170 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
ing shoots of your early Tomatoes, Lima Beans, Melons 
and Cucumbers, if you want t’ e fruit to set early; and 
give the plants liquid manure if you desire large speci- 
mens. If the green worm is troubling your fine Musk- 
melons, place the fruits on a brick, when half-grown. 
Sow Tomatoes for a late crop, they will come in when the 
first is gone. Sow Rutabaga Turnip seed and transplant 
them like winter cabbages, in rows 2 feet apart and 18 
inches apait in the row. The white and yellow summer 
Radish must now be sown. Transplant Onions and 
Leeks, if not done last month, whenever the season suits 
Also transplant Beds v.’here they stand too thick in the 
seed beds. 
Sirarcbtrnj Beds must be kept free from weeds, well 
mulched with leaves or “broom straw” and freely watered 
in dry weather, if you desire // w/Y, cut off all the run- 
ners as fist as they appear, and keep the ground cool 
and moist. But if you wfish to increase your plants, t\\e 
muching may be dispensed with (except immediately 
around the plants as directed heretofore) and the surface 
must be kept clean, and well worked with a pronged hoe 
THE FRUIT ORCHARD. 
Where the frost has not saved jou the trouble, thin out 
all fruit from one-third to one-half, if the branches are 
heavily laden, and the remainder will be enough larger 
and finer to pay for the trouble. Peaches, Plums, Nec- 
tarines, Apricots, &c,, may now be I udded, using for the 
stonefruits, by way ofexperiment, free growing and vigor- 
ous stock ofthe wild Chickasaw Plum; but the tree must be 
trained low and branching instead of tall, slender and 
“spindling.” Mulch all young trees set out last spring, 
an? give them a copious watering occasionally. Turn 
y cm small “shoats” into the orchard to devour fallen frui', 
and encourage them to “root,” or loosen up the earth by 
scattering a handful of corn to them occasionally under- 
neath the trees. Larpe hogs are frequently destructive to 
orchards, tearing and mutilating the branches in their ef- 
forts to obtain the fruit, even when the ground is thickly 
covered with it. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
Some hardy Annuals may yet be grown, but it is rather 
late. If you do not wish to take up your bulbous root. 
(_by which method they often are lost in this climate, un- 
less properly attended to,) give them a heavy mulching 
and let them stand in the ground until September, when 
«liey may be taken up, divided, and planted again. When- 
ever the Dahlias stop blooming, cut them down to the 
groimd, and give them a good watering and and a heavy 
ifflulch ; they will soon sprout and bloom anew. Apply 
liquid manure occasionally to all your choice flowers 
should now be budded and layered— fumigate with 
tobacco smoke to destroy the Aphis or green fly upon the 
Jlose and other plants. Gather ripe flower seeds in dry 
weaihtT, Use w-ater freely among your flowers whenever 
ills necessary, and do not disappoint the plants an.i 
yatsrseif by giving them a lit'le sprinkling, but give them 
a thorniiyh so ikiog whenever you do give them a water- 
i'ng. Rain water is by far the best. 
PLANTATION HAGILNE. 
BY DR. JOHN M. TURNER, OP AUGCST-I, GA. 
(^Concluded from our May mmber,page IdO.) 
HOUSES. 
Thinking a great degree of negligence prevails in refer- 
ence to the construction of n*gro houses, causes us to 
notice them in this article We have often seen them low, 
halt-cuvered, half-ceiled and with halfmade chimneys where 
it was impossible for the inmates to dwell comfiirtable or 
warm at nights. Now these, when viewed in reference 
to health, ought to be considered next in importance to 
■lothing, food or location. Their hou^es are too often left 
to the negroes themselves to build in the'ir own time, per- 
tiaps at night or during the Sabbath, which easily explains 
their careless niinner of construction. Their imperfect 
covering keeps the house wet and damp — truly a source of 
ilisease. Being partially ceiled allows the cold, bleak 
winds of winter to rush whistling through, of which 
nothing can possibly be a more fruitful source of sickness 
+nd death to the A'rican ; for it seems if Nature has fitted 
him for anything, it is to bear, with impunity, the solar 
rays of an equatorial >iin. 
The low, half-finished chimneys, keep the house sub- 
merged in smoke, soot and carbonic acid gas. Now, those 
who are the least acquainted with the effect of carbonic 
acid gas on anim d life, viz: that it is a gaseous exhala- 
tion connected v/iih combustion that isdirectly poisonous, 
must soon seethe danger that exists and be made to wonder 
that more fatal cases of apoplexy and suffocation do not 
occur; and the reason is this: gas being mingled with at- 
mospheric air in the house so dilutes it as to prevent in- 
stant or sudden rffect — nevertheless it comes thus diluted 
in contact with the bronchial apparatus and delicate struc- 
rure of the pulmonary tissue (the lungs) for a length of 
time — a succession ol nights, the negro breathing it while 
in his house. Thus it produces its slov/ though sure ef- 
fects, as is seen by the sore throat, cough, pain in the side, 
Iry and husky skin, emaciation, &c., that follow. 
To such manage metit we cannot too earnestly place our 
‘veto nor can we too seriously direct the attention of 
>!avc-owners to these hovels as a source of affliction and 
suffering among our black population. Everj medical 
practitioners have, in part, overlooked it. Let it be re- 
membered that the lungs are among the most important 
organs of an animal, .>n 1 respiration, their function, one 
of the most important operations of hfe. Consequently, 
my course that would impede the healthy fuiiciioa of 
these organs invades the very c tadel (f Lije. 
1 do not deem it impuriant to give specific directions 
how negro houses should be built. I would only say, in 
.'heir construction let an eye-single be cast to the preser- 
Vdiion ot their health. I'hey might be placed some height 
from the ground, say 2 or 3 Let, so that filth may be con- 
veniently removed f om utiderneath I'he chimneys 
should extend above the houses sufficiently high to 
prevent smoking Around the houses should be kept 
clean— swef.t whenever the fi'th accumulates, at least 
once per month, and the whole nouse cleansed and white- 
washed once every summer as soon as our corn crop is 
laid by — that is just before the commencement of sickly 
season. This adds very much to the coinfirtalde and neat 
appearance of the liuildings, and is, also, by its cleansing 
and purifying effect, conducive to heaUh. 
Having frequently observed typhus or jiil fwer occur 
almost epidemic where crowded apariments or filth pre- 
vailed, caused us to make some invesligalion while resid- 
ing among the cotton pi mtations of Bui ke Co., G i , and 
Barnwell Di>trict, S C , in reference to the origin and 
canso of congestive and typhoid fevers that has proved 
such a scourge to our country for the last dozen years, and 
