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ALL HOME PRINT.
VOL XXII
The White Store 7
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E-ling Ini Mu WHITE STORE
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To make you Believe This you will Have to come and see what we are offering-- We are still getting in goods
and haven’t time to quote prices!
w*r sttle > CLOTHIHG? > qwality.n i&r
JgHjL WE EWE ill 1 CLOTH IMW Will, MCI IE PRICE FROM $1.50 TO $OO.OO A SEIT AEE sffiA
GEARAETEE TO PLEASE TOE IP TOE WILL OELT 00ME AEE LOOK. s#3tfW
Evitt Bros. *2.50 Shoo. Sohool Shoes.
Keep Your Eye on this Space, we will Quote You Some Prices Nest week that will Please You.
THOMPSOIsT BEOS., Propr's "Wtiite store,
COMMISSIONER’S TALK
Mr. Nesbitt’s Monthly Address
to the Georgia Farmers.
BALING AND MARKETING COTTON.
An Important Subject Dwelt Upon at
Length by the CoinmUiioner of Agri
culture—The Tremendous Waste Our
Careless Methods Entail—Fertilisers
Discussed.
I
Department of Agriculture,
Atlanta, Sept. 1, 1894.
A subject of vital importance to the
farmer is the more careful handling and
baling of our eotton for market. I have
already, more than once, called atten
tion to the careless methods of gather
ing, storing, ginning, baling, and then
exposing to all weathers, after it is made
ready for o\ir home market. It is true
that the price is not fixed by the home
market, that is done in Liverpool and
Manchester, but the reckless methods of
marketing our cotton are so well known
that in fixing the price a liberal deduc
tion has always been made, not only for
bagging and ties, but for dirt, mixed
sample and water, and this heavy per
cent, amounting to millions of dollars
has come out of the farmer’s pockets.
With the first four reductions we are
familiar, but we know little of the tre
mendous waste which our careless
jenethods entail, and what a large influ
ence this has in reducing the price of
our staple. Governor Northeu, who
has been investigating this subject, has,
| |b the August number of the “Southern
|Cultivator,” made the following quota
tions from some of the consular reports,
land he says he does not find a single re
gnort which speaks favorable of the con-
Bitlon of American cotton, as compared
Hrith that of India and Egypt. It is
■poped, that the attention of the farmers
Being once arrested, and their energies
Ufaorxmghly aroused, the result will be
Khe eventual saving of a heavy yearly
logs, which they can ill afford to bear,
■And which seems the more unaceounta-
Kle, from the fact that the large leak
fcould be stopped without one dohar of
gmdditiorail expense.
Mr. Mason, consul at Frankfort, says:
“American cotton is, as hitherto, the
Bworst packed of all that conies to this
| part of Germany. It is generally easy
Ito pick out American hales from any
f pile of cotton by their torn and bedrag
i gled appearance.”
f The consul at Havre says:
“Much of the American cotton ar
rives here in very bad condition —the
Iron bands broken, the bagging torn and
Otherwise mutilated, and often rotten
bom exposure to the elements.
Mr. Monaghan, the consul at Chem
nitz, remarks that “the packing of
American raw cotton causes a deal ol
anxiety and complaint here. The jute
cloth covering is so torn before the
* bales reach Chemnitz that the cotton is
exposed to mad, water, fire and theft.
Qf the original six or eight iron bands.
ffffffffffffff
two, three, four and sometimes more,
are loose or broken; the cotton bulges
out, takes up dirt and dust, when in a
dry place; mud in the docks; sea water,
when in the ships, and rain water,
when on land or wharves, or in trans
mission by boat, raft or wagon. In
transport, every gust of wind tears
Sway pieces of valuable commodity.
The wharves, customhouse floors and
freight cars are usually covered with
pieces torn or dropped from such bales.”
Mr. Crawford, consul at St. Peters
burg, says:
“In this particular, American cotton
bales are compared very unfavorably
With the Egyptian, which invariably
arrive in excellent condition, and per
fectly clean. The Egyptian bales are
only about half the size of the Ameri
can, and are wrapped in heavy linen
covers and securely bound with iron
hoops. The number of hoops on a bale
01 Egyptian cotton is greater than that
on an American bale, notwithstanding
the difference in size. The Egyptian
Eitton has equally rough sea voyage and
apdling as American.”
Mr. Neal, consul at Liverpool, says:
“Cotton is shipped to this district
chiefly from the southern ports of the
United States, and the bales are very
often in a rough condition, because the
coarse canvas covers are insufficient in
| weight and strength to stand the usage
.to which the bales are subjected en
route. Bales of cotton are patched and
tnended in Liverpool, and sent forward
to consumers by rail or canal. The best
i material for outside covering is heavy,
strong canvas, and the bales should be
bound by 10 iron bands instead of by
seven, as at present. The most import
ant matter that requires the attention
of shippers in the United States is the
maimer of loading nonliner steamers at
some of the southern ports, where it is
{he practice to screw the bales into the
vessels and to cut off their ends to make
■hem fit into the hold. A great deal of
cotton is lost from the bales, owing to
the tearing of the canvas in the process
Of screwing, and as the ship unloads,
this loose cotton falls about the hold
and the quays, and is more or less dam
aged by being trampled upon and mixed
with the dust and dirt on the floors. It
is never fit to be put back into the bales,
and consequently has to be sold at a
greatly depreciated value. Much of it
fe never recovered at all, being swept up
with the rubbish on the quay, and dis
posed of by the ship owners or dock au
thorities, who are bound to keep the
ground clear of such inflammable ma-
‘‘Nearly every vessel from the south
ern ports of the" United States lands a
quantity of loose cotton, equal to from
one to eight bales of cotton, which does
not include quantities given to make up
broken bales.
“In conclusion, the suggestion with
reference to cotton are: The use of bet
ter canvas and more bands in making
™ a bale, the abolition of screwing oot
hm into a vessel, the prohibition of cut
ting ends off bales to make them fit
Ih£p’§ holds, and the adoption of a uni
size of bale throughout the cotton
fitates, which would do much to insure
better and more careful stowing on
boil'd ship ”
! Elsewhere in this report will be seen
an article explaining some points as to
the “tare,” about which most farmers
haye only a confused idea.
| these quotatiqns at lengtlj
JACKSON, GA. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1894.
to show the unvarying testimony from
every quarter, and to emphasize the fact
that this tremendous loss is expected
and allowed for when the price of our
commodity is fixed, and therefore does
not fall on the buyer or shipper, but di
rectly on the farmer. The suggestions
as to better covering and more bands in
making up a bale, as to the abolition of
double pressing, screwing into the ship,
cutting Qff bale ends to make them fit
better into the ship’s hold, and also of
adopting a bale of uniform size through
out the south, are valuable to the farm
er in so far as he takes measures to have
them carried out. Let us begin a more
careful policy at home; let us see to it
that our cotton is put on the market in
first class condition, and then, if im
properly handled, the fault will not rest
at our door.
FALL WORK.
As cotton is, at present, almost our
only money crop, its gathering will nec
essarily occupy the greater part of our
attention, until all is safely housed and
made ready for market. It is the best
policy to gather as fast as it opens, for
the combined injurious effects of wind,
rain, trash, sand and dew, induced by
too long standing in the field cause a
poor sample, and, though the proportion
of such cotton in a bale be small, the
entire bale is classed by it, and not by
the larger amount of good cotton, and
the consequence is a falling off of several
points in the price of every pound.
If, from storms, delays, or any other
causes, the sample is injured, don’t mix
this cotton in a bale with good cotton.
Keep all such cotton separate, and pack
it to itself. If put iu a bale with good
cotton, it simply reduces the price of the
whole.
Another important item is the spread
ing and drying of the cotton before it is
6tored or carried to the gin. This is es
pecially important for the earlier pick
ings, which have more moisture—both
in lint and seed—than later, when the
plant is entirely matured, and the dry
ing and falling of the foliage leave the
bolls exposed to the full action of the
zun.
Though the saving of the cotton crop
is the most absorbing work, there are
intervals all during the gathering season
When other farm duties can he safely
attended to. The thoughtful farmer,
even during the heavy pressure of cot
ton picking, will plan ahead, and when
opportunity offers made needed repairs
on terraces, ditches, stables, fences and
houses, and also get his land in shape
for the various fall crops. To succeed
with
GRASSES,
the laud should be put in as fine tilth
and manured as highly as for turnips.
In the northern part of the cotton belt
September is considered the best time
for sowing; further south, it is safer to
defer this work until October. The fall
sown grass stands a much better chance
in the struggle for possession with the
native grasses when the spring comes
on, because it has attained such vigor as
to easily hold its own against crab grass
and other annuals that germinate in the
spring, and the weeds can he kept in
check by successive mowings.
In previous reports the proper varie
ties and mixtures of seed have been
given. Bermuda, as a summer pasture
grass, is all that could he desired, but
we need a perennial winter grass, and
•isomwlijur to tfeg best authorities the
“Schrader” bids fair to take this place.
This grass should not he confounded
with the Rescue, which it somewhat re
sembles, but to which it is much supe
rior. Thev belong to the same family,
hut the Schrader is a perennial, grow
ing vigorously; the Rescue is small and
an annual.
George D. Tillman of South Carolina,
who has given the subject of grass cult
ure a great deal of study and experi
mentation, says:
“Schrader is most likely one of the
new grasses that will shortly force it
self upon the attention of the whole ag
ricultural world, as neither heat nor
cold affects it injuriously much. A
number of my correspondents in the
northwest write that it resists their arc
tic freezes as heroically as it does our
long, parching drouths at the south,
and I am sure it is well adapted to the
stiff, damp rice swamps of our southern
seacoast. As regards the fertile low
grounds that are subject to overflow by
our up country water courses, Schrader,
rightly utilized, would prove an inesti
mable blessing, by making such lands
the most profitable of any at the south.
“Schrader will not thrive on sandy
soil, unless clay he near the surface, as
it affects a rather compact gravel or
clay, although it does remarkably well
on the gray granite land of Edgefield.
This arises perhaps from the fact that
the grass seems to need a good supply
of potash.
“The grass also does much bettor on
stiff, moist land, if not too wet, than
on dry soil; yet it will thrive splendid
ly on the latter, too, if it be fertile, and
I never have seen any grass, not even
the far-famed Kentucky bluegrass, or
the world-wide orchard grass, that
flourishes in the shade of trees as Schra
der does. There is no use sowing Schra
der on poor soil, unless it he highly ma
nured, as the grass yields such a large
i amount of forage and seed that it is
obliged to rapidly exhaust the land, es
pecially when the seed matures, as they
are as large as oats. The seed can be
harvested about as easily as oats, and
nearly every seed will come up when
plowed in like oats. Even when not
plowed in, the seed have an aggressive
tendency to take possession of the land;
still the grass can be as readily exter
* minated as oats, wheat or any other
small grain. During 10 years’ observa
i tion, I have never noticed any indica
tion of disease, and whenever the stand
becomes thin, one has only to let a crop
of seed ripen, or scatter a few gathered
j seed, and then plow or rake them in, to
, to have a stand again.
“All kinds of stock relish Schrader
as a hungry child does pound cake, and
for all purposes of hay, pasture or soil
ing, it is superior to any crop, on fertile
land, that I have seen, out of over 200
different kinds of forage plants, grasses,
clovers, melilots, medics, vetches,“bur
nets, comfreys, etc., with which I have
experimented for about 30 years, in an
earnest search for the the "best winter
grass for the south.”
An experimental plat has been given
to this grass at our station, and should
it prove all that is claimed for it, it will
become a most important agent in build
ing up the material prosperity of our
state and section. Once its supremacy
is established the business of profitable
DAIRY FARMING,
for the first time in Georgia’s agricul
tural histoiy attracting considerable a£
more southern part of this state, where
the cattle range at will during the win
ter months, obtaining a good living
from the rich canebrakes and bottom
lands, the need for sowing winter past
ure is not realized, but in the more
northern sections, if we would sustain
the cheese factories, which we hope soojj
to see in successful operation and make
our cows yield a profitable return, we
must plant crops for them. This ques
tion has been but little studied, hut
opens a wide field for judicious invest
ment. One sowing of grass, if properly
managed, will last several years, and
saves the yearly preparation and seed
ing of the grains. These grass lots, for
convenience of grazing and manuring,
should be as near the stable yards as
possible, and should be divided §o as to
graze only a part at a time. To avoid
unnecessary tramping, three or <four
ljpfirs a day is sufficient, and will give
stock all the grazing that they need.
Asa fertilizer, nothing supplies the
place qf good farmyard manure. While
the sowing of grass may be deferred, it
is important to sow
RYE AND BARLEY
lots at once. A rich lot of either is
very desirable, and a farmer canpot do
better than to secure this valuable addi
tion to his stock yard.
FALL OATS.
Again I would urge, don’t be deterred
by fear of winter killing from sowing a
good area in fall oats. If they succeed,
they make at least twice as much as the
spring sown crop, are not more liable to
winter killing than the spring oats are
to destruction from drouth, and if they
fail there is another chance for a crop,
as the same land can be reseeded, or is
in fine condition for a different crop.
FODDER PULLING
is another work which engages our at
tention during the latter days of August
and Sept. 1. I have, in this connec
tion, more than once called attention to
the wasteful practice of leaving the
stalks to decay in the fields, as is the
common practice with southern farm
ers.
The following figures from a bulletin
of the New Jersey experiment station
show the constituents in
ONE TON OF CORN STALKS.
FERTILIZING CONSTI
TUKNTS.
Nitrogen 15.7 lbs.
Ph. Acid.... 5.80 “
Potash 20.40.
FOOD CONSTITUENTS
Fat 17 lbs.
Protein 60 “
N. fru. ex. and
fibre 10.76.
By careful analysis, it is shown by
Professor Alwood, of the Maryland sta
tion, that, estimating the weight of
stalks usually left in the field at half a
ton to the acre, which is a fair average,
we waste by adhering to this practice
on each acre constituents to the value of
400 pounds of corn meal, or 6 1-2 bushels
of corn, and how often do we send to
the west for supplies to make good this
loss!
Another advantage in utilizing the
entire com product, stalk, blade and
ear, is that we clear our land for suc
ceeding crops, for if impossible to con
tinue it in a cultivated crop, it is still
important to cover it with something,
peas, clover, rye, barley, grass, to pre
vent the washing and consequent wast
ing of the soil. It has been proved by
high authorities in England that poor,
arable land, left bare, loses by washing
ea<& year nitrates to the valq£ of
—csL sodium nitrate ner ——
Japan clover offers a hardy plant,
which does well on poor land and, be
sides holding and increasing the nitro
gen, will furnish grazing, and requires
little care or attention.
GATHERING THE CORN
will soon demand attention. It should
be gathered as soon as it can be safely
stored in the crib. Every day that it
is left in the field, after that time, but
increases tne risk of loss and waste.
PEAS AND VINES
should also be gathered and cured. In
previous reports and in the bulletins
from our experiment station, the di
rections as to the best time for cutting,
and method of curing and storing, have
been very full and explicit.
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.
The use of commercial fertilizers has
become almost indispensable to otir
farm operations, and, in the advocacy
of the various brands and methods of
preparing much discussion has arisen
relative to the merits of high grade
goods, reduced by the use of a “filler,”
as compared with naturally low grade
goods, in which the “filler” is already
present, being supplied by nature. As
there is some friction and misunder
standing, I will, in order to promote a
clearer insight into the matter, review
this question as briefly as possible, and
in doing this I will endeavor to careful
ly consider the claims of both farmer
and manufacturer and, I trust, will do
injustice to neither class of the large
majority of our citizens who are inter
ested, the one, in manufacturing, the
other, in using these goods.
The law states clearly that in each
ton of fertilizer, that is to each 2,000
pounds, there shall be at least a total of
10 per cent, or 200 pounds of the follow
ing elements, which are known to be
available and valuable:
Ammonia, available phosphoric acid
and potash.
The first and most costly, ammonia,
is derived from cotton seed meal, tank
age, fish scrap, dried blood, and also
from nitrate of soda and sulphate of
ammonia. The second, phosphoric acid,
is obtained by treating the natural
phosphates, and bone, with sul
phuric acid, and the third, potash, is
derived from kainit and from sulphate
and muriate of potash. Besides these
there is usually in each ton about 200
pounds of moisture and 40 pounds of
insoluble phosphoric acid, which in
time, becomes available. We have now
accounted for 440 pounds of the 2,000
pounds composing a ton, but what of
the other 1,560 pounds?
This 1560 pounds is certainly a large
bulk of comparatively inert material,
if we compare it with the amount of
the available constituents in a ton of
commercial fertilizer. But what do wl
find in a ton of horse or cqw manure or
cotton seed meal? A ton of horse ma
nure contains only 102 pounds of the
three fertilizing elements; a ton of cow
manure, 111.6 pounds; a ton of cotton
seed meaL 253.8 pounds; a ton of com
mercial fertilizer never lesg than 200
pounds, Sometimes more. In the horse
and cdw manufd and cotton seed meal
there are several hundred pounds of
matter, not directly available, but valu
able aS improving the mechanical condi
tion Ox the laud, and this may be said
tfi represent the ‘‘filler” used in the
commercial goods, with this difference,
thst “filler” has not as
OFFICIAL ORGAN.
good a mechanical effect on the land,
though often containing minor constit
uents and serving as a vehicle to convey
the fertilizing material in the best form
for distribution upon the soil.
The true value of the fertilizer is in
tine number of pounds and the character
of the plant food it contains; and, as in
WC can increase or lessen the
f farmyard manures at greater
pr less expense, so, in commercial fer
tilizers, We can use the cheaper or high
er priced goods, the value of each de
pending on the amount and the propor
tions it contains of the three most valu
able elements.
In using a ton of rich stable yard
manure, we know that we get only a lit
tle over one twentieth of available plant
food. In a ton of commercial fertilizer
we get one tenth and upwards of such
I valuable material. When a “filler” is
used, this amount must be guaranteed
by the Manufacturer, and if, on analy
?is, Any brand is found to run below the
aw’s requirements, its sale is forbidden.
If the Manufacturer furnishes this full
1 amofifit, the law says nothing on the
! subject 6f “filler,” hence the department
i fanmjt prohibit its use when there is
1 lOthitig In the “filler” which might in
; ure the land or the crops, or prevent
be plant £ood in the fertilizer from be
: fig appropriated.
It is the utilization of the various
forms of fertilizing materials and their
different combinations which create
competition and reduce the commercial
goods to their present price. The crude
materials vary so greatly in their price,
i by viythe of their greater or less amount
of valuable ingredients, that were no
“fillers” allowed, there are some goods
which wpuld be virtually excluded from
the markSt, because their necessary
price woMd be considerably beyond that
ade frop the lower grade ma-
Jt have qften advised that the farmers
buy tne and mix at home,
thus avoiding the expense incurred by
the inert material. It is a satisfaction
td kfiotv exactly what one is using; but
abChrady and care are absolutely essen
tial to obtain the best results.
Vnless there is some mistake or fraud,
the commissioner of agriculture has no
control Over this matter, but under the
law every power of the department will
be used for the full protection of the
farmers.
It has been the policy of the depart
ment to encourage the use of high grade
goods as being actually cheaper when
their content of plant food is considered,
there being a considerable saving on
hapling, sacking, freight and other ex
penses, on account of the much smaller
weight of such material for a given
number of pounds of plant food. It
Would contribute greatly to our success
if, jn addition to a study of the most
important elements of plant food, we
Mso study what might be termed the
minor constituents, or uncomputed ele
ments, the various forms in which they
are supplied and their adaptability to
plants and soils. The difference in the
value of the various forms of fertilizing
material is as varied as the purposes for
which it is required, the plant under
which it is to be placed, the character of
the soil, and whether rapid or slow ac
tion is desir^ri
Orange Blossom/' the corn mon sense
Female Remtdy, draws out pain and
soreness. Sold by W. L. Carmichael.
NO 37