SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
T 
AN ITEM IN NEAT FARMING. 
There is a slovenly practice among farmers, and some 
pretty good ones, of putting logs, brush, stumps, &c., &c., 
into the nearest branch or gully in the field. Sometimes 
they are put into the fence corners. Now I protest against 
anything of the sort. They are an abomination to a real 
neat farmer. If you cannot find time to burn them as 
they should be, then you had better make them into piles 
or heaps in the field, and plow round them; for after 
awhile you will get tired of going around them so often, 
and will set them on fire. Better dig pits, like the Flor- 
ida man, and bury them. 
Some men suffer bushes, briers and weeds to grow 
along the branches, and thus form a crooked, horrible 
looking hedge, a fit harbour for snakes, frogs, minks, and 
other varmints. Clean out those places when you are 
tending your crops, or after harvest. 
Instead of letting the bushes grow up along the branch- 
es, a good plan is to have a strip of meadow on each side. 
Along the margin of a branch the grass grows most lux- 
uriantly, A strip of meadow will catch the rich soil that 
washes from the adjacent fields and prevent it from being 
lost to the rightful owner. This is much better than to 
try to raise corn in the bends or crooks of the branches, 
where it is so difficult to plow, and infinitely better than 
to have those ugly crooked hedges. Brother farmer, I i 
move that we repudiate such hedges. Who’ll second the 
motion I— Valley Farmer. 
TREES — THEIR USES, POETRY AND BEAUTY. 
An anonymous writer says : “How beautiful are Trees! 
Whether we look at them in spring, with their swelling 
buds and folded leaflets — in summer, crowned v/ith bright 
and dancing leaves, through which the ‘soft south wind’ 
loves to wander, ever singing sweetly and musically— 
in autumn, dressed in garments of purple and gold, 
with trees. Most beautiful where and as God plants them, 
but beautiful even as planted by the poorest art of man, 
trees should be protected and preserved, 
“If he is a benefactor who causes two blades of grass to 
grow where one grew before, how much greater his be- 
neficence who plants a tree in some waste place, to shel- 
ter and shade, to draw thither song-birds, and to bear fruit 
for man. Plant trees, O man, on that waste land, and be 
careful of those that are planted.” 
We do not (says the Christian Advocate') know the 
author of the above beautiful and comprehensive notice of 
trees; but we think its perusal will cause many of our 
readers to involuntarily and heartily respond to the fami- 
liar and popular language of the song of 
WOODMAN, SPARE THAT TREE. 
BY GEORGE P. MORRIS. 
Woodman, spare that tree ! 
Touch not a single bough, 
In youth it sheltered me. 
And I’ll protect it now. 
’Twas my forefather’s hand 
That placed it near his cot ; 
There, Woodman, let it stand; 
Thy axe shall harm it not ! 
That old familiar tree. 
Whose glory and renown 
Are spread o’er land and sea — 
And wouldst thou hew it down 1 
Woodman, forbear thy stroke! 
Cut not its earth-bound ties; 
Oh, spare that aged oak. 
Now towering to the skies. 
‘ When fairy colors deck the painted tree, 
When the vast woodlands seem a sea of flowers’ — 
or in winter, with their delicate tracery of twigs and 
branches sharply defined against the clear, cold sky — at 
whatever season we behold them, they are ‘beaudful ex- 
ceedingly,’ and the man who does not prize them is blind 
to the loveliness of Nature.” 
Another writer eloquently says : “How beautiful, most 
beautiful of earth’s ornaments are trees ! Waving out on 
the hills and down in the valleys, in wildwood or orchard, 
or singly by the wayside. God’s spirit and benison seem 
to us ever present in trees. For their shade and shelter 
to man and brute ; for the music the winds make among 
their leaves, and the birds in their branches ; for the fruit 
and flowers they bear to delight the palate and the eye, 
and the fragrance that goes out and upward from them 
forever — we are worshipful of trees. 
“ ‘Under his own vine and fig-tree’— what more expres- 
sive of rest and independence and lordship in the earth ! 
Well may the Arab reverence in the date palm, a God- 
given source of sustenance. Dear to the Spani./rd is the 
olive, and to the Hindoo his banyan, wherein riweli ilie 
families of man, and the birds of heaven build their nesis 
Without trees, what a desert place would be our earth- 
naked, parched and hateful to the eyed Yet how many 
arc thoughtless of the use and beauty of trees. How 
many strike the axe idly or wantonly at their roots. Above 
all other things in the landscape we would deal gently 
When but an idle boy 
I sought its grateful shade ; 
In all their gushing joy, 
Here, too, my sisters played. 
My mother kissed me here, 
My father pressed my hand j 
Forgive this foolish tear — 
But let that old oak stand. 
My heart-strings ’round thee cling, 
Close as the bark, old friend! 
Here shall the wild- birds sing, 
And still thy branches bend. 
Old tree ! the storm still brave ! 
And, Woodman, leave the spot, 
While I’ve a band to save, 
Thy axe shall harm it not. 

MARHHAIiE COUNTY (MISS.) AGRICUETUItAi- 
Fair. 
A correspondent of the Memphis Eagle cf* Enquire ^ 
writing from Holly Springs, under date of Oct. 29, says; 
“The Agricultural Fair now being held in this county, 
IS deserving of notice in your paper. The exhibition has 
neen highly creditable to our citizens. There were some 
Jen or twelve competitors tor the premium bale of cotton, 
and I assure you that at no other fair were more beautiful 
samples exhibited — far surpassing anything I saw at the 
•Siiel -y county fair. In the ladies’ department ! never saw 
finer exhibitions of skill and taste. At the close of tb« 
Fair 1 will give you a detailed report of the exhibition and 
the premiums awarded. 
