Newspaper Page Text
2
Southern States by many millions, from the
North, and from across the ocean, and drive
them out of the country. Ask them where are
the Indians who lived in Georgia, Florida, Ala
bama and other Southern States only forty
years ago ?
Freedmen and landless white men need not
think it a sore deprivation not to own land to
cultivate, provided they can rent on fair terms.
Many merchants rent the stores they do busi
ness in. In some of the oldest and most highly
cultivated countries, good farm lands have long
risen too high for even the wealthy farmers to
own them, as a general thing : they being
worth in Great Britain, for example, S3OO an
acre. They are partly owned in entail by the
nobility, and wealthy capitalists own some as a
choice, safe investment; and these classes meet
the farmers half way, in accommodating them
to long leases as mentioned.
We have need of a mixed contract, that is, or
was, in vogue among the border farmers of
England and Scotland, which ought to be tried
among us. It is to give a tenant half the usual
cash pay of a farm laborer, and exact from
him half the customary proportion of crops of
the share system.
Respectfully,
G. C. Player.
One Cause of Southern Poverty—The
Crushing Cost of Credit.
The following extracts from the Rural Caro
linian. deserve to be committed to memory by
the planters and farmers of the South :
“ First, then, 1 assign as one of the reasons of
our continued poverty and want of progress the
fact that we do not produce enough of what we
eat or wear, and buy too much on a credit. In
1859 the South produced over five million bales
of cotton, of four hundred pounds each, which
sold at an average of eleven cents per pound,
realizing less than $250,000,000. In 1869, the
cotton crop of the South was less than three
and a half millions of bales, four hundred
pounds each, and sold for twenty-two cents per
pound, realizing over $300,000,000. The cotton
crop for 1873 reached considerably beyond four
millions of bales, and sold for less than $275,-
000,000. And this has been the history of our
crops annually in the past ; have we aay
reason to anticipate that similar effects will
not follow the same course in the future ? Then
if the al’-cotton policy, or large cotton crop has
actually tended to impoverish us as a people,
who will assert that the same policy will not
have similar effects upon individuals ?
“ On paper it can be easily proven, that cot
t »n, ns a crop, will pay better than any or all
other products. But these figures are far more
reliable than the oft-abused labor of the country.
There is no question but that individual farmers,
having lands peculiarly adapted to the growth
of cotton, can net more money growing cotton
and buying their breadstuff* and provender
than by cultivating a diversity of crops. But
it is an egregious error to think, that because A,
B, or I , can do so, therefore every Southern
tanner cun pursue the same couse, anticipating
the same result.
“Through a series of years, regardless of
the price of cotton, (I reiterate here what 1
have often asserted before in these pages), on
ninety nine out of every hundred Southern
farms, it is cheaper to grow oats for plow ani
mals than to haul corn from the nearest depot,
because oats will follow cotton with no cost hut
the seed and harvesting, both of which can be
paid for every winter in the mutton that can
be fatted on the growing crops ; it is cheaper to
raise all the pork the farmer’s family can con
sume annually than to buy bacon at ten cents
per pound; it is cheaper to grow a pound of
wool, up to a certain number of pounds, than
the same number of pounds of cotton ; and it is
cheaper to grow anything that can be possibly
grown upon the farm than to buy it on a credit.
Few farmers understand properly what is
ment by buying “on a credit." They know
they get the article and pay more for it than
if they paid the cash, but they never once cal
culate the premium nr per centage they are
paying for this privilege of getting time on a
“ credit.’ Let me illustrate. The average
farmer may raise meat enough to do him till the
first of April. By that time he has to buy,
but having no cash, though good gredit, he
•• goes to the store’ and buys bacon at 15 cents
per lb., payable the Ist November following.
He learns the cash price is 121 cents per pound,
but necessity compels him to buy on a credit.
He thus pays 2| cents per pound for the privi
lege of buying on a credit, or one-sixth the
price lobe paid, which is simply 15} per cent.
THE W SO WB & W W
per annum for the use of money. But he buys
in April, and has to pay Ist November, only
eight months credit, and thus pays twenty-five
per cent per annum for the use of money.
What farmer can afford to do this and live?
What is applicable to bacon is equally so to
corn, hay, flour, implements, mules, and every
article the farmer buys on a credit.
“ It is estimated that the average increase of
the agricultural wealth of the united States is
about four per cent, per annum. The average
increase of agricultural wealth in any Southern
State, annually, since the war has not been one
per cent. Indeed, some of the States have
traveled the other road, and are now lost in the
wilderness of debt ; and there is no more potent
cause for this condition of things than that of
buying on a credit the necessaries of life to en
able them to grow cotton, and this, too, very
frequently at a cost that exceeds its market val
ue. There is an infatuation about this cultiva
tion of cotton that amounts to an hallucination.
Can there be nothing invented to so far dispel
it as to induce the Southern farmer to live more
within himself and less at the mercy of the
Shylocks of the land?" «
From the American Farmer.
Millet as a Hay Crop.
Seeing the interest manifested by you in the
cultivation of the grasses, induces me to give
you my experience with millet as a hay crop.
In the Spring of 1874, I made preparations
for a larger crop of tobacco than 1 had previously
been planting ; but owing to the universal fail
ure in plants, I was unable to plant but a com
paratively small portion of my land, notwith
standing I had heavily fertilized, and bedded
up most of my lot of land ready to receive the
plants. After the 15th of July, I despaired of
being able to plant any more that season, and
cast about to see what I could put in the land at
this late day, to make it pay something for the
fertilizers expended on it.
After consulting some of the old volumes of
the American Farmer, which has always been a
wise counsellor to me, I concluded to try millet
on 21 acres, and ordered 2A bushels seed of
Messrs. Allison & Addison, at Richmond, Va. I
dragged down the beds with a seven-toothed
harrow, and got the land smooth and fine with
the fallow drag. On the 18th of July I seeded
the land and harrowed in with a Gaddes harrow.
The same was a heavy, stiff clay soil, not very
well adapted to the growth of this grass, nor
was the season very favorable, having a dry
spell just before it headed out, in consequence
of which the crop was not a full one, even for
the land. Soon after it headed out and before
the seed matured, or the stalk got hard, I cut it
and cured in the usual way, and housed nine
large wagon-loads of nice sweet hay, estimated
by good judges to be 12,000 tbs. The land was
then fallowed and seeded in wheat with the rest
of the tobacco lot.
Had the millet been seeded earlier, say last
April or Ist of May, on suitable soil, with a
favorable season, I am satisfied the yield would
have been much heavier.
This grass is valuable on account of its rapid
growth and early maturity. This crop was
made in eight weeks and three days from day of
seeding.
Farmers may cut their wheat or oats crop,
fallow the land and get a large crop of nice hay
in eight weeks, and then avoid buying so much
Northern hay. Some persons may wish to
know if this grass grows well on very poor land.
1 will answer by saying that it will not, unaided
by manure or fertilizers of some kind, nor will
any other kind, not excepting broom sedge or
poverty grass. P. B. Crowder.
Amelia County, Fa Feb. Sth, 1875.
Seedless Watermelons. —The Sutter (Cal.)
Banner says : “ We are informed by Mr, Wm.
Mawson, one of the champion watermelon grow
ers of Sutter county, of a novel way of produ
cing seedless watermelons. W’hen the vine be
gins to bear, he lets the first watermelon on each
branch grow undisturbed, but covers the branch
up with dirt, from the first melon to the second
one, or within six inches or more from the end
of the vine will be a seedless watermelon, the
melon nearest the body of the vine having kept
all the seed."
The largest and heaviest l>ale of cotton
brought to Andersonville during the season
weighed 836 pounds. It was ginned ami pack
ed by Mr. D. 8. Watson, and sold to Barr, Wat
son A Co.
The corn crop of the United States for the
past year is put down by the Agricultural De
partment at a little more than 800,000,000
bushels, being 120.000,000 less than in 1878,
which was not a large crop year.
Mr. Cox, of Taylor county, Ga., has a stalk
of cotton from which he gathered five pounds of
the staple.
TKE CAKDKK
For the Rural Southerner.
Manure for Fruit Trees.
We are frequently asked, “ What manure do
you use for a fruit tree ? " This is a very im
portant subject; more so than many are apt to
imagine. It is easy to fertilize a tree so it may
grow, even luxuriantly sometimes. But to pro
duce full crops of perfect fruit, regularly, is dif
ferent. As it is the fruit we are after, so should
the means of succeeding in the production of
fruit be our chief concern. A manure which
will produce wood growth, is not apt to produce
fruit buds. For instance manure made of the
droppings from stock fed on hay or grass, will
cause an increased growth of the tree, but will
not show any perceptible difference in the
quantity or quality of the fruit; on the other
hand, when the stock is fed on grain, manure
composed of their droppings will soon cause a
marked improvement not only in increased
amount of fruit, but also in its quality. Lime
is an excellent fertilizer, to assist production of
fruit, but should never be composted with any
sort of stable manure. Ashes may generally be
used indiscriminately. Don’t be afraid of using
too many ; the potash which is contained in
ashes is a wonderful remedial agent ; it has also
the valuable properties of a preventative against
disease. Dissolve a pound or so of crude pot
ash in a barrel of water, and sprinkle this solu
tion frequently around the roots of the tree. The
effect will soon be noticed in the fruit being so
much finer and in more abundance. Lye soap
or lye soap suds, applied to the body of the tree
as a wash, is a powerful fertilizer, and also an
excellent remedy for many diseases to which
fruit trees are subject. The writer has cured
pear trees, to all appearance, in the last stages
of blight, when they seemed be
“gone up, - ’ with the use of nothing but lye soap.
No kind of commercial guano should ever be
used. We urge every man possessing an orch
ard to manure his trees, regularly and syste
matically. If the trees are worth having at all,
they are worth all the care and attention neces
sary to make them of some value and profit.
Why possess them, and not derive all the benefit
possible? The reason why fruit trees do not
generally succeed South, is not from the coun
try, climate or soil being unadapted to their
culture, but simply because people will not at
tend to their trees. When planted they are
usually set out as posts, and their subsequent
treatment is after the same careless style. If
the tree is properly attended to, it is sure to
reward the laborer. Nature will never go back
on any one.
We are pleased to notice an increased interest
exhibited each successive year in the raising of
orchards throughout our much-neglected sunny
South. Would that our people could thoroughly
awake to the actual importance of this interest
ing and always profitable industry I A people
to become and remain independent, must rely
upon their own native resources. As one of
the many industries calculated to assist towards
this desirable consummation, we offer the culti
vation of fruit. As food, at once economical and
healthy; and as merchandise, an article always
sure of an accessible and profitable market.
B. W. Van Dyke.
i
Marietta, Ga., March, 1875.
For the Rural Southerner,
(■rowing Tea in Georgia.
PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMEN AND
CHILDREN.
Those who have investigated the subject know
that the obstacles to growing tea successfully, as
an article of commerce, in much of Georgia and
part of the other Southern States, is the want
I of experience, but chiefly of cheap labor.
I The tea tree of China has been grown by sev
eral persons in Georgia, from the Piedmont re-
I gion to the sea-coast. The shrub is a hardy and
vigorous evergreen, and thrives as well with us
as it does in China or Japan. It grows from
three to five feet high—a neat, compact, laurel
leaved shrub, with pretty white flowers in Spring,
and is quite ornamental.
It is perfectly hardy ; will stand any exposure
in this climate, as has been tested in this city,
Athens, and many other localities in Georgia.
A well-grown shrub, five or six years old, will
yield, in a season, three to six ounces.
It is now generally admitted that there is but
one variety of the tea tree grown in China —the
apparent difference being the result of altitude,
aspect, soil and cultivation.
Seedling plants can be purchased of some of
our nurserymen at reasonable prices, and they
are easily propagated from seeds (which they
bear at three to four years old) and stool cut
tings.
It would be an easy matter for any family that
has a home and a few feet of ground, to produce
their own tea and a little to sell. Its general
introduction for home use would most likely
lead to its production for market. There would
be many things for our people to learn, to be
able to manufacture the article as we get it from
China; but a good tea, free from adulteration,
can be made by simply picking and drying the
leaves in the same manner that sage leaves are
cured.
The different qualities of the commercial arti
cle is the result of the (aside from the soil, cul
tivation, etc.) time of picking the leaves, the
manner of curing, and the amount of adultera
tion.
The shrubs can be transplanted any time from
November to April.
William Jennings,
Corresponding Secretary Po. So.
Atlanta.
Curculio Remedy.
Prof. S. B. Heiges, President of the Pennsyl
vania Fruit Growers’ Society, in his late address
before that association, stated that for two years
past he had no difficulty in saving his entire
crop of plums from the ravages of the curculio.
His remedy was simple, but had, nevertheless,
proven effectual. It consisted in preparing a
solution of old putrid whale oil soap, and
syringing his trees effectually with the prepara
tion, so as to coat every leaf if possible. This
was applied frequently, and always just after a
shower of rain, commencing when the petals
were falling from the blossoms, and ending only
when the fruit arrived at the ripening season.
As a proof of its efficacy, he stated that in an
adjoining yard to his own, with only the divis
ion fence intervening, was a neighbor’s plum
tree, that had set a full crop of fruit, but that
every specimen thereon had been stung by the
curculio, and at maturity there was not one left
to tell the tale. On the contrary, he could not
detect the mark of the insect on any of his own
fruit, and they ripened a full crop—indeed the
weight of fruit was astonishing. The varieties
consisted of all the most popular and delicate
kinds known to our pomologists.
We have heard and read of so many recipes
of this nature, that at first we felt inclined to
think there must be some mistake about this as
well; but the well-known character of the gen
tleman in question, with the photographs of his
various kinds attached to branches, aided by the
statements of his neighbors, forbid any doubt
in regard to the matter. Skeptics, however,
have an opportunity of testing his plan, for it is
certainly very simple—too easy, in fact, to meet
the views of sufferers by the “ Little Turk” all
over the land.— The Horticulturist.
The “Lady" Grape. —A correspondent of
the Horticulturist says of this grape: “ We have
had an opportunity to test the fruit, and were
much pleased with its quality. It is so much
better than the Martha that it must entirely
supersede that variety; indeed, to those not
very critical in their judgment of grapes, this
would rank among the best."