122 
SOUTHERN CALENDAR FOR JULY. 
open air ; for they who keep within the range of 
a good stove, and are exposed to a summer tem¬ 
perature only, must continue to moderate their 
diet in winter, equally as in summer. 
The excessive fondness for the chase and out¬ 
door exercise among the English, has a deeper 
and more urgent motive, than tradition, and the 
love of sport. It has its foundation in the consti¬ 
tution itself. The highly nitrogenized food, beer, 
and spirits, they consume, induce an irritation and 
restlessness, which seeks relief in violent and pro¬ 
tracted exercise. The gourmand, unless he can 
expend his surplus nourishment by a proportional 
exercise, or purge his overloaded system by daily 
draughts of the mineral or artificial waters, must 
soon fall a victim to apoplexy. So too, if he car¬ 
ries his habits of gormandizing into the equatorial 
region, the liver complaint or other diseases, soon 
terminate his life which has become a just forfeit 
to his folly. 
Fat operates in two ways for a defence against 
cold. It not only supplies carbon for combustion, 
by which animal heat is sustained, but being one 
of the best non-conductors of heat, when placed 
around the body, as in most cases it is, it effectu¬ 
ally checks the escape of heat. What but the 
loot-thick covering of blubber, prevents the tem¬ 
perature of the whale, and the whole tribe of ce¬ 
tacea, seals and other warm-blooded animals, 
which make the great arctic deep their habitation, 
from running below the freezing-point ? The 
well-conditioned domestic animal which is exposed 
to the cold of winter, effectually interposes his 
shield of fat to the inroads of frosts, and scarcely 
feels the severity, which pinches the starveling to 
its very centre. A half-famished man will freeze 
to death, by the side of one well fed and well 
fleshed. 
Clothing and food in severe weather, to a cer¬ 
tain extent, supply the place of each other; defi¬ 
ciency of the one must be supplied by the other, 
or waste and ultimate destruction must ensue. 
But the subject has already been sufficiently ex¬ 
tended. It is perhaps unnecessary to add, to the in¬ 
telligent reader, that the recently published princi¬ 
ples of Liebig’s animal chemistry has furnished an 
occasional hint to the above. 
R. L. Allen. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
SOUTHERN CALENDAR FOR JULY. 
As a general rule for the past 12 years, I have been 
able to give my cotton crop its last working this month, 
some seasons the weeds being too large to work with 
plows without material injury even before the 10th. 
You will find the cotton-plant to retain its fruit, 
the bowls, from the time of forms being first made, 
which is the future bloom and bowl in embryo, by be¬ 
ing stirred frequently, preventing in some degree the 
changes of nourishment to the plant, which eauses their 
dropping; and I think deep plowing early in the sea¬ 
son will be a prime aid in this thing. I therefore run 
my surface plows and cultivator, &c., as late as I can, 
and not to injure the plant, by breaking its limbs. If 
weeds and grass should spring up after this, there will 
be much gain to the succeeding crop, to cut them out 
with the hoe, in order to prevent their seeding. 
The blades from the early planted corn can be strip¬ 
ped now for fodder—better to lose a portion than pull 
too early. Let the shuck or husk on the ear change 
from the green to the whitish cast, then tie a handful 
or so to itself, and thrust the end of the tie between 
the ear and stalk—I object to breaking down the cori^ 
stalk. This will require more time to strip the blades, 
but in the end you will gain, as it can be got in sooner 
if a rain threatens or if caught in a rain, it is not in¬ 
jured so much. Cure it well before stacking, same as 
pursued with oats. Late corn will need'plowing now, 
plant peas also in it, even if you have a good stand of 
pumpkins, they will repay cost of seed by their benefit 
alone as manure. 
The late plantings of potato drawings, and the plant¬ 
ings of vines, will require plowing and drawing up 
with the hoe; continue to plant out vines. If not 
ground enough in your potato-patch, bed up ridges in 
your old corn, two furrows will do to plant on, which 
will not materially injure the corn, and can be added 
to, on the first working ; or plow up a choice piece of 
the stubble ground. Your crop of corn being entirely 
out of your way, or nearly so, you can devote a few 
days to planting vines, and if the season be at all fa¬ 
vorable, the work will be well repaid, in the feed alone 
for stock. 
Millet grass must be cut when just turning, if for 
feeding, and treated as recommended for oats. Have 
a good substantial grass-knife made in a home shop; it 
will be worth half a dozen of the thin, light things 
sold in stores, for this purpose any how. 
You can not possibly expend a few days’ labor to a 
greater advantage, if your crop will admit of it, than 
in grubbing up small growth, cutting down saplings, 
and deadening greens for a calf-pasture, to be sown in 
September or October in rye, without plowing even, if 
you can not plow it, the fall of leaves will cover it, so 
as to bring it up and give you a fine bite all winter. 
You may.need more water; if so, dig a ditch across a 
hollow, some 3 feet deep, throw the earth below, then 
commence above and dig out the earth, and fill up the 
ditch, leaving no roots, &c., in the earth ; continue dig¬ 
ging until of a desirable size, and the embankment be 
some 4 or 5 feet high, and 5 to 7 feet wide on the top; 
if the hollow receives much water, dig at one or both 
ends a ditch about a foot below the level of the dam, 
wide enough to carry off all water that may fall after 
the pool be full, and to empty some 10 feet below the 
embankment. This will protect the embankment from 
blowing up; it will not retain water well under a year 
or two, unless the bottom and lower side be puddled, 
or frogs be fed on it, when little wet. 
Make it a part of your regular business, at this sea¬ 
son of the year, to gather leaves from the woods, 
swamp earth and mud into cow and horse lots, gather 
the manure from lots and stables, place it in your pen 
or sink, and on it scrapings from wood-piles, &c., 
which should have a shelter to protect from sun and 
rain, or it might be well to haul a part of this on the 
piece of ground designed for turneps, but do something 
at it. Prepare your turnep-patch, either old ground 
by manuring high and plowing, or a piece of new 
ground. The cotton-picking season is now rapidly 
approaching; prepare baskets and sacks to pick in all 
leisure time, especially on wet days. Top cotton the 
last of this month. There is no doubt but that it is 
advantageous on rich land, and as to thin land, a plant¬ 
er of 30 years’ standing, who then worked 250 hands, 
assured me it would be time well spent on any land. 
Either pinch oft' the tender top part of the plants, or 
cut off with a knife. 
M. W. Philips. 
