188 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
Cotton Growing Abroad. — All efforts to raise our 
great staple in other countries have, thus far failed, and 
the South still retains her pre eminence. We learn from a 
Paris correspondent of the New Orleans Picayune, that 
the French Government has decided that hereafter the 
premiums paid for the cultivation of cotton in Algeria shall 
be abolished. Although the Moniteur boasts that while 
1,014,000 pounds of cotton were grown in Algeria in 
1854, and 1,560,000 pounds in 1857, and the crop in 
1858 will be still larger, there seems to be little question 
the experiment has proved a costly failure, and the Go- 
vernment regards money spent on this crop as treasure 
thrown away. The decree hints the Government will 
soon cease to buy the cotton grown in that colony ; at 
present it is under obligations to buy all the cotton raised 
there. Therefore, in a year or two this experiment of 
the French will share the fate of their other costly experi- 
ments. 
Raise Fine Fruit.— A contemporary very truly says : 
“Fruits are no unimportant part of the living of a family. 
We wish every farmer would lay his plans in season and 
take time by the foretop, for improving in this branch 
of farm industry. If he lives near a market it is the most 
profitable ; and wherever he may be, there is a refining 
influence in fruit culture, which should not be overlooked. 
There is solid comfort in it. There is an innocent luxury. 
When the children are far away, and have built them 
other homes, they will remember the old homestead, but 
no place in it, except the place by the old fire-side, where a 
loving mother used to sit and mend their clothes and 
darn their stockings, and bear patiently with their child- 
ish pranks, and teach the young idea, will be remember- 
ed with more longings to return, than where their child- 
hood’s lips smacked the fruit of a favorite tree. Apples, 
early and late, for summer, autumn, winter, and spring, 
pears, grapes, peaches, quinces, plums, cherries, apricots, 
gooseberries, currants, and strawberries should be the de- 
light of every farm, unless peculiarity of climate would 
exclude some of these, and many others should be intro- 
duced if soil and climate favor.” 
Cultivate Corn Shallow. — A writer in the True 
Issue says : 
“After the corn joints, the surface should only be stirred 
without breaking the feeding radicles of the plant. 
“Finally, cultivate in- such a manner that the soil shall 
be as level as possible — by all means avoid putting a ‘bed 
to your corn.’ This leaves a water furrow to drain the 
land, and expose a large area of surface to the action of 
the sun and wind. If you have a piece of wet land, you 
bed it up to drain it, and act sensible; and if you bed 
your corn it certainly has the same effect upon the soil.” 
To Destroy Ants.— It so happened that a piece of 
camphor was laid in a drawer contaning sugar, which 
was infested by ants. On opening, it a few days a fter- 
wards the bottom of the drawer, was strewn with ants. 
The experiments was repeated with success. 
|^"Some malignant old men seem to grow humane as 
they grow childish. The softening of the brain is accom- 
panied by a softening of the heart. 
A Good Wife who Found “Good in Everything,” — 
A farmer was once blessed with a good-natured, content- 
ed wife ; but it not being in the nature of man to be satis- 
fied, he one day said to a neighbor, he really wished he 
could hear his wife scold once, for the novelty of the 
thing. Whereupon his sympathising neighbor advised 
him to go to the woods and get a load of crooked sticks, 
which would certainly make her as cross as he could de- 
sire. Accordingly the farmer collected a load of the most 
ill-shaped, crooked, crockety materials that were ever 
known under the name of fuel. This he deposited in its 
place, taking care that his spouse should have access to 
no other wood. Day after day passed without a com- 
plaint. At length the pile was consumed, “Well, wife,” 
said he farmer, “I am going after more wood; I’ll get 
another load just such as I got last time.” “Oh, yes, 
Jacob,” soe replied, “it will be so nice if you will ; for 
such crooked, crochety wood as you brought before, does 
lie around the pot so nicely.” 
Cotton in the Seed. — A “ Farmer” writes to the News 
that a new trade is about to be opened in Old Caney — 
the shipment of cotton, baled in the seed, and sent to 
Boston or other points for ginning and manufacturing 
purposes— the seed to pay for the operation and all ex- 
penses, in oil, cake, and in soap made from the oilcake, 
and paper made from the lint, obtained by re-ginning 
the seed. 
Mr. Jonah L. Grant, of Worcester, Mass., is now here 
making arrangements for this Boston company, and will 
pay for the cotton according to its quality, from Low Or- 
dinary to Middling and Fair— only deducting the weight 
of seed and transportation to Galveston, Say for 2000 
lbs. seed rotton, he deducts 1400 lbs. of seed at Galveston 
in lieu of ginning and baling. — Christian Advocate. 
Compost FOR Light Lands. — When the soil is of a light, 
arenaceous character, with a free descent and a tendency 
to part easily with, its moisture, the best material that can 
be used for its amelioration and enrichment, is a compost 
of which the base is common clay. One cartload — thirty 
bushels — of this earth, with about the same quantity of 
muck, four bushels of unslacked, or caustic lime, two of 
gypsum, and one of salt, well mixed by frequent turnings, 
will be found one of the most efficient and valuable appli- 
cations that can be made to light lands. Farmer, 
[in Portland Transcripts 
Antidote for Rattlesnake Poison. — The Medical 
Journal says the following is an infallible cure for the 
poison of a rattlesnake bite ; 
Four grains of the Jodate of potash ; 
Two grains of corrosive sublimate ; 
Five drachms of bromine. 
Mix together, and kept the mixture in a glass-stopped 
vial, well secured. 
Ten drops of this mixture, diluted with a tablespoon- 
ful of brandy, constitute a dose; the quantity to be re- 
peated, if necessary, according to the exigencies of the 
case. 
Happy Combination, — There is nothing purer than 
honesty, nothing sweeter than charity, nothing warmer 
than love, nothing brighter than virtue, and nothing more 
steadfast than faith. These united in one mind, form the 
purest, the sweetest, the richest, the brightest, the holiest, 
and the most steadfast happiness. 
How quietly might many a one live if he could 
care as little for the affairs of others as he does for his 
own. 
