74 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
insects and tJius prevent them from doing injnry to your 
fruit. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
Propagate DoMuis as soon as you can see the sprouts 
m- buds ; with a sharp knife split the stem idght through, 
ieaving a piece of the stem and one or two buds to each 
piece ] platit them so deep as to be covered with at least 
4 in«lies of soil Tie up all your flowering plants to stakes; 
the wood of the China tree, when splintered out, furnish 
the best and most durable stakes where Cypress cannot be 
had. If annual flower-seed has not been sown yet, it 
should be done at once. Recollect, that fine seeds will 
only need to be covered slightly. If covered deeply, they 
will not sprout. 
A LECTURE ON LABOR. 
EY DaMjEL t.KE, M.D.j PROFESSOR OP AGRICULTURE IN THE 
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, JANUARY, 1857. 
{<C4)nduded from our Ftbrwary number^ page 42.) 
To take a philosophical view of Labor, and develope 
the physical and intellectual man equally, and with the 
greatest success, the instruction of the plantation should 
partake more of the character of a first class school; and 
that knowledge which is most useful to the citizen, and 
the profession of tillage and husbandry, should be as dili- 
gently cultivated as the soil, for without a knowledge of 
the true principles of agriculture, planters uniformily im- 
poverish the land, and ultimately reap poor and unpro- 
fitable crops, because Labor is misdirected and misap- 
plied. On the other hand, educational institutions ought 
to have a broader basis, that the higher seminaries of 
learning and science may come nearer to the masses, and 
supply the most urgent and obvious wants of advancing 
civilization. It is folly in the extreme to suppose that the 
working muscle of the citizen and cultivated common 
sense ought to be separated. Laboring hands and en- 
lightened, cultivated intellects should be no farther apart 
than are the members of one body which the Creator has 
joined for the highest worth and usefulness of both. If 
any one, by mental and moral culture alone, were able to 
dispense with food, respiration and animal heat; if the 
health of the mind did not I'equire the habitual exercise of 
the limbs as well as of the brain ; if physical toil were 
not as necessary to the moral and social progress of socie- 
ty as it is beneficial to the constitution of the laborer; I 
should have less confidence in the wisdom of seeking to 
improve a whole community by having some work more 
and read less, some read and think more and work less, 
and many both work and read more and play less. 
Public opinion commits a serious fault when it exacts 
the cruel sacrifice of much that is valuable in the life of a 
laboring man, by compelling him to submit to thepreter- 
naturnal development of a few muscles at the expense of 
all his other faculties and powers. Nurserymen often 
dwarf trees to obtain early fruit ; but such treatment of 
man is infinitely worse, for it perpetuntee both ignorance 
and brutality in the very heart of a nation. In England, 
©n the Continent of Europe, and in this country, labor has 
been divided and subdivided to an extent quite incompat- 
ble with the dignity of the industrial arts, the general dif- 
fusion of useful knowledge, and that accumulation of 
capii .l which is so eagerly sought by this class of speciali- 
ties. It renders the producing classes narrow-minded, 
and incapable of wise self-govprnment ; so that they 
consmne in mere animal indulgences a large share of the 
wealih which their industry calls into existence. 
Porter has shown that the addition to the wealth of 
England — its production over consumption — is about fifty 
million pounds sterling a year; or not far from two hun- 
dred and fifty million dollars of our money. He has also 
proved from official and reliable data that the people of 
England annually consume spiritous liquors, including 
beer, and tobacco to the amount of fifty thousand pounds ; 
so that if intoxicatingdrinks and a poisonous weed were no 
longer used, the capital of England might be thereby aug- 
mented twice as fast as it now is. These are important and 
striking facts. They show that the wealth of theri chest na- 
tion in the world, whose surplus capital is loaned to all re- 
sponsible borrowers in other countries, and which does 
so much to construct American railways, manufacture 
American cotton, and expand American agriculture and 
commerce, might easily be doubled if the producers of 
wealth in England would only deny themselves a few 
luxuries, and lay up the money which they cost, which 
luxuries, upon the whole, injure far more than they bene- 
fit the consumers. But self denial and self-government 
are more easily taught than practiced. Habits of indul- 
gence grow with the facilities for their gratification ; and 
therefore we see the proceeds of human industry con- 
sumed in one way or another, nearly as fast as produced. 
The possession of money encourages weak minds first to 
be idle, and thus cease to add wealth to the community; and 
secondly, to double the daily cost of food and drink by 
more expensive living, and double the yearly expense of 
clothing. With the means of gratification, one’s vanity 
enlarges its consumption with marvelous rapidity ; till at 
length the fortune being exhausted by extravagance and 
vice, stern necessity compels a return to labor and better 
habits. 
Unless a wise use be made of money, or of liberty, its 
possession operates more like a curse than a blessing. 
Suppose every negro in the Southern States had full 
liberty to drink intoxicating liquors, and command of 
time and labor in from and nourish an appetite for the 
drams which lead to drunkenness 7 What would such 
liberty be worth to persons who would inevitably abuse 
it to their own serious injury 7 And what is money 
worth to one whose common sense and self-discipline are 
so little developed that it is used to patronize extravagance 
and strengthen vice and crime 7 With too much freedom 
youth runs riot on the pocket funds created by honest 
labor, because the community signally fails to teach 
through its seminaries of learning and by the force of ex- 
ample, the great science of keeping as well as producing 
property. 
To labor hard and faithfully to command gold and silver 
no matter whether the wages of one day’s work, or the 
proceeds of ten thousand, and then not know how to 
keep, nor how to use the funds so acquired, is evidently 
working for naught. There is wealth enough annually 
called into'existencesoon to enrich every member of society 
if properly husbanded, but needful reforms in haliits, cus- 
toms and fashions are not encouraged by an increase of 
capital. Hence, in prosperous times, when labor is ia 
good demand and well rewarded, the masses ever live up 
to their incomes. A few, however, are more considerate, 
and bring their expenses below their means of purchase, 
and thus add to the taxable property of the State. So far 
as my observation and means of information extend, the 
planters of the South greatly excel in this virtue. Divide 
