SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
203 
favorable, you may have a full supply of vegetables until 
frost. Mulch and water young trees, shrubs, vines and 
vegetables, using liquid manure as heretofore recommended, 
alternately with pure soft water. Prepare the ground for 
Strawberry Beds during this and the next month. Select 
new ground near an unfailing stream, if possible — plow 
deep, turning under a good thick coat of leaf-mould and 
ashes, and leaving the surface fine and mellow. We give 
from the experienced pen of Mr. Nelson, an excellent 
article on Strawberries, elsewhere in present number.— 
The most important work, however, for the present, is to 
keep your Strawberries clear of weeds, and the soil around 
them well stirred, which is done best with a pronged hoe. 
Transplant Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Celery, Tomatoes, 
&c. Plant Melon seed for mango pickles — also, Su:eet 
Corn for late roasting ears. Plant out slips or vines of the 
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 difficulty in getting them to 
grow. 
THE FKUIT ORCHAED. 
Wherever the spring frosts have killed the fruit, there 
will be a strong tendency to over-luxuriance in thegrowth 
of wood. This should be checked by cutting back or 
nipjfing off the ends of the young shoots, in order to 
produce more bearing wood for next year. Destroy all 
injurious insects, and note carefully the bearing qualities 
and peculiarities of the different new as well as old varie- 
ties of fruit. No trouble or care should be spared in ga- 
thering and sending to market in the best possible condi- 
tion. 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 
fingers. 
THE FLOWER GARDEN. 
Roses, (^c., should now be dudded and layered. Take up 
early Rulbs, as directed in our last number, and plant 
others to flower in Autumn. Roses, Chrysanthemums, 
4*c., may be propagated by layers. Dahlias will need 
staking and pruning, if over-luxuriant. Clip Box edg- 
ings. Now, also, is the best time to trim Evergreen 
hedges and screens. Gather all desirable seeds, as they 
ripen, and put aw’ay in close paper bags, carefully label- 
ing them. Water freely, both roots and foliage, and use 
liquid manure for the roots, at intervals, particularly in 
rainy weather, never applying it during a drouth. Keep 
the earth mellow, and rmdch all large herbaceous plants 
with woods-mould, leaves orsaw dust. 
AGRICULTURAL. COLLEGES. 
It is very creditable to the young State of Michigan 
that its enterprising citizens are.the first to found and put 
into successful operation a State Agricultural College in 
the New World. The institution is located near Lansing, 
the capital of the State, on a farm of 700 acres, and has 
endowments in land and money that ensure it against a 
failure from the lack of pecuniary aid at the outset. The 
Legislature has given it S20,000 a year for two years ; and 
in case the money is wisely expended, more will doubt- 
less be granted, provided the sale of lands, or income 
from other sources, should prove insufficient. 
The people of Michigan have always been liberal to- 
ward their common schools and colleges; and this new 
educational enterprise will confer more honor upon their 
practical good sense than anything else which they have 
ever done. It is an effort to teach and learn that kind of 
information which is most needed in every agricultural 
community. It wisely cultivates the most useful know- 
ledge, rather than that which is inferior in character and 
utility. It is a legislative recognition of the fact, that ag- 
riculture is not so poor in principles, in learning and in 
science, as to present to the youthful mind nothing which 
is worthy of being studied. By recognizing Tillage and 
Husbandry as an intellectual calling, a great point is 
gained — a point, which v/e are pained to believe, the Plant- 
ing South has not yet reached. We have no agiicultural 
colleges, no agricultural schools ; and we give a feeble 
and inadequate support to our agricultural journals. If 
the South had right views and feelings on this subject, it 
would not be necessary for the President of the Virginia 
Sta'e Agricultural Society to address the people of that 
r iComrnonwealth in the following words : 
“There is one other subject which nearly concerns the 
farming interest, and to which I beg leave before closing 
rhis report, to call your attention. I refer to the great sub- 
ject of popular education. Seventy thousand of our adult 
white population can neither read nor write 1 and these, 
too, are ‘bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh they 
are Virginia’s sons and daughters! In the name of hu- 
manity 1 in the name of all that isgenerous, unselfi.-h and 
noble in our nature! in the name of country, of Christian- 
ity, of God ! will the farmers of Virginia any longer permit 
the existence of this deplorable state of ignorance I 
If my humble voice could be heard beyond this assembly 
I would say to the f irmers of Virginia, con,sider that your 
children, aye, the descendants of the richest of your pre- 
sent number, will eventunlly, in a few generations, be 
numbered amongst the poor. Transport yourselves, then 
in imagination, but thirty, forty, or fifty years into the 
future, and whilst you yet live, make yourselves the ten- 
der and blest fathers of the poor, and shed abroad your 
hearts and means until every child within the limits of our 
broad Commonwealth shall at least have the advantages 
of free school education. Thirty years ago the Sage of 
Monticello, and noble band of patriots, assembled on a 
spot that will ever be memorable, as it appears most fit 
for the highest and holiest of patriotic deeds. From the 
summit of the Blue Ridge Mountains, at Rockfish Gap, 
midway the State, and as if from the high heavens that 
canopy it, emanated that immortal act which gave a ‘local 
habitation and a name’’ to the University of Virginia. — 
This great institution of learning now stands the light 
and life, the ornament of the State, and is well nigh all 
that has saved us from intellectual degredation as a peo- 
ple. But the light v/hich it sheds .uust be reflected, re- 
fracted, and absorbed throughout the dark abodes of ig- 
norance in our State, or else it will fall short of accom- 
plishing all the beneficent purposes of its patriotic foun- 
ders. 
“The great men who founded our University with that 
wisdom which sees the end from the beginning, and 
themselves utterly above that modern meanness which 
flatters and deceives, in order that it may lead, and ulti- 
mately betray and de ert the people— those great men re- 
cognized and acted on the law of our nature that know- 
ledge must emanate from the higher and be diffused 
