THE CULTIVATOR. 
69 
carefully drying 1 in the sun, green peas, or beans, or our 
favorite succatosh, may be had the whole year, those who 
fcava never tried it, may be assured that a dish of the lat¬ 
ter, in January or March, is a luxury. 
CULTIVATION OF FRUIT AT THE SOUTH. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —My principal object 
is to call attention in the “ Sunny South,” to the raising 
of fruit—apples and peaches, especially—as I regard them 
as most valuable to us, and for the reason that they can 
be so easily raised. In doing so, I must admit that I 
have but little hope that I shall excite many to practice 
what I both practice and preach. 
It is frequently urged as an objection to apples, that 
our soil and climate are not adapted to them—that we 
cannot raise as good fruit here as is grown in the north. 
This may be true in part, but in the present shape of the 
proposition, I am unwilling to admit that it is wholly 
true. That we do not, as a general rule, is undeniable. 
A neighbor of mine has succeeded in raising very fine 
varieties of apples. He selected such varieties as : 
knew to be good, and planted his trees in the usual nu..- 
ner. He keeps his cattle and horses out of his orchard, 
and thereby prevents the mutilation of his trees. The 
consequence is, he has an abundance of delicious fruit 
from early summer to mid-winter. In an adjoining 
county, where much more attention has been given to 
orchards than in this, may be found proofs enough to sa¬ 
tisfy the most incredulous, that it is a very easy matterto 
raise in this latitude, apples of the very best quality. 
That we shall fail to introduce some of the best varieties 
from the north, is altogether probable; but this consti¬ 
tutes no objection, inasmuch as we have enough that are 
already climatised, to give us a great variety if we would 
propagate them. In a short time I hope to demonstrate 
this truth by irresistible evidence, if seeing, smelling and 
tasting, be evidence of that character. At twenty-five 
feet distance, last February, I dug holes four feet in di¬ 
ameter and from fourteen to sixteen inches in depth. In 
each of these pits I deposited earth from the corners of 
the fence, (a rich mold,) sufficient to fill them within six 
inches of the top. Upon this I placed my trees after ta¬ 
king them from the nursery, without cutting or maiming 
the roots, in their natural position, giving to each root 
its full latitude by opening trenches when necessary, and 
then carefully placed the surface soil among the roots and 
pressed it down upon them until the pit was filled to a 
level with the surface. By this operation I have an or¬ 
chard of three hundred apples, pears and plums, that are 
coming rapidly to maturity. Indeed, I believe that their 
growth has been more rapid the present year, than either 
of the two years they stood in the nursery. Now, I am 
vqry certain but for the Cultivator, I should never have 
grafted these trees, for they and those that I have since 
grafted, are the first and only ones I have ever seen graft¬ 
ed; and I am very certain that I could not have been so 
successful in transplanting, without following the gene¬ 
ral principles laid down in its pages. 
In February, 1842, I transplanted six hundred—in the 
same month this year, seven hundred peach trees in the 
same manner, using no manure, and digging the holes 
only five or six inches deep. I have lost but four trees 
in sixteen hundred—one peach tree last year from the six 
hundred, and three this year from the seven hundred, 
which stood upon land entirely too wet for any plant that 
requires a dry soil. Now I call this successful operating. 
Hancock co., Ga., Dec. 18, 1843. Georgian. 
RYE IN PEACH ORCHARDS. 
A postscript to Mr. Physick’s communication, pub¬ 
lished in our Dec. number, was accidentally omitted, 
which is here given: 
“ It has often been remarked that rye was destructive 
to peach trees, and I once saw an orchard of about 
twenty acres go into decay immediately after a crop of 
rye. I do not believe that rye is any more injurious 
than other small grain, but the time of plowing for this 
crop is early in Augustj and according to one of my 
experiments, the plowing of a peach orchard at that 
season will destroy the trees without the rye.” 
HOT BEDS.—(Fig. 00.) 
Every farmer should have a hot bed, though the size 
may of course be regulated according to the amount of 
stuff which is to be grown. If a man only wants vegeta¬ 
bles ' r his own use, he will find the expense of making 
.1 smaii hot bed well repaid, in the advantage derived 
from getting a supply of cabbages, lettuce, cucumbers, 
tomatoes, radishes, &c. several weeks sooner than they 
could be had if grown in the open air. For only grow¬ 
ing plants for the use of a small family, any old win¬ 
dows may be used—they will do quite well while they 
last—but for operating on a larger scale, glasses ealeu 
lated for the purpose should be used. 
Hot beds may either be made entirely on the top of the 
ground, or partly below the surface: but as they require 
a great deal of moisture, it is better to make them partly 
below the top of the ground, because thus made, they do 
not dry up so quick. In making the bed, mark out the 
ground the size of your frame, and make an excavation 
to the depth of a foot, or if the ground is pretty dry, 
eighteen inches. Put in good horse manure, say two 
feet deep, and put on the frame and glass. When the 
heat is sufficiently raised, put on six or eight inches of 
good mold, that which has been made from clean grass 
sods which have been piled and become entirely rotted 
the year before, is best; and when this is warmed to 
the proper degree, which can easily be told by applying 
the hand to it, plant the seeds. When the sun shines, 
care should be taken that there is not too much heat; if 
there is too much, raise the glass; and while the plants 
are growing, as much ail* should be admitted as can be 
done coriaisi^vtly with keeping up the requisite degree 
of heat. See that the plants do not suffer for want of 
water, which should be pretty liberally supplied from a 
watering pot. If the weather should be so cold as to 
render P necessary, thebed should be protected by means 
of mats and straw. 
In this climate, it is not thought advisable to attempt 
doing any thing with hot beds before the middle of 
March; but farther south they may be commenced ear 
tier, acccording to the degree of latitude. 
Those who wish for more particular directions for hot 
beds, can consult the seventh vol. of the Cultivator, p. 38. 
The above cut furnishes a very good illustration 
of the proper proportions of a hot bed frame and glasses. 
The glasses are made to slide, and one of them is shown 
drawn back. It should face the south. 
PEACH TREES. 
Mr. Lewis Sanders of Grass Hills, Kentucky, in a 
communication to the Louisville Journal, says he has 
found great benefit in protecting* peach trees from the 
worm by the use of wood ashes. He scoops out the 
earth from about the root of the tree to the depth of 8 or 
9 inches, and 18 to 24 inches from the tree. This is 
done about the first of September, and is left so till about 
the first of December, when the cavity is filled with 
leached ashes. Unleached ashes, we suppose,would an- 
svver the same purpose, in less quantity. Mr. Sanders 
says “by exposing the roots to the sun and air, the pro¬ 
pagation of the worm is checked, it gives the birds (a 
particular kind of wood pecker,) a chance to pick them 
out*” 
