30 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
being established, it is folly for man to attempt 
to do that which God alone can do. Deep plan- 
ting and ploughing the peach orchard after the 
trees have maintained sufficient maturity to pro- 
duce fruit, is, if not wholly, the principal ca.use 
ol the disease called the yellows. By plough- 
ing, the lateral roots are either cut, disturbed, or 
forced to seek food apart from where nature in- 
tended, and ihus operates as a hill placed around 
plants, and brings the tree to early decay. 
“To conclude this subject for the present, I 
will say, work your plants and trees while 
young, so as to form good stalks, and then trust 
to that all-wise Disposer of events to perfect 
them. 
“I think I noticed a remark in your paper, 
of the roots ol the watermelon being attacked by 
small animalculae. Some salt added to the hills 
before' planting will remedy that evil and give 
you better fruit; and salt and satpetre sown in 
the peach orchard, (particularly where the orch- 
ard is worked with the plough,), will assist in 
preventing like depredations to the roots ol the 
peach tree. 
“If you think that this hasty notice will be of 
an.y service, you are at liberty to dispose of it as 
you think best, and be assured that I seek neith- 
er money nor thanks lor performing duties we 
owe to Cite another. Littleton Physick.” 
Cultivator. 
INDIAN CORN AND OLD FIELD PINES. 
I have been a subscriber to your paper ever 
since it has been published, and I have noticed 
that nearly all your correspondents upon the 
subject ot Indian corn agree that the rows should 
be four and a half or live feet distant. This is 
no doubt the proper distance for all the corn east 
of the Blue Ridge, but I once happened to be 
present, in the southwestern part of Virginia, at 
corn planting time, and was surprised to observe 
the farmers laying off their rows from three 
feet to three and a half wide. I told them that 
they would make no corn, and insisted that the 
rows should be wider. One gentleman told me 
to lay off a few rows in the old Virginia style, 
and I, being accustomed to the plough handles, 
laid hold and run off a few furrows through the 
centre of the field, four and a half feet apart. 
In the succeeding August, I visited the same 
field, and, to. my utter astonishment, the rows I 
had lain, off were destitute of grain, and the fod- 
der burnt entirely up, whilst the narrow rows 
were excellent and the fodder green to the ground. 
So I concluded that the proper width of rows de- 
pends upon the nature of the soil. I noticed that 
the. lands in Western Virginia dried much soon- 
er after heav}" rains than they did east of the 
Blue- Ridge;- this is the case in all limestone 
countries, where the com must be planted thick- 
er, for the purpose of shading the ground, and 
retaining the moisture in summer. 
I congratulate neighbor Drummond on his 
converson to early planting. I have tried the 
experiment myself, and find that com planted 
early will not gi’ow as tall, but will yield more 
grain, and that of better quality, for it will 
weigh more to the bushel than the late planting. 
A writer on “Forest Trees,” in your August 
number, 1842, observes that old field pine is “of 
little value.” Now I consider a grove of such 
pines exceedingly valuable for garden posts, or 
posts ef any kind;- if properly prepared, they 
will last as long as locust or any other timber. — 
My mode of treatment is as follows; I take a 
drawing Imife and draw off the bark as the tree 
stands, as high up as I want to use it; in this 
situation the tree, which -will not die, remains a 
twelvemonth, when, in consequence of the sun 
having drawn the rosin to the surface, it wdll 
haAm become a solid bulk of lightwood and w'ill 
be ready for use. 
Your obedient servant, 
.T. H. Fuau.A. 
Southern Planter. 
Rubbing the limbs of the plumb with soft 
soap, to prevent the black canker, has been tried 
with succe.ss. 
ON THE VALUE OF LIME. 
It is discouraging to preach to a deaf congre- 
gation; or, w’hat is practically the same thing, 
to address those v.'ho are resolved not to abandon 
long established practice and usage. Yet social 
duty may require us to give our fellow man the 
benefit of our experience and practice, and 
leave him to pursue his oaati may, be that what 
it may. After more than forty years of practice 
and industry devoted to agriculture, and almost 
sinking under hopes deferred, I commenced the 
free use of lime. In wet land, except lor grass, 
lime was almost a failure; hut upon dry land it 
appeared to Avake up the sleeping powers of the 
earth, and run A'egetation into a kind of unregu- 
lated madness. Mother Earth appeared to strut 
in pride for the richness and abundance of her 
productions. That great man, Moses of the 
JeAvs, you will. remember, was forty years in the 
AAmstes and deserts of the earth,, and, except the 
perfonnance of his duty, his only gratification 
•was a few bunches of grapes. Mine would 
seem to be a fate more gratifying to human na- 
ture, for I am left to Avmde tluough grass and 
com, and flatter m3^self that I am at least upon 
good terms Avith dear old Mother Earth, who 
sooner or later must take me to her lap, and 
hush me to such repose a.=' ray deeds in the flesh 
may deseiwe. 
If I Avere to fill one hundred pages upon this 
subject, the wffiole Avould resolve itself into tiffs; 
— make your land dry, plough it w^ell, give it 
100 to 200 bushels of lime, or more if nece-ssar}'; 
then all the vegetable matter or rich earth you 
can find — take a crop and lay it doAvn to grass — 
not less than two gallons of cloAmr seed to the 
acre, and as much of timothy as you please. — 
Vegetables, like carnivorous animals, eat or 
live upon each other — the more you give the 
earth the greater Avill be the following crop. No 
animal can be grown Avithout food, and the same 
is the law of grains and Amgetables. Our hot 
midday sun is taken up by the com plant upon 
good limed land uptil it is of a deep black green; 
there is no Avilting or twisting in its blades; the 
long silks shoAv that all is well, and that there is 
no shuffling in the ranks. But to bring this mat- 
ter into dollars and cents; I have no hesitation 
in saying that if I had been in the use of lime 
for forty years, it Avould have been good for one 
hundred thousand dollars upon m}'" 500 acres of 
fallowed land. Lime. 
Farmers' Register. 
HOW TO MAKE GOOD COFFEE. 
The question is often asked, why it is, tha*^ 
good coffee cannot be produqed in this countiyff 
The reason is simply this ; coffee, is spoiled in 
the burning, and sufficient care is not taken in 
preparing it lor the table. To make coffee equal 
to the French is A^ery simple, and very easy, and 
for the benefit of all good housewives, and all 
lovers of good coffee, AA'e will state the manner 
in which it should be done. First, procure the 
best coflee possible. See that your cook does 
not burn it, but roast it to the color of a golden 
broAvn, and never allow it to remain in its burnt 
or roasted state for more than three days, as af- 
ter that time it Avill lose its strength. Secondly, 
in lie%i of the ancient method of boiling your cof- 
fee for an hour or more over a hot fire, and then 
being obliged to settle it with such rarities as 
fish-skms, egg-sheUs and the like, procure a biggen, 
as it is termed and make a distillation or decoc- 
tion by putting the coffee in the apartment in 
Avhich the strainer is, and turning thereon boiling 
hot looter. Take care that the nose qf the coffee- 
pot has a stopper to prevmnt the steam from es- 
caping, and cover the top of your biggen imme- 
diately after having turned the water upon the 
coffee; as it is a most important requisite to ha g 
the steam confined. Judgement is also to be 
used, as to the amount of coffee required, and 
also to the quantity of water to be used. The 
best coffee may be spoiled by too much water 
applied to it. The coffee should be made very 
strong; and, if strong enough, its color AAdll be 
quite black. Easily, having made your coffee 
of great strength, do not use hot xoater to dilute 
it, but, in lieu thereof, 'ake boiling hot milk, and 
Aveaken the coffee to your taste. By follow- 
ing these directions you v HI have as fine a cup 
of coflee as can be made in any country. 
The time required for making coffee in this 
manner, is but a feAV minutes, the coffee being 
made as fast as the liquid issues through the 
strainer. — Daily Times. 
Salt. — I Avill give your readers some account 
of the benefit of salt, as it is becoming an im- 
portant article among fanners. I obseiwed two 
years ago in the toAvm of Stow, an acre of land 
set with fruit trees of different kinds, and I took 
n®tice that one half of the trees were one third 
larger than the others; and I also observed that 
where the trees were largest the land was moist, 
while the other part was dry. That half of the 
acre that was moist,, and on which the trees 
Avere largest, was soavi? oA^er with two and a hall' 
bushels of salt four years before; the other part 
was dressed with two cords of manure. The 
part manured with salt appeared as though there 
had just been a shower upon it; while the other 
part wms dry and dusty. On the part to which 
salt was applied, the trees were smoth and thrifty; 
on the other part, the trees Avere rough and back- 
Avard. Salt is good to. destroy insects that are 
injurious to fruit. By mixing it Avith peat mud 
and laying it around fruit trees, early in the 
spring, it will destroy the insects that often in- 
j ure the plum, the apple and peach tree. 
George W. Maynard. 
Boston Cultivator. 
NUTRITIVE CcUALITIES OF CHARCOAL. 
Though the importance of mixing charcoal 
with the food of animals, particularly that of 
swine, has been generally acknowledged, and 
its benefits extensively tested, still it has been 
supposed that it only acted as a corrective to the 
acid tendency of food, and facilitated fattening 
by improving the health ol the animal. Some 
experiments are, hoAvever, on record, which 
Avould seem to shoAv that charcoal acts a more 
important part in the matter than has been usm 
ally assigned to it. 
In 1793, a lamily being did ven from NeAv York 
by the fever, were absent six or eight Aveeks be- 
fore it Avas deemed prudent to return. A num- 
ber of fowls confined in a loft to the workshop 
of the house, were forgotten at the time of leav- 
ing, and it was knoAvn that there was nothing 
provided for their subsistence, it was expected 
on the return that they would be found starved 
to death. To the astonishment of all, the fowls 
were found alive and fat, though there was no- 
thing upon which they could haAm fed, except a 
quantity of charcoal and shavings, water being 
supplied from the grindstone trough. 
These facts coming to the knowledge of a 
gentleman in New York, as we learn from the 
Recorder, he instituted the folio vAung experiment. 
He placed a turkey in a boa; or enclosure, four 
feet long, two feet wide, and three feet high, ex- 
cluded light as much as could be done, and al- 
lowed a free circulation of air, and fed the tur- 
key with soft, brick, broken fine, pounded char- 
coal, and six grains of corn per , Hay. The box 
was kept locked. At the end of a month, the 
turkey was killed in the presence of several gen- 
tlemen, was large and heaAy, and on being open- 
ed Avas found filled with fat. Nothing, on dis- 
section, was found in the gizzard and entrails but 
charcoal apd brick. Last winter the experiment 
was repeated, and with the same success. 
Several years since, in fitting out one of the 
Liverpool traders at Ncav York, a pig onboard 
was missing, and Avas supposed to have been 
lost. The cargo was taken on board, stowed, 
and the Amssel sailed. It was now discovered 
that the pig was alNe in the coal hole, but as 
he could not be got at readily, it was concluded 
to leave him to his fate. He remained in this 
retreat until the passage was made, when his 
pigship was found to be not only alive and well, 
but materially improved in condition, though 
there was nothing, coal excepted, he could have 
SAvalloAved. 
When it is remembered that wood, sugar and 
