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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