524 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



posts, fn the year 1845 I made some new 

 paling fence, setting the posts a portion of 

 them top end down, and others butt end 

 down. 



After twelve years the fence was rebuilt 

 and all those posts set top end down, were 

 sound and took their place in the new 

 fence, for another twelve or twenty years ; 

 while those butt end down were entirely 

 rotted off. 



Farmers, try the top end down, if not 

 quite so large. 



Now for the striped bug, that little Turk, 

 inveterate destroyer of Cucumbers, Mel- 

 ons, and Squashes in their early growth. — 

 Year after year.l have combatted them with 

 thumb and finger, sulphur, chimney soot, 

 boxes, &c. Last Spring, I had a few fine 

 hills of early frame cucum.bers, just com- 

 ing into fourth leaf, and as necessity has 

 created the motto, "eternal vigilance or 

 no safety," I went out as usual to examine 

 my patch, and lo ! and behold ! not less 

 than a thousand to a hill were working 

 away and the air full of new recruits. I 

 felt all was over with that planting. But 

 my wife came to the rescue ; saying she 

 would give them a dose such as her Old 

 Grandmother used to give. What could 

 it be ! A little bunch of cotton saturated 

 with spirits or oil of turpentine, placed in 

 each hill ; and such a scattering I never 

 did see. 



In three minutes, not a bug was to be 

 seen, evidentl}^ not liking to deal with 

 spirits. They next attacked the Autumnal 

 Marrow Squash you sent seeds of. I ap- 

 ])lied it again, and from five seeds, had 

 forty fine squashes, a portion of which I 

 sold two weeks since at twenty cents each. 



Bunker Hill, TIL, March 22d., 1858. 

 Cotton Cultivation in Africa. 



Mr. Thomas Clegg, of Manchester, has pub- 

 lished an interestin!^ letter, describing the re- 

 sult of the efforts which have been made by 

 him for the last seven or eight _years to promote 

 the cultivation of cotton in Africa, with the 

 view of putting dov/n the slave trade by show- 

 ing; the native chiefs and others *' that it was surface. 



their interest to emplo}'' their people, instead ! cording as the pressure is that of the warm, 

 of making war upon each other for the sake of light air of the South, or of the cool dense 



air of the North: in the former case the ba- 

 rometer falls — in the latter it rises. We have 



the chiefs about Abbeokuta. Finding, how- 

 ever, that the European agents either died or 

 had returned to this country, several youn^ 

 Africans were selected by the Missionary Soci- 

 ety and sent over to England, at the expense of 

 the Native Agency Committee, to be educated 

 and instructed in the best method of cleaning 

 the cotton without injury to the fiber. The Afri- 

 can Native Agency Oomraittee of London also 

 supplied packing presses and other machinery, 

 and Mr. Piatt supplied cotton gins, goods, and 

 money to purchase the cotton with. Up to the 

 1st ultimo he had sent out 175 cotton gins, 

 costing from £3 17s. to £10 10s. each. He has 

 entered into correspondence with upwards of 

 76 native and other African traders, 21 or 22 

 of them being chiefs, and many of them having 

 begun to consign their cotton and other produce 

 to him. Three manufacturers, of Manchester, 

 have sent out 250 cotton gins, and the natives 

 are at present, with their present appliances, 

 able to turn out yearly 4,368,000 pounds of clean 

 cotton, equal to 10,000 American bales. This he 

 regards as a rare instance of rapid development 

 of a particular trade, and, after a view of all 

 the known facts, he "can clearly see a pros- 

 pect of the slave trade being entirely starved 

 out." The cotton, from whatever part of Afri- 

 ca it conies, wdll invariably sell in Liverpool for 

 2d. or 3d. per pound more than East India cot- 

 ton. For some years it has never cost more 

 than od- per pound in the seed ; more has been 

 offered at that price than the agents, chiefs, and 

 dealers have been able to buy up ; and it can be 

 laid down in Liverpool at 42-d. per pound, 

 whilst it is now worth 7d., and not long ago 

 was worth 9d. ])er pound. Mr. Clegg says that, 

 believing in the goodness of the cause, he is 

 anxious to raise £2,040 for the establishment 

 of four new cotton stations. — HunVs Merchant 

 Magazine. 



Wonders of Boiling Water. 



We live, we move and have our being at 

 the bottom of an atmospheric ocean, whose 

 lower strata are pressed upon by all above 

 them. I-nlike the common sea, the atmos- 

 phere yields considerably to this superincum- 

 bent spring, and like it, exercises an elastic 

 force proportioned to the weight it has to bear. 

 A pillar of air, with a base of one square 

 inch resting upon the surface of the sea, and 

 reaching to the top of the atmosphere, weighs 

 in round numbers fifteen pounds; and this, 

 therefore, is the pressure exerted by the at- 

 mosphere on each, square inch of the sea's 

 It varies within narrow limits, ac- 



getting a colorable right or pretext for sellin 

 into slavery the prisoners taken in such maraud- 

 ing expeditions." An opening experiment at 

 Sierra Leon failed, and he decided to go at once 

 to interior cotton fields, and to the residence of 



heard an intelligent youth ask the following 

 question: " Suppose a room containing people 

 to be shut up, and every chink and cranny 



