92 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
We do not say that the citizens of our adopted State are 
more industrious, intelligent, or more economical than 
those of our native State; but we do say that one can 
raise a crop of wheat and one of corn in succession on 
the same land in Georgia, in the time consumed in the 
growth of either crop in New York. In the last 
named State it requires the heat of two summers to pro- 
duce both crops ; in Georgia the heat of one is sufficient. 
This, however, is less than half the advantage which 
Georgia has over all climates like that of New York. 
Winter in Georgia is just cold enough, and just long 
enough fully to renovate man's physical and mental ener- 
gies, so that he can labor happily and profitably, through- 
out the year. Place a tropical sun over our heads twelve 
months in succession, and our cotton crop would soon 
be no larger than that of South America. The recuperat- 
ing influence of our Southern winters has not received 
tliat public attention to which it is fairly entitled. With 
what elasticity of muscle, and strength of will are hun- 
dreds of thousands of planters, now engaged in preparing 
the earth to receive its seed, and in committing it to their 
well- tilled soil I Their energy has often excited our ad- 
miration ; and with the smiles of Providence, the cotton 
crop of 1857 will considerably exceed that of any pre- 
vious year. L. 
COMPOST FOR GARDENS. 
“A Gardener,” in the Geromntovm Telegraph, gives 
us the following good compost for gardens : — “Perhaps 
the best manure that can be used on gardens, is animal 
excrement in a decomposed state ; but as this is not al 
ways available, a very efficietjt substitute is found in a 
compost made of muck, one part; gypsum, lime, charcoal 
dust, bone manure and salt, equal proportions, onepart; 
clay, one part ; and chip manure, one part. These in- 
gredients are to be thoroughly^ incorporated, and wet with 
urine, or soap suds. A sinall quantity of sulphuric acid 
diluted with water — one thousand parts water to one of 
acid — will be found beneficial, if sprinkled over the com- 
post before applying it, as will also a solution of copperas 
in water. Both these liquids are powerful fixers, and 
therefore tend to economise the volatile and gaseous pro- 
ducts of decomposition, and renders them available to the 
plants. By filling the soil with this compost, we may se- 
cure a good crop of almost any vegetable. It is cheap as 
w'ell as efficient, and may be prepared in almost any quan- 
tity.” 
A travelling correspondent of the Neic England 
Farmer makes the following fling at our imperfect system 
of farming. We fear there is too much truth in his stric- 
tures. Let us strive manfully to shake off our supineness, 
and furnish our enemies with no cause to reproach us: 
Most of Georgian and South Carolina farmers, as far as 
my observations extended, never make, save nor apply 
any kind of manure. Land is cultivated, or rather crop- 
ped, as long as it is capable of producing anything, with- 
out regard to rotation, and then left common, making what 
is termed “old fields.” 
The area of this worn out land is rapidly extending it- 
sell, planters seeking some new spot, again to practice 
the same exhausting process of tillage. 
Farming tools, that belong as far back as the seven- 
teenth century ; plowing that merely scratches the sur- 
face; overseers who have no intelligent notions about ag- 
riculture; slaves who care not how their work is perform- 
ed ; absence of home markets for fruit and other perish- 
able products ; the frequent and entire loss of crops upon 
land shallowly plowmd iu seasons of drouth, are a few of 
the disadvantages and features common to Southern farm- 
Great Production. — A writer in Xh^WorJdng Farmer^ 
states that Mr. Edwin Shaterell, of Rahway, N. J., raised 
from a single seed, twenty Valparaiso Squashes, weigh- 
ing in the aggregate 2500 pounds. One weighed 154 
pounds. The seed was planted on a heap of pond muck 
which had lain exposed to the w’eather about a year. The 
same writer say's, Mr. Wm. Marshall, Jr., of Somers, 
New York, picked, last season, from a piece of ground 
measuring 15 by 21 feet, 162 quarts of straw berries, or at 
the rate of 268 bushels 12 quarts per acre. 
Extraordinary Sale of Apples. — We have the plea- 
sure of putting on record (says the Nashx'ille Banner,) 
probably the best sale of fruit ever known in this country, 
and that, too, of Tennessee fruit. The specimens of ap- 
ples exhibited at the Fair by Mr. J. W. Dodge, artist, 
raised on his farm in Cumberland county, on the moun- 
tain, were sold at auction on Wednesday night. They 
were sold by the half dozen, and as high as S5 20 per 
half dozen paid. The w'hole lot sold, amounting to about 
a barrel and a half, of seven varieties, brought Si 1 1. If 
any of our famous fruit-growing States in any section of 
the Union can equal this, we should like to hear from 
them. 
InttitEllEtfll Stpaitment. 
FEOWEK8 FOR THE SOUTH. 
(“Cdosia Crfikntar — Cockscomb.) 
Editors Southern Cultivator — “Did anybody ever 
see the like F’ 
“Why, sir, I declare I thought you had a better taste 
than to plant such an old-fashioned thing, which I have 
known since I was a little girl — it always grew in my 
grand-mothers garden — the common old Princes Peaiher ! ’ 
This, and similar exclamations I am listening to almost 
every day during the summer. Still, by a little closer ex- 
amination, the ladies admit tiiat they never saw' so beau- 
tiful Pnnee's Feathers as mine, and before they leave my 
garden they alw'uys tell me to be certain to save some of 
the seed for them. 
Although the Cockscomb is entirely different from the 
old Prince's Feather, (Arnaranthus CoAulatns) wffiich it 
somew'hat resembles, still it is true that it is so old, neg- 
lected and forgotten, that it is almost new again. In fact, 
we have thrown away a heap of fine old plants, (merely 
because they were old fashioned), which we ought to get 
back again, while we have introduced many new ones’ 
whose only merit is to be new. But I for one will never 
give up true beauty for so silly a reason, and will continue 
to plant the “Cockscombs” in my front yard, because they 
are lasting beauties. From spring, through the whole 
summer they are growing prettier and prettier, until at 
last they at once must succumb to the severe stroke of 
“Jack Frost.” 
Years ago only a red or deep crimson varie<.y was 
knowm. Now they sport in all different shades and hues, 
in pink, scarlet, crimson, orange, buff, yellow and vari- 
