i84 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
AUGUSTA, GA. 
VOI.. Sfil., .>>0. 1 2 .. .■E>ECK:V3S{ER, 1845. 
OUR FOURTH VOLUME. 
Patrons and Friends op the “Southern 
Cultivator !’’ — as Ihis number closes the Third 
Volume, the Publishers avail themselves of the 
occasion to address a few remarks to each and 
all of y^-'U, in reference to the Fourth Volunr’e, a 
Prospectus for which you will find on another 
page, to which we would invite your attention. 
'We desire to continue with every one of you 
the relations of Patrons and Publishers, because 
■we believe it will result in our mutual benefit. 
Whether those relations will be continued, de- 
pends entirely upon you. If you forward the 
money, we will most cheerfully and certainly 
send the paper. If not— not. So much for the 
effect of the cash system ! 
We not only desire to send the paper to all of 
you, but we wish to send it to all your friends 
and neighbors, that they too may be benefitted, 
and ourselves better rewarded. And we there- 
fore appeal to every one of you, to see your 
friends and neighbors, and persuade them to be- 
come subscribers. It will only require a few 
minutes’ conversation with each of them, and 
you may benefit them much, and ourselves a lit- 
tle. There is not one of you who cannot obtain 
for us, if you will try, at least one new subscri- 
ber, and many of you ive knov} can obtain hun- 
dreds. Will you not make the effort'? It is a 
good, a noble cause— one worthy to engage the 
best energies of the Philanthropist Patriot and 
Statesman. May you not then devote a little 
time and labor to such a cause? 
The price of subscription is so low that we 
cannot afford to send agents among you to solicit 
you to subscribe, and we must therefore rely 
upon the exertions of those of you who desire 
to see the work sustained. With these remarks, 
we commit the destinies of the “ Southern 
Cultivator” to your keeping. If you extend 
the circulation, it will be improved, and con- 
tinue to present new attractions for your appro- 
bation and benefit. 
To sura up, then, we want every man of you 
to send us a DOLLAR for your next year’s sub- 
scription, and ask your friends and neighbors to 
do the same thing; and if you send us enough 
of them, in addition to the many other good 
things that you will find in the fourth volume, 
we will send you some elegant engravings of 
splendid cattle, hogs, horses, sheep, &c, &c. 
As this No. completes our third volume, we 
send a general index herewith. 
Fruits and Fruit Trees. 
“ Here’s to thee, old App'e tree, [hlow: 
Whence thou may’st bud, and whence ihou may’st 
And whence ihou may’st bear for us apples enow, 
Hats full, and caps lull — 
Duihels and sacks full ! 
tiuzza! ’ Old Song. 
Dscembee is the best time, in the Southern 
Slates, for transplanting fruit trees; and as we 
believe more attention than heretofore is about 
to be given to this business, we have thought 
that directions for planting, together with lists 
of good sorts, might be acceptable to the readers 
of the Cultivator. We condense what follows, 
to bring it within the compass of our paper, 
from the best authorities extant, chiefly from 
Downing, adapting it, as much as por sible, to 
the use of the Southern Stales, by engrafting 
on it the results of our own experience, which 
has been somewhat extensive during the last ten 
years. 
In taking trees up, it should never be forgotten 
that the delicate and tender points of the roots, 
usually white and swollen, are the organs by 
which food is taken up from the soil for the nou- 
rishment of the tree. These should be preserv- 
ed as much as possible, the chance of perfect 
success being lessened by every one of these 
p Ants that is bruised or destroyed. Where it 
becomes necessary to cut large roots, the cut 
end should be made perfectly smooth with a 
sharp knife. Where the roots are gotten up 
without much injury, very little trimming of the 
top is necessary. If the trees cannot be planted 
immediately, they will be greatly benefitted by 
dipping the roots in water and rolling the wet 
roots in the soil, so that a coat of it shall ad- 
here to them, and then covering them with mats. 
Tliey should never be allowed to become dry. 
If the trees are to be carried to any great dis- 
tance, their roots should be carefully packed in 
wet moss. 
In planting, the almost universal hab tof the 
South, of looking upon a tree to be planted pret- 
ty much as on a fence post, and of treating it ac- 
cordingly, must be corrected. The whole of the 
ground intended for an orchard should be rich, 
except for peach trees, and should fee stirred, ei- 
ther by subsoiling or by trenching, to the depth 
of at least two feet. The holes for the trees 
should be dug out two feet deep at least, and 
four or five feet square, the subsoil removed, and 
its place supplied by surface soil, and with this 
filled up within as many inches of the top as 
will allow the tree to stand exactly as it stood in 
the nursery — the whole art consisting essentially 
in placing the roots as nearly as possible as they 
were before. Set the tree, and fill in among the 
roots with the soft surface soil, enriched, if neces- 
sary, with a mixture of charcoal dust, barn yard 
— not stable yard — manure, and slaked lime. 
Pour a tubful of water about the tree, and this 
will settle the earth far better among the roots 
than the usual practice of shaking the tree and 
treading the soil around it. Set a stake by the 
tree and tie the tree to it with a hay band, and 
finish by covering the ground for four or five feet 
around the tree with coarse straw, litter from the 
barn yard, cr leaves from the forest. 
The proper size of trees for transplanting is a 
very important matter. It is clearly settled by 
both^heory and practice, that health, vigor and 
duration are all best promoted by selecting 
small trees from three to six or seven feet high. 
Such trees planted as herein directed, make 
wood rapidly, and come very soon into a state of 
healthy and long continued productiveness. 
There is trouble in all this ! So there is. But 
what earthly enjoyment that is worth anything 
is to be had without trouble? Let any oneplant 
an orchard according to these directions, and. in 
a few years, if he take any pleasure in seeing the 
work of his hands prosper, he will not regret the 
trouble.his orchard has cost him — more especial- 
ly if he remember in the mean time that it is an 
indispensable requisite in all young orchards to 
keep the ground mellow and clean by cultivation 
for the first few years, until the trees are firmly 
established in the soil. 
We must not omit to remark that if any one 
intends to engage in fruit raising, either for con- 
sumption on his own table, or for the benefit of 
his stock, or for market, and wishes to have ^ooc? 
fruit and thrifty trees as the result of his labor, 
he must first of all make himself acquainted with 
theprinciples of Horticulture. The study of this 
branch ol science is a delightful recreation, and 
the application of its principles to practice, is 
still more delightful. For the theory, we beg 
leave to recommend — 
Lindley’s Outline of the Principles of Horti- 
culture. 
Lindiey’s Theory of Horticulture, by Down- 
ing. 
For the practice — 
Kenrick’s American Orchardist. 
Downing’s Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. 
APPLES. 
In the Southern States apple trees should be 
planted in a deep, damp, loose loam, of calcare- 
ous or limestone character, with a northern ex- 
posure. The rich alluvions of our rivers and 
creeks, not subject to be overflown, would fur- 
nish the very best location for apple orchards. 
Steep, rocky, north hill-sides, of strong soil, 
would be perhaps the next best. The distance 
of the trees apart should be at least lorty feet. 
And such sorts should be selected as are known 
to succeed in the neighborhood. For there is 
hardly any tree so local in its character as the ap- 
ple. The Baldw'in and Roxbury Russet s'ucceed 
well only in Massachusetts — Peck’s Pleasant 
and Seek-no farther, are best in Connecticut — 
the Spitzenburg and Newtown Pippins, in New 
York — the Beilfl jvver and the Rambo, in Penn- 
sylvania. English apples do not succeed well in 
the United States ; and American sorts planted 
in England loose their high flavor. In 1832 we 
brought from. Oiiio some very fine sorts — they 
are now growing in our grounds, but they have 
never answered our expectations, notwithstand- 
ing all our care of them. In the Northern and 
Middle States every neighborhood almost has its 
favorite varieties, which will not elsewhere come 
up to their high character at home. So too is it 
in the Southern States, with the exception of the 
Horse and Red June Apples. They fiourisheve- 
rywhere, we believe, with proper treatment. 
Hence we do not furnish a list of apples, but 
leave every one, as ensuring the best success, to 
make a selection of those that have been tried, 
and are therefore known to do well in his imme- 
diate neighborhood. Yet we ■would advise every 
one to set about getting a good apple orchard- 
net indeed for the reason assigned by Dr. John- 
son to one of his friends : — “ I know a clergy- 
man,” said he, “of small income, who brought 
up a family very reputably, which he chiefly fed 
on apple-dumplings.” That happened in Eng- 
