T H E 



SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



89 



clean of grass, and the ground be stirred around 

 tliem occasionally. 



Far Summer.' — Early Harvest, Red Astra- 

 can, Early Strawberry, Drap d'Or, Early Red 

 Margaret, William's Favorite. 



For Autumn. — Porter, Fall Pippin, Ross 

 Nonpareil, Maiden's Blush, Jersey Sweet, Fall 

 Harvey, Golden Sweet, Summer Sweet Para- 

 dise, Gravenstein, Rambo. 



For Winter. — Newtown Pippin, Baldwin, 

 Dutch Miznone, Swan*. Esopus Spitzenburg, 

 (printed in your February number Cooper), 

 Ladies' Sweeting, Northern Spy, Boston Rus- 

 set, Lady Apple, Rhode Island Greening, Yel- 

 low Belle Fleur, Peck's Pleasant, Hereford- 

 shire Permain, Male Carle, Wine Apple, Ro- 

 man Stem, Golden Ball, Green Newtown Pippin. 



Much of the fruit herein named is such as 

 I have in cultivation. Other varieties I have 

 selected from Downing's Fruit and Fruit Trees 

 of America. 



I have a few vines of the Isabella grape 

 which have always done well, rarely casting 

 their grapes or being mildewed. I usually 

 prune in winter, mostly in February, leaving 

 three or four eyes.' 1 have sometimes had my 

 vines grow twelve or fifteen feet in a season, 

 but I cut all away in February except fifteen 

 or twenty inches, which throws out the fruit 

 bearing vines after the spring frosts ; and with 

 a little attention you rarely fail in having a 

 crop of grapes. The ground should be kept 

 clear of grass and occasionally spaded. 



When the season comes round for making 

 apple butter — an article much used in our 

 Valley, Pennsylvania and further North — if 

 alive and well, I will give you an article on 

 that subject. If well made it will keep for 

 years. I consider it a most capital prepara- 

 tion, of cider, fruit and spices. Fifty gallons 

 of cider with six bushels pared and well cored 

 apples, will make about twenty gallons^ if well 

 boiied. 



Your obedient servant, 



Henry B. Jones. 

 Broumsbnrg , Va., Feb. 7, 1855. 



For the Southern Planter. 

 AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. 



The science of agriculture is a practical sci- 

 ence; it is based upon experiment and obser- 

 vation, and nothing whatever that contradicts 

 the experience of the practical farmer deserves 

 one moment's serious consideration. 



The infinite goodness and wisdom of the 

 Creator are strikingly illustrated in this fact, 

 that although he has condemned man to earn 



his bread by the sweat of his brow, yet he has 

 adapted "the art of deriving from the" earth ita 

 most valuable organic products" to the compre- 

 hension of the plainest understanding. Nothing 

 more appears to be requisite than good sense, 

 industry and attention. Accordingly our ob- 

 servation teaches us, that in all civilized coun- 

 tries this class of men compose the yeomanry 

 of the land — honest, frugal and industrious, 

 they form the bone and sinew of every com- 

 munity — -inured to'labbr, active and enterpris- 

 ing, they are always the pioneers in the settle- 

 ment of new countries, the most valuable citi 

 zens and the most successful farmers in the old. 

 Would this class become better practical far- 

 mers if they could receive a collegiate eduea • 

 tion ? I think not. Unused to labor during 

 the time requisite to complete their educations, 

 and conscious of the mental superiority which 

 education necessarily inspires, they would never 

 consent to return to the drudgery of field labor 

 They would feel themselves better qualified to 

 make a livelihood by the efforts of their brains, 

 than by the labor of their hands, and they 

 would never become practical farmers. 



But we have another class of farmers, a pe- 

 culiar race to be found, 1 believe, nowhere upon 

 earth except south of Mason & Dixon's line. 

 These men having completed their education 

 at the best seminaries of learning, with culti- 

 vated minds and liberal views return to take 

 possession of their farms provided with abun- 

 dant slave labor. They know nothing of prac- 

 tical agriculture, it is true, but by careful ob- 

 servation and attention, and by the perusal of 

 the works of the best authors, in a few years 

 they acquire sufficient knowledge of the subject 

 to become successful, practical farmers. This 

 is the gentleman farmer — a man qualified by 

 education to adorn the councils of a great na- 

 tion, and compelled by circumstances to attend 

 to the details of farm operations. These con- 

 stitute the only nobility of a free people. God 

 forbid that this race should ever cease to exist. 



If the advantages conferred upon the prac- 

 tical farmer by a collegiate education were as 

 great as they have been represented, this fact 

 would have been more strikingly manifest in 

 Virginia than in any other State. Gentlemen 

 thoroughly acquainted with all the sciences 

 usually taught in the best seminaries of learn- 

 ing, have settled in every county and in almost 

 every neighborhood. These long since would 

 have demonstrated to their uneducated neigh- 

 bors, the great benefits conferred upon the 

 practical farmer by a collegiate education in 

 the improved culture of their farms and in the 

 increased products of their crops, they would 

 have exhibited the great advantages to be de- 



