and destruclive pest; suppose you 

 try it. 



From the Union Agriculturist. 



A CHEAP ICE HOUSE — A GOOD 

 CELLAR FOR ROOTS. 



My Worthy Friend, — You ask for more 

 communications. Now the fact is that 

 my name has become so common in agri- 

 cultural papers, that I have reason to be- 

 lieve that something new from some new 

 writer, would be much more interesting 

 to readers, and that when they see my 

 name they will exclaim, " what, Monsieur 

 Tonson come again ?" and pass over this 

 hackneyed name with the well founded 

 belief that no new thing can come from 

 such an old fountain. But I will once 

 more run that risk. 



Many persons are deterred from putting 

 up ice, because thoy cannot afford to build 

 an ice house. If they will try the follow- 

 ing plan, which, by-the-by, is not original, 



