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GEORGIA CROP REPORT
Commissioner Stevens Inter*
esting Talk Resumed.
DEPARTMENT HAS BUSY TIME
Thousand* of Copies of the New Book,
“Georgia: Industrial and Historical/'
Have Been Distributed—Some Perti¬
nent Questions Answered.
Department of Agriculture, Atlanta,
April 1, 1902.
Several months have passed since a
monthly talk has gone out from this
but eo heavy has been the
co: respondenee, not only from our own
atate, but also from every section of
the Union, that the commissioner has
been compelled to assist the clerical
force of the department in answering
the floods of letters that have poured
in. The ordinary business of the office
had also to be attended to. Thousands
of copies of the usual annual bulletin
have been and are still being distrib-
uted. Besides these, more than 15,000
district maps of Georgia have been
scattered throughout our own and
other states, and many thousands of
the new book, “Georgia: Historical and
Industrial,” have been sent into every
county of our state, as well as to pub¬
lic libraries and individuals who have
written for it from every state in the
Union and from foreign countries, one
c*py having been sent to a gentleman
who wrote for it from Natal, South
Africa.
The following letter, received a day
or two ago, is very similar to many
others that the daily mail brings to
this office:
“My Dear Sir: I beg to acknowl¬
edge the receipt of your valuable book,
‘Georgia: Historical and Industrial.’
While I have not road it near as care¬
fully as I will, I have read it suffl-
ciently to pronounce it a gem, and
must say it will surely draw a crowd,
if it is circulated enough. I wish
there were 10,000 copies distributed
in the Northwest, so that homeseek-
ora and investors could see what we
have to offer. I have lived in Georgia
only five years, having come from
western Indiana, but I must sa> there
are more opportunities here than any¬
where else I know of for men of small
means. Land is cheap and is easily
cleared; timber is plentiful to build
and fence with, and the soil is as pro¬
ductive as that of most of the land
In the north. (I am speaking of South
Georgia, for that is all I am personally
acquainted with.) What is needed
most here is to rotate crops, as they
have to do in the Middle States, except
that here we will use peas and velvet
beans in place of clover, and the peas
are just as good as clover and the
beans superior to it. Follow beans
with corn; follow corn with oats; fol¬
low with peas the same season; follow
peas with cotton; then beans again,
and if that doesn’t break the guano
business it will make it look mighty
pale. Then intensify, diversify and in¬
tensify, and your bank account will
multiply. !fou will see, I have wan¬
dered from the subject. But I love
farming so well and am in such a
good place and have such a nice farm
that I can’t refrain from giving it a
word.
“Thanking you for the book and
wishing you success, I remain, your
humble servant,
“A. J. BEVER.
: Douglas, Coffee Co., Ga.
i P. S.—I know not what will be my
future fate; but I think I’ll live and
die in the Empire State.—A. J. B.”
We feel sure that our readers will
pardon us for publishing this letter in
full, on account of its many excellent
hints to farmers.
A letter from Mr. E. S. Towne, 81
Ashland boulevard, Chicago, Ill., re-
eeived March 6, says: “I have examln-
ed the new book, ‘Georgia: Historical ■
and Industrial,’ which you kindly sent
me, and find it a handsome volume of
fine paper and print, voluminous, but
without a dull page, embellished with
a profusion of pictures and many fine
colored plates.
“I congratulate you on your success
and believe it will help much in pro¬
moting Georgia’s welfare. I am show
ing it with pleasure to my friends.
“After studying all the land and im
migration schemes of the different
states from California to New Jersey
and British America to the Gulf, I be
Have Georgia is the best, all things
considered, and my land is not for
sale unless at fancy prices.”
Another letter was received a few
days ago from Louis E. Van Norman,
of Springfield, O., editor of “Home
and Flowers," an illustrated magazine
published In the interest of a mors
beautiful American home. In this let¬
ter Mr. Van Norman says: “As one
in particularly close touch with the
•ocial conditions of our rural popula-
ron, aa expression of an opinion from
you as to the immediate need of the
farmer and his family in the matter of
moral, intellectual and social better¬
ment would be highly interesting and
▼aluable. We are sending you a copy
of the February number of ‘Home and
Flowers,’ which contains an outline of
the work proposed by the United
States secretary of agriculture. We
fihould be very glad indeed if you
would answer the following questions
and return thla letter to us:
“1. What, in your opinion, is the Im¬
mediate need of the farmer and his
family in the matter of moral, intel¬
lectual and social betterment?
“2. Should such a work be begun as
the secretary suggests, by providing
practical training for the future wives
of the farmers in the direction of edu-
cation as to sanitation, cooking and
the rational practice of the arts of
home?
“May we not hear from you, if only
a few words?”
In answer, we would say, not only
writer of this letter, but also to
all the farmers of Georgia, the moral,
intellectual and social betterment of
our rural population will he insured
not only by attendance at the stated
times upon the house of God and send¬
ing the children to the daily schools,
but also by having in every home a
library of choice, attractive books by
the best authors, written in a style to
catch and hold the attention of the
young, and by surrounding the home
with everything that helps to make it
truly the dearest spot on earth. No
matter how limited one’s means may
be, the hublest home may be made
pleasant by the practice of neatness,
and nature herself supplies with beau¬
tiful flowers and shrubs the materials
for adornment of the house and
grounds, which, with proper care, will
lend such charm to the place that all
through life the children therein rear¬
ed will find in their own hearts a re-
sponse to the words of the poet:
“Be it ever so humble, there Is no
place like home.”
Again, not only the future wives of
the farmers should he carefully train¬
ed in the art of healthful cooking, but
ths boys as well as the girls should
be thoroughly educated as to sanita¬
tion and the practices of all the vir¬
tues and arts that make a happy borne.
Mr. C. H. Beazly, in a recent news¬
paper article on “The Farm Versus
Other Lines of Business,” says there
are fewer failures in farming than in
any other known line of business. He
thinks, too, that the growth of trusts
will, by throwing many out of employ¬
ment, cause lands that are now shun¬
ned by so many to be tilled, and that
in spite of the odiousness of the trusts
there is in this fact a gleam of c onH
to come.
If through the operation of the
trusts many shall be induced to return
to the farms, then will the cause of
agriculture “pluck from the nettle dan¬
ger the flower safety.”
In concluding this talk, may I be
pardoned for alluding once more to .
our new book? I say our, for not only
did I work unremittingly to secure the
necessary information, but Mr. R. F.
Wright, my indefatigable assistant,
and Professor J. T. Derry, the well
known Georgia writer, worked diligent¬
ly and carefully upon its
This volume is being distributed wide¬
ly throughout our state. It has been
our aim to place it in every college
library and in the libraries of the lead¬
ing schools of Georgia, in both town
and country, so that the great mass
of our people may have access to the
large fund of information therein con¬
tained. Here let me say that on page
921 the omission of a figure in the
second item of the manufactures of
the state makes the capital invested in
these industries to appear as $8,789,-
656. It should be $89,789,656. The er-
ror is apparent to one who reads the
whole page. Let every one who has a
copy of this work cut this correction
out and paste it on the blank space
on page 920.
Those who write for our book need
not be discouraged if there occurs a
delay of several days. Their time will
come -
STEVENS,
Commissioner.
~ T
Sugar Cane.
Though some of the farmers are
nearly through planting their cane,
gome are waiting for dryer weather.
The importance* of this crop cannot
be overestimated. There is an ever
increasing demand for the best Georgii
cane sirup. Overproduction of either
sugar or sirup need not be feared.
The consumption of sugar in the Unit¬
ed States exceeds the home supply.
Raising sugar cane costs less than
raising cotton, and to the planters of
many parts of southern Georgia there
is more money in it. When this crop
receives the attention due it, sugar re¬
fineries* will increase in number. As
we have said before, there is no rea-
son why the sugar and sirup business
of Georgia should not at least approxi¬
mate that of Louisiana.
The sugar refineries at Baxley, in
Appling county, and Dupont, in Clinch,
are doing good work for their respec-
tive sections. At Cairo, in Thomas
2 ountv. is a large sugar plant of the
best modern construction, where the
juices of the cane are being chemical
ly treated in the most scientific- man¬
ner. Within a radius of 15 miles from
this town there are 2,000 acres plant¬
ed in sugar cane. The shipments of
sirup from Cairo amounted last year to
10,000 barrels. At Quitman, in Brooks
county, one firm sells on an average
3,500 barrels of sirup a year. The
sirup is pronounced by Professor Ha.’-
vey W. Wiley, chief of the United
States bureau of chemistry, to be of a
high 'grade, and the market for it ex
tends from Massachusetts to Texas.
As a result of Professor Wiley’s visit
to Georgia an appropriation of $11,-
000 has been recommended by the con-
gress.onal committee on appropria.
tlona for the purpose of promoting the
development of the sugar interest in
Georgia and other southern ® a es *
Credit is dye to Major D. G. urse ;
president of the Savannah chamber u of
comeree who was very active in inter-
esting the United States department of
agriculture in this work and who took
personal charge of Professor TVlley
during his trip. Professor Wiley re-
ports having seen near Kinderton, on
the McRae plantation, stalks of sugar
cane more than 8 feet long and weigh-
lng from four to six pounds each. The
United States department of agricul-
ture intends making experiments to
ascertain what kind of fertilizer will
give the best results upon soils of dif¬
ferent sections in Georgia and other
southern states. Hence we are about
to see the realization of the hopes
that have inspired the efforts of this
department ever since our accession to
office, that in the great sugar cane in¬
dustry Georgia would find even a bet¬
ter, because a more permanent, source
of wealth than in her rapidly disap¬
pearing forests of pine.
JARRING FOR THE CURCULIO OF
THE PEACH AND PLUM.
Nearly every one knows that peach¬
es and plums, in common with certain
other fruits, are apt to be “wormy,”
and though fair externally, worthless
within; but not nearly so many know
how these worms gained entrance in¬
to the fruit or realize to what a serious
extent the growers and marketers of
fruit are injured by them. These
worms are the young of a small, gray¬
ish beetle called the plum curculio, be¬
longing to the great group of weevils
or snout beetles, in which the head
is prolonged into a snout. This par¬
ticular species is about one-eighth of
an inch long and has all parts of its
body protected by a very hard, rough-
ened shell. It has in some sections of
Georgia become as much of a necessity
to protect the fruit crop from the cur-
culio as from the San Jose scale or
brown rot, and the problem which thus
confronts the fruit growers is as per-
plexing as any other. Small home or-
chards of from one to one hundred
trees often suffer a much greater pro-
portionate loss than those of commer-
cial size, and oftentimes it is, on a sin-
le t impossible to find a peach that
has not been injured or rendered en-
tirely worthless by this pest.
The beetles pass the winter in shel-
tered situations amongst the grass and
weeds around the orchard and in the
fallen leaves, etc., In some neighbor-
ing woodland. They appear on the
trees with the first blossoms, and dur-
lng the first few weeks, before the
young peaches have formed, the bee¬
tles obtain their food by nibbling the
opening buds. Later they transfer
their atetntion to the tender fruit, and
as soon as this has fairly begun its
growth the process of egg laying be¬
The female deposits her small white
egg In an incision through the skin
made by her snout, in front of which
she also cuts a crescent shaped slit
The minute white grub hatching
thil egg works ita way to the cen ter
OA the frult and there feeds and grws
the sca r sometimes growing over so
as to be almost unrecognizable, at oth-
er times remaining open, and conspicu-
ously marked by the growing extenu-
a tion which forms there, When the
fruit is stung during the younger
stages of growth it is very apt to drop
from the trees before half grown, but
the worms continue to feed within it
until full fed, when they work their
way out ’ burr © w into the ground, re-
n -ain in the resting stage for a week
or two and then emerge as adult bee-
t les exactly like their parents, and
ready perhaps to lay eggs for a sec-
ond generation in the later varieties
peaches,
That there are at least two genera-
tions of the insects annually seems a
practically assured fact, as the adult
oeetles have been reared from the in¬
fested fruit as early as May, and the
worms found in late peaches as late as
September. The earliest “stung”
peaches, as has already been stated,
nearly always drop; those attacked a
little later after the stone has begun
to show signs of hardening, cling to
the tree and are the first to ripen,
while those stung later still ripen with
the bulk of the crop and often show no
signs of the injury received until they
are cut open and the true state of af-
fairs discovered. The bulk of dam-
age. however, is done by those which
sting the fruit from the time it Is no
larger than an acorn until two or three
weeks before ripening, and it is during
this period that remedial measures
must be applied.
Spraying the fees with some poison*
ous mixture has been recommended,
but is not generally recognized as of
any very great value. To be effective
the insect must actually eat a portion
of the poison, and as It is not a very
voracious feeder, the chances are good
f or ^ do considerable damage be-
fore taking a poisonous dose.
There is another method, however,
which has long been in use, and
though tedious and eapensive, appears
to be quite effective. This consists in
Jarring the trees gently with a padded
mallet or bum , )er and casing the
insects as they drop in , sheets spread
below the trees for this purpose. Sev-
eral growers have carried on this op-
eration with seemingly very profitable
regultg during the few years and
as thig appears the most proml9ing
method of treating this pest seme ac-
count of operation8 as carried on may
bQ Qf value
A Apparatus u# Necessary necessary.
Many forms of frame upon which
the sheet for catching the curculio as
they fall have been dev i 8e a, but those
DOW in use among some o{ the lai . ge
growers at Fort Valley, and apparently
first „ , introduced . : . . there . . by Major ... G. T. _
Jones, appear to be the best for the
purpose, especially in a commercial or-
Chard. Two frames are constructed
6 by 12 feet, with a notch midway
in the side of one to receive the body
of the tree. These are then covered
with chees cloth, cheap sheeting or
anything of that sort. The bumpers
are made of a piece of thick plank,
about 6 inches wide by 8 inches long.
One end of this is thoroughly padded
with rubber or sacking, and in the
center of the other end a hole is bored
into winch til*.- end of a light and
strong pole about S or 10 feet long is
fitted. Each jarring gang consists of
five hands. Four ot them which ear-
ry the shoot may be women or chil-
dren, the fifth, who handles the bump-
er, must be a man and able to act with
some judgment. The frames are then
lifted by the carriers and brought to¬
gether around the trunk of a tree. Ths
man gives it one quick and decisive,
but not too hard, jar with the padded
end of hi3 pole, and the carrying gang
immediately walk to the next tree,
where the operation is repeated. One
tree is sufficient, and it
sh <>uld be as just stated, not necessari-
^ so ver y hard, not by any means
^ ar< ^ enough to bruise the bark of the
*T ee > but quick and without any pre-
^ m * nar y shaking. Under these cir-
cumstances the curculio will be taken
unaware s and is practically certain to
cur * up drop ano “play ’pos-
sum >” feigning death, and lying mo-
tionless on the sheet until the end of
row * s reached, when the insects
WA1 ich have been collected can be
swe P*- i n f° a tub of water to which
a little kerosene has been added or
otherwise destroyed. It may be found
a help to carry a small stone or
weight in the center of the frame in
or( * er that this portion may be kept
depressed and to prevent a sudden
Sust of wind or other agency from
lifting it and scattering the contents.
Time of Jarring.
Considerable depends on the time of
day in which these jarring operations
are carried on, as during the warmer
hours the curculio are much more ex-
cited and harder to catch than either
early in the morning or late in the
afternoon. It is always advisable to
begin as soon as it becomes light
eD0 “ gh l ° see and work 8 Tbeo
‘ n he aftP ' noon f from 3 r 0 clock w unt11
darkl thoU8:h l v not 80 good a tlme as ln
mornlug - is better than
the middle of the ^ To obtain the
best results the jarring operation
should be - m soon after the bloom is
shed and re P eated ever y da y or two
as ’ ong as any number of the beetles
are caught.
Results of Work.
The results of this jarring process,
when carried out systematically
throughout the season have in every
case which has come to our attention
been satisfactory to the fruit grower.
Mr. J. H. Hale, who spent very consid-
erable sums last year in this work,
jarring some blocks or sections of
blocks in his orchard nearly every
day from before the middle of April
until nearly June, has stated most em-
phatically that he felt much more than
repaid for the expenditure of labor
and money, and an examination of his
fruit in the packing shed and on the
trees as compared with that in nearby
orchards not jarred showed a very
cided aifference in his lavor.
This year somewhat extensive ex¬
periments have been planned whereby
the spraying and jarring treatment
will be carried on side by side, and
at the close of the season further re-
eults may be expected.
Board of Entomology.
Stop the G©ugh and Work off the
cold.
Laxativv Branto Quinine Tablets cur# s
W d»T. * Car., N.
STATUES OF SAINTS. .
,
Romantic Side of an r*ri A Business
Carried c* 1 ■ i
“The making of saints," said ti
of an 0 j<] fi rm i n p ar j 41 Pi t
maiiu 1 r. |0iu . religious statues of
al , - M a business whi
Jeciu.'-.. ■ tJ the -
whei» I to >n *11-
dustry appeal'd me most. > ronsr-
ly. It i> ail it: 'O-.rv iOi a mail w 0
is tond of fretn’ . iiPZ the Dubii
libraries, vvao t ; P his pieasur 1 (
poring over oL books am doc
men Is, who ue: »n re :
Thu? 1 tic* not 1 f : 1 in in 1 • : b
, T j ves ,, v ire tl
V
when 1 am \ r.n
saint concernm ; ^ .1 1 lie < stom-
^ ’ u . f 0 :|je fc if :inv details.
‘
. n
150 ja " lt .' 1 \
^ , lv , 1
ie P 0,,o<! 1 v ’ ‘j ‘‘; 1 ’ e
costume, nf that period, . to bnd out
what wcr. • nis special attributes and
what was his martyrdom, if martyr-
dom there was.
“Thus some time a^o we received
from a priest ’ in 1 he south of France
. . * 0 , -p •
On.ei or a s a ue o IL -
aau ,K ‘ V0 [ ‘!! >arU V‘ ' 1 ™ lUtf
dl , he ? r , 1
n or ? ea
though . the massn.- too:ms contains
f, ver 130 Ctosclv primed pages «t
the names ot saintb. \\ e applied to
^ . t who u „ eat authority on
J * an J we lparned that
St. Fns was a captain , . of - barbarians , ,
l!nder ^ 1 e ' ooni*ii;ition and
that he was mart) red at the acr^ of
twenty. This .i^avo us the period,
and the rest was easy,
“A^ain, on a no tl) or occasion we
were asked to make a statue of a
St. A me of whom we knew nothing
but that she was a widow. We had
fl n( ] everything else about
^ er j> n £ nn ^ P NV e know the period
our task becomes easier. The period
inJicates th( , cosUlme . Thus re-
C ? ntl >' ,!E e had i . ‘" a1 , / a , u Me u »-
P ce } Ve , knew that he was a cap-
-
f ain that , he was a Roman, and we
»
dressed him with the breastplate
kfid helmet of a Roman captain.”
A Famous Expression.
“There’s manv a slip ’twixt the
cup and the lip” is a very old saying
and was first uttered to the king of
Samos, an island in the Grecian ar¬
chipelago. This king, Ancaeus by
name, planted a vineyard and treat¬
ed the slaves who cultivated it so
badly that one of them told him he
would never live to taste the wine
made from it. When the wine was
ready and a cup of it poured out for
the king, he sent for the slave who
had prophesied his death and ask¬
ed him what he thought of his
prophecy now.
The slave replied, “There’s many
a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip,
and just as he had spoken the words
Ancaeus received warning that a
wild boar had broken into his vine¬
yard and was ruining it. Putting
down the wine untasted, he rushed
out to attack the boar and was
killed.
Flowers to Eat.
Nasturtiums are such easy things
to grow and, besides being pretty,
are nice to use for salads. Get the
climbing kind if you have a garden,
the Tom Thumbs if you have only
a pot or a box.
Sow in little trenches about an
. deep. They will
inca grow almost
B if P°' ciljle P ut ,E bem
whare th f>, j || 8 et <° me sunsbme
Do Dn } let the seeds n . P en ou the
plants , if you want t? .in to go on
flowering. wide Instead and^ got a bottle with
a mouth a well fitting
cork, half fill with white wine vine-
gar and when the little green seeds
that will come after the flowers fade
are about as big as sweet pea seeds
pick them off, drop them into the
vinegar and then tightly cork the
bottle,
Cook will be delighted with these
to use instead of capers,
A Paprika, very delicious or Hungarian red Ffl^per. is th©
Hungarian paprika. pepper
It is little, if
stron ger than white pepper,
“ as An exquisite flavor peculiarly its
own an d threatens no hepatic trou-
bles. Although a very good pepper
for table use, the chief excellence of
the paprika is in culinary emplov-
ment. Heat brings out may*be *it= flavor
an d, being so mild, it used
lavishly without giving pain to ten-
der mouths.
The Spanish black pepper, which
grows in long pods like vanilla
beans, closely approximates to pa¬
prika. but is not quite so fine a fla¬
vor. It is a little milder and is
principally used in cookie-.
To Cure m Cold in one Uay,
Dsxaiir* Bioobo Quiniu« Tablets.