The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1875-02-05
FARM AND GARDEN.
WHY SO FEW aARDEN


It is astonishing that, with the facil-
tiles by which every man in our coun-
try is surrounded to supply himself and
his family with the substantial advan-
tapes and refining influences OF a gar
den. SO few avail themselves OF them.
IT is a great error to suppose that 1t
is necessary to be wealthy to have
GOOD garden and attractive flower yard.
Every man who chooses can have land
enough to have both. Even in the most
densely populated portions of the
northern cities we have seen lovely col
.Iections of plants and flowers, with many
varieties of fruits. In European cities,
where the poorer classes live In crowded
tenements, we have seen the fsirest and
choicest flowers blooming In window
gardens, cultivated by hands that
earned but few cents per day to pro-
vide for the wants of a large family.
In the country, especially one like ours,
with the finest climate and the richest
soil in the world, it is a reprOach to our
civilization that our flower gardens are
so i'll supplied and poorly cultivated.
In our eagerness to obtain wealth We
imagine that it is necessary to devote
all our time to its pursuit, and that
every moment of time and every rod
of ground that is not devoted to making
money is wasted. eve have no time
to fool with garden truck or with flow
ers," says the farmer who lives In
tumble-doWn log house with worm
fences, dilapidated stables and sheds,
eats hog and homiDy, makes his fifty,
hundred or two hundred bales of cot
ton. Every hour IN the day, week
ate week, year after year, must be
devoted to raise more cotton. Not a
moment can be spared to enjoy the
beauty and glory which nature so Law
ishly Yields for the asking. The veg
etable gardens, so called, which are to
be found on nineteen out OF twenty
plantations, are monuments of thrift
Iessness, ugliness and poverty. A few
struggling collards, row or two OF
Unstaked peas, a few snaps, with
diminutive patch of Irish potatoes
struggling for bare life with weeds and
grass, constitute the vegetables.
We venture to say that in not one of
the cotton states can there be found q
! dozen plantation gardens where aspara-
| gus, beets, carrots, pRrsnips; peas, beans,
celerly, tomatoes, satisfy, egg plant,
okra, lettuce, onions, cabbage and Gu
cumhers can be found in their proper
succession, and yet there is not single
plantation where all these vegetables
could not be raised in abundance on
less than an acre of land for an outlay
of few dollars, yielding more OF do
nestle comfort, than any other ten acres
on the place. And as for flowers, where
do we find them except those which
| nature gives in spite of man? Is this
so because we are destitute of an appre-
citation of comfort and all taste for the
! beautiful? It is because the sweet sun
| shine of heaven and the beauty and
| glory of the world have no charms for
us except as they are connected with
| the yield of our cotton patch
! For small part of what we spend
for cigars, whisky and tho circus, the
! with a valuable vegetable and fruit
garden and invest his dwelling, be it
ever so humble, with the flowers of
rich foliage and the bloom and fra
| GRANGE of flowers. "Nature lets the
| tree grow" as Willis said, "and the
| flower expand for man, without refer
ence to his acoount at the bank. -
! Southern Farmer.
THE APPLICATION OF MANURE.
There is a great diversity OF opinion
among practical farmers as to the best
and most judicious way of applying
manure to land. Some contend that,
to pillow the manure under as soon as
! spread and thus prevent the dissipation
| by the sun and wind of it's most vaIu-
able properties, is the best way to ap-
| ply manure others insist that manure
| spread upon the land and allowed to
remain on the suface does not waste by
exposure to the elements, because
being so thoroughly spread it does not
| ferment, and consequently does not
emit ammonia.
Although many good farmers and
| the latter opinion, invariably act upon
it and raise fine crops, we cannot APP
prove 1t, because, in our Judgment, it is
not based upon true principle. Nobody
/ will deny that the value of manure de-
| ponds upon the amount of ammonia and
! soluble phosphates it possesses, and
| that the ammonia is volatile. It is only
| necessary to walk over q field on which
| stable manure has been newly spread
/ and smell the ammonia that is escaping
and diffusing itself in the atmosphere to
! be convinced of this. The ammonia
/ thus carried away is so much lost to the
land, and though perhaps all the am.
monia contained II the manure nav not
] be carried of, some being washed into
| the soil by the rain and thus carried
| down and deposited IN the storehouse.
whence the growing crop will draw it
out, great deal is thus wasted. We,
/ therefore, adhere firmly to the belief
that all manures should be plowed IN
der as soon as possible after they are
spread, whenever the ground is not too
/ wet to be plOwed.
The fact that top dressing crops
meadows, for instances beneficial to
them, although the manure is exposed
/ to the sun and wind and cannot be
turned under, is not conclusive argu-
ment. Il is the only way In which solid
manure of any kind can be applied to a
meadow. It is the best that can be
done, but it would be much more bene-
fetal could it be covered when spread
| and the waste by exposure prevented.
Besides, is not top dressing always ap-
piled at a season when rain may be ex-
! pected to wash the ammonial properties
/ into the soil and thus save them for the
plant If top-dressiDg could be always
| applied IN liquid form, will ANYBODY
deny that it would be of more benefit