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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, JUNE 1, 1882.
8
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The Fence question.
This question is exciting increased inter
est in the older portions of the South. Our
neighboring State of South Carolina has
taken the lead in reforming the legislation
on this subject. The local option was first
authorized by law, by tiie vote of townships,
then extended to counties, and finally the
“bull was taken by the horns,” and the
law made general and absolute throughout
the State; The example thus Bet is encour
aging to the friends of the fence law reform
in Georgia. Like all questions, it has two
sides, witii earnest and honest advocates.
Taki ng a practical and perhaps a narrow view
of the subject, is is quite clear that the
voting on such a question should be re
stricted to those who own the land, and
upon whom the labor and expense of keep
ing up fences at present fall, wherever the
time-honored system prevails of fencing the
crops and allowing stock free range. But
we concede that the subject should be viewed
from a more liberal standpoint. One of
the fundamental principles on which our
government is founded, is that private prop
erty may be taken for public use. This
principle, however, is not distinctly ex
pressed, but is implied in the reservation,
that private property shall not be taken for
public use except upon “just compensa
tion.” The principle governs in the impo
sition of all duties upon citizens, such as
payment of taxes, jury and military duty,
etc., but in nearly every instance there is
express provision made for compensation,
or the duty or tax imposed is deemed but
a just equivalent for the protection to the
rights of personal life and property enjoyed
by every citizen. So we suppose the old
system of fencing and the laws which sus
tain it, were based upon the idea that the
greatest good for the greatest number was
conserved by such system. This was un
doubtedly true in the early settlement of
the country. When timber was plentiful
and natural pasturage abundant, it was so
evidently cheaper to fence in the small area
under cultivation, and allow cattle the free
range of the country, that it scented to be
the natural and only wise plan. But this
primeval condition of the country no longer
exists in large sections of the country, and
men are now living who will live to see the
best timbered section now remaining in as
bad a case as the oldest parts of the country.
Under the present laws of most of the South
ern States, the farmer is required to incur
the labor and expense of building fences for
the benelit of the public; he must furnish
the timber to make the rails; and moreover,
he is compelled to furnish pasturage for the
public, or resort to the expense of enclosing
his lands, and all this without the slightest
compensation. His property is taken for
public use without compensation. And
more than this: In most coses where duties
are required of a citizen, or his property
devoted to public use, he is not only paid a
just compensation of the same, but he is at
the same time an equal participant in the
benefits, which cannot be said of the far
mer who is compelled to keep up several
miles of fence in order that his neighbor,
who owns no land, may range his cattle and
hogs on the uninclosed lands. B,
Sweet Potatoes.
Continue to set out draws from the bed if
thrifty and vigorous. Later on, it is better
to plant euttings from the vines, as the latter
develops tubers earlier after setting, and they
will keep better. Remember that the ground
should always be freshly plowed just before
setting slips or cuttings. It is more than
equivalent to a good working to start them
in fresh mellow soil. They will not only
live better, but will require less work, as
grass will not come up until after another
rain, The potatoes intended for seed should
be grown from cut vines; at least it is the
commonly received opinion that the tubers
thus grown, will produce smoother, better
shaped potatoes next season, and we think
our own experience sustains the belief. It
is certainly true that late grown potatoes
keep better, and this consideration itself, is
sufficient to justify attention to this point.
As this seems to be a year of revival in
farming—and by this we mean a renewed ef
fort to return to a wise and self sustaining
system—we trust that Southern farmers will
greatly increase the area in sweet potatoes
and extend the economic uses of the crop.
There are few, if any crops grown, that will
produce so large a quantity of wholesome,
fattening food for stock, as the sweet potato.
We all understand and fully appreciate its
value as fj/od for the table; yet even for this
purpose they are not grown and preserved in
sufficient quantities to supplv the home de
mand, to say nothing of distant markets.
But as a food for domestic animals, their use
is practically measured by the gleanings af
forded to the hogs after the “patches" have
been more or less closely harvested. Very
few farmers plant more than one-quarter or
one-half acre of potatoes to the plow. In
deed, the area devoted to them is oftener
regulated by the number in the household
of the farmer, than with any reference to
the size of the farm or the number of mules,
cattle and hogs to be sustained. Ho is gen
erally well satisfied to produces six months’
supply for table use.
In our judgment the sweet potato should
be the turnip of the South, in the sense that
the latter is one of the most valuable crops
grown in England. Our climate, and the
present condition of our agriculture is not
suited to the field culture of turnips, or their
production for stock feed. We have been
too prone in our efforts at improvement in
farming, to inculcate English methods and
recommend English food crops, and while
no general effort has been made to grow tur
nips, carrots and mangolds for stock-feeding
in the South, it is not for want of plenty of
advice to do so, but rather a want of en
couraging results of experiments that have
been made.
But the sweet potato is not only well suited
to our climate and soil, and our careless
methods, but it is also more nutritious and
palatable, being highly relished by all kinds
of stock. We would be glad to have the ex
perience of other farmers, who like Mr. G.
W. Munro, have tried the potato as a regu
lar stock feed for mules and hoises. We
should stand by our own peculiar crops and
develop their economic value to the fullest
extent rather than run after such products
as have developed merit only under circum
stances very different from our own. B.
Practical Rnggntloni.
Editor Southkbn World—Will you allow
me through your excellent paper to call the
attention of machinists and inventors to
the importance of making what I call indi
vidual farm machines to be worked by hand
or one horse power. We make all our grain
and bread stuffs; cotton for a money crop;
all fruits except tropical. Two crops of
Irish potatoes, rice, upland and creek bot
tom, the best of syrup from Louisiana ribbon
cane and would be the most independent
people in the South if we had the aid of
such machines as could be used at home
by every farmer for himself. During two
long visits to the Atlanta Exposition, I tried
to impress this idea upon the machine ex
hibitors, but their minds seemed set upon
large cotton factories, steam threshing me-
chines, etc., doing an enormous amount of
work per day. We do want and ure willing
to pay for a small rice hullcr, a small cotton
seed huller, grinder and oil press, a light
gin power without cogs, a dry dirt brick
press, a small cut-off saw for firewood, wheat
und oat thresher, small hand corn shelter
that can be screwed to any table or bench,
aud we want what we never expect to see, a
light one horse riding plow. The ladies of
this section wish to know whom to address
for cocoons or silk worm eggs. This section
is in the valley of Big Mulberry creek with
a soil and climate well adapted to the growth
of the worms and I think silk raising
would prove a success. Your’s is the best
agricultural paper North or South in my
opinion. J. Hendrick.
Collierville, Clinton county, Ala.
A Booth Carolina Farmer.
Editor Southern World—I consider your
paper indispensable to farmers of the South
ern States. I am better pleased with every
copy. Farmers in this country arc waking
up, planting less cotton, more corn, oats,
barley, clover and wheat. I have twenty-
five acres in oats that look remarkably well,
and soon will be ready for the cradle, the
greater part was sown last fall. I have one
acre of ground that the pines were cut two
years ago; I have burnt it over and broken
it twice with a bull-tongue plow, expect
to break it again, then sow it in peas the
lost of June for experiment. I have a large
pasture for my cows and sheep, part woods,
the remainder in old field and bottom; the
swamp grass is fine, it is fattening them
every day. Having read through the col
umns of your paper, bow to plant water
melons, I have heeded the advice. Can’t
you come around this summer and eat
with me. J. H. A.
Cedar Grove, S. C.
Written specially tor the Southern World.
Meteorological Interests. What the
Havana are doing. Tornadoes. Home
Idea about them. The Subject
one of General Study.
Editor Southern Wobld—At this time
there is much interest manifested in scien
tific circles in regard to Sun storms, and
quite as much among meteorologists in ref
erence to recent visitations of a similar
character on a smaller scale on our planet.
Even the Signal Service appears at this mo
ment, to think there is something interest
ing in the subject of tornadoes, which of
late have been dropping down in various
parts of this country with much fury and
have been very destructive of life and prop
erty in some quarters.
Sergeant Finley,of theservice,it seems,lias
discovered that there are really such things
and that they have been occurring for fifty
years at least; and the meteorological
savuns at Washington begin to acknowledge
their existence. There is good lcoson for
this. The last two years have unfolded
something of their history and brought
them more particularly into notice. As
tronomers are now very much engaged in
investigating the surface of the Sun to find
out if possible, the cause of the Sun storms.
This kind of investigation 'has beea going
on for a long time, and while it is whole
some to science and apt to lead to impor
tant results, I do not believe such methods
will ever disclose the cause of these phe
nomena on the Sun’s surface. I think the
true cause is not to be found in the mere
effects produced. The Signal Service has
sent out its corps of meteorologists, or will
do so, to examine the localities of the recent
cyclones, and the effect produced by them,
with a view of ascertaining their origin or
cause. While in this case something may
be accomplished for science in collecting
the facts of the history and character of
storms of this kind, I do not think the ob
ject will be attuined. We must look for the
origin or cause of storms somewhere else than
in localities where they occur and in the
effects they produce. I undertake to say
that the vibrations of the recent storms, be
longing to an interval or two defined and
marked out by me long before they occurred,
were feltovcra wide area of country, at the
time, although their destructive effect was
confined to places or spots, so to speak; and
their cause if itcan'tbe ascertained, can just
ns well be without their phenomenal effect
as with it. For two years past the places
of cyclones have been visited and the effects
produced by them, investigated by men of
science, and the subject prosecuted by a
close examination into all the phenomena
attending these storms with the sole pur
pose of ascertaining their nature and origin.
Elaborate papers have been read before
scientific associations on the subject; but
so far as any result has been reached, it
may be expressed in a word—naught.
Of course, I do not mean to criticise the
efforts made in this direction by those whose
opinions in such matters, from their posi
tion, entitle them to weight, but I do mean
to he explicit in asserting that results are
not such as pretended, from these sources,
and as many imagine them to be. However,
it is now to be hoped at least; that the labors
of the observatory, coupled with those of
the Signal Service, will end in something
more than smoke—that something more
will result from their joint effort than a vast
heap of unwieldy information, never to be
utilized except in the differences which
arise in the disputations of members of the
scientific associations.
While the astronomers and meteorologists
of the Government departments can attend
to their business in this way just as well
without the opinion of an outsider as with it;
it may not be out of place to present to the
public, at a time of so much interest in the
subject, something of the labors and inves
tigations out of the highly favored circles
of the observatories and departments of
science.
1. It was shown year before last that 1881
would be pregnant with phenomenal out
breaks of nature, just such as occurred.
They were characterized, and the time and
places of their occurrences given.
2. Information was given to the public
last year at an early day, that these natural
disturbances would reach their climax in
1832, and thut they would during this year,
or thereafter, decrease gradually until in a
year or two they would not be so marked.
3. Notice was also given the first of this
year that the year would be remarkable for
the number of its cyclones and the danger
attending them.
4. The cause to which these phenomena
were attributable was alleged to be in the
combination of planetary perturbation of
the earth’s orbit, the displacement of the
elongated bulge of an atmosphere due to
planetary altitude, and the maxima of Sun
spots. Planetary grouping, planetary alti
tudes and solar excitement were discussed
as the exciting origin of the present cycle
through which the earth was passing, of a
most remarkable telluric paroxysm. The
immediate result it was shown would be in
tense heat for 1881 and numerous Sun
strokes and heat prostrations in the large
cities in Europeand the United States. Other
natural outbreaks, such as arc common to
these intervals of excitement were alluded
to and freely discussed. The electrical storms
were especially selected as a prominent
featuro of the year.
In regard to all this class of natural phe
nomena, I only have to say the subject has
been fully elaborated and the cause dis
closed. In reference to cyclones, it can
easily be proved that they occur every year,
but in less destructive and a milder form
than in periods of longer duration. Few
persons have failed to witness the effects of
cyclones and have escaped observing them
in their milder or less destructive form.
Their weight or altitude usually determines
their character, and this is fixed by the air
strata above and below. In their mild form
or when their altitude is too great to result
in danger, they can be studied with some de
gree of certainty in arriving at a knowledge
of them. In the first place cyclones often
occur separately from any apparent storm
range. In this form they are more apt to be
mere cloud bursts and very destructive in
descending and disintegrating, as it were,
from an immense altitude. In the second
place, cyclones proper usually are spot
storms in the track of a general tornado, or
storm movement. The general effects are
sometimes produced by one or more of these
spot storms in the same belt, but more often
by different formations in concentric belts,
and the cause of the results is confused, and
often attributed to one and the same local
formation.
Any one can observe the formation of a
cyclone when a storm is coming on or break
ing up in hot weather. They are so common
when not destructive at places, that I need
take no further notice of the fact more than
to suggest it, to make all who feel an inter
est in such investigations, observers. The
study of the. clouds is the most thrilling of
all subjects, especially during the intervals
of great electrical excitement. If the clouds
are well elevated no danger need be appre
hended unless they are descending to a lower
air stratum. In that event, if they are
thick and heavy, and in layers of dense vol
ume well outlined, it would be well enough
not to strain the eyes too much, as some
times the nervous system is not equal to the
sublimity of the occasion.
About the breaking up of storms a few
words, and I will close for this time. When
we say a storm is breaking up, it may be,
but if it comes on the next day with greater
fury than the day before, we have simply
been mistaken about it, and have been de
ceived by appearances. In winter, early
spring and late autumn, when stormsappear
to break up, we are seldom deceived. But
in summer, late spring and early autumn,
we are easily deceived by the evening clear
ings, after the thunder showers about us. As
long as the clouds gather of a day time into
thunder heads, the storm belt is passingover.
The only distinction is purely incident to
the soasons of the year. In winter the Min
belt in our latitude is contracted into one
general movement. In summer it moves in
detached parts, broken or separated by the
heated air currents which drive the moist
ures into higher regions. Bains increase in
the summer as the earth is gradually cooled
by an increase of moisture below in its de
scent from the cold regions above. In this
season the rains are generally spotted, and
the hottest and driest places frequently suf
fer from a drought, unless the storm belt
contracts suddenly over them, or there is an
unusual amount of moisture passing over
head. 0*o- K- Gather.
Ashville, Ala.
Note.—In Issue of May 15th of Southern
World, in my article, the sentence begin
ning, “Its northern rains or belt,” etc.,
should read, "Its northern rim or belt,” eto.
I simply apply my remarks to the preten
sions of the Signal Service work in agricul
ture and not to the system as a huge ex
pensive classifier of facts and data In the
history of meteorology of great interest in
the departments of science. Your allusion
to so-called "weather prophets” I do not un
derstand. I see no justice in it—no place
for Us application. But even these upon