SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
91 
MAKING FARM RIFE ATTRACTIVE. 
A few months ago, something was said of the import- 
ance to farmers, of cultivating a habit of observation, and 
of making notes of their experience for the benefit of 
others A few thoughts on this general subject may well 
be added : 
Why should not every farmer make a cabinet collection 
of every kind of rock upon his land 1 All soils are made 
up, in no small measure, of these rocks disintegrated 
(worn down) by the action of the elements. Having 
small specimens of these rocks arranged on shelves in 
his house, he can daily see the chief constituent elements 
of his farm. To do this, he need not himself be a scien- 
tific chemist or mineralogist ; the neighboring school- 
teacher or educated physician will tell him the precise 
name and quality of every stone. Then let him label 
them, and at his leasure read and learn all he can about 
his cabinet of minerals. 
Near by, let him have a collection of the different soils 
on his farm ; from the hill and valley, top soil, subsoil, 
alluvial, clay, gravel, and sand. Let these be arranged 
in vials and bottles, and neatly labeled. And let him not 
stop here. Do not trees grow in his wood-lot and orchard, 
and grasses and grains in his fields 1 Let him select 
specimens of every variety of wood — say a small cross- 
section of every sort of tree, specimens of their leaves, 
flowers and seed, and samples of dried grasses and grains, 
neatly prepared and labelled. And as to fruits, if he has 
a son or daughter skilled in drawing, they should make 
pictures of all the fruits growing in his orchard and gar- 
den. A gentleman of our acquaintance has begun to 
make such a collection of fruits, drawn and colored by 
his own hand in leisure hours, and it is very beautiful. 
He takes the fruits as they succe.=-sively ripen, drawing 
and painting them in water-colors. He began with the 
earliest strawberry, and included the cherries, raspberries, 
currents, summer pears, apples, and Fall and Winter 
fruit. Those which escape him one year, he obtains the 
next year. When he has copied the whole circle of fruits 
growing in his^neighborhood, he intends to have the draw- 
ings handsomely bound. They will make a set of books 
of rare interest and value! 
Let the farmer and his family make some collection of 
this sort. And to these things let him add specimens of 
the insects injurious to vegetation, classified and named. 
Nor would it be amiss to make or purchase drawings of 
useful animals, farm implements, and various works of 
art taste. 
But enough has now been said to show that a wide 
field of pleasing and useful observation lies open before 
any farmer. How much would the habit we have advo- 
cated tend to liberalize his views, give him a new and 
stronger interest in his chosen profession, and elevate it 
also in the minds of others ! It would then be plainly 
seen that there is no end to the subjects of interesting and 
useful observation and thought suggested by the pursuits 
of agriculture. And what a happy influence would this 
habit of observation exert on the children educated on a 
farm so conducted ! They would grow up, thinking men 
and women, and they would honor and fondly love the 
calling of agriculture. 
How foolish it is for farmers to complain of their children 
forsaking the homestead at the earliest opportunity, while 
such parents do nothing to invest farming with some kind 
of attractions! Their children would be dolts, if they 
didn’t wish to get away from some farms that we know 
of. But let parents show them that agriculture is some- 
thing besides drudgery; show them that it awakens 
thought, demands thought, and honors thought, and they 
will not run away from it. They will not hasten to towns 
and cities to engage in trades and professions less honora- 
ble, more uncertain of yielding pecuniary advantage, and 
less heathful to body and mind and morals. 
One who tries to practice 
WHAT HE PREACHES. 
American Agriculturist. 
BRILLIANT PROSPECT FOR COTTON PLAN- 
ters. 
We clip the following fiom the January number of 
Debow’s Review, for the benefit of our cotton planting 
friends. 
The intelligent commercial editor of the United States 
Economist predicts for cotton the most gratifying future : 
“The course of events for the last two or three years 
had pushed consumption of cotton so far ahead of the 
production thatthe prices had risen to 48c., notwithstand- 
ing that the high price of food in Europe and the state of 
affairs in Asia were adverse to a large consumption of 
cotton. The panic has greatly curtailed the use of cot- 
ton, but the prospect now is a combination of all the ele- 
ments of a large consumption, Asia taking great quanti- 
ties this year, and with a crop which is now estimated at 
3.500.000 bales, or 400,000 bales more than last year, 
the exeess in receipts over last year being already S240,- 
000 . 
“If cotton has maintained its value in the last year, with 
an increased crop of 100,000 bales, and a decrease of 
500.000 bales in consumption, it is but reasonable to as- 
sume that with a renewal of the consumption, under the 
favorable operation of cheap labor and larger markets, 
that the prices of 1857 will be reached, say l8c. for mid- 
dling, or that the mark then anticipated — 20c. for fair 
cotton — will be reched. This would give a value of 
$327,000,000 for the crop of 1858 coming to market in 
1859. Such a result, supported by good crops, and sales 
of sugar, tobacco and rice, will give continued balances 
in favor of the South, which already presents such a strong 
contrast to the Northwest, where the prolonging of re- 
vulsion lies upon crops and values.” 
Thorough Tillage. — At one of the Irish agiicultural 
meetings, one of the speakers remarked — and the truth 
may be well applied in this country : 
“What brought out the immense agricultural wealth 
of Scotland I and what enabled the small farmer in Bel- 
gium, who, on seven or eight acres of light, sandy land, 
was able to do bette r for himself and his family than we 
can do on twenty or thirty acres of land in this country 7 
It was not by allowing three-fourths of a^light tillage 
farm to remain in poor herbage, and making the other 
quarter pay the rent. It was because the farmers in those 
countries alluded to, made agriculture a study, a duty, 
and a pleasure, and because the farmers till their land to 
the best advantage, and because no man tliere would 
keep one single acre of land more in his possession, than 
his capital and his means would enable him to cultivate.” 
Mortality op Races. — The Providence R. I. Journal 
in reviewing the tables and reports of that city for 1858, 
remarks ; 
In proportion to the population, the number of death .s 
in 1858, was very nearly as follows: 
White American population, one in 57. 
Colored American population, one in 28. 
Foreign population, one in 39. 
For the whole population, the deaths were about one 
in fifty. 
The large proportional mortality of the colored popula- 
tion is undoubtedly owing to cause inherent in the race 
itself in the Northern climate. 
