92 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
variable climate without resorting to glass cover¬ 
ings ; as, for instance, the Arbor Vitses^ Norway- 
Spruce, Austrian and Scotch Pines, Red Cedar, 
etc. In the case of these, we select a sheltered 
spot, and prepare the ground in the preceding 
autumn, by carefully pulverizing the soil, and 
incorporating a fair proportion of sharp sand 
with it, but tiever using stimulating manures. 
A coating of ashes is excellent. The following 
spring, as soon as the soil is in a suitable con¬ 
dition for the operation, shallow drills may be 
drawn out, and the seeds thinly sown. The soil 
should then be gently beaten down with the 
back of the spade, and nothing further will be 
necessary until the appearance of the seedlings, 
which soon occurs after a few warm days. We 
very much question whether any benefit results 
from deep and frequent cultivation of the soil 
between the rows, as our own experience has 
been exactly the reverse. Young evergreens 
appear to need a compact soil to counteract the 
tendency to dampen off; and they will survive 
the first summer more readily if the weeds be 
pulled without the use of the hoe. 
Such species as produce berry-like fruit should 
have their pulpy covering removed by washing 
as soon as gathered, and the seeds placed in 
boxes of sand, or sowed at once in beds where 
they are to remain. If allowed to become dry 
they will frequently lie in the ground for two 
and even three years bef@re germinating. This 
applies to the Yews, Junipers, and Red Cedar. 
With the rarer kinds of evergreens we have 
used the following contrivance with excellent 
success. A cold frame is raised above the bed 
by placing a brick flat on its side, under each 
corner. After sowingthe seeds, the sash should 
be placed on, and a thin coat of whitewash 
applied to the glass, to break the direct rays of 
the sun ; after which an occasional slightsyring- 
ing will supply all needful moisture. 
This plan insures a free circulation of air, a 
moist atmosphere, and partial shade. Some¬ 
times one becomes possessed of a few very rare 
seeds, upon which lie desires to bestow extra 
pains. In such cases we prepare some turfy, 
sandy soil, and fill large pots within one or two 
inches of the rim, and sow the seeds in the 
autumn, as soon after gathering as possible, and 
place a pane of glass on the pot. The pots 
must then be set in a cool green-house or pit, 
secure from frost. Under the staging is a suit¬ 
able spot. Towards spring the seed-leaves will 
commence making their appearance, and moist¬ 
ure must be withheld as much as possible, never, 
however, allowing the plants to actually suffer. 
When the young seedlings are well established, 
and show'signs of producing their true leaves, 
they should at once be pricked out into single 
pots and placed in a cool, shady place fortlie re¬ 
mainder of the season. In summing up the re¬ 
quirements of evergreen seedlings in theearliest 
stages of their growth, we may say that in all 
cases they must have a free circulation of air , 
shade , moisture over the plants , but not in the 
soil , and an early planting. 
--—a-fiH r. , . 
Tie South as Desirable Farming Ter¬ 
ritory—Texas. 
BY THOS. AFFLECK, WASHINGTON CO., TEXAS. 
[We are reluctantly obliged to divide Mr. 
Affleck’s letter and present in this number 
what he has to say about Texas.— Eds.] 
There seems to be much doubt in the North 
and West, as to whether or not the Southern 
States offer sufficient inducements to farmers and 
others to emigrate thither. 
Whatever objections were supposed to exist 
from the presence of slavery there, so far as the 
condition of the negroes as slaves was con¬ 
cerned, have been removed by the result of the 
war. The late slave-holders, as a class, are 
ruined. Nothing is left to them but their lands, 
with their improvements fast going to wreck. 
Many are burdened with debt, the total of 
which, comparatively nothing whilst they held 
negroes as property, is now overwhelming. 
These lands must be sold. They are generally 
in a form to admit of desirable subdivision. All 
have more or less of houses which could be 
easily made habitable for a time, and many 
have costly mills, gins, etc., upon them; stables, 
cisterns, etc., which, if not attended to, will fall 
into decay in another year or two. In many 
parts of the country, in the track of the armies, 
the fencing is gone,—but so is the live-stock 
which ran at large, and made fencing necessary. 
As a rule, those lands, requiring but little 
done to admit of raising a crop, can be pur¬ 
chased for less than the improvements upon 
them cost. Many of them are under fence of 
impassable hedges, which could be reclaimed 
and brought into shape by less labor than fenc¬ 
ing with rails would cost. A great breadth of 
country in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, is 
one dense coat of that most valuable of all grasses 
for pasture, Bermuda grass, {Cynodon dactylon) 
which will support several times the quantity of 
stock per acre, when well set and upon soil 
that suits it, that any other known grass will, 
though a pest among the crops. 
Texas! To do her justice would require a 
volume! In extent, vast; with soils of every 
possible quality, generally rich and calcareous; 
and, especially in the high, rolling, lovely prai¬ 
rie regions, with a climate unsurpassed on the 
globe, notwithstanding the greatly complained- 
of “ Northers." Although some portions have 
been fearfully afflicted this past season by yel¬ 
low fever, Texas is the healthiest new country 
ever opened to settlement. I have seen more 
fatal sickness in one season, at an early day, on 
the streams of the West, from the Alleghany 
and Monongahela to the Missouri, than has 
occurred in all of Texas since her first settle¬ 
ment. Even the valley lands of Texas west of 
the Brazos, and many of those on the upper 
Trinity, Brazos, etc., are healthy, and cultivat-. 
able by white labor, as are all of the uplands, 
which, unlike those of most of the other Slates, 
whilst they are rich yet do not melt like brown 
sugar with every heavy rain. The valleys of 
the West, when irrigated, will be the gardens 
of the world ! To those liable to, or threatened 
with diseases of the throat and lungs, the cli¬ 
mate of the high prairies of Texas is an almost 
sure specific. No State offers greater facilities 
for manufacturing, and especially fabrics of wool 
and of cotton, and cotton yarns. 
In Texas, there isabundance of water-power, 
of fuel, labor, food, etc., etc. And the raw mate¬ 
rials, even to the dyes, as Indigo, Madder, wood, 
and Teazles, are producible at the door. 
The greatest of all advantages now offered to 
the immigrant in the South is, that good lands, 
which have been long under cultivation, and 
hence are infinitely more healthy than if newly 
cleared, or broken up for the first time, can be 
bought for a song; houses at least sufficiently 
comfortable fora season; the facilities fora 
dozen or more of families, old neighbors and 
friends, settling closely together, with mill, 
gin-liouse, etc., sufficient for all; thus affording 
mutual support, countenance, and assistance, 
with facilities for schools and churches; and 
that in an agreeable climate, where all of the 
most important staple crops and fruits of the 
world can be successfully grown. 
Where several join-in a purchase, time can al¬ 
ways be had on a portion of the price, thus leav¬ 
ing more capital in aid of successful cropping. 
To those coming South, to farm, I would say 
—Do not come in the belief that “Ye are the 
people, and wisdom shall die with you!” Were 
the sufferings of Job greater than we at the 
South are now undergoing ? I trow not. Be 
assured that those men who have reclaimed this 
vast country from the wilderness, who produced 
crops that were the wealth of this continent, and 
went farthest of any to maintain the commerce 
of the entire world, were not absolute fools! 
Something, even in the present depressed con¬ 
dition, may be learnt from their experience. 
Seek it, and advise and follow those practices, 
introducing what you may deem improvements, 
slowly and prudently. Not a few have failed 
from pursuing an opposite course. 
Many owners of large, improved places in this 
State are laying them off into small farms and 
renting to new-comers, who are not prepared to 
purchase,or deem it best to look around for a sea¬ 
son. The usual rent for good laiuUwell located, 
is one-fourth of the cotton, housed in the seed, 
and one-third of the other crops, also housed. 
Many can lend team, implements, cows, etc., or 
will sell these on time. For men of moderate 
means, it is best to rent for a year or two. 
Sheep-farming is a favorite, profitable, and 
pleasant pursuit. Wheat growing, market gar¬ 
dening, fruit growing, the grape and wine, lum¬ 
bering, brick-making—in fact, almost any pro¬ 
duct ive pursuit, well folio wed, succeeds in Texas. 
Capital can find safer and better investment 
here than anywhere else. It is scarcely pos¬ 
sible that anything is likely to more than tem¬ 
porarily check the progress of this great State. 
The Determination of Sex in Breeding. 
Occasionally enthusiastic breeders have 
thought that they had secured a means of regu¬ 
lating the production of animals of either sex 
at will. But a wider application of their rules 
has so far shown their facts to be remarkable 
coincidents, rather than proofs of the discovery 
of a scientific truth. It would often be of very 
great advantage to the farmer, if he could pre¬ 
determine the sex of ids stock, for there is usu¬ 
ally a much larger demand for females than for 
males ; but all the devices employed to invariably 
secure female offsprings in breeding animals 
are without any satisfactory results. There is 
nothing in the researches of science or in the 
experiments of practical men to throw any light 
upon this matter. It is a law of universal appli¬ 
cation that the proportion of the sexes among 
all animals that pair is about equal, while 
among polygamous species the females large¬ 
ly preponderate. All the rules which seem 
to work well in the practice of one breeder 
determine nothing in the hands of another. 
Some animals will produce for a long series of 
years only males, while others will produce 
only females, but, taking a whole herd and their 
progeny for a number of years, nothing has yet 
been done to disturb the proportion of the sexes. 
Any teachings, then, which profess to overrule 
this law in nature are to be received with sus¬ 
picion. Experiments in this direction are not 
likely to be rewarded with success. Still, sta¬ 
tistics are always valuable, and persons who are 
curious in these matters and conduct experi¬ 
ments should preserve records of their results. 
