THE YELLOWS IN PEACH TREES.-SOUTHERN CROPS AND CULTURE. 
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upon the bank or on the road home, that the benefit 
of the washing is overbalanced. 
“ A penny saved is as good as a penn} earned,” 
ls literally verified in shearing sheep. A good 
shearer will more than save his wages, over a 
slovenly one, besides the looks of the thing; for 
what work ill done, looks worse than an ill-sheared 
sheep ? I say nothing as to the position of holding 
sheep while clipping them, for that is of little con¬ 
sequence, so that the fleece is kept whole, and rolled 
up in the most compact and neat manner, inside out, 
and tied tight with small strong twine. This is an 
important matter, and will well pay in the enhanced 
price of the clip, for extra wages to a careful hand. 
If, as is often the case in newly settled places, 
you have no barn or other convenient building to 
work in, he sure and not commence your shearing 
until you have procured some large sheets of can¬ 
vass—or coarse cotton drilling will answer—to lay 
down upon the ground to lay your wool upon to 
keep it out of the dirt. 
Before sending to market, put up the wool in 
sacks, made of five yards each of stout tow T linen, 
yard wide. Sort the fleeces, and fill each sack with 
those of equal quality as near as possible. If you 
sell the sacks with the wool, the buyer will always 
pay for them, and if he can ascertain the quality 
aright, without unpacking, will prefer to do so, and 
will be likely to pay about a cent a pound extra for 
your neatness and honesty. 
A word more about filling the sacks, and I have 
done. Sew up in each bottom corner a bunch of 
wool as big as a goose’s egg. Get a stout wooden 
hoop, made like a cooper’s truss hoop, the size of 
your sacks, slip it over the top of the sack, and 
wind the cloth over round the hoop, and then have 
three ropes that w T ill suspend the sack just clear of 
the ground, and at the end of these ropes iron 
hooks that will just clasp the hoop, which will 
keep the cloth from slipping off, and still be easy to 
cast loose. Let the packer get into the sack, and 
as the fleeces are handed to him, tread each one into 
its place, and you will be surprised to see what a 
quantity you can get in, When full sew up the 
mouth, and make two just such corners as at the 
bottom. These are the handles of the sack, and are 
very convenient. 
Perhaps at some other time you may hear again 
from your “ Old friend of the Prairies.” 
Dec. 10, 1845. Solon Robinson. 
(a) Our readers will recollect Mr. Cockrill is 
located in a mild climate, where little snow falls. 
The corn of that climate is not as hearty and as oily 
as it is here. Oats, peas, and beans, are undoubt¬ 
edly the best grain for northern store sheep. 
THE YELLOWS IN PEACH TREES. 
I am under the impression that the disease called 
the Yellows, is generally supposed in this country 
to attack peach trees only, and to be peculiar to the 
United States, and that our writers have been con¬ 
tradictory, and far from satisfactory in explaining 
its causes; but that they have unanimously pro¬ 
nounced it incurable and contagious. From the 
following passage translated from the New Du- 
hamel, vol. 6 , p. 28, folio ed. 1815, it would seem 
that these opinions are incorrect 
“ The Yellows is a disease common to all trees; 
it shows itself by the yellow color taken by the 
leaves when they lose the beautiful green which 
belongs to each kind. Its effects are the unseason¬ 
able fall of the leaves; the drying up of the ends of 
the young branches; the scantiness and weakness 
of the wood; the smallness and almost abortive - 
ness of the buds; the insipidity of the fruit; the 
general change of the sap; the languor and decline 
of the tree, and at last death, if timely care has not 
been taken to apply a cure. Its principal causes 
are a poor, worn-out, shallow soil, too dry and im¬ 
penetrable to the rains ; or a soil too cold or wet; 
or else one in which clay and subsoil are in contact 
with the roots. Its cause may also be found in cut 
worms, ants, and other insects, which take up their 
abode at the foot of trees. The cause being known, 
the remedy is easy, and that to be employed will 
be determined by the nature of tilings; thus, ac¬ 
cording to circumstances, it will be necessary to 
have recourse to manures, to w T aterings, and to 
trenching, in order to draw off the waters and cause 
them to flow, or to supply the roots with earth of a 
good quality. If the evil is caused by insects, it 
will be necessary to take measures for their destruc¬ 
tion. If these proceedings have been seasonably 
adopted, and before the contagion shall have reached 
the roots, the trees will soon acquire their natural 
beauty and vigor.” 
My experience in the cultivation of this tree has 
by no means confirmed the views which American 
writers have taken of the Yellows. I am convinced 
that it is not a contagious disease, and that it should 
almost always be imputed to some quality or defect 
in the soil, which prevents the roots from imbibing 
the substance, which, when carried to the leaves, is 
there converted into the prussic acid with which the 
foliage of the peach tree is known to abound, and 
without which it cannot prosper. Persicus. 
SOUTHERN CROPS^AnF CULTURE.—No. 1 
I know it is impossible to persuade the planters 
of the cotton region especially, and I doubt not 
of your northern country also, that they have any 
interest equal to the present full crops. As I think 
there is, w T hen I write, I give my convictions; I 
must therefore say what I think, which is, that a 
proper management of our land is of as much, if not 
more advantage in a general rule, than the making 
of large crops. 
If a planter will exert himself to protect his land, 
he will gather for a life-time fair and remunerating 
crops; whereas, by the common careless mode of 
planting, he will make for five years good crops, 
the next five he will make ordinary, the next five 
still smaller, until within less than twenty or 
twenty-five years his crops will be so bad, that he 
is forced to extraordinary exertions in working his 
land, or to emigrate. Is this not so ? 
In much of our northern country, lime, marl, and 
manures are cheap; and conveyance is cheap. 
These things are demanded on account of the pre¬ 
vious bad culture of the cultivators. Here, all these 
things are dear, but fortunately for us they are not 
needed—our soil being comparatively new, and 
where the surface soil is worn, the subsoil possess¬ 
ing all the requisites of a good soil. We have yet 
one more advantage, our winters are so much mild- 
