290 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
your garden, have it well spaded, burying under all en- 
riching animal or vegetable matter. Transplant Brocoli, 
Cabbages, Celery, “Collards,” &c. If your Cauliflower 
and Brocoli have not made heads by the latter part of this 
month, take them up, and transplant them under a shed 
where they can be protected, that they may head. Work 
and manure your Asparagus beds, not forgetting to give 
them a liberal top dressing of salt before spring. Do not 
suffer weeds to cumber your garden and exhaust the soil, 
but turn them under as soon as possible, and you will 
find the soil much improved by next spring. . Save all 
old bones, soap suds, dead leaves, decaying vegetables, 
&c., &c., and make up into compost heaps for future use. 
Plow and subsoil your ground for the planting of your 
orchards, directions for which were given in our last 
number. November, December and January are the best 
months for planting trees, vines, &c. 
Strawberry Beds. — The best soil for this delicious 
fruit is a sandy or even a gravelly loam, moist, and rich 
in vegetable manure. An excellent compost for an acre 
of ground would be 60 bushels of leaf mould from the 
woods, 20 bushels of leached ashes, 5 bushels lime and 3 
or 4 quarts of salt. Mix thoroughly, let it stand 2 or 3 
days, scatter broadcast and plow in. Then harrow or 
rake the surface, making it fine, and set your plants in 
rows 3 feet apart, and 1 foot to 18 inches in the row. 
After the plant becomes well rooted, cover the whole 
ground with partly decomposed leaves from the forest, 
leaving nothing exposed but the stems and fruit stalks of 
the plants. 
SHAIiL WE miPROVE— OK, REMOVE? 
This question is now agitating the minds of thousands 
of persons in the older portions of the Southern States. 
It is not a question of necessity arising from excessive 
population. In Georgia, for instance — but one-sixth of 
the area of the State is under cultivation. It is a ques- 
tion of loss or gain— of dollars and cents. In Europe or 
at the North, a young man with small means finds it diffi- 
cult to obtain land for cultivation from its high price. — 
He resorts to emigration as a means of becoming a land 
holder. This state of things does not exist at the South 
at the present time. We refer to that portion of the South 
below the line to which improved farming has extended. 
In those portions of Virginia and Maryland, in which 
limeing and deep plowing are practised, and clover and 
the grasses are cultivated, land has rapidly obtained a 
great compartive value. 
In the older cotton States, land of an average quality 
can be bought at nearly as low a rate as fresh land in the 
South-west. Unless in places remote and inaccessible, 
which end then can be accomplished with the greatest 
economy and profit, the settlement of a plantation in 
the woods, or the restoration of an exhausted farm to fer- 
tility ? As a general rule, we affirm that it is attended 
with greater profit to restore an old farm to fertility, than 
to incur the expense of removal, and make a settlement 
in the forest. This is stated as a general— not a universal 
f ule. There are cases in which an exception to it might 
©ccur. 
Upon this subject we have a right to speak with a good 
deal of confidence. We know what it is to settle in the 
woods. Our knowledge of frontier life has been sufficient 
to enable us to “know every rope” in the rigging. We 
might commence the chapter of our experience as Mr. 
James begins his books — “ ’Tis twenty years since,” &c. 
We know what it is to be seven or eight miles from Church, 
Postoffice, Physician and Mill, and to be bereft of the 
charms of social life — to hear the owl hoot and the wolf 
howl — to make abundant crops and to be unable to sell 
them, but to be very certain to be compelled to pay ex- 
horbitantly for all articles of domestic supply, which it is 
necessary to purchase. The romance of life in the forest 
is very well upon paper, but it changes its aspect marvel- 
lously when enacted upon “ terra firma.” As a result of 
long experience and observation, our counsel is to those 
who have comfortable homes in the older parts of the 
South to stay where they are, and make their poor land 
rich, which they can do with greater profit in the long 
run, than to remove to a new couittry. 
There are few subjects in the political economy of the 
South of greater importance than the one now under ex- 
amination. Heretofore our people have been almost No- 
madic tribes— they have been migrating as the Arabs. — 
Hence so large a portion of the South has become an 
“Arabia Deserta.” Every restive impulse of our popu- 
lation which is checked is a public benefit. Every per- 
manent dwelling — every school-house, college or church 
— every factory — every Railroad, is of value in giving 
permanence hs our population. Above all, every Agri- 
cultural improvement developing the recuperative energy 
of our soil, giving a juster estimate of its inherent value, 
and creating an additional attachment to it, will tend to 
bind our people to it as to a treasure which may not 
without folly be deserted. The accomplishment of this 
grand purpose should color our legislation. A measure 
of doubtful utility otherwise, may, from its bearing upon 
this result, receive our hearty approval. Apart from its 
revenue, what sensible man doubts that the Western & 
Atlantic Railroad has a thousand times repaid its cost to 
the State of Georgia in arresting and binding to the soil 
multitudes, who otherwise at this moment, would have 
been living on the other side of the Mississippi river. 
That which is a public is also a private benefit. Poor 
Richard never uttered a wiser sentence than when he 
said ; — 
“ I never saw an oft removed tree. 
Nor yet an oft removed family 
That thrive so well as those that settled be.” 
In this utilitarian age, it might seem a weakness to 
speak of sentiment in connection with this very practical 
subject — yet we confess to a little of that weakness. — 
Slavery creates such a community of interest in the 
Southern States, that we are in some respects almost one 
people. We have an Institution among us, the name of 
which alienates from us a large proportion of the good of 
other lands, ^^fact of which would endear us to them if 
they understood it — but they do not and will not under- 
stand it. Our position as to this particular is one of 
