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20 THE SOUTHERN WORLD, NOVEMBER 15, 1882.
Journal, published at Chicago, 111., and bays
endeavored to have these questions answered
through it, but for some reason they were
not answered. To the people of my section,
who as a general rule know almost nothing
about stock raising and the proper feed for
them, the Information asked would be valua
ble, more particularly the last as scarcely
any of our native cows calve oftener than
once in 18 or 20 months, and if some plan
could be adopted to make them calve often
er, it would add largely to our profit from
this stock. Novice.
Winniboro, La.
Answer.—(1.) Pearl millet—which is the
same as cat-tail millet—is not a good hay
plant, being rather too suceulent and want
ing in ‘'body.”
(2.) We have cut and fed it at all stages
and never found it unwholesome or danger
ous at any period.
(3.) It is an excellent green feed cutat any
stage, but is relished better when cut before
commencing to joint. A given area will
also produce much more feed if cut as often
as the plants gel two or three feet high.
(4.) We know of no safe "mode for forcing
cows into season ahead of ther natural peri
od” except a course of generous feeding on
nutritious and stimulating food such as
wheat bran, oats, cotton-seed meal and green
food. In a state of nature—as illustrated in
the “range"—the "season” usually comes
on when the grass puts forth in the spring.
Weaning the calf by separating from its dam,
is also helpful to the object in view. R.
The World’s Cotton Centennial Ex
position.
Among the resolutions adopted at the Lit
tle Rock Convention of the National Cotton
Planters’ Association, was one to hold in
1884 a grand Exposition under the auspices
of that body. It is to be called the World’s
Cotton Centennial Exposition, and will be
to the whole country the event of the de
cade, and, so far as the cotton interests are
concerned, the event of the century. Never
before in the history of the South was a
movement more enthusiastically inaugu
rated. The idea was hailed with universal
approbation at its announcement, and not
a single doubter of the feasibility of this co
lossal enterprise has been found among the
numerous planters and manufacturers with
whom we have since discussed it. Even at
this early day a number of manufacturers
have signified their eagerness to be among
its exhibitors, and letters of inquiry con
cerning it have already been received. Al
though cotton will form the chief exhibit,
yet it is proposed to make its scope univer
sal, so as to Include not only everything ap
pertaining to cotton culture and manufact
ure, but whatever improved implements
may be necessary for the most approved
methods of diversified farming—in fact all
inventions, devices and fabrics that may pos
sibly prove of interest to tbe people of the
Bouth or promote their general industries.
Tbe resolution of the Convention author
ising this mammoth Exposition provides that
it shall be held at such city as may oiler the
greatest inducement, and it is a privilege
well worth contending for. Nearly all the
leading cities have had successful exposi
tions, supported only by local or quasi-local
interests and patronage, and have found it
profitable to invest large sums in such enter
prises; but this proposed World’s Cotton
Centennial Exposition will command the di
rect and united support of the entire cotton
producing territory of America. In view of
. the vast extent of this territory and com
mercial Importance of its leading staple, it
is a self-evident proposition that any city
could afford to spend ten fold more in order
to secure such Exposition than upon any
mere local affair. So far as exhibits are con
cerned, it cannot fail to attract them from
the whole Union, aye from the four quarters
of the globe. The fact that it is to be a Cen
tennial Exposition, will likewise give it
great and world-wide prominence. It may
interest the public to know that in tbe year
1784 eight bales of cotton were exported from
this country to England, where, upon arriv
al, it was condemned as contraband, and
seised, by order of the Privy Council, who
held that so large an amount of cotton could
not possibly have been raised in America.
Thus the year 1884 will be both an agricul
tural and commercial Centennial in tbe
opening and the closing year of this cotton
century I No enterprise could be too stu
pendous to do justice to the celebration of
such a Centennial.
The whole South will be organised for the
purpose of contributing to its grandeur—in
deed all tbe cotton producing countries of
the world will doubtless participate in swell
ing its attractions.
If we are fortunate in its location and can
secure men of sufficient breadth of view to
compass so gigantic an undertaking, it will
prove but little, if any, less magnificent than
the National Centennial Exposition of 1876.
So far as its location is concerned, we are in
clined to the belief that New Orleans is the
most eligible site, but the claims of all com
peting cities will be carefully and imparti
ally considered. Correspondence in this di
rection will be immediately instituted, and
a month given to the various cities in which
to make known what inducements they may
have to offer. The Executive Committee
has not yet taken action on this point, but
among the cities that will probably be invi
ted to compete are New Orleans, St. Louis,
Baltimore, Cincinnati .Louisville,Richmond,
Memphis, Nashville, Charleston, Mobile, Sa
vannah, Montgomery and Atlanta.
It is proposed to raise rfbt less than two
and possible over three millions of dollars,
and there are several cities whose offer should
not be less than five hundred thousand dol
lars of this amount.
We may appropriately close this, the ini
tial article upon the World’s Cotton Centen
nial, by promising the city that may be so
fortunate as to secure it, the united support
of the entire planting interest. We feel
that we are not transcending the bounds of
prudence in predicting that it will at the
same time prove a lever of incalculable
power in promoting the industrial progress
and prosperity of the successfully compet
ing city, and at the same time bring an im
mediate return commensurate with the ex
tent of its donation.—Rational Plantert Jour
nal.
Habits or Economy and Industry.
Editor Southern World—I am at some
anxiety how to present a case; to me, it
seems, involving infinitely more than to be
able to give explicit directions how to make
largest clear gains at least expense, at the
same time improve land, workshops, machin
ery To make it stronger, suppose I could
demonstrate it, and no man of the largest
intellect and most extended experience,
could find a flaw in it. Suppose I could
show the thing done in my case, and a few
others; this submitted to a jury of twelve
or one hundred experts in farm economy,
and they decide, it is true in detail or con
crete.
My head and heart and hands are all for
the practical, tbe best thing temporal for my
country, my people, “all the world, and the
rest of mankind.” I had a college mate who
received property worth a million in gold.
Suppose he had been adissipated man—gam
bler, drunkard and the etceteras. I had a
dear friend who had nine children, making
2,000 bales of cotton, and adding farm to
farm; his rule, the day each was of age, he
or she had forty thousand dollars to start off
on. Is the property, a million, or forty
thousand in hand, with a prospect for a
ninth of a 2,000 bale property, all our youth
need?
Now I am for the best for our country—
temporally. Suppose Vanderbilt can give
his children twenty million each in U. S.
bonds; they know nothing of any business,
any economy, and only of spending and dis
sipating. Remember the South sea bubble;
the communists, even in the North, when a
mob destroyed so much property; but near
er home—where are the 1,000, 2,000, 3,000
bale planters ?
Would it not be better than planning for
riches, to do as an Emperor of Russia, re
quire all his sous to learn a trade ? or go
back to the chosen race and require all to
know of labor? It is more important to the
rich than the poor. Begin at the nursery;
require each one to take care of its own
clothing; shoes, etc., put in a proper place;
never to leave the bedroom until proper
cleansing, dress, hair and shoes. To be civil,
polite and decorous to all, even to servants—
their equals, parents, or to strangers. No
teacher should admit rich or poor, unless
even finger nails be clean. Habit is much.
Require an immediate return from school;
no loitering on the way about village, town
or city. Children are better at home than
elsewhere. Require them to do many little
things about borne. Give habit of Industry;
taking-care of books, clothing, etc., etc.
Parents owe it to our country to give atten
tion to the studies of their children. Parents
should see the little boys and girls prepare
at home for school exercises. Mrs. Rouge
says, “No, you don't mean that my little
darlings should be kept all day in the old
school house; not allowed to enjoy them
selves in mixing with their playmates; go
ing to little sociables,” and on she went My
reply is, “Mrs. R., when I was a lad I
thought father was cruel, all other chaps
could hunt, fish and gad about, but the
truth is, not one boy who was with me in
the academy is now alive; the great bulk
became dissipated. Even Governors and
Congressmen followed. I say this day,
better give a first-class education—ability as
to means and access to it—beginning at the
very alphabet; permit no advance until
there was mastery of the subject. Give
male and female a practical knowledge of
every day affairs, even if os a boy had to do,
who wasafterwards Governor and Senator in
Congress—his father told him he was not re
lying on self, and he had warned, but no ef
fort: “Now I am done.” He had to leave
and make money to go on, and did go on.
Who were the great men of the old South
30 to 40 years ago ? I know many who when
boys worked their way. I knew a 900 bale
planter who could not place agin stand prop
erly ; could not train a gin wheel; had to
send off miles for a mechanic, who did all
needed in half an hour; the owner and his
ginner could have done it before mechanic
could have ridden to gin house. Would we
not do better to train our boys and girls to
economy and industry—how to do ordinary
matters, than to neglect and give a fortune f
—if lost they are tramps. X. X.
Mississippi.
Corn and the Pindar In Same Row.
Editor Southern World—I am sorry I did
not think of this in time to have prevailed
on some on some of your readers to try it.
"Prove all things and hold to that which is
good.”
I have seen an entire crop, rather I was on
the place—saw a part, and was told the crop
—500 acres, was all in com and pindars,
ground-nuts, peanuts. The owner, a rich
Irishman, never married, said to me he fat
tened hogs entirely on the pindare, and had
enough to feed all other hogs the whole win
ter. Land plowed and planted in drills as
usual, except between stands of corn. He
dropped the pindar—ground-nut, covered at
same time, thus requiring only an extra
hand to drop the nuts—peas. Worked
through the year as be did corn.
A few years after, in a little trip to “the
country by the seaside,” I saw quite a field
perhaps 50 acres, for that backwoods coun
try; mind you, in those days much of our
section was owned by 10 to 50 hands, or larg
er planters; getting back in the thin land
portion the most are one-horse farms.
Any one who will give it a thought, they
will know how great tbe advantage. I have
had a stock of hogs kept in high condition,
no corn; the hog worked for its living, root
ing. I cannot see bow corn can be injured.
Of course a full crop of the ground-pea is
not expected, but ample to fatten hogs and
to feed stock hogs after. The planter first
alluded to usually killed 200 bogs. Of course
had a large stock. I havo had 6 acres in the
peanut for hogs. H. J. N.
Clinton, Mist,
Scientific Farming Practical.
Mr. Buckmaster, before a well-attended
meeting of farmers, held at Tadley, in Eng
land, to consider a scheme for teaching the
science of farming, said that there was no
opinion more deeply engraved in the mind
of the English farmer, than the belief that
there was some antagonism between science
and practice. Some even went so far as to
say that the two are incompatible. The far
mer who drains his land, or tries a new ma
nure, or a new plan, or a new crop, calls
himself a practical man ; he despises all ex
periment, and laughs at the teaching of sci
entific men. He is not conscious that, when
be is thinking over new plans and adopting
new methods of cultivation, he may be il
lustrating, in his daily work, a series of
chemical and physiological experiments of
extreme complexity and importance. Men
of the highest order of Intellect, and whose
researches were tbe most original, have been
practical men. Practice and theory ore but
phases of the same form of thought. The
practical farmer, if he ever permits his mind
to rise above the traditions and empirical
rules of his forefathers, and asks, “Couldn’t
this have been done in abetter and more
perfect^.way ? Would not this be an im
provement?” becomes a theorist; and, when
he tries to realize these conceptions, becomes
a practical man.
Theory and practice are inseparable in
every art, however much men may seek to
disunite them. The most practical man is
often the most theoretical. Every operation
is, with him, a theory. He recognizes no
change. He will admit of no trial or expe
riment, because that would be an acknowl
edgment of science. Every science is built
up of principles, and and these principles
carried into work we call practice. There is
the science of astronomy, and the art of nav*
igation ; the science of geometry, and the
art of measuring; the science of mechanics,
and the art of making machinery; the sci
ence of chemistry, and the art of agricul
ture. Almost every science is the basis of a
cognate art. The most obvious and natural
way of arriving at a real knowledge of the
art of agriculture, would be to know some
thing of those principles on which the art is
based; art being nothing more than the ap
plication of principles previously acquired.
A farmer who is able to unite a perfect mas
tery of principles with a knowledge of prac
tical details, is an educated and scientific
farmer. It might reasonably be inferred
that the shortest and easiest method of learn
ing any industrial art, and the surest guide
to new discoveries in the art, would be
a knowledge of those fundamental princi
ples upon which art was based. No amount
of practical skill and experience could ever
replace the want of scientific knowledge in
farming —Cincinnati Orange Bulletin.
On the first of last April Dr. M. H. Zellner
and his son Jim commenced preparing their
land to produce a crop. They had both been
sick for several months and it was thought
by some that they would not be able to make
a crop, but they succeeded in making a crop
by hiring eight days hoeing that would be
hard to beat by any two abled bodied hands
in the valley. The Dr. estimates the corn he
has now gathered at 550 bushels, and says he
has 125 bushels yet to gather. He also has
a good crop of cotton, and an extraordinary
crop of peas. The Dr. rents about % of the
land that he cultivates. He says he can rent
land on such good terms that it is more
profitable than to clear his own land, which
is owing to the fact that he is such a good
farmer. He has rented the land he cultivated
in com this year for a term of five years,
from Hon. J. W. Inzer, who, he says, is one
of the most liberal and agreeable men he
ever dealt with.
He has had enough peas harvested to pay
for the human labor expended on his entire
crop, rating the labor at the customary
price; and he has made and cured enough
No. 1 tobacco to keep him, Jim and his old
lady smoking 3 years besides goobers, arti
chokes, turnips, etc.; and he expects to have
his entire crop harvested and wheat sowed
by tiie 10th of Novembor in addition to all
this, he has brought to this office a stalk of
cotton that measured ten feet eight inches
high, and six inches in circumference at tbe
ground.—Ashville. (Ala.) Aegis.
The Mobile (Ala.) Register thus unfolds a
wonderful plan for speedy returns to orange
growers:
One of the most serious stumbling-blocks
that a man finds in his way when be thinks
of becoming an orange-culturist, lies in the
fact that it takes the trees eight or ten years
from the start to get into profitable bearing.
This stumbling-block seems about to be
removed, to a great extent at least. A new
method for propagating the orange has lately
been discovered, which bids fair to work
considerable revolution in the orange busi
ness, as it does away with the necessity of
waiting so long for returns as is tbe case of
tbe old methods. Under it you plant out a
tree, say in the spring of 1883, and in 1884 it
will bear a very fair crop of fruit.
This new method consists in propagating
by layers made on a certain plan. We will
suppose that you have a bearing tree which
forks not far from the ground. In the spring
you provide yourself with an empty barrel,
with one head out, (a flour barrel will an
swer, )and“ saw it in" justat the bulge until
one stave is cut off. This stave you remove,
with all the hoops, down to where you have
been sawing. You next remove the bark
from one prong of your orange tree forming
a girdle about an inch wide, located, say two
inches above its junction with the other
prong. The girdle must not go entirely
around the prong but a stripof bark an inch
in width must be left undisturbed on the
side next to the other prong. Now slip your
prepared barrel over tbe girdled prong, rest
ing it against the main trunk of the tree, and
li tting thegirdied prong pass into it through
the opening made by removal of the stave,
and through the headless top of the barrel.
Raise the barrel until thegirdied prong rests
on the end of the sawed stave still in the bar
rel, Secure the barrel in that position. If
the tree is of good size a few small nails may
be driven through tbe barrel into the trunk
of the tree, “toe-nailed” upward from below,
perhap—they will do no harm. The barrel
may be held up in place by something built
under it, or by three strips of board securely
nailed to to its sides at the bulge, their lower
ends resting upon the ground, or better still,
upon a bit of board or a brick on the ground.