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2 Southern States by many millions, from the North, and from across the ocean, and drive them out of the country. Ask them where are the Indians who lived in Georgia, Florida, Ala bama and other Southern States only forty years ago ? Freedmen and landless white men need not think it a sore deprivation not to own land to cultivate, provided they can rent on fair terms. Many merchants rent the stores they do busi ness in. In some of the oldest and most highly cultivated countries, good farm lands have long risen too high for even the wealthy farmers to own them, as a general thing : they being worth in Great Britain, for example, S3OO an acre. They are partly owned in entail by the nobility, and wealthy capitalists own some as a choice, safe investment; and these classes meet the farmers half way, in accommodating them to long leases as mentioned. We have need of a mixed contract, that is, or was, in vogue among the border farmers of England and Scotland, which ought to be tried among us. It is to give a tenant half the usual cash pay of a farm laborer, and exact from him half the customary proportion of crops of the share system. Respectfully, G. C. Player. One Cause of Southern Poverty—The Crushing Cost of Credit. The following extracts from the Rural Caro linian. deserve to be committed to memory by the planters and farmers of the South : “ First, then, 1 assign as one of the reasons of our continued poverty and want of progress the fact that we do not produce enough of what we eat or wear, and buy too much on a credit. In 1859 the South produced over five million bales of cotton, of four hundred pounds each, which sold at an average of eleven cents per pound, realizing less than $250,000,000. In 1869, the cotton crop of the South was less than three and a half millions of bales, four hundred pounds each, and sold for twenty-two cents per pound, realizing over $300,000,000. The cotton crop for 1873 reached considerably beyond four millions of bales, and sold for less than $275,- 000,000. And this has been the history of our crops annually in the past ; have we aay reason to anticipate that similar effects will not follow the same course in the future ? Then if the al’-cotton policy, or large cotton crop has actually tended to impoverish us as a people, who will assert that the same policy will not have similar effects upon individuals ? “ On paper it can be easily proven, that cot t »n, ns a crop, will pay better than any or all other products. But these figures are far more reliable than the oft-abused labor of the country. There is no question but that individual farmers, having lands peculiarly adapted to the growth of cotton, can net more money growing cotton and buying their breadstuff* and provender than by cultivating a diversity of crops. But it is an egregious error to think, that because A, B, or I , can do so, therefore every Southern tanner cun pursue the same couse, anticipating the same result. “Through a series of years, regardless of the price of cotton, (I reiterate here what 1 have often asserted before in these pages), on ninety nine out of every hundred Southern farms, it is cheaper to grow oats for plow ani mals than to haul corn from the nearest depot, because oats will follow cotton with no cost hut the seed and harvesting, both of which can be paid for every winter in the mutton that can be fatted on the growing crops ; it is cheaper to raise all the pork the farmer’s family can con sume annually than to buy bacon at ten cents per pound; it is cheaper to grow a pound of wool, up to a certain number of pounds, than the same number of pounds of cotton ; and it is cheaper to grow anything that can be possibly grown upon the farm than to buy it on a credit. Few farmers understand properly what is ment by buying “on a credit." They know they get the article and pay more for it than if they paid the cash, but they never once cal culate the premium nr per centage they are paying for this privilege of getting time on a “ credit.’ Let me illustrate. The average farmer may raise meat enough to do him till the first of April. By that time he has to buy, but having no cash, though good gredit, he •• goes to the store’ and buys bacon at 15 cents per lb., payable the Ist November following. He learns the cash price is 121 cents per pound, but necessity compels him to buy on a credit. He thus pays 2| cents per pound for the privi lege of buying on a credit, or one-sixth the price lobe paid, which is simply 15} per cent. THE W SO WB & W W per annum for the use of money. But he buys in April, and has to pay Ist November, only eight months credit, and thus pays twenty-five per cent per annum for the use of money. What farmer can afford to do this and live? What is applicable to bacon is equally so to corn, hay, flour, implements, mules, and every article the farmer buys on a credit. “ It is estimated that the average increase of the agricultural wealth of the united States is about four per cent, per annum. The average increase of agricultural wealth in any Southern State, annually, since the war has not been one per cent. Indeed, some of the States have traveled the other road, and are now lost in the wilderness of debt ; and there is no more potent cause for this condition of things than that of buying on a credit the necessaries of life to en able them to grow cotton, and this, too, very frequently at a cost that exceeds its market val ue. There is an infatuation about this cultiva tion of cotton that amounts to an hallucination. Can there be nothing invented to so far dispel it as to induce the Southern farmer to live more within himself and less at the mercy of the Shylocks of the land?" « From the American Farmer. Millet as a Hay Crop. Seeing the interest manifested by you in the cultivation of the grasses, induces me to give you my experience with millet as a hay crop. In the Spring of 1874, I made preparations for a larger crop of tobacco than 1 had previously been planting ; but owing to the universal fail ure in plants, I was unable to plant but a com paratively small portion of my land, notwith standing I had heavily fertilized, and bedded up most of my lot of land ready to receive the plants. After the 15th of July, I despaired of being able to plant any more that season, and cast about to see what I could put in the land at this late day, to make it pay something for the fertilizers expended on it. After consulting some of the old volumes of the American Farmer, which has always been a wise counsellor to me, I concluded to try millet on 21 acres, and ordered 2A bushels seed of Messrs. Allison & Addison, at Richmond, Va. I dragged down the beds with a seven-toothed harrow, and got the land smooth and fine with the fallow drag. On the 18th of July I seeded the land and harrowed in with a Gaddes harrow. The same was a heavy, stiff clay soil, not very well adapted to the growth of this grass, nor was the season very favorable, having a dry spell just before it headed out, in consequence of which the crop was not a full one, even for the land. Soon after it headed out and before the seed matured, or the stalk got hard, I cut it and cured in the usual way, and housed nine large wagon-loads of nice sweet hay, estimated by good judges to be 12,000 tbs. The land was then fallowed and seeded in wheat with the rest of the tobacco lot. Had the millet been seeded earlier, say last April or Ist of May, on suitable soil, with a favorable season, I am satisfied the yield would have been much heavier. This grass is valuable on account of its rapid growth and early maturity. This crop was made in eight weeks and three days from day of seeding. Farmers may cut their wheat or oats crop, fallow the land and get a large crop of nice hay in eight weeks, and then avoid buying so much Northern hay. Some persons may wish to know if this grass grows well on very poor land. 1 will answer by saying that it will not, unaided by manure or fertilizers of some kind, nor will any other kind, not excepting broom sedge or poverty grass. P. B. Crowder. Amelia County, Fa Feb. Sth, 1875. Seedless Watermelons. —The Sutter (Cal.) Banner says : “ We are informed by Mr, Wm. Mawson, one of the champion watermelon grow ers of Sutter county, of a novel way of produ cing seedless watermelons. W’hen the vine be gins to bear, he lets the first watermelon on each branch grow undisturbed, but covers the branch up with dirt, from the first melon to the second one, or within six inches or more from the end of the vine will be a seedless watermelon, the melon nearest the body of the vine having kept all the seed." The largest and heaviest l>ale of cotton brought to Andersonville during the season weighed 836 pounds. It was ginned ami pack ed by Mr. D. 8. Watson, and sold to Barr, Wat son A Co. The corn crop of the United States for the past year is put down by the Agricultural De partment at a little more than 800,000,000 bushels, being 120.000,000 less than in 1878, which was not a large crop year. Mr. Cox, of Taylor county, Ga., has a stalk of cotton from which he gathered five pounds of the staple. TKE CAKDKK For the Rural Southerner. Manure for Fruit Trees. We are frequently asked, “ What manure do you use for a fruit tree ? " This is a very im portant subject; more so than many are apt to imagine. It is easy to fertilize a tree so it may grow, even luxuriantly sometimes. But to pro duce full crops of perfect fruit, regularly, is dif ferent. As it is the fruit we are after, so should the means of succeeding in the production of fruit be our chief concern. A manure which will produce wood growth, is not apt to produce fruit buds. For instance manure made of the droppings from stock fed on hay or grass, will cause an increased growth of the tree, but will not show any perceptible difference in the quantity or quality of the fruit; on the other hand, when the stock is fed on grain, manure composed of their droppings will soon cause a marked improvement not only in increased amount of fruit, but also in its quality. Lime is an excellent fertilizer, to assist production of fruit, but should never be composted with any sort of stable manure. Ashes may generally be used indiscriminately. Don’t be afraid of using too many ; the potash which is contained in ashes is a wonderful remedial agent ; it has also the valuable properties of a preventative against disease. Dissolve a pound or so of crude pot ash in a barrel of water, and sprinkle this solu tion frequently around the roots of the tree. The effect will soon be noticed in the fruit being so much finer and in more abundance. Lye soap or lye soap suds, applied to the body of the tree as a wash, is a powerful fertilizer, and also an excellent remedy for many diseases to which fruit trees are subject. The writer has cured pear trees, to all appearance, in the last stages of blight, when they seemed be “gone up, - ’ with the use of nothing but lye soap. No kind of commercial guano should ever be used. We urge every man possessing an orch ard to manure his trees, regularly and syste matically. If the trees are worth having at all, they are worth all the care and attention neces sary to make them of some value and profit. Why possess them, and not derive all the benefit possible? The reason why fruit trees do not generally succeed South, is not from the coun try, climate or soil being unadapted to their culture, but simply because people will not at tend to their trees. When planted they are usually set out as posts, and their subsequent treatment is after the same careless style. If the tree is properly attended to, it is sure to reward the laborer. Nature will never go back on any one. We are pleased to notice an increased interest exhibited each successive year in the raising of orchards throughout our much-neglected sunny South. Would that our people could thoroughly awake to the actual importance of this interest ing and always profitable industry I A people to become and remain independent, must rely upon their own native resources. As one of the many industries calculated to assist towards this desirable consummation, we offer the culti vation of fruit. As food, at once economical and healthy; and as merchandise, an article always sure of an accessible and profitable market. B. W. Van Dyke. i Marietta, Ga., March, 1875. For the Rural Southerner, (■rowing Tea in Georgia. PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN. Those who have investigated the subject know that the obstacles to growing tea successfully, as an article of commerce, in much of Georgia and part of the other Southern States, is the want I of experience, but chiefly of cheap labor. I The tea tree of China has been grown by sev eral persons in Georgia, from the Piedmont re- I gion to the sea-coast. The shrub is a hardy and vigorous evergreen, and thrives as well with us as it does in China or Japan. It grows from three to five feet high—a neat, compact, laurel leaved shrub, with pretty white flowers in Spring, and is quite ornamental. It is perfectly hardy ; will stand any exposure in this climate, as has been tested in this city, Athens, and many other localities in Georgia. A well-grown shrub, five or six years old, will yield, in a season, three to six ounces. It is now generally admitted that there is but one variety of the tea tree grown in China —the apparent difference being the result of altitude, aspect, soil and cultivation. Seedling plants can be purchased of some of our nurserymen at reasonable prices, and they are easily propagated from seeds (which they bear at three to four years old) and stool cut tings. It would be an easy matter for any family that has a home and a few feet of ground, to produce their own tea and a little to sell. Its general introduction for home use would most likely lead to its production for market. There would be many things for our people to learn, to be able to manufacture the article as we get it from China; but a good tea, free from adulteration, can be made by simply picking and drying the leaves in the same manner that sage leaves are cured. The different qualities of the commercial arti cle is the result of the (aside from the soil, cul tivation, etc.) time of picking the leaves, the manner of curing, and the amount of adultera tion. The shrubs can be transplanted any time from November to April. William Jennings, Corresponding Secretary Po. So. Atlanta. Curculio Remedy. Prof. S. B. Heiges, President of the Pennsyl vania Fruit Growers’ Society, in his late address before that association, stated that for two years past he had no difficulty in saving his entire crop of plums from the ravages of the curculio. His remedy was simple, but had, nevertheless, proven effectual. It consisted in preparing a solution of old putrid whale oil soap, and syringing his trees effectually with the prepara tion, so as to coat every leaf if possible. This was applied frequently, and always just after a shower of rain, commencing when the petals were falling from the blossoms, and ending only when the fruit arrived at the ripening season. As a proof of its efficacy, he stated that in an adjoining yard to his own, with only the divis ion fence intervening, was a neighbor’s plum tree, that had set a full crop of fruit, but that every specimen thereon had been stung by the curculio, and at maturity there was not one left to tell the tale. On the contrary, he could not detect the mark of the insect on any of his own fruit, and they ripened a full crop—indeed the weight of fruit was astonishing. The varieties consisted of all the most popular and delicate kinds known to our pomologists. We have heard and read of so many recipes of this nature, that at first we felt inclined to think there must be some mistake about this as well; but the well-known character of the gen tleman in question, with the photographs of his various kinds attached to branches, aided by the statements of his neighbors, forbid any doubt in regard to the matter. Skeptics, however, have an opportunity of testing his plan, for it is certainly very simple—too easy, in fact, to meet the views of sufferers by the “ Little Turk” all over the land.— The Horticulturist. The “Lady" Grape. —A correspondent of the Horticulturist says of this grape: “ We have had an opportunity to test the fruit, and were much pleased with its quality. It is so much better than the Martha that it must entirely supersede that variety; indeed, to those not very critical in their judgment of grapes, this would rank among the best."