96 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
iesseci that this is true of England. To be 
wanting m the dignity conferred by landed pos- 
sessions, is to want that which conducts to the 
higi oliices and the most exclusive society. — 
The tei m country gentleman, is in England al- 
mosr an actual patent of precedence; and so far 
do tiiev carry this, that no man in trade can 
mari v- .to a family of landed descent and pos- 
sessions, unless he add to wealth an eminent 
character for talent. — Farnurs' Monthly Visitor. 
There is nothing in a democratic government 
that deters ifom the pursuit of agriculture. — 
There is no portion of the earth more zealously 
devoted to our democratic institutions than the 
people of Virginia, yet are they strictly an agri- 
cultural population. In truth, wherever nature 
has granted a favorable climate and soil, such 
are the innumerable advantages ol this delight- 
ful occupation, that it must enlist amongst its 
votaries the great mass ot mankind. Those, 
whose means induce them to look rather for en- 
joymen: ,han accumulation, will always seek 
the noble pleasures of a country life; and he 
who wishes to engage in agriculture where it 
is sanctioned by the example of the aristocracy 
of wealth and learning, need not go to England 
to seek ir He will find it throughout the whole 
southern country. The farmers compose the 
aristocracy of Virginia, certainly; they know 
and feel it; you can see it in the slow and so- 
lemn r:ravity with which they pace our streets, 
when business brings them to the city; they look 
down upon the hurrying cit, as they meet him 
on t ie side walk, with ineffable contempt; they 
know that he is the patient drudge who labors 
in their service: whilst they, the lords of the 
land, revel in the luxury and ease that their 
more favorable occupation secures them. We 
know nothing here of that which is so often 
complained of at the North, the unjust degra- 
dation in which agriculture is held. The name 
of Planter, at the South, is almost equal to a 
patent o: nobility, and the occupation, in point 
of dignity and importance, has nothing to fear, 
with us, from the sneers of the most haughty. 
Southern Planter. 
A PLEA FOR THE BIRDS. 
As the season is at hand when the birds be- 
gin their labors in our fields and gardens, it be- 
comes their friends to interpose for their protec- 
tion fi\ m the wanton persecution which pur- 
sues them as regularly as they make their ap- 
pearance. No fact in natural history is more 
certain than their really useful services — though 
we are not prepared to admit this to be their 
only or their highest claim to our regard. It has 
been ascertained by various and careful experi- 
ments that they protect our choicest fruits from 
the ravages of the insect tribes. That they are 
sometimes mischievous in the autumn is not de- 
nied, but the little harm they do in the fulness of 
the year is more than compensated by the de- 
structive havoc they make amongst the insects 
and vermin of the spring. The quantity, of 
grubs destroyed by crows, and of catterpillars 
and their grubs by the various small birds, is 
immense. Other tribes of birds, which feed on 
the wing, as swallows, martins, &c. destroy 
millions of winged insects, which would other- 
wise infest the air, and become insupportably 
troublesome. Even the titmouse and bulfinch, 
usually supposed to be so mischievous in gar- 
dens, have actually been proved only to destroy 
the buds which contain a destructive insect. — 
Ornithologists have of late determined these 
facts. 
An English paper tells us that some ol the 
large farmers in Devonshire, under a strong 
prejudice, determined a few summers ago, to 
try the result of offering a great reward for the 
heads of crows; but the issue proved destructive 
to the farms, for nearly the whole of the crops 
failed for three succeeding years, and they have 
since been forced to import birds to re-stock 
their farms, We add a few other facts collect- 
ed from expert, epee: 
“Every crow requires at least one peund of 
food a week, apd nme-teQths of their food con- 
sists of worms and insects; one hundred crows 
then in one season destroy four thousand seven 
hundred and eighty pounds of worm.-, insects 
and larvte: from this fact some slight idea may 
be formed of the benefit of this much persecuted 
bird of the farmer.” — Mag. of Nat. Htsiory. 
The Blackbird destroys a gieat number oj 
Grubs, <^c . — “Last August I observed eight or 
ten Blackbirds busily engaged in the grass plain 
in front of my house, and the grass where they 
were seemed dying, as was hinted, from their 
mischievous operations, and the gun was sug- 
gested as the remedy. Suspecting the object of 
the birds’ search, I turned up a piece of turf with 
the spade, and found it literally swarming with 
grubs of various sizes. I need not say that they 
were allowed to pursue their game undisturbed, 
and that the grass plat soon regained its verdure. 
This is another instance of the utility of pre- 
serving birds on farms, and in orchards and 
gardens.” — lb, 
* * At the season to repay the gardner for 
the tithe of his crop, their natural due, they fail 
not to assist in ridding his trees of more deadly 
enemies which infest them, and the small cater- 
pillars, beetles, and various insects now consti- 
tute their only food; and for hours at a time 
they may be seen feeding on the all dispoiling 
canker worm which infest our apple trees and 
elms .” — NnttaVs Ornithology. 
The Boblincoln is perhaps next to the Cedar 
bird or Canada Robin, the greatest destroyer of 
the canker worm. Building her nest and rear- 
ing her young t mder the apple trees, as this bird 
often does, she requires an immense number of 
worms for their subsistence just at the time that 
they are most destructive. “I have observed 
one of these birds,” says a neighbor, “go round 
the limb of an apple tree in a spiral direction, 
and destroy in this way every worm on the tree, 
in an incredible short time. No man,” added 
he, “can calculate the value of birds on a farm. 
I have no doubt but that they have saved me 
equal to the labor of one man for the season, 
besides preserving my trees from destruction.” 
Birds, then, not excepting the hawks and 
owls, are vastly more useful than injurious to 
man. None of them should, under any pre- 
tence, be destroyed . — Sentinel of Freedoon. 
Home and its Affections. — How sweet are 
the affections of kindness! How balmy the in- 
ffuence of that regard which dwells around our 
firesides! Distrust and doubt darken not the 
brightness of its purity; the cravings of interest 
and jealousy mar not the harmony of that scene. 
Parental kindness and filial affection blossom 
there, in all the freshness of an eternal spring. 
It matters not if the world is cold, if we can but 
turn to our dear circle, and ask and receive all 
that our own heart claims. 
Horses. — An ounce of prevention is worth a 
pound of cure. Horses should never stand long 
on a dry plank floor. Their fore feet, particu- 
larly, should rest on something more pliable. — 
Some, who object to loam and to tan bark, keep 
a trough of water and require the horse, to stand 
in it for hours. By travelingfast on hard roads 
a fever is created in the fore feet, and road hor- 
ses are ten times more subject to it than farm 
horses. When a h' Tse has travelled all day on 
a hard road, it is cruel to make him stand all 
night on a hard floor. 
To Gardeners. — If you wish to preserve 
your cabbage from the ravages of the cut worm, 
hill up the plant until the bud is covered with 
earth a half an inch or an inch deep, which will 
not injure the plant. Be sure to let the main 
leaves stand up out of the ground. The worm 
will then cut off the stems of the leaves instead 
of cutting down the stalk, and the bud will soon 
grow out of the ground uninjured by the cover- 
ing. This plan has been tried with success in 
this place, when every other effort to preserve 
the plants had failed . — Dahlonega Times. 
Corn Stalk Syrup. — We have before us an 
article of Corn Stalk Syrup, which is equal, in 
every respect, to the best molasses. It was left 
at our office by Col. John S. Thomas, of this 
county. The process of manufacturing, we 
learn was of the simplest character. The corn 
stalks were cut up, beaten in a trough, and then 
thrown into a common cider press — the juices 
of the stalk then underw^ent boiling, &c., and the 
syrup is thus made. Our planters without ex- 
ception, should prepare to make this syrup — ^if 
not for a market, at least for their own home 
consumption. The sample before us was made 
in South Carolina. The stalks from an acre of 
land, it is said, will produce about ninety gaL 
lons . — Georgia Journal. 
AUGUSTA MARKET. 
Tuesday p. m., June 5. 
Cotton — The market for a few days past has 
been very firm and active, with heavy sales lor 
the season, at prices ranging from 4i to 6| cts. 
as extremes of the market — ^principal sales 5^ to 
6 cents. By yesterday evening’s mail we had 
accounts from Liverpool to the 19th May, show- 
ing a shade advance in the lower and middling 
qualities, which will doubtless sustain the firm- 
ness which our market has exhibited for seve- 
ral days past, and may give it more activity 
with a very slight improvement in those descrip- 
tions. 
Exchange- -The rate of Exchange on the 
Northern and Eastern cities remains at par, a nd 
the supply is equal to the demand for business 
purposes. Central Bank notes range at about 
15 ^ cent discount. Alabama notes 15 ® 17^ 
cent discount. Slate 6 ^ Bonds command rea- 
dily 55 — there are however but few offering. 
CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER. 
page. 
Curing Sweet Potatoes; Responsibilities of ) qq 
American Women- ^ 
Cultivation of the Raspberry; Corn Stalk Su- 1 
gar 
Nutritive Properties of different Crops; Char- Y 
coal as a Manure; Tanner’s Bark; Economy I 
i.i feeding Cattle; Substitute for Cream; f 
Salt for Cattle J 
Col. Waile’s Address 92 
Recipes; Cough in Horses; Lime as a Ma- ) q, 
nure ^ 
Sowing Com; Lice on Animals; Facts wor- ) q . 
thy of Notice J 
Our Acknowledgements; Curing Sweet Po- "I 
tatoes; Sheep; Agricultural Works; Cure 
for Worms in CWldren; Industry; Indeli- >95 
ble Ink; Disease of Cows; English Agri- 1 
culture J 
A Plea for Birds; Home and its Affections, 1 
Horses; to Gardeners; Corn Stalk Syrup; > 96 
Augusta Market J 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
IS PUBLISHED BY 
J. W. «& W. S. JONES, 
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