SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
203 
Rumbers. Transplant Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Celery, 
Tomatoes, &c. Plant Melon seed for mango pickles— 
also, Sweet Corn for late roasting ears. Plant out slips or 
.jyiaes of the Sweet Potato without delay, and plant, also. 
Snap Beans, for a successional crop. If you mulch them 
heavily as soon as planted you will find no difliculty in 
getting them to grow. 
THE FRUIT ORCHARD. 
Wherever the spring frosts have killed the fruit, there 
will be a strong tendency to over-luxuriance in the growth 
of wood. This should be checked by cutting back or nip- 
ping off the young shoots of your trees, in order to pro- 
duce stronger and more vigorous bearing wood for next 
year. Destroy all injurious insects, and note carefully the 
bearing qualities and peculiarities of the different new 
varieties of fruit. No trouble or care should be spared in 
gathering and sending to market in the best possible con- 
dition. Gather Peaches for distant markets as soon as they 
show elasticity by pressing them gently with the hand, 
before they are so ripe as to leave an impression of the 
lingers, 
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
Roses, &c., should now be budded. Take up early 
Bulbs, as directed in our last number, and plant others to 
flower in Autumn. Roses, Cliryso.nlhemums , &c., may 
be propagated by layers,” Dahlias will need staking and 
pruning, if over-luxuriant. Clip Box edgings, - Now, 
also, is the best time to trim Evergreen hedges and screens. 
Gather all desirable seeds, as they ripen, and put away 
in close paper bags, carefully labeling them. Water kee- 
]y, both roots and foliage, and use liquid manure for the 
roots, at intervals, particularly in lainy weather, never ap- 
plying it during a drouth. Keep the earth mellow, and 
mtdeh all large herbaceous plants with woods- mouldy 
leaves, or saw dust. 
IS THE PLANTING LABOR OF THE SOUTH 
UNBERSTCOD ] 
We are induced to ask the question whether the plant- 
ing labor of the South is understood, from seeing it stated 
in a Northern paper of large circulation, that “Judge 
Warner, of Georgia, made the ablest, calmest and most 
thorough and effective pro-slavery speech of the session. 
He assumed that slave labor impoverishes and exhausts 
soils; that continued expansion is essential to its existence, 
and must be had.” 
No inconsiderable share of the public both North and 
South, entertain the same notions on this subject as those 
ascribed to Judge Warner. Are they true in point ol 
fact ? We believe not, and will point out wherein the 
mistake lies. 
If the idea advanced means anything, it is that slave 
labor differs from that of freemen in the necessity which it 
ereates to over- crop and scourge the land subject to its 
ullage. If the statement amounts not to this, it really 
amounts to nothing ; for no one will pretend that the labor 
of white persons and free blacks is not equally capable of 
impoverishing soils with that of slaves. Any planter 
nay exhaust his cultivated fields as well by hirelings as 
by bondmen ; and the only question is, whether the 
ownership of farm operatives involves the necessity of 30 
I applying their muscular toil as to injure the natural fei- 
j tility of the earth, so that “continued expansion” is indis- 
pensable to the prosperity of this kind of industry 1 
To assert that slave labor is incompatible with agricul- 
tural progress and improvement ; that it is at war widi 
I the natural resources of the soil, and carries with it wher- 
ever it goes either partial or complete desolation ; and 
that it is a law of its very existence to make land worse 
than it found it, is to maintain that slavery is the worsj 
enemy to mankind which the world possesses. To pre- 
sent the institution in this odious light to the intelligent 
people of the free States is most unwise ; for their 
opinions of its nature and character are not too favorable 
without this blighting feature. Planters who employ- 
slaves to diminish ihe capacity of American soil to feed and 
clothe the freemen of the country, should know that the 
latter will regard them as enemies, and their system of 
labor as a curse to the human family. It will not be pre- 
tended that planters created the fertility which they anni- 
hilate, or that future generations will not need its use to 
render their condition comfortable. Why, then, we ask 
do Southern Statesmen advance a theory of planting labor 
which is alike unsound in point of truthfulness, and cal- 
culated to bring such labor into the lowest possible re- 
pute 1 
This mistaken theory (for it is nothing more) made 
John Randolph a practical emancipationist, and thous- 
ands of other slaveholders bear testimony against the iia- 
stitution. In sober truth, the policy of unlimited expan- 
sion and equally unlimited desolation, is self destructive, 
and looks forward to an end as painful and full of remorse 
as was ever that of a criminal who committed suicide. 
During the last nine years, the writer has labored to per- 
suade the readers of this journal that it is a sad misdirec- 
tion of %ricultural industry to use it to damage the farm- 
ing lands on which the planting States must rely for their 
support in all time to come. If a farmer wdio has no 
slaves is inexcusable when he impoverishes the soil of a 
State, to its injury, how can it be said that to own laborers 
and thereby have additional control over their services, 
gives one a better right to consume and waste the power 
of the earth to produce annual crops 1 And if the labor 
of slaves costs no more than that of hired servants, white 
or black, is it not ridiculous to contend th.it the use of 
slave labor compels planters to wear out their plantations'? 
This false doctrine has been the prolific womb whence 
issues American abolitionism. Who is so blind as not to 
see that every member of society has a direct personal 
interest in the fruitfulness of his country? and that any- 
thing which confessedly impairs this fruitfulness is a pub- 
lic evil that all may rightfully strive to remove ? 
The evil, however, is not in the relation of master and 
servant, ns unwise politicans teach, and many believe ; 
but in the needless perversion of the large and almost ia- 
valuable productive power of slaves. The defect is not 
in the authority of the master, nor in the humble laborer, 
but in the professional education of the directing Mind of 
the plantation. Develop properly the controlling Mind of 
