162 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
nip seed and transplant them like winter cabbages, in 
rows 2 feet apart and 18 inches apart in the row. The 
white and yellow summer Radish must now be sown. 
Transplant Onions and Leeks, if not done last month, 
whenever the season suits. Also, transplant Beets, where 
they stand too thick in the seed bed. 
Strawberry Beds must be kept free from weeds, well 
mulched with leaves or chopped pine-straw, and freely 
watered in dry weather. If you desire fruit, cut off all 
the runners as fast as they appear, and keep the ground 
cool and moist. But if you wish to increase your plants, 
the mulching may be dispensed with (except immediately 
around the plants as directed heretofore) and the surface 
must be kept clean, and well worked with a pronged 
hoe. 
The Orchard and Fruit Garden. — Where the frost 
has not saved you the trouble, by cutting off a portion of 
your fruit, thin it from one-third to one half, if the 
branches are heavily laden, and the remainder will be 
enough larger and finer to pay for the trouble. Peaches, 
Plums, Nectarines, Apricots, &c., may now be budded; 
the tree must be trained low and branching, and 
instead of tall, slender and “spindling. Mulch all young 
trees set out last spring, and give them a copious water- 
ing occasionally, if the weather is very dry. Turn your 
young “shoats” into the orchard to devour fallen fruit, 
and encourage them to “root,” or loosen up the earth 
by scattering a handful of corn to them occasionally un- 
derneath the trees. Large hogs are frequently destruc- 
tive to orchards, tearing and mutilating the branches in 
their efforts to obtain the fruit, even when the ground is 
thickly covered with it. 
The Flower Garden. — Some hardy annual seeds 
may yet be sown, but it is rather late. If you do not wish 
to take up your bulbous roots, (by which method they 
often are lost in this climate unless properly attended to) 
give them a heavy mulching and let them stand in the 
ground until September, when they may be taken up, 
divided, and planted again. Whenever Dahlias stop 
blooming, cut them down to the ground, and give them a 
good watering and a heavy mulch; they will soon sprout 
and bloom anew. Apply liquid manure occasionally to 
all your choice flowers. Roses should now be budded 
and layered — fumigate with tobacco smoke to destroy the 
Aphis or green fly upon the Rose and other plants. 
Gather ripe flower seeds in dry weather. Use water free- 
ly among your flowers whenever it is necessary, and do 
not disappoint the plants and yourself by giving them a 
little sprinkling, but give them a thorough soaking when- 
ever you do give them a watering. Rain water is, by far, 
the best. 
Rosin.— The New Orleans Chamber of Commerce have 
passed the following resolutions: 
Resolved, That the President of this Chamber be and is 
hereby rrqoested to communicate to the Chambers of 
Commerce of the principal cines in the United States, as 
also to those of Liverpool and London, that the standard 
weight “of a barrel ot rosin,” of all grades, has been fixed 
by this body at two hundred and eighty pounds gross. 
THE LOW PRICE OF LAND AT THE SOUTH — 
Its Cause and Remedy. 
[Continued from our May number ^ page 133.] 
In the March number of the South Countryman^ this 
subject was treated negatively. It was then shown that 
the low value of landed estates at the South, was not ow- 
ing to the cheap fresh lands at the West, to slavery, to 
defective climate, to sparseness of population, or a defici- 
ency in the value of our products. 
Affirmatively, we conceive the comparative deprecia- 
tion of our landed estate, to be owing to our Defective 
System of Agriculture, 
1st. This system is such, that the planter or farmer 
scarcely considers his land as a part of his permanent in- 
vestment. He buys a wagon, and uses it until it is worn 
out, and then throws it away. He buys a plow or hoe, 
and treats both in the same way. He buys land, uses it 
until it is worn out, and then sells it, as he sells his scrap- 
iron, for whatever it will bring. He regards his land 
rather as a part of his expenses, than part of his invest- 
ment. It is with him, as it were perishable property. It 
is something to be worn out, not improved. The period 
of its endurance is, therefore, estimated in the original 
purchase, and the price is regulated accordingly. If it be 
very rich, level land, that will last a number of years, the 
purchaser will pay a good price for it. But if it be rolling 
land, as is the greaf bulk of the interior country of the 
Southern States, he considers how much of the tract is 
washed away or worn out, how long the fresh land will 
last, how much is too broken for cultivation ; and in view 
of these points determines the value of the property. Of 
course he places a low estimate upon it. And this low 
estimate will continue until the holders of landed property 
learn to consider it as a part of their estate, which is cap- 
able of an annual improvement in value, instead of being 
necessarily submitted to an annual deterioration. We 
recollect a short time since, two large land owners, sens- 
ible men in the main, concurring in opinion, that it was 
impossible to raise and support a large family in Georgia, 
from a farm, without wearing it out in the process. 
These gentlemen had killed their orthodox quota of acres 
in middle Georgia, and had commenced the same murder- 
ous process in Cherokee. We quite agree with them, 
with the condition that they continued their present sys- 
tem of farming. No land upon the face of the earth 
could stand it. It must be good land to last long enough 
to raise a family upon it. 
2d. Our system of agriculture, is such that a very large 
proportion of our landed estate yields us no annual return, 
A considerable amount is in woodland, yielding nothing 
except a supply of rails and fuel. If the farmer would 
consider the amount of money he has locked up in wood- 
land, and then make a calculation (counting the interest 
on this dead capital) of what his rails cost him, it would 
alarm him, and he would very soon begin to make inquir- 
ies about Osage Orange, Cherokee Rose, Thorn, or, better 
than all. Locust seed, for hedges. 
A large number of acres, on almost every farm in the 
older parts of Georgia are worn out, and at rest; of course 
paying no interest. The only paying part of the farm is 
that which is under the plow. The interest on the land 
which the farmer does not cultivate, must be charged to 
that which he does cultivate. This brings down the 
value of the whole property to a very low figure. This 
point is capable of great amplification, and indeed de- 
serves it. But the necessity of condensing Auuch into a 
small space, prevents us from further remarks, save to 
ask the land holder to take out his pencil and paper and 
work out the figures which these few thoughts will natu- 
rally suggest to him. 
3d. Our system of agriculture is such that it allows to 
