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THE HENRY COUNi'Y WEEKLY
VOL. XVII.
moj j:ssio\a 1, VAiti>s.
|jic. U. t*.
dentist,
Me Do not oh <»a.
Anv one desiring work done can :>e nc
eommodated either hy railing on me in per
«on or addressing nie through tiie mate-.
Terms cash, unless special arrangements
made.
Geo W. Betas j W.T. Dickkn.
It It Vll A l)I( Kll^.
attorneys at law,
McDonOcoh, Ga.
Will practice in th.e counties composing
the Flint Judicial Circuit, the Supreme Court
of Georgia and the United States District
Court. apr27-lv
TA .B. UIvU.AA,
L, *
attorney at law.
McDonough, D a .
Will practice in all the Courts ot Georgia
Special attention given to commercial and
Dthercollections. Will attend all the Louits
*t Hampton regularly. Office upstairs over
The Weekly oirice.
■yy a. Know*'
’ attorney at law,
McDonoiioh, Ga.
Will practice in all the counties compos
ing the Hint Circuit, the Supreme Court of
Georgia and the United States District
Court. juil-ly
TJ A. PUKPLBS,
attorney at law,
Hampton, Ga,
Will practice in all the counties composing
the Flint Judicial Circuit, the Supreme Court
of Georgia and the District Court ot the
United States. Special and prompt Atten
tion given to Collections, Oct 8, IbSb
Jno. D. Stewart. j R.T. Daniel.
sii iiWAit r &. i*a.\ii:j„
attorneys at law,
Griffin, Ga.
| Oil A 1,. TI E.
ATTORNEY AT LAW,
Gate City Natioal Bank Building,
Atlanta, Ga.
Practices in the State and Federal Courts.
g I’. WEEMS,
ATTORNEY AT LAW,
Fayetteville, Ga.
Will practice in all the State and Feder
al courts. Collections a specialty, and
prompt attention given to all business en
trusted to me.
THE—'
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>
R'Y.
IS THE ONLY
SHORT AND DIRECT LINE
TO THE
NORTH, SOUTH,
EAST AND WEST.
PULLMAN'S FINEST VES
TIBULE SLEEPERS
UET W E E N
ATLANTA & KNOXVILLE
MACON & CHATTANOOGA
BRUNSWICK & ATLANTA
without ch in
direct Connections at Chat
tanooga with Through
TRAINSAND PULLMAN SLEEP
ERS TO
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nt Unoiiille willi IMilliiiiin
Sleeper* lor
WASHINGTON,
PHILADELPHIA,
AND NEW YORK.
FOR- FURTHER INFORMATION ADDRESS,
B.W. WRENN, CHAS. N.KICHT
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KNOXVILLE. ATLANTA
sot Tn.
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NORTH.
Leave Griffin 4:00 p. m
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“ Greenwood 4:48 “
“ McDonough 5:05 “
M. E GRAY, Sup’t.
j / * r f_> -t r cure* scratch on
IVlLL’lj fLil Ji horses, mange on
dogs with one or two applications. Fo*
safe by D. .1. Sanders.
revusti * DS. TAFT'S ASTHXALENE
4f' HWIA CURES , CREE
THE 08. TAFT 6SOS. M. CO .SOCStSUI.H.I.a “
COMMISSIONER NESBITT
His Monthly Talk with the Farmers
of Georgia.
Department of Agriculture,
Atlanta, Ga. Dec. 1. 1891.
The year of 1892 has nearly passed
away, and as we take a retrospective
view of our labors, our successes attd
our defeats’for this year we find much
food for earnest thought. It is our duty
to consider and weigh well the grave
responsibilities which surround us, and
in making our arrangements for another
year to ask ourselves if our efforts have
been conducted on the right lines? Have
we conducted our farms on common
sense, business principles? Have we
managed in such a way as not only to
reap the largest yield from the smallest
area at the lowest cost, but have we
realized the full benefits of this result?
In planting our various crops did we
consult the ever important condition of
“supply and demand,” and in disposing
of them did we exercise the business
acumen which enabled us to market i
them to the best advantage? Is it not
too much our habit in the hurry, and
often perplexity of arranging our busi
ness at the beginning of each year to
overlook these important questions? In
our anxiety we are liable to forget that
the farmers obligations are not confined
to the narrow circle of his own farm
and home, but on each one rests, in
part, the duty of feeding and clothing
the world. A failure in this can but
bring disappointment and suffering to
the busy toilors in other occupations
and trades, and also those who,
while helping us. are not pro
ducers, whose daily wants have
to be supplied. It is to the
farmers that these teeming millions
turn, not only for their meat and bread,
but for the clothes which they wear, and
the farmers alone can produce them.
This is their supreme right, and tints to
them belongs the lever which moves the
world. Do we realize the magnitude of
the undertaking? Is it not onr duty
not only to supply onr reeds, but to
meet this demand which the world
makes upon ns, and are we pursuing a
system which will accomplish this
work? To understand this question
more thoroughly let us go back thirty
-years. At that |ime there were fields in
every section of our state that, without
fertilizer, yielded large returns. With
ordinary preparation and fair cultiva
tion we reaped abundant crops of our
staple productions. We had wide ex
panses of woodland pastures, which
furnished our meat at an almost nomi
nal cost, and a contented, thorouglily
controlled labor system. Prosperity
and contentment smiled on every side.
Then came the devastations of war
and an entire change in our system of
labor. After this, from necessity often,
but as truly from mistaktuv Harm meth
ods, the tenant and Minting system
began, and also the &grnici(V.-i and
false, and I should say,
p .... ‘t -curing a.it an.'.4 MaWCriti'.:*
and often more than fuU j-oim of the
crops under cultivation. These mis
takes have tended to bring about a spec
ulative system of farming. The ease
with which credit could he obtained on
cotton and the impossibility of securing
it on any other crop, and the cheapness
of our lands have influenced many
farmers to produce a money crop, or
rather what they hoped would be a
money crop, to the exclusion of those
food crops so absolutely essential to the
success, comfort and, and I may say,
perpetuity of our calling. Granted that
this system is the result of our losses
from a most destructive war and the
wiping out of old established customs,
it is equally true that it has established
temporary methods which have well
nigh bankrupted us.
Time has effectually demonstrated
the folly of continuing an agricultural
policy which has brought us only dis
appointment and defeat in the past, and
yet in some cases from apathy, in
others from a spirit born of despair.
We see our farmers plunging each year
deeper and deeper into the whirlpool of
ruin. Seeking and gaining the consent
of their patient and hopeful creditors,
they brace themselves for their new
work, and by increasing cotton, their
only money crop, vainly trope to retrieve
their failing fortunes. This new work
is only new as far as the season is con
cerned. It is a new year, but it is the
same old methods, the same old hopes,
the same old efforts to produce a cotton
crop on credit to pay old debts.
No mathematical proposition was
ever more easily demonstrated than this;
that a farmer cannot purchase supplies
on time to make cotton at present
prices. In nine cases out of ten the
losses are so great that he finds his obli
gations have been increased rather than
diminished by the honest but mistaken
effort he has made to release himself
from the relentless grasp of debt. Let
us resolve on different methods. Ours
is an honorable calling, and farming is
just as much a business as selling
goods, or mining ores and requires far
more study and preparation. Let no
man think that he can successfully
embark in it without some previous
preparation or knowledge of even its
simplest duties. To the man who
farms because he loves it and not sim
ply because he can gain a hard living
by it, who studies business as well as
the most enlightened agricultural
methods, who applies the knowledge
gained from the brainwork researches
of others as well as that gleaned from
his own observation and experience,
who uses brain force as well as physical
strength—to this man, nature opens her
store house and pours out her rich
treasures. In studying her laws we
6hall realize that each year we owe a
duty to our land as well as to our fami
lies and ourselves. We shall find that
we cannot continue indefinitely to draw
plant food from the soil, and expect that
soil to remain in fruitful condition
Taking even a small quantity each year
wears ont and depletes, and while this
depletion may not be noticeable at the
start, a gradual reduction both in the
plant growth and yield of fruit must
take place, and each succeeding year
marks a larger decrease in the produc
tive power of the land. Let ns illus
trate. When a cotton planter puts his
usual 200 pounds of fertilizer to the
pere, he has among other elements put
m 4 pounds of ammonia, and when he
realizes his usual acreage of one-third of
a bale to the acre, he has removed from
the soil in the seed alone, 12 pounds of
ammonia. In other words he each
year tal es off in the seed alone 8 pounds
more of ammonia than he supplies, and
the land has to make up the deficit.
Could there be stronger argument
against our present methods. Our
McDonough, ga., Friday, di-xt mbfr kj, tsoa.
fathers, with a perfect system of labor, j
trained and disciplined, pushed the ex
hausting process to such a degree, and
the consequences of our following this
destructive policy are so serious that
today we find ourselves confronted by
conditions which we must meet and
conquer or own ourselves defeated.
These unsatisfactory methods do not
meet the demands of our more enlight
ened age. They are wrong from any
standpoint, and with hired labor they
are absolutely ruinous.
If we are in debt is it possible for us
to lessen that debt by taking on us obli
gations to make a cotton crop, which, as
I have already stated, costs under our
present methods more than it will bring
ia the markets. Let us study this ques
tion thoroughly, consider our surround
ings, examine carefully the condition
and requirements of our lands, count
the cost and then apply ourselves dili
gently to the task of ascertaining which
methods, which crops will pay the
largest dividends. Having determined
these let us use our best judgement and
energy to produce the best results
Select some good agricultural publica
tion, nothing better than “The Southern
Cultivator" and its contemporary “The
Southern Farm,” both published in At
lanta, and as you sit around your fire
sides these long winter nights read and
study tiie results which are being
obtained in every section by live and
wide awake farmers. The day with us
is passed when we can do superficial
work, because the elements once so
abundantly supplied by our soil are
from unwise anti careless management
greatly exhausted. Any one with ordi
nary intelligence and energy can on
rich land dig a support from the soil.
Only intelligent and properly directed
skill can wrest success from our changed
condition. But here science comes to
our aid, points out the trouble and sug
gests the remedy and common sense
tells us that we have the conditions for
success in our grasp if we will only con
trol them. Science pays there are cer
tain elements necessary to tiie grow'h
of your crops, supply these in greater
qualities than your crops require and
you keep up the fertility of your lands
Common sense says you have a monopoly
on a crop which is absolutely necessary
to the world, keep it in proper bounds
and your independence is secured.
Build up a small acreage each year by a
careful system of rotation, green crops
and manuring. Take a few acres and
every spare moment haul out the scrap
ings from lot, stable and fence corners,
also from rich spots in your woods.
Now and during the winter months is
the time for this work. It has been
demonstrated that stable manure spread
on the land and allowed to remain
during the winter has produced 70
bushels of corn per acre. The same
quantity plowed under in the spring
the same season yielded only 50 bushels
per acre. Purchase your acid, cotton
seed meal and potash now, and during
the bad weather mix these ingredients
on a tight floor in the proportion of 000
pounds meal, 1,200 pounds acid and 200
pounds German kainit. You will save
front $4 to $5 per ton. have a first class
fertilizer and know just exactly what
“you are IHfihg. Or you can take acid,
cotton seed meal and stable manure ia
the following proportions and have a
fertilizer equal, if not superior to any
on the market: Acid, 650 pounds, stable
manure, 675 pounds, cotton Reed meal,
225 pounds, or green cotton seed, 675
pounds. When land is deficient in
potash add 200 pounds of kainit, In
this formula deduct 75 pounds each, of
green cotton seed and stable manure
and 50 pounds of super phosphate.
Again let me warn you not to be led
into the mistake of raising too much cot
ton. Don’t be tempted to leave the only
true plan to success, that is plenty of
food supplies, and then all the cotton
y<m can cultivate without having to
borrow more than it is worth to make it.
Tiie present condition of the cotton
market is sufficient proof of the unalter
able laws of “supply and demand.” The
theory that we cannot produce too much
cotton is entirely exploded by the ex
periences of 1891 and 1892. In '9l we
produced the biggest crop on record,
and the price fell far below the cost pro
duction, and many farmers, more
especially those who bought their pro
visions are yet struggling to pay off the
obligations incurred in making that
crop. In '92 by reason of reduced
acreage and unpropitions seasons, the
yield has fallen below the average, and
now that this fact is established beyond
controversy, we see the price bounding
up in spite of speculative effort to de
press it, and notwithstanding the fact
that we have no more money in circula
tion than we had one year ago when
there was a popular theory that scarity
of money and underconsumption, and
not over production depressed the
market and was the cause of the disas
trously low price.
Had' the majority of farmers by pnr
sneing a sound agricultural policy been
able to hold this year's crop, that is the
crop of ’92, they would now be reaping
the golden harvest over which the spec
ulators are rejoicing. It is true there
are farmers who by raising an abun
dance of provisions, reducing the cotton
area and by careful methods increasing
the yield while lessening the cost, are
today reaping the benefit from their
wise forethought. But unfortunately
they are the exception. The bulk of the
cotton has gone out of the hands of the
farmers, and they are compelled to see
their crop, the result of much anxious
thought and weary toil, enriching others
instead of themselves. Let me urge
you in planning your crops for ’93 to
remember that when we glut the mar
kets of the world, we have to accept
such prices as the buyer sees fit to give,
but when we have our supplies and a
cotton crop just sufficient to meet the de
mands of trade, we can, to a certain
extent, dictate the price. Don’t allow
yourselves to be allured into false meth
ods by the present high price of cotton.
This will be my last talk with the
farmers before the opening of the new
year. May they realize the grave re
sponsibilities which it brings, and by a
wise and careful policy, use its oppor
tunities to their own best advantage.
R. T. Nesbitt, Commissioner.
General Remarks.
As this report will be the last issued
from the department for the year 1892,
we desire to thank the correspondents of
the department who have rendered us
such valuable aid in their preparations,
We are glad to note that the estimates
made from the reports sent during the
growth and gathering of the crop are
proving substantaly correct, while we
regret that in some mistakes they are
not so gratifying as we would wish.
The large increase made in the number
of reporters has rendered the result from
the compiled figures much more certain
as inequalities in the crop in different
localites of the same section were mos t
acurately ascertained.
COTTON.
In regard to this crop the present in
dications and reports are that it will hi
under rather than above previous esli
mates of the department.
Whilein nearly every quarter thorrop l
of 1891 for the state has been placed at
1,100,000 bales, the department from the
best information at its <m antand has
never regarded it as in excessof 1,000, 0ut
bales, and of the two great crops tn
actual production in 1890 as he greater.
Taking therefore 1,000,000 bales as tin
yield for last year,os per cent. or 650,000
bales or near that number will betheerov
for this year. These figuaes were given
in the November report since issuing
which reports have been received whicu
might justify a reduction in thee l im t
and which assures us that the yield wnl:
certainly uot exceed the amount given.
PICKING.
The gathering of the crop, in nearly
every part of the state has been com
pleted and the quantity remaining in
the fields is hardly worthy of comput t
tion. While the crop wits late, the
total absence of a top crop concentrate :
the picking ’within it short time usd
gathering was finished at an earlier da:
than usual.
MARKETING.
As soon as ginned and packed cotton
has been carried to the markets and a
much larger percent of tile crop ha
been sold up to this time than for several
years.
PLANT LESS.
Let every farmer remember what \v
have so ofted said on the r 1 notion >
the cotton acreage and plant less in tl
year 1893 than in 1892, with more gran,
and forage crops.
CORN.
The total yield of corn in the stab
exceeds that of last year. The avers,
yield is not great, especially in nort h
Georgia but the loss in this respect i
more than compensated by the increased
acreage. We hope to see alttrgeiuore-t-.
this year arid for succeeding years until
our farmers are for the production ot
this crop independent of the grain field
of the west.
SMALL GRAIN.
The season for sewing full crops of
small grain has not been so propit ion
as we might desire, but we trust that
our farmers have not been deterod from
increasing the acreage in their crop. In
those portions of the state adapted t.
wheat culture, we would urge upon
our farmers to study the ho st method
of fertilizing and cultivating until a!)
failures in this crop will b* entirely due
to the seasons and not inproper methods.
Farm Value*.
Governor Northen in bis last in
augural address gave the figures show
ing the large increase in Ihe taxahh
value of tiie property of the state (lut
ing the past decade. These flu ires wri
gratifying to all who have the interest
of the state at heart; but their jdD
was mared by the fact ttHttSSjavly the
entire increase was urban, .;qltt the per
centagp of increase in the 'value of farm
lands was very smal 1 I’"Cures ar.■
particularly striking wTn-ir it e consider
that otf state is classod as Agricultural,
and th.it upon the farm a majority of
our people depend for their livelihood
and our state for its financial and com
mercial standing. In arriving at the
causes that have led to these results 1<
us consider upon what tiie value of on
farm lands depend. The land it ■-
does not constitute the farmer’s wealth,
but the constituents of the soil are hi
capital. If these constituents serve for
the nutrition of plants his land is pro
ductive and valuable, otherwise it
yields but little and is of small value.
Outside of the productive features a
the basis of the' value of our lands,
other things are to be considered a
forming a part of the valuation. For
however valuable the products, if the
cost of making approximates or exceed-!
its worth, there being little or no not
earning from the soil, its value will not
be enhanced by reason of its produc
tiveness.
The three great questions therefore to
be considered by the practical and theor
etrical agriculturalist are—how to in
crease tiie productiveness of the soil,
how to reduce the cost of making, ami
how to obtain the highest price in the
market.
“Rational Agriculture,” says a writer
“in contradiction to the spoliation sys
tem of farming is based upon the prin
ciples of restitution.”
The farmer each year with tiie gath
ered crop takes from the soil a part of
its actual value. This must be restored,
or to that extent his capital is impaired,
and, like the man living beyond the in
terest on 1 is money, consumes each year
a portion of his principal, thus impov
erishing himself eventually. I lie rota
tion of crops as a method of restitution
has been repeatedly considered in these
reports. When the crops are removed
from the soil it should be remembered
that no rotation will restore land, and
that all crops exhaust to some extent
certainly as to their own reproduction.
The physical and chemical condition of
the soil may lie improved and existing
nutritious matter converted into an
available form, thus compensating for
exhaustion, but no permanent improve
ment is accomnlisned. On the other
hand if the crop’is allowed to remain o.i
the land, extracting as it has certain
manural values from the atmosphere, or
its product in barn manure in returned
to the field the soil will increase in pro
ductiveness, In any elaborate consid
eration of the compensation, that tiie
soil for removed crops it would be neces
sary to deal with each crop seperately
and to go into the results obtained By
scientific investigation a won: two com
prohensi ves to find space in these re
ports.
A Btudy of these matters are however
of vital importance not only where it is
sought to restore land after a certain
crop, but also as indicating the class of
fertilizer essential to tho production of
that crop. Wo would no: be under
stood as in anyway detracting from the
merits of rotation, but simply as sug
gesting that in studying met nods ~f re
storing land,or of holding them to their
present standard, not only should such
crops be planted and rotation adopted as
will result in the least exhaustion, but
the plant nutrition of the crop as often
*s possible returned to the -oil.
This may in a great degree be accom
plished and yet the crop utilized as food
for farm animals. Commeicial fertilizer
while we approve their use at the proper
time ami in tiie proper pli.ee have t<x>
often led to a total abandonment of the
manure pile, and farmers have grown
lax in returning to the soil, plant food
with which a little care need only lx.
taken to prevent spoliation of their lan.l
and which may be used to renovate and
restore it.
Care should be taken in saving barn-
yard manure, otherwise it will loose
much of its valuable and most solnnble
nutritious property by evaporation wast
ing I'D-. Our open farmyards too often
le id toinjudicious management of mauro
where efforts is made to husband their I
r- .eirces and spread over a large area, |
without timely saving, our manures
loose half of their fertilizing- value. In j
asking onr farmers in preparing and!
fertilizing their land for a crop to con-1
aider not only the yield for the year but j
a permanent increase in the product- 1
tioness of the soil wu would em.iha-uzo I
the n "cos-ity of rotation as improving!
the physieial and chemical condition of j
the soil and compensating for exhaustion j
which attends reproduction, ami injoin
the necessity of not permitting any
thing of tmtmral valu° on the farm to i
wast. Do this, an l with judicous lie |
of chemical fertilizer mat -rial the value
of our farm lands will increase
REDUCE THE COST OF M.VJvINO.
In rendering onr lands pro luetive and
Increasing tqe yield per acre, we have
done much towards re Im-iit * t ie cott of
making. As approximately the same
amount of labor is involved in cultivation
where the yield is small as where the
yield is large. In addition to this the
use of labor saving implements should
be studied, and adopted where they can
be a saving in this direction. Here it
would not be out of place to say that
fine economy can be shown on the farm by
h proper care of tools, harness, etc.
STUDY THE MARKET.
Of all questions intermantely related
to profit on the farm the southern planter
has perhaps paid less attention to a study
of the markets than any other.
This result from the fact that our
principel crop is one that has always
found a ready sale for cash. It is the
duty of tho farmer to study the wants
of tho town, city or village near which
he lots located, ftcelities for shipping to
tho 1 ti-go marts of commerce, an 1 their
demand for various farm products. By
doing this ho will frequently find side
crops which he may profitably cultivate
and for which he may be able to get
cash when it is much needed.
The diversification that would result
would noi only be of immense benefit in
restoring worn land but would aid at
ariving at what shoult he the aim of the
farmer of tho cotton states, a reduction
of the acreage in cotton and that crop
as a surplus. It may be said by some
that now that the cotton markets has
gone up it is useless to further urge upon
the farmer.
Tin: NECESSITY OF A SMALL ACREAGE.
To this we need only reply that the
same error will again result in the same
disaster, and that living prices can only
Vie obtained, by a reduction in the
amount made. The journey began in
the right diriction, we should not turn
back allured by the hope of tempo
rary profit when experience Ims demon
strate 1 that it can bring only ruin. We
wish it was in our power to convincingly
impress on the mind of every farmer, if
we of the south would prosper, we must
make our farmer self sustaining, utili; >
every thing of value at our eomand
renovate our waste land and reducing the
acerage in cotton, plaut it only as an in
dependant money crop. In conclusion
we reeterate, let yoiir doctrin be one
of restitution not spoliation, more grain
grass and fruits ami less cotton.
Oiiß or Two Plain Truths.
BY HON. It. T. NESBITT, COMMISSIONER OF
AGRICULTURE OF GEORGIA.
From tho November Southern Culivator.
I know what I am about to say will not
at first be pleasant, or perhaps accepta
ble, to the majority of farmers, but
when thinking men analyze these plain
truths, they will pardon their first dis
agreeable impression, for the sake of
the kernel of good that lies in them. I
do not claim originality in presenting
them, they have been repeated hundreds
of times, and the principles underlying
them are as old as the hills themselves,
but the urgency of our present needs
demands that they should be impressed
again and again upon the minds of our
fanners.
Farming, all things considered, is the
best business on earth, and the safest,
where tho farmer gives the same atten
tion to his work that tho doctor, tho
lawyer, the merchant bestows on his;
but under our present management it is
actually cheaper for a fanner to buy
cotton, than it is for him to raise it!
And this is the crop on which we expend
all our enegies, all our means, and on
which we depend for our income.
To the owner of land, this condition
is deplorable, but to the farmer, who
rents land and borrows money, or pro
visions to make cotton, it is ruinous.
When wo examine into the causes
whi'-h has led to this distressing and
almost general agricultural condition,
we find among other mistakes, two of
greatest prominence. The first is, that
w<‘ have depended too much on common
fertilizers and too little on green crops
and home manures. The history of agri
culture throughout the world shows that
in those countries where commercial
fertilizers are relied on exclusively or
even mainly to produce crops, poverty
and want have resulted, while in
countries where it is used in conjunction
with thorough preparation of the land,
that is a preparation, which puts the
land in condition to utilize the fertilizer,
prosperity and riches, even, have blessed
the farmer's intelligent eff-arts.
It is beyond contradiction that a man
cannot permauetly enrich bis land with
I guanos alone. They produce an artific
i ial stimulus, but they do not build it up.
I This “building up” must be done by
! green crops, and by compost applied
broadcast over the land. The common
! practice of running a furrow, drilling in
■ a little commercial fertilizer, covering
' and planting on tiiat, is positively no
benefit to the land, and often prove! of
j little iiencfit to the crop. And this is
not from any fa tlc of tlm tho i
| failure most frequently comes from our
mistaken manner of using it. A must \
import mt lesson, which we have got to
Ram is. that we cannot afford to nso ,
i expensive fertilizers, unless bv means of
the.-"-, renovating crops and deep plow
ing, we put onr lands in condition to ap
propriate to the best advantage that j
j largo proportion of these fertilizers,
I which ts now wasted Our lands once!
; brought to this condition we need not
fear to fertilize heavily. The renovating j
i process is "slow and tedious,” but until
l we nerve ourselves to .this task, and
| undertake it earnestlyand systemati-
I cally, we cannot hope for agricultural
prosperity. . ,
This process of renovation is also
costlv, but it is not more so than tho
present plan of planting large areas,
! hastily prepared and imperfectly eulti
; vated. And in the end the “building
; up” plan is far more certain, far more
remunerative.
Just here is suggested to our minds
I the second grave error, that is, planting
Highest of all in Leavening Power —Latest U S. Gov’t Report.
Powder
ABSCMJUTELY PURE
large areas in the uncertain, “slip shod”
manner which has characterized our
methods for many years, in other words,
undertaking to plant more land than wo
thoroughly manage. There are thous-!
ands of acres throughout tho State,
which do not begin to pay for the cost
of cultivation. Leave these to tho kindly
offices of Mother nature, select only
your best land, and apply there all tho
energy, all the manure, which has here
tofore been too much diluted by tho
“spreading” process.
YVhat we need is concentration. If
onr last season’s 9,000,000 bales had
been made on half the land which was
used to make that crop, ami the other
half had been applied to improved
methods of raising corn, wheat, oats,
grass and stock, how many millions of
money that escapes through our fingers,
would have been retained at home, and
be now adding to our prosperity?
The big farms of the northwest have
not as a rule proved permanently profit
able. Tho most prosperous communities
are where the farms are moderate in
size, highly cultivated and occupied by
intelligent and industrious families, who
take pleasure ami pride in their business
ami surroundings,
To make the cotton producers ol' the
south the richest and most independent
people of the globe, they have only to
cultivate less land in cotton, cultivate it
better, that is, bring it to the highest
state of cultivation possible and put the
remainder in diversified crops, cub mile 1
on the same plan.
Matters of General Interest to the Farmer.
The following extracts from the
exchanges of the Department of agri
culture, do we believe contain sound
advice and information of value to
farmers.
CLOVER AS A FERTILIZER, SUITED BEST
TO MIDDLE AND NORTH GEORGIA'
The clover plant yields the nicest ma
nures, and that is the stuff that must
farmers most need. Clover gives good
wheat, corn, meat, milk and I lie cheapest
ami best, of all fertilizers. Wheat and
clover should take the place of weeds
ami sassafras bushes.
I look back over fifty years, and make
a note of the fact that the farms of this
locality on which clover lias been grown
with the greatest regularity, ore today
tho farthest from exhaustion. Glover in
such hhelp in solving the problem of
available plnulfood. that I believe it, to
be a work of benevolence to ti Ip ill the
management of it.
There is one blunder, almost universal,
which I believe largely reduct - the value
of clover, both for feed, seed ami fertility,
and this is the universal habit of pastur
ing young clover as soon as the wheat is
out of the field. I do not think it is
even a wise policy to pasture for a
month or six weeks after harvest, and
believe it better to lay down a rub- never
to pasture the first, fall under any circum
stances. This rule I have followed for
twenty years, ami believe that I have
boon tho gainer hy it.
As a recepitulation of this article, or
rather to enforce it, I say sow clover
with all small grain, no matter what
crop is to follow it. Use plenty of seed;
it is the cheapest way of fertilizing ami
keeping your land clean at your command
Do not lie so greedy for a little feed as
to pasture the young clover before it
has made growth enough to cover
the land,for by so doing you will in
the lond run have much less
feed and less benefit to the land. Re
memlter that a soil densely shaded is
always improved, and that no other crop
you can grow will furnish as good shade,
as clover.
HOW AND WHEN TO SOW CLOVER.
September is tho best month in which
to sow clover; October is probably tin
next best; if not sown before tiie last, of
October it is better to wait, until Feb
ruary. It is not considered the best
practice, by the most experienced clover
growers in the southern border of the
clover-growing section, to sow the seeds
with small grain. Success is more
certain when clover is sown by it self or
with some other grass, like orchard,
blue grass, etc. If yon sow in February
we would advise not to sow with oats or
other grain. There is no advantage D
be gained in breaking the land earlier
than a week or two before sowing, nnle -
it may bo necessary to break earlier it
order to get it into good condition. Tin
soil should be well pulverized and liar
rowed smooth. Sow about twelve
pounds of clover seed per acre, if sown
by itself; if with orchard grass, us'
eight or ten pounds of clover and otn
and one-half bushels of orchard gras.-
seed. While the surface is mellow am!
fresh from recent liarrowing, mix tin
clover seed with ashes or sift- - 1 soil, oi
with a good fertilizer, and so.v half on
way and half the other, so as to get a
uniform distributions tln-n sow th
orchard grass, or other grass seed, in th -
same way. No covering, byplow,brus t.
or harrow, is necessary, tho next rain
will cover sufficiently. If tiie soil is not
rich enough to bring a half a bale of
cotton, or twenty-five bushels of r-.
rie: acre, it would bo well to fertilize i‘
lif ing not less than two hundred pound
of good ammoniated phosphate.
FARMING A SCIENCE.
Farming is a real science, and not
mere plowing and dropping seed in tin
ground; any negro can do that, but to
sow and plow with judgement, to under
stand the law of naturo, and to take
advantage of these laws means success.
When a farmer says—“it is too much
trouble, I have not the time,” I know
how to gage his judgement. Whatever
will give or advance prosperity in any
business, there is always a time to do
that thing.
A DOIN' BUSINESS METHODS.
Of many remedies one worth trying is
business. That old saw, business is
business, contains a world of meaning;
it is fully of sound common sense.
Every farmer ouglxt to be a first-rate
business man. In this age he must he
or he will fail as sure as fate. Show me
a farmer who has no head for business
and yoo will point to a man who is on
the road to ruin.
Rut what do we mean bv first-rate
5 CENTS A COPY. '
Buminr** limn f is tne rarnier wno pro
duces abundant crops, of the best quality,
at the least cost, a good business man ?
Not necessarily; such a man is undoubte
dly a good farmer; but he might bo at
the same time a poor business man.
There are a large number of farmers
in the country who year after year pro
duces abundant crops, of the best qualit y
and at the least cost, and yet grow
poorer and poorer the longer they live,
because they are not good business
managers.
The pecuniary success of farming, as
to every other business, depends not so
much upon production of abundance of
products, of the liest quality, at the
least cost, important as this may be, ns
it does upon the proper answer to the
questions. What shall we produce, in
what quantities, when shall It be pro
duced and how, when, whore and for
what price, and to whom shall it bo
sold?
WHY NOT RAISE YOUR OWN WORK
ANIMALS.
The following from The Southern
Cultivator shows that at 8 cents per
pound, Georgia pays 100,000 bales of
cotton for horses and mules. Can our
farmers prosper and pursue this course?
•‘A careful estimate reveals the fact
that most of the counties in middle
Georgia have for long yoars, paid, in
act H* 1 cash, from eighteen to thirty
ihousand dollars, annually, for mules
Mid horses brought from the wpst.
Striking a low average from the entire
state, wo find between three and four
million dollars taken from the state for
stock that could be raised for a nominal
sum upon our own Helds. What stup
endous folly, when it is conceded on all
hands that our stock can be raised at
less cost than in the markets from
which we buy. Grass grows as freely;
our soil produces forage as abundantly;
our winters are far less rigorous and
the necessary onse, therefore, less ex
pensive. Every thing is favorable to
the enterprise; wisdom and economy
urge the undertaking. Every farmer
should raise, at least, the stock needed
upon his farm. It greatly helps tho
general good to hold annual colt shows,
both as an evicence of progress and an
encouragement to others.
USE MORE FERTILIZERS,
Tho farmers of tho south do not use
enough manure, or to state it in a dif
, ferent form, they tako from the soil
I every year very much more than th«y.
)"return to It in manure. It Is easy to
show, that fertilizers pay better divi
dends than any other investment on the
farm. The conclusion is irresistible that
we should use more fertilizers ; not com
mercial or bought fertilizers alone, hut
homo manures, composts, green crops
turned under, marls, etc., everything
that will add more to the yield of the
crop than the cost of its application.
To have an abundance of stable or
barnyard manures there must be an in
crease in the number of animals fed.
This gives diversity to the farm and in
creases the sources of income. A well
fed cow will nearly pay for her keep in
manure, besides a good profit on the
butter sold and consumed.
A OOOD MAXIM FOR FARMERS.
Raising cotton on poor land does not
pay. I cannot afford to raise cotton in
lees quantities than ono bale per acre,
and in order to bring my land np to
that point must make manure, and the
cheapest is that made from stock raised
on a f irm.
»#***«**
The “old beaten track” is not always
the h -St. The “old beaten track” is
not the one that will always lead us
most quickly, or even most surely, to
sucres 1 1 in agriculture. New ideas and
new methods have come np in every
branch of farm practice during recent
years, and many of them have already
been tried and found good. A preju
dice in favor of old ways should not
keen one from being progressive. Read,
study and keep up with times.
* » *##***
Farmers cannot prosper as long
ns they are compelled to sell their
cotton or starve. The situation is an
unfortunate one for our farmers, but
they can improve it very much hero
after by their own efforts. They can
never command the situation so long as
they must sell their cotton or starve.
Th y can command it when they can
live without selling and sell only to
realize profits. The increase in tho pro
dnotion of food crops on southern farms
shows a tendency in the right direction.
It is a tendency which no rise in the
price of cotton should stop. If it con
tinues long enough it will make the pro
luetion of cotton again profitable and
in r farmers prosperous.
Hon. John Temple Graves, who for
a fortnight previous to the election had
been speaking for Democracy under the
direction of the national committee,
lias returned to the South. Mr. Graves
says the most marked results of the
election of Mr. Cleveland is the una
nimity'"with which all eyes are turned
to the South as the most prominent
b-neficiary. Wherever Southern men
are met they are assured that capital
that has been held back is now ready
to he poured into the South to develop
legitimate enterprises, and Mr. Graves
mentioned one iustance where $8,000,-
000 was held hack and was practically
now “on call.” Mr. Graves says the
facts fully justify the enthusiasm with
which the South looks forward to the
brightest era of industrial prosperity
and development that she has ever had.
The joints and muscles are so lubri
cated by Hood’s Sarsaparilla that all
rheumatism and stiffmss soot: disap
pear. Try it.