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(f imnlitt A gricifltnrist,
ItU/nkVUA., - AVGUST, 1875.
HENRY \. WRENCH. PUBLISHER.
...
NOTICE.
A ' ' Y x W <
If this, the initial number of the. J</-
riculturist smacks not of that spiciness
and freafriess which it should, just
nobiw^gentle reader, what a bright,
charming, brimful of good old things,
paper it is, and look for the next num
ber, if you send fifty cents. We do
not feel like apologizing, at all, but
staleness will be no fault again.
A WORD WITH YOU.
Farmers and friends: in making my
obeisance to you as the conductor of
the first agricultural paper ever pub
lished in Cherokee Georgia, I do so
with a confident ability, as publisher
and manager: but when it comes to the
grand science of successful agriculture
and the true method of improving
ourselves in the art of culture, I feel
the burden of the undertaking, and
were it not for the kind promises of
kelp from contributors whose capacity
is recognized, I fain would attempt so
important a task.
Science is developement, and he who
brings to light the various capacities
of our soil, and the means by which
it may be made to produce double or
quadruple what it now does, is more
:■ scientist to our liking, than were he
stuffed with a Latin vocabulary. It is
to nature’s scientist, or everyday farm
experimentalist, that I look to make
the Tgricutturist a worthy benefactor
of the husbandman.
As the organ of the farmers of this
section, and an ever active medium
through which you can seek and impart
the all important knowledge of new de
velopments and successful tillage, its
usefulness and value is apparent. More
pretentious journals exist both North
and South; but they do not meet the
demands of this locality. Every far
mer doing his duty, in writing what he
knows to be good, and enquiring for
what he does not know, will have a
tendency to agitate good examples, and
m this I hope to supply the need of
the day, and accomplish much good.
While publishing strictly an agri
cultural paper, I shall endeavor to en
courage the growth and popularity of
the Patrons of Husbandry, because I
believe that a close compact and union
of purpose is as essential amongst the
farmers as the merchants, the banks,
die professions and every trade of im
portance. Outside of this, frequent
meetings and associations have an im
proving tendency generally.
i'h this general programme before
me., I shall commence the work with
a determination, not only to succeed,
but to merit your kind favors.
Henry A. Wrench.
o -
V, e .are particularly anxious to have
the name of every Grange in Cherokee
Georgiii, together with the names of its
officers, tor publication. Members re
ceiving this paper will confer a favor
.by suggesting the same to their Secre
taries, or do so themselves, together
u! ”-A other information, the growth,
aeti'. ity, .etc., of the order.
b everal hundred copies of the Jy
/• are mailed this issue toper-
v. ho fiave not subscribed. Friends,
Show it to your neighbors, and induce
them to become subscribers with you.
r llm larger our subscription list, the
more extended wili be our list of cor
respondents, and the greater good will
be accomplished. Price only fifty cents
a year, or five copies for $2.
The Agriculturist will be clubbed
with many of the leading papersand
magazines, for the subscription price
of the paper selected, providing it is $2
or over.
GEORGIA’S RESOURCES.
On another page we publish an ex
tract synopsis of a report of a com
mittee of Georgia gentlemen to the
Mississippi Valley Saciety of London,
regarding the unlimited resources of
our States. Outside of the influence
which it must exert upon the minds of
those gentlemen whose inclinations are
turned Southward, in consequence of
the cold Northern winters and spring
floods, it is encouraging to known that
we live in a land of such boundless
promise, with a future brightening up
before us that can but place Georgia
and Georgians upon the high road to
success and prosperity.
We cannot but reiterate here, the
grand opportunities offered by our im
mediate section to seekers after good
homes and farming lands, amongst the
rich coves and valleys nestling beneath
the blue-capped mountains of Cherokee
Georgia. The bountiful crops of the
present season have mantled the gloom
of ten year’s despondency with a bouy
ant hope of the future, and gladness
of heart brings the characteristics of
the old time Georgia farmer to the sur
face. Ever kind-hearted and hospita
ble, even in adversity, his kind wel
come and free-heartedness expands in
to sublimity, under the shades of full
cribs and barns.
This is the class of men who extend
a cordial welcome to the industrious
farmer immigrant, from whatever sec
tions he may come, or whatever his
private convictions. The past years are
but a drcam, save the sad memories
of the boy who died in battle. We
say these men extend a welcome, and
they do; but they have no use for the
grumbling adventurer, who comes
without money or industry, hoping to
ingratiate himself under the false sen
timent of developing the country. It
is the lack of money to re-improve
a devastated country and open up new
industries that forces these lands upon
the market, and it cannot be wondered
that we want no more drones in the
hive. But for all our prejudice against
this class, and another class who come
as manufacturers and mechanics, with
out money and without energy, but
who assimulate the cry of certain news
papers in abusing the people because
thej T receive not and deserve not a lib
eral trade, there is no disposition to
harm these restive characters, and the
country is entirely free from broils find
turmoils, robberies in the country, or
on the road sides, church squabbles or
religious intolerance.
Read the address, come to North
Georgia, buy a farm, improve it, and
be happy and prosperous.
IMPORTANT VISITORS,
From a letter to Col. R. W. Jones,
from Gen. A. H. Colquitt, we learn that a
deputation of Englishmen, representing
the Mississippi Valley Trade Association,
will visit Dalton next week for the purpose
of being present at the meeting of the Ag
ricultural Convention, which convenes here
on Tuesday. Rooms have been secured
for them at the new hotel.
The information of the above ex
tract from the Citizen will be more
thoroughly appreciated by our readers
when the character of the Association,
which they represent, is known. This
Association has its principle office in
London, England, and is composed of
English and American gentlemen, who
appreciate the importance of the South
as a mining, manufacturing and agri
cultural district, and as a feature of
their efforts to induce direct trade be
tween the South and England, their
great labor will be in the induction of
emigrants directly to our soil byway
of our Southern seaports, the principal
of which, in all probability, will be
Savannah, the sea-gate of the Atlantic
States.
In some of the Northern States
horse-thieves die the hair of the
horses they steal so that the owners
will not know them. What next?
FALSE & CORRECT THEORIES.
So much is said of the many expe
dients thought to be necessary, by the
press of this section, for the building
up of our country, that it may not be
amiss for us to contribute to this much
hackneyed literature of the day. One
salacious idea, to our mind, is that ev
ery village is destined to become a city,
whether it has the surrounding ad
juncts or not, and their press fall into
the habit of a species of blowing calcu
lated to crowd these places with farm
boys, dissatisfied with the dull routine
of country life, and occasionally the
older ones are affected in the same way.
In this progressive spirit, another
bad effect is the implied thriftlessness
of our people, by extolling the superior
agricultural intellect of Northern far
mers, and their business capacities in
general. These same editorial philos
ophers have an idea that every town
must have its cotton factories, and ev
ery other kind of factory, that was ever
known to be successfully conducted.
And while the dull-headed people of
the South arc being quill-chunked for
not seeing how it’s done, the factories
are daily closing up all over the coun
try, or reducing their work-hours to
half-time, sending thousands of men
over the country as tramping beggars.
So far, we have been entirely unable
to see how such a course is to build up
the country, when good farm laborers
are making a better support than one
half the pretended mechanics which
this mushroom factory and city build
ing has called into existence. The real
need of the country is farming—persis
tent, energetic, good farming.
Now, as to our native-born farmers:
they certainly have been apt scholars
in the art of producing, when we con
sider their tremendous losses by the
war, and their present standing. After
making a close study of the relative
positions of the farmers in the two sec
tions, we find that profitable farming
in the North dates only a compara
tively short time back. While those
of the South were abandoning homes
and moving from pillar to post, the
producer in the North, justified by high
prices occasioned b) the war and its
tremendous standing army, were ena
bled to indulge in every labor-saving
implement, and even forced by the de
mands of the times and scarcity of la
bor to enrich his fields to their utmost
capacity, and after the war a new field
•was opened up at the desolated South
for their field products; but to-day we
find our people, though struggling un
der all the disadvantages of a sudden
poverty, rising from the ashes of des
pair, with an upward tendency, while
those of the North, itching under a
downward tendency of things to a nat
ural level, are becoming even more dis
satisfied and fickle than the rising
Southerner.
What is essential to the enriching
of our country is a more general sys
tem of good farming. Let us discard
the large fields, or only sow them in
peas and rye, while we devote our
time to enriching, from the forest and
barnyards, small fields, and putting
them to the large yield test. When we
shall gather forty bushels of corn, and
twenty-five bushels of wheat to the
acre, on the small field cultivated, the
shrewd Northerner will see what can
be done, and not be slow to recognize
the fact that our land is worth the
moderate prices at which it is general
ly held.
In the past we have been so poor
that nothing was left us but to put
in every acre possible, and by hard
labor to reap from it as best we could
—under the correct idea that small
yields from large plantings were bet
ter than none at all.
Let the system of small and better
farming be inaugurated, and under its
influence the country will begin to pop
ulate, and its success will swell the
importance of the town, and perhaps,
then, bring an occasion for factories;
but if it does not do this, it will give
plenty of work to a large class of our
mechanics, in building up and improv
ing the homesteads of the country.
It might be well to urge those in
town, so thoroughly impregnated with
agricultural conceit, to give us the
practical bearings of their knowledge,
even if it be but upon an acre farm.
We should rather like the idea of such
a display. It would, undoubtedly, do
do good.
GEORGIA STATE FAIR.
We direct the attention of our thou
sand readers to the announcement of
the Georgia State Fair, at Macon,
commencing October 18th, and contin
uing one week. This Fair has always
been a grand success, but the energy
and ability of its officers, the present
year, and the determination which
they exhibit, bids fair to outrival any
future effort. Cherokee Georgia should
be well represedted in exhibitors and
visitors.
• -o
Farmers, if you have profited by
any experiments in farming, gardning
or stock-raising, give your neighbors
the benefit of your experience by writ
ing to the Agriculturist. You need
not trouble about re-writing or fixing
up, we want plain, unvarnished facts,
short and concise as the facts will ad
mit of, and we will see that it comes,
out all right.
We appreciate the kindness of our
old friend, T. R. Jones, Secretary of
North Georgia Agricultural and Me
chanical Association, in the tender of
a complimentary ticket to the Fair, on
the 28th of September, and for four
days thereafter. We want to see ev
ery body take a general holiday on
this occasion, and make the Fair a
brilliant success.
Late dispatches from Kansas, Mis
souri and Ohio, report unprecedented
rains for the season, and in one locali
ty (Spring River Bottom Missouri)
the damage by the floods to the far
mers is said to be $1,500,000. Rail
roads have been washed out and trains
stopped.
The great cotton growing region of
Middle Alabama, which has suffered
severely from drouth, was visited by
copious rains Saturday last, and the
planters have been made hopeful and
happy.
——
The crop news from England is un
favorable, owing to the heavy winds
and rains which have recently pre
vailed.
WHEAT.
Chicago Tribune: There is soma
reason to fear that the late rains in
England have done material damage
to the potato crop; as well also, have
the rains done heavy damage to wheat
crops in the West. If this should
prove to have been seriously injured,
the effect on wheat would be scarcely
less than that due to a partial failure
of the wheat crop in the British Isles.
One thing is certain—the firmer feel
ing in wheat in the English markets
at a time when our expo.its are large
compared with those of several months
past, shows that Europe wants our
wheat more than it was thought to
want it when prices were lower than
now. This is encouraging and all the
more as the encouragemtnt was unex
pected.
A correspondent of the Country
Gentleman, who has been abroad, says
that the cause of the superiority of
English and continental mutton over
that in America, is the simple sen
tence, “they feed turnips.” The Prac
tical Farmer endorses this opinion, 1
and insists that our sheep breeders, to
raise the best mutton, must raise ruta
bagas and turnips.
HU.* jwiii am i■ i» i ii w wu ■ i»*iwi i
Work for the Month.
During this month, the staple crops
all being “laid by,” there is much im
portant work that should be done.
This is emphatically the month for the
two-horse’ turner to do good work in
reclaiming old fields by giving the
heavy coat of weeds a good turn un
der. A drag chain should be hitched
to the plow so as to enable the plow
the bettor to do its work. It is now
time to commence the work of raising
rye, a most economical way of refresh
ing old land, as well as making a good
grain crop, and every farmer should
endeavor to seed down as much as
possible.
There is also much idle land that
might now be prepared for sowing fall
oats the next month.
Prepare ground- for wheat, turning
under the weeds or clover carefully.
A heavy crop of clover, or rank growth
of weeds, nicely turned under in Au
gust, is simply a compost bed on a
wide plan. Sow your turnips for win
ter use, selecting for that purpose a
piece of ground having a good share
of vegetable mould contained in it.
The turnip crop should also be look
ed after now, and a bountiful supply
grown for feeding cattle and bogs dur
ing the winter, and furnish the family
a very nutritious and savory food dur-,
ing the fall and winter season. Turnips
are one of the crops that peculiarly
justify the bountiful use of guano,
where the barnyard supply is deficient.
Freshly cleared land is best for
turnips, owing to the great amount
of leaf mould contained in it.
Os course, all good farmers have
seen to planting their late crop or
winter Irish potatoes, which should be
kept clean, and “laid by” the present
month, as September is pre-eminently
a growing month for this crop.
Early potatoes maybe dug now if
the vines die. Potatoes grow no more
after the vines are dead, and should
be dug at once.
In many fields there is now much
good grass that should be mown for
hay, well cured and properly housed
for the Cattle rack in cold weather,
when they should be stabled. Wheat
threshing is now about over with, or
will be soon, and we impress upon far
mers the economy of putting all of
their straw under cover, that it may
be used for feed, stable beds, and even
bring good prices the following spring
for the many uses for which it is’
adapted.
This is the proper time to cut
sprouts and deaden timber. Timber
or shrubbery cut down or cut around
during this month, will die out root
and branch so thoroughly as to pro
duce no sprouts afterward. *
Weeds and briars should be cleaned
out of fence corners and cornfields.
Let no weeds bear seed. When the
land cannot be plowed go into it with
the scythe or hoe.
The economy of sowing everything
is equally profitable as the hard work
of making it.
Now is the time to make compost
heaps. There is no othei’ season when
swamp muck is so dry, and hence so
easily got at, and so light to haul, as
now. Litter is also plenty and easily
gathered. Don’t fail, therefore, to be
gin a compost heap if you have not
already done so, and if it has been be
gun, add to it what you can now.
Be careful of health this season.
Overheating is dangerous now, and
over-eating equally so. Fruits are
abundant at this season and should be
used freely, but carbonaceous (greasy)
food and fresh meats, should be eaten
sparingly.
A correspondent of the German
toivn Telegraph who lost seventy
chickens by gapes, last year, now says
that fresh water, daily, with a lump of
roll brimstone kept in it, will be found
a certain preventive.