The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-08-12

ways between the luxuriant rows Of your
teeming fruit vines will soon become tn,
scene of your most delightful recreations az
we'll as of your agreeable labors, and thu
fewer impediments there are to your step
ping at once from your porch into the mids
Of them the better.
In surface, it should be free from natura
breaks, nor have other fence nor harbor fo,
weeds than an outside fence, which should
enclose the whole. Suffer no tree to stanC
within nor near its limits you canno
grow fruit in the vicinity of shade trees Of
shrubs and in esthetic beauty, what orna
ment can equal the elegance of your vines
and fruit trees, gracefully bending to beg
your acceptance of the bounties of Bac
chus and Pomona, of which they are the
smiling bearers In such an Eden even Q
dog is scarcely less destructive than hog
but let your turkeys, ducks, and small
birds be always welcome visitors they
compensate thousand-fold by feeding on
worms and insects for all the damage they
can do, and should be excluded only during
those short intervals when certain berries
are ripening.
In size and shape, let it be square, the
will give just ten acres, which is area
enough for the first two or three years for
the cultivation of all the most eligible spe-
cialties; and by little forecast you may
lay out the plats for each, 30 that by put
ting back the fence on one or other of the
sides, you may extend the ground you
wish to cover with any of them at plea
sure, and preserve the unity of each un-
broken. But when you fence in this desig-
mated square, allow a space Of eight feet for
a wagon-track, exterior to every side, for
this is needed to give you convenient access
to every part and then the area of your
ten acres will be preserved entire. You
will find the advantage of this in many sub
sequent operations, since every twenty-five
yards measure on the side of such square
gives just one acre, and every yard the cor
responding fraction SO that single row of
strawberries, for instance, planted three
feet apart, covers the twenty-secondth part
of an acre.
We have now selected our land, staked
out its boundaries, and cleared its surface
of every object that can obstruct its free
cultivation the next step is the preparation
Of the soil by giving it a garden tah to the
greatest possible depth. These are very sim
pie words, but on the strict execution Of
their fullest import depends the success Of
the whole enterprise. No matter how heavily
you may manure, nor how much pains you
may take in after tillage if you do not, by
repeated ploughings, SUBJ oilings, and winter
ridgings, thoroughly pul l'erize to depth
three times the cut of an ordinary furrow
before you put in your crops, your soil can
not be got into that condition in which the
delicate fbroug fruit-feeders which are to
labor therein can puryey their supplies,
and your crops can never be q success
either in quality or quantity. Does the
farmer, who eontentc himself with turn
ing q fttfrow six or eight inches deep,
ever reflect that the soil below remains as
crude and impervies tc roots as a petri
faction, and for all practical purposes that
the soil he turns over might as well be un
lerlaid by fag-stone ? No frost has ever
upheaved it, nor subsoil ploughs broken the
compactness of the solidified mass-no at
mospheric influences nor any element
which nurtures vegetation has penetrated
it, and however fertile it may be in its con-
Stituents. it's organic condition makes it ste
rile as a brick ;.and unless the planter will
the greatest possible depth," he had better
90 no further with this writer.
Remember that this ten-acre plantation
is the ark which carries your imperilled
fortunes that you may reckon with the
same certainty you now do that an acre OF
good land may be made to pro0uce twenty
bushels Of HhU&at that this plantation oil
special crops may be made to yield even as
early as the third year an income OF five to
ten thousand dollars, and that this income
will 90 on increasing with the age of the
plants for many years to come, and that
the plantation in itself is fortune to leave
to family quite as certain as United States
bonds. The two conditions are (and the
first is the hardest), that you make a right
start, and that your personal devotion to
the development of this infant plantation
shall correspond to the magnitude OF the
results expected.
Comply with these and you cannot fail
to establish large permanent income; and
it is no light thing to say that It will be al
together independent Of negro labor. You
will not succeed alike in all indeed, some
crops may at first be q total failure, but q
fair average and final success are as certain
as that effect follows cause. :,
As this paper is already too long, it shall
only be added that the land should be pu'
under fallow without the needless loss OF
day, and before it is time for the next ope
ration the subject will be resumed IN the
Dispatch. -- W. ).