GEORGIA LANDS AND AGRICULTURE. 
117 
provided they have suitable after-culture. For 
many of the above suggestions the writer is in<- 
debted to R. L. Pell, Esq., of Pelham, Ulster Co., 
New York. 
Culture of Orchards. —The soil around the 
trees should be kept loose, either by spading, dig¬ 
ging with a mattock, or by plowing. If a crop is 
put in the orchard, nothing should be planted or 
sowed within five feet of the trees, as the nourish¬ 
ment taken up by the crop is so much taken from 
the growth of the trees. Alter the lime and char¬ 
coal has laid around the trees one year, spread it 
around the trees in a circle of ten feet in diameter. 
This should be done in the spring, when the soil 
is cultivated, and a fresh supply of lime and char¬ 
coal applied. 
When the trees have been set out three or four 
years, the soil should be enriched with a compost 
of manure, swamp-muck, and ashes. Early every 
spring the trunks of the trees should be washed 
with strong ley, strong soap-suds, or thin soft soap. 
Apply either of these with a whitewash brush as 
high as a man can reach. When the trees grow 
rapidly, their growth will be increased by slitting 
the outer bark the whole length from the ground 
up to the limbs. This gives the trees room to ex¬ 
pand. As soon as the trees blossom, throw over 
them lime perfectly slaked—this should be done 
while the dew is on. 
To render Old and Barren Orchards Thrifty 
and Productive. —Early in the spring plow the 
entire orchard and enrich with a compost of ma¬ 
nure, swamp muck, lime, and chip manure. Scrape 
off ail the old bark with a deck scraper, or a hoe, 
ground sharp. Apply half a bushel slaked lime, 
and the same of fine charcoal, around each tree. 
Apply then soft soap or strong soap-suds on the 
trunks and limbs as high as a man can reach. 
While the trees are in full bloom, throw over them 
a good supply of fine slaked lime. 
To Destroy Caterpillars. —As soon as the 
nests can be seen, procure some pure spirits of 
ammonia, tie a small piece of sponge to a pole 
that is long enough to reach the highest nests, fill 
the sponge with ammonia, and once filling will be 
sufficient to rub off and destroy from thirty to forty 
nests. 
B. G. Boswell. 
Philadelphia , February, 1844. 
GEORGIA LANDS AND AGRICULTURE. 
I was struck with a communication in a former 
number of your paper, apprizing your readers that 
farmers from the middle states were turning their 
attention to the lands in Virginia. I have often 
wondered why all the immigration from those 
states should tend westward. It can not be that 
such a cold, not to say wild region, is more desi¬ 
rable than our genial clime. I can think of but 
two causes to deter the immigrant from our sunny 
clime, and they are imaginary. I understand that 
northern people suppose we are much exposed to 
fever and ague. From all I can learn, there is 
much more of it in the west than the south. Some 
parts of the southern country, it is true, suffer from 
diseases engendered by miasma; but others, and 
the larger portion, (I speak of Georgia,) are as free 
from them as any section of the Union. Middle 
and upper Georgia is, I presume, as healthy a re¬ 
gion as you will find in the world. The lower 
part, comprehending the pine land, is nearly a 
level plain. The growth is almost exclusively 
long-leaf pine, and, except on the streams, the 
soil is generally a sandy barren. This region ex¬ 
tends from the Atlantic 150 or 200 miles, then 
comes the middle region, which is undulating, 
well watered, and timbered with oak, hickory, 
&c. This section extends from the pine land to 
the mountains, and is about 100 or 150 miles wide. 
Then comes the northern or mountain portion of 
the state, where all the northern fruits and vege¬ 
tables grow in great perfection. 
But to return to the middle region, with which 
I have to do. This is the great cotton portion, 
and when new, much sickness was occasioned by 
killing thousands of acres of heavy timber, in pre¬ 
paring the land for cultivation. That portion of 
country lying between the Oconee, I may say even 
the Ocmulgee, and the Savannah rivers, is now 
Called “ the old part of Georgia.” Much of it, 
particularly on the Savannah river, was settled 
soon after the revolution, and some of it, as Wilkes, 
Columbia, &c., during that period. There is now 
but little new land cleared, and the consequence 
is, that fever is hardly ever found except occasion¬ 
ally on the water courses. Many northern people 
live and die here without ever having had a chill 
or bilious fever. Consumption, and those diseases 
occasioned by cold, are almost unknown. I believe 
my own family is a fair specimen of the health of 
the country in which I live. I have been house¬ 
keeping ten years, have had a family numbering 
from 20 to 60, and have only had one bilious case 
during the time, and that was a light case of chills 
following the Tyler grippe last fall. 
I presume the other reason why many of your 
people are deterred from our country, is on account 
of the institution of slavery. That may be avoid¬ 
ed by owning none—for thousands live in the midst 
of them without owning one, and I have never 
heard the first man complain that the black popu¬ 
lation was the least in his way. But the objec¬ 
tion, if such it be, may be obviated by selecting a 
county where the population is white. By refer¬ 
ence to the census, you will perceive that some 
counties have no more than many counties in New 
York have of free negroes. 
The advantages of Georgia are many and stri¬ 
king. Thousands of stock have lived throughout 
the winter without feeding. It is a very common 
occurrence for hogs to run wild, and live for years 
on the mast to be found in the woods. Now hun¬ 
dreds, nay thousands of bushels of acorns might 
be gathered on the creeks. Our green crops are 
kept all winter, without being removed. My cab¬ 
bages and ruta baga are now standing in my gar¬ 
den, green and growing. Beets need not be re¬ 
moved until you wish them to feed. Potatoes 
will lie in the ground all winter, and grow off 
finely in the spring. Most of the northern fruits 
grow well with us; besides which, we have the 
fig, and might have many other tropical fruits in 
