236 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
COTTAGE SONG. 
BY JOHN S. ADAMS. 
We’ve a cottage clothed with roses 
Near a wood 
Where the singing birds of summer 
Nest and brood ; 
There in early spring the daisies 
Gem the sod, 
Looking up to heavn above them, 
And to God. 
There in holy calm we worship 
One above. 
Through his works that all around us 
Speak his love ; 
Read we there his will in every 
Rock and tree. 
While his blessings fall upon us 
Rich and free. 
Beautiful the morning sunlight 
Cometh there. 
Crowning Nature at her early 
Morning prayer ; 
And at evening, when the twilight 
Closeth round, 
Still, devoutly at her worship, 
Is she found. 
We are not alone, for angels 
Come and go. 
Walking often through our cottage 
To and fro ; 
Promising to guide and guard us 
With their love. 
Till we go to live among them. 
Up above. 
Simple life is ours — we follow 
Nature’s way, 
Learning of her truthful lessons 
Day by day ; . 
Striving to fulfil our mission, — 
Doing good : 
Living happy in our cottage 
Near the wood. 
[Exchange. 
Picking Cotton by Steam. — About the first of last 
month, John Griffin of Louisville, Kentucky, obtained a 
patent for a “Cotton Harvester” that is to be worked by a 
steam engine. We believe the fingers of the darkey in 
picking cotton will beat^all the steam apparatus that can 
be invented for tb* next fifty years. The Scientific Ameri- 
can, in speaking of it, has the following : 
The inventor connects a flexible tube with a cylinder 
provided with a perforated plate and connected with a 
steam boiler, so that a vacuum may be produced within 
the cylinder and the cotton picked from the bolls on the 
standing stalks by atmospheric pressure, the tubes being 
presented to the cotton by suitable attendants. In carry- 
ing outthis invetion the inventor designs to have the cylin- 
der above mentioned connected with the boiler of a trac- 
tion engine, in order to facilitate the transporting of the 
machine and the moving of it from place to place, or from 
•row to TOW, in course of its operations He also intends 
to use several cylinders and a plurality of tubes, so that 
many hands may be employed and a number of rows of 
cotton may be harvested simultaneously. 
ceeery culture. 
Some seven year ago there happened to be an old saw- 
pit near the garden where I was employed. In the bot- 
tom of the pit there was a foot and a half of saw-dust, 
which had lain there for some years. I took this, and 
equal quantities of good rotten manure and fresh loam to 
form a compost, both for pricking out and for trenches. 
I put about half the quantity I intended to use in the 
trenches at planting time. I then planted and allowed 
the plants a month to grow, and then added the other 
half. 
I gave the plants a dose of weak liquid manure from 
the time of pricking out to the second earthing. I was 
so well satisfied with the result that I endeavored to get 
the same materials for my main crop. 
I have tried numerous plans for blanching, and the 
most effectual, I consider, is to get some clean, fresh saw- 
dust, and to put a handful into the heart of each plant 
when they earthed nine inches high, and repeat it every 
time of earthing. Snails and other things do not go down 
inside when they are so treated, and the heart of the plant 
can push itself up, the material being light. It is rarely 
that I find a rotten heart or hollow sticks in my crop. 
Remarks. — All thoroughly rotten wood, especially oak, 
hickory, chestnut and other hard and non-resinous wood 
is well known to be an excellent constituent of a compost 
for celery, cabbages, and many other vegetables, and 
should be used whenever it can be had. Rotten pine 
wood should be avoided. — Am, Cotton Planter and Soil. 
To Kill Ticks on Sheep. — Bountiful feeding and 
comfortable shelter is a great preventive, but it will not 
eradicate them after they have a permanent settlement, 
and it is an injury to the sheep to wash them in tobacco 
water in cold weather, and at this season of the year, 
the wool is too long for that operation; but Scotch snuff 
applied to the skin where the ticks are located, will 
make them decamp immediately. Separate the wool 
carefully,' lengthwise of the sheep, take the snuff with 
the thumb and fingers and apply it to the skin closing the 
wool after it. If the ticks are all over the body, apply 
two or three rows on each side, (avoiding the back,) from 
head to tail ; but if they are only located on particular 
parts, apply it freely there, and they will soon decamp. 
If the ticks are very plenty, take time and do the work 
thoroughly. 
When sheep are much infected with ticks in the spring, 
about two weeks after shearing they will leave the old 
sheep and go upon the lambs, then dip the lambs in tobac- 
co water, and you get clear of the nuisance fora time. 
A Devon Milker. — Messrs. Editors: — Having seen 
it stated that the Devons are not good milkers, I beg 
leave through youi jcolumns to state the yield of my full- 
blooded Devon heifer. Said heifer is four years old this 
spring, and dropped her first calf the 13th of February ; 
she has been kept on interval hay, with one quart of oat 
and pea meal per day, and gave about thirteen qu arts of 
milk per day, which in one week yielded 11 1-4 pounds 
of nice butter. 
Perhaps it may be said that all Devons will not do so 
well; but will all of any other breed do as well under the 
same circumstances'? Respectfully yours, 
Chauncey Cochrane. 
East Corinth, May ^d.. [Maine Farmer. 
Charcoal about Fruit Trees.— Mr. J. N. Smith, of 
Chimney point, Vt., wrote in 1854, that he had used a 
shovelful about the roots of his fruit trees, with the fol- 
lowing results : “ It keeps away the grass, prevents the- 
borer entering the bark, besides being a most excellent 
manure.” 
