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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, JULY 15, 1882.
8
exaggerated statements of the resources of
the country through which their roads run.
1 have traveled from the extreme northern
to the extreme southern portion of Texas,
and from its eastern to its western boundary
line and beyond. I have gone over Kansas,
Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Mon
tana territories, and then returned to my
home in Tennessee, convinced that this
State is unsurpassed in general resources.
Here we grow in abundance, cotton, corn,
and tobacco, wheat, rye, oats and barley,
and every other product adapted to this
climate.
Our coal beds are Inexhaustible, Our iron
ore is the finest in the world; and every
variety of timber abounds. Farming lands
are cheap; labor is cheap. Education is
free to all. Tennessee will yet be developed,
but it will be done through the influence of
capital. Money is filling the North and
West and Soth west with people, the majority
of whom have energy and industry, and
these coupled with frugality, generally
bring success. When capital seeks Southern
investments it will turn southward the tide
of immigration, and then will the wealth of
Southern resources become known.
I simply intended to acknowledge my
ignorance of Bermuda grass; pardon ray di
gression. A. G. Ooodlbtt.
[We may safely say that the objection (for
there is only one) to Bermuda grass has been
most strongly urged by those farmers who,
from force of habit and early training, have
been life-long enemies of grass of every kind.
They have been accustomed to look upon
grass as tbe natural enemy of the farmer,
and an unavoidable evil, only tolerable
when it springs up in the pasture or in the
corn field after the crop is laid by. They
have devoted their best energies, during
the growing season every year, to destroying
grass, and it is not to be wondered at that,
under the system of farming which has
heretofore excluded everytiiing but cotton
and other staples of the South, the character
of any jiartlcular species of grass should be
judged strictly by the difficulty of destroy
ing it. We have no doubt there are farmers
in the South to-day, who would quickly de
cide to forego all the benefit they are receiv
ing or expect to receive from grass of any
kind if they could be forever rulioved from
its presence in their cultivated crops.
Bermuda gross docs not spread rapidly,
when left to itself, even under the most
favorable circumstance. It lias not been
known to perfect seed in this country, and
depends for propagation upon its creeping
jointed Stems, rooting and taking possession
of the soil by slow but suro degrees—inch
by inch. Its one bad quality was first
seriously noticed when effort wits mode to
reclaim old worn out fields in which it had
been permitted to grow for yeurs, or until
firmly established. It was then found that
with the ordinary plows in use at that time,
and with no experience in methods of sub
duing the gross, it was impracticable to de
stroy it. Colonol Tom Howard is credited
with saying, in reference to a particularly
tough sod of Bermuda, that '‘ahull elephant
couldn't pull a thumb lancet through it”
It was admitted by ull that these old Ber
muda fields afforded excellent pasturage,
and after awhile it was found that the small
areas that were occasionally redeemed from
its sway and planted in cotton or corn, had
been greatly enriched by the grass, and
would produce larger crops than ever before.
Where it had taken possession of bottom or
other rich land it was found to produce a
large yield of very superior bay, in some
Instances four to six tons per acre. So, grad
ually, many of the former enemies of Ber
muda have become its friends and advo
cates.
Owing to the difficulty of controlling it,
Bermuda grass should not be allowed to take
possession of moist lowlands, unless it is
desired to establish a very permanent pasture
or meadow. It is also more difficult to sub
due on deep, mellow soils, into which the
roots penetrate more deeply than in the
ordinary clay uplands of Middle Georgia.
On soils of medium quality Bermuda will
not grow tall enough to mow for hay, except
in the most favorable seasons, but on land
that will make a good yield of clover, blue
grass, or other cultivated grass, Bermuda
will attain a height of twelve to eighteen
inches and afford two cuttings during the
season. While it is not tall it grows very
thickly, and perhaps, does not lose so much
weight in curing. According to the analysis
of Dr. St. Julien Ravenel, the hay is excelled
by that of few, it any, of the standard hay
grasses.
March Is the most favorable month for
starting a field of Bermuda in Georgia.
Perhaps April would be better In Tennessee.
Tbe ground should be well plowed and put
in good condition as for a crop of grain;
small furrows run every three feet and a
sprig or joint of the surface stem or root
dropped every step and trodden on. If the
ground is moistand likely to remain so, this
is all that is necessary to secure a good
stand, but a smoother surface will be secured
by harrowing. Some recommend the plan
of cutting the roots(after washing) in a feed
cutter, sowing broadcast and plowing in.
This will probably do when roots are plenti
ful hut the other method is best where this is
not the case.
We have seen a field of small grain set in
Bermuda in March by dropping the roots in
furrows ojiened in the fall just after sowing
tbe grain, and covering witli the foot. By
either method the grass will take complete
possession before the next winter.
Messrs. Mark W. Johnson A Co., of this
city, advertised in The World during the
past spring, Bermuda roots at $2.50 per bar
rel. One barrel is sufficient for an acre.
We presume they will furnish them when
ever wanted.
We are obliged to Mr. Goodlett for his in
teresting letter, and hope he will write
again. R.]
Farming at the “Front.”
Never before have there been so ninny
people of all classes taking a strong, direct,
personal interest in the agricultural situa
tion and prosjiects. Business men, bankers,
capitalists, stock brokers, merchants, me
chanics, manufacturers, operatives, and day
laborers even, are watching the daily bulle
tins and reports of the weather, with especial
reference to how it is nffecting the growing
wheat, corn and oats, and the further plant
ing of corn. Never before have they seen so
clearly that farming is the real basis of all
other business, and that upon it rests the
prosperity of the country. They uow com
prehend the fact that it was the good crops
of 1870, 1880 and 1881, from the export of
which we received so many hundreds of mil
lions of dollura from oilier lands, which
changed the financial depression of 1873,
and tlie year following, into a prosperous
activity extending through all branches of
trade and manufacture. Every extra bushel
of wheat or corn, or pound of meat, cheese
and butter that went to market helped turn
the scale. Tho hundreds of millions of
bushels of grain that came from the interior
to Die seaboard, gave profitable employment
to tlie railroads. These bought and used more
cars, more iron, more steel, and tho makers
of these, from head director to the lowest
laborer, received more wages and more con
stant employment, and they purchased more
freely those articles that go to supply tlie
necessities and comforts of every day life.
Tills stimulated and increased the mercan
tile trade, and made heavier demands upon
all kinds of manufactured commodities.
Tlie farmers who received the proceeds were
able to reduce debts upon their farms; to
buy more and better implements; to pay
up their store debts, and buy more freely
from the merchants. Tbe merchants and
shop keepers were in turn able to pay up their
debts to wholes lie houses, brokors in man-
fuel ures, and importers, and to buy larger
stocks of goods for cash or on short credits.
The carrying of these goods increased tlie
transportation business, and stimulated the
building of five to ten thousand miles of new
railroad every year.
Tills brief glance at some leading points
allows the greatand far-reaching influence of
prosperity to farmers. On the other hand,
the unfavorable winter and spring and tlie
Bummer drouth of 1881 cut down tho Bur-
plus wheat and corn and meat and dairy pro
ducts and cotton, many score millions in
value. This of course diminished exports
and has started gold abroad; it lias decreased
the ability of farmers, and all classes of
workers, to buy goods and manufactures.
The decline in the demand for iron and
steel, and the fall in prices, prevent the
payment of wages asked for, and there is
now prevailing one of the greatest “strikes”
ever known in this country, of laborers who
demand higher pay to meet the increased
cost of living, due in part to the advance in
breadstuift, consequent upon the lessened
crops of last year. Is It any wonder that
this stage of things has opened the eyes and
enlightened the understanding of that half
of the people who are engaged in agriculture
and who have hitherto been inclined to
look upon farming as of inferior importance,
and suited for clod-hoppers? Farming has
come to the front, and it is going to stay
there.—American Agriculturist.
It is more honorable to acknowledge our
faults, than to boast of our merits.
Lonlilsns Sagan.
The planters are generally represented in
New Orleans by factors or commission mer
chants, who attend to the purchase of plan
tation supplies during the planting season,
and the sale and disposition of the crop
when manufactured.
Arriving at New Orleans, the product is
landed on the levee direct from the numer
ous boats that ply along the Upper and Low
er Coast to Lafourche and Bayou Teclie or,
if arriving by rail, it is landed on platforms
contiguous to the levee. The factoror com
mission merchant, who is strictly the first
band, is always represented by a broker,
and the lots, whether of sugar or molasses,
are always offered intact in courtesy to the
dealers who for many reasons are tho most
desirable purchasers, being on the spot with
ready cash, and dispensing with tlie trouble
of shipping and the risks attending transac
tions with distant points. All sales are
made strictly for cash, which by custom of
the levee means on demand; and so well is
it understood that terms are scarcely men
tioned, and the dealer who is not ready witli
the cash when called for, need not attempt
any more purchases until he lias rehabili
tated himself.
The dealers having made their purchases,
sort them out, and in every lot, either of
sugar or molasses, the quality varies and
frequently in executing orders several lots
have to be sorted over in order to procure
the required quantity of a certain grade.
What remains after Hurting are known ns
“culls,” and sold for the best price obtaina
ble, to any customer.
The classification in force on the levee is
os follow: Open kettle sugars, in cypress
bogheads, 12 per cent tare. Inferior, com
mon, good common, fair, fully fair, prime,
strictly prime, choice, fancy choice.
Tlie grades of Fair and under are scarcely
fit for any purpose but refining, and are
usually sold to refiners to be melted and
worked over.
The refiners also purchase, when values
permit the grades up to and including
Prime.
From Fully Fair to Fancy Choice all are
known as grocery grades, Fully Fair being
generally known in some Western markets
us dry barrelling sugars. Inferior and Com
mon sugars are dark in color, wet and some
times dirty—Common dry as its natuo im
plies. Fair to Fully Fair, bright color, dry,
well cooked and drained and good grain.
Prime to Fancy Choice, dry, well drained,
handsome grain, bright straw color, to very
bright and full grain in Fancy Choice.
Where these sugars have come in from
tlie plantation and been held, and some
times when they have come from the planter
late in the season, the packages liavo not
been refilled after drainage, and when this
is the case, the customary 12 per cent, tare
will not cover the weight of the package.
This must be guarded against in making
purchases, and is a matter for stipulation
between the buyer and the seller; as a con
dition precedent to the transaction, either
the packages must be refilled, or taken as
they are at an allowance on the price.
Molasses is classed as follows—Open kettle
molasses: Inferior, Common, Fair, Prime,
Strictly Prime, Choice, Fancy Choice. Cen
trifugal Molasses: Common, Fair, Prime,
Choice.
Sirop de Battcrie, as its name Implies, is
taken from the battery kettle before the
syrup has been concentrated, and is pure
juice of the cane boiled to the density of
syrup. It rarely finds its way to market,
however, as in a very short time it granu
lates.
"Cuite" ["kneet”] is very similar to what
is known in the “sugar bush” and in many
a Northern farm-house os “maple-wax,”
and is taken from the coolers before granu*
lation occurs. This also is little known be
yond tbe plantation house, os it too quickly
returns to sugar.
Sugars from the various sections present
peculiarities which render them easiy dis
tinguishable by the experts. Those from
tbe Red river parishes for instance, where
the red clay formation of tbe lands is so
marked as to give the river itself the name
it bears, are of a reddish tinge, and the same
is true of the molasses from that section.
A saline taste is often apparent in both
sugar and molasses, particularly in the lat
ter; and when this is the case it is at once
known that they are from tbe extreme
Lower Coasts, or from the Lower Teche of
Lafourche, where the lands are in such
close proximity to the sea that the cane has
absorbed salt to a certain extent, and an un
due prevalance of it is an injury to the
sugar, causing a greater tendency to deli
quescence.
It is not so much an Injury to molasses,
but impairs its flavor, and is to the distant
consumer unaccountable.
Almost all the plantations brand the name
of the plantation on every package of their
product, and some have acquired an exten
sive and justly merited reputation for uni
form excellence and standard quality; but a
large portion of the crop conies in packages
rudely marked with a brush with the ini
tials of tlie planter nnd sometimes several
different initials for tlie same crop where it
has been made on shares, and where several
parties are interested.
When the crop has been finished and all
the Biigar and molasses shipped to market,
the basin or purgery is cleaned out, and the
sedimentary deposit of the molasses, com
posed of sugar and gummy matters, to
gether with pieces of brickbats, flakes of
cement, dirt, sand, trasii, etc., ad infinitum
and which delectable compound is known
as “cistern bottoms," is filled into barrels
and sent into the market, where it is bought
for refining purjwises, or to iflanufacture
blacking or “essence of coffee,” or other
articles of domestic economy, whose ob
scure origin, if correctly known, would
amaze the innocent consumer. But the old
New England tradition, of ante-bellum days,
that sundry remnants of “niggers” were to
be occasionally found in the cistern bottoms
is not sustained by investigation.
The burnt sugar or “caramel,” which ac
cumulates in the ketttes, is by many of the
old Creoles made into a dolicate breakfast
beverage, which served hot with the addi
tion of rich cream, is similar but much
superior to the best chocolate, and proves a
grateful surprise to the chance visitor at
tlie plantation.
“Vin du cane” is a beverage peculiar to
tlie sugar house during tlie sugar making,
and tho unwary stranger is often inducted
into its mysterious effects.
It is made from tlie hot juice as it leaves
from the “grande,” and with the addition
of a little plantation whisky and tlie juice
of a sour orange, it makes a drink compared
to which the Mexican’s "pulque,” fudes into
miserable insignificance, and Wabash sul
phuric acid corn juice is not to be men
tioned.
The stranger "smiles” witli gratification
os he partakes of the delectable beverage,
but “finds too late that men betray,” and
ever afterward remembers with unmitigated
disgust the villuinous decoction.—New Or-
Uans Sugar Planter.
FARMING IN TEXAN.
Editor Southern World—I am no immi
gration agent; have been a farmer all my
life, have worked with and for the farmers,
having hold a commission us traveling
lecturer under Hon. W. W. Lang, past Mas
ter, and A. J. Rose, present Master of tho
Texas State Grange. I would state simply
the facts for tlie benefit of all my fellow
laborers who are desirous of bettering their
condition. I would not claim that Texas is
the modern garden of Eden or Elysian
fields, but the simple fact that brain, mus
cles, and capital from other Btates arc seek
ing our genial clime and fertile soil, is suffi
cient proof that we possess the finest nat
ural advantages. Texas is pre-eminently
the country for brain, muscle, capital or
poverty.
If the question is asked, “Does farming
pay in Texas?” I would answer, for the
intelligent agriculturist, be he rich or poor,
no field is more inviting. The corn and
cotton farmer 'tis true, doesn’t make money
as rapidly as Jay Gould, but with our salu
brious climate, fertility of soil, adapted as
it is to the growth of all the cereals, no one
cqn fail to succeed who diversifies his crops.
We have a fruit country rivaling the
finest in the world. What New York is to
other cities, Texas is to different states in
the Union from an agricultural stand
point. The thousands of men laboring in
machine shops, in factories and compresses,
in our towns and on our railroads, being
built through our country furnish a ready
market for all farm products. Owing to the
difficulty of marketing, the credit system
and the one crop method, farming in the
past has not been very remunerative, but
now railroads are spanning our country in
every direction. Co-operation on the Roch
dale plan is fast breaking the shackles that
enslaved the farmers through the credit
system. We have about one hundred and
fifty of these co-operative stores in the
State. Diversity of crops is now the rally
ing cry. Improved agricultural implements
are rapidly being introduced. With an edu
cational fund equal to that of all the States
combined, with the leading educator on the
American continent, Dr. J. Baldwin to