SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
221 
One of our Southern exchanges has the following 
sensible article : 
SOUTHERN WATERING PEACES. 
It has always been a matter of astonishment and mor- 
tification to us that the citizens of the South should resort 
in such large numbers every summer to Saratoga and 
other northern springs, when they have watering places 
here, within a few days travel from their residences, 
every way preferable to those at the North. Most of the 
Virginia springs, it is now generally admitted, we be- 
lieve, are superior in health restoring properties to those 
of New York, and as places of resort for purposes of 
amusement and gaiety, they possess quite equal advan- 
tages, and in point of accommodation and good living 
decidedly better. It is only in the gaudy and expensive 
show of what is termed fashion, and too often in the 
folly of dissipation, that the Northern springs outvie 
those of the South, and long may they continue with- 
out a rival among us in these respects. They ape, at the 
North, ^ the aristocratic manners and style and dress of 
the fashionable European watering places, where the 
visitors, instead of regaining health and strength, are too 
often led into habits of dissipation and indulgence of 
every kind, which inevitably, sooner or later, break down 
the constitution ; or they become recklessly extravagant 
and thus ruin their fortunes. It should be at once our 
aim and our pride to retain in our style of living the re- 
publican simplicity of our ancestors, and this simplicity, 
banished from the great cities and places of public resort 
at the North, finds a congenial habitation in the South and 
South-west. 
But why go so far north as the Virginia Springs for the 
purposes of health and recreation, when we have water- 
ing places here, in Mississippi and Alabama, which pos- 
sess quite as many advantages as can be found anywhere, 
and to the Southern invalid perhaps even more. Among 
the watering places down south of us, we may mention 
that of Point Clear on Mobile Bay, which is a most de- 
lightful and health-giving place of resort during the sum- 
mer months, and, indeed, during the whole year. The 
breezes from the bay are always delicious — cooling and 
invigorating. The fare and the accomodations of every 
kind are of the first order, aud scarcely any place can be 
found, where there are more means of innocent recreation 
and amusement. Point Clear has already become a popu- 
lar place of resort, not only to the citizens of Mobile, but 
of many of the adjoining and even of the distant counties 
of Alabama and Mississippi. The place is noted for its 
pleasantness. Nothing like the cholera, or the yellow 
fever or the small pox has ever appeared there ; such dis- 
eases cannot prevail at a point where the atmosphere is so 
pure and the sea breezes are so refreshing. 
We may also mention Cooper’s Well and Lauderdale 
Springs in this State and Bailey’s Springs in Alabama. 
All of which have acquired a high reputation for the 
health- restoring qualities of their waters and the fine ac- 
commodations prepared for visitors by the proprietors. 
To Clean Moss from Fruit Trees. — The inquiry 
is often made. “ How may I rid my fruit trees of the 
mess with which it are infested T’ The following will 
be found an effectual method ; Save all the soap-suds after 
washing, and when cold, apply to your tress with a half- 
worn white-wash brush. The moss will soon become 
soaked, and after a little perseverance with the brush, 
will cleave off, and leave the bark of the tree clean and 
glossy. 
^^“If a man, as the Scriptures say, “cannot live by 
bread alone,” is it not wise in him to take a help-w^a#. 
THE POTATO, (SOLANUM TUBEROSUM ) 
The extent and value of this crop will justify us, at this 
season, in speaking somewhat at length of its propagation, 
varying value as food, cultivation, soil, manure, preserva- 
tion, for late use, &c. 
The potatoes propagated from the seed, and in no other 
way. It is true, the existence of a potato plant may be 
prolonged indefinitely by the tuber ; still the progeny of 
one seed is but one plant. As certain mosses, which pro- 
duce heat, are constantly dying at the bottom but growing 
at the top, and thus continuing on one plant; or, as some 
tuberous roots running under the ground, but parallel 
with its surface, prolong their existence by growing at 
one extremityj while they are dying at the other ; most 
of this year’s growth perishes in autumn, but the tuber, 
which is a part of the plant, (of the stem not of the root,) 
lives and grows on next year, and so each year, the tuber 
forms th-e connecting link between the part of the plant 
that is dead and that which is yet to live ; so that when 
you put a tuber into the ground you get no new plant, but 
only continue the growth of an old one, which may be 
done thirty, fifty, possibly a hundred years, and perhaps 
ever more. 
To preserve potatoes for use, with a view to their hold- 
ing their autumnal qualities as a long as possible, do not 
expose them to the sun when dug ; put them in a cool 
place as soon after being taken from the ground as may 
be ; and if some moist earth adheres to them all the better. 
The nearer they are to the same condition as in the ground 
the better will they keep. The tendency of the potato is to 
turn its starch into a kind of gum, and then to change 
this gum into sugar. It is a singular fact that starch, gum 
and sugar are composed of the same elements and in the 
same proportion. A slight change in the arrangement of 
the elements turns starch into dextrine and then into 
sugar. — Farmers^ Magazine. 
1 ^ — • 
Premium for a Steam Plow. — There being already 
at the discretion of the American Agricultural Society of 
Illinois a premium of ^3000 for the best practical and ac- 
ceptable steam plow, the Executive Committee of the 
Illinois Central Railroad have added ^1500 more, as fol- 
lows : 
Resolved, That the Illinois Central Railroad Company 
offer Si 500 as a premium for the best steam engine for 
plowing and other farm work; the simplicity and econo- 
my of its construction, and its practicability of application 
to farm uses shall be such that it can successfully com- 
pete with horse power for farm purposes ; the award to 
be made by the Executive Committee of the State Agri- 
cultural Society, in connection with three scientific ma- 
chinists to be selected by that body. Before any party 
shall claim the payment of said award, he shall exhibit 
the practical working of said engine at three points on 
the line of the Illinois Central Railroad, to be designated 
by the Vice-President of the Company ; the said Com- 
pany agreeing to transport said engine to or from such 
points free of expense to said party. 
Borax For Washing. — Powdered borax, at the rate of 
a large handful to ten gallons of water, is used in Belgium 
by nearly all the washerwomen, and by large laundries, 
who prefer it to soda, as less injurious to the fabrics. In 
fact, it is said that borax, being a neutral salt, does not 
injure the texture of linen in the slightest degree; yet it 
has the effect of softening the hardest water, so that not 
more than half the soap is required. In washing laces 
and fine linens, such as are proverbially very white in 
Holland and Belgium, the women are said to use borax 
in much larger quantity than above indicated. 
