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Official Organ of the Patrons of Husbandry.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, OCTOBER, 1874.
PRIZE ESSAY.
DIVERSIFIED FARMING.
By Colonel T. C. Howard, of DeKalb
County.
As ft general rule in business affairs, con
centration of power, either of intellect or
capital, is perhaps the safest. Few men
have the versatility of talents and extent of
acquirement which doing a great many
different things requires. It is said no man
ever gained a perfect command of more than
one language, and it would seem that few
universal geniuses, illustrating great profi
ciency in and practical acquaintance with all
sciences, ever lived. Unity of purpose, collect
ed energies, and undivided attention in busi
ness, are almost universally the surest guaran
tees of success. For illustration, we might
say the merchant had better let shipping
alone, though no man is more interested in
transportation. And the professional man
who hopes to attain great distinction had bet
ter leave manufactures and tillage.to those
whose peculiar habits and interests have in
duced them to adopt those industries as their
life long avocations. But there are exceptions,
it is tritely said, to all rules, and the farmer’s
life furnishes a noted and most interesting
exception to the rule we have propounded in
the openinglines of this paper. And why?
Bimply because a farm is a little empire it
self. There is an extended chain of depend
ent interests, which diverse as they seem,
are j et necessarily brought under the charge
and development of a single mind, which
presides over the farm. The attempt has
been made in the cotton planter’s experience,
to unify and centralize his industry, and the
miscarriage and loss which have resulted
from the attempt have nearly desolated the
entire cotton producing States. So, too, do
we see in the ease of Ireland some twenty
years ago, and in the present awful state of
famine prevailing in certain large districts
in British India, that the exclusive depen
dence on rice and the potato in those coun
tries respectively, has resulted in such fr'glu
ftd distress as to be a warning for all time
to come
IBe farm is veritably a microcosm, a gov
ernment, a community, a little world in itself.
And while society, as an organized existence,
cannot spare any art, appliance or conven
ience which the world's progress has sup
plied, so it is with the farm, it must “ have
and hold ” a universal lien on every art, and
must receive tribute from aliundred allied and
kindred industries. The great industrial and
economic problem which the farmer’s condi
tion calls on him to solve, is, how can this
tribute he best and easiest secured. Living in
this latitude, the grave matter for him to de
cide is, how far must self-reliance be depend
ed on to furnish those irresponsible necessa
ries which go to make up the great and vital
sum total of the fiynily provision. Does lie
raise breadstuffs, is it better to depend on the
stock-breeder for bis work animals, should
he buy his syrup, his meat, the ordinary
clothing of the family; or if his staple pro
duction is cotton it becomes a great question
underlying all success, how many things
auxiliary to his chief pursuit must he consid
ered and undertaken. Right here is the
turning point in the history' of thousands of
Southern men w ho have elected agriculture
as their pursuit and dependence in life.
Many specious and delusive estimates are
made as to the value of farm labor, as set off
against the market value of the thing pro
duced in the way of economical device.
How often have we heard cotton-raisers de
clare under the excitement of high priced
cotton, that they could demonstrate that a
pound of cotton worth 15 cents could be rais
ed easier than a pound of bacon worth 12J.
These same “ ready calculators” could
just as easily demonstrate that the true pas
torage of work stock was to bo found in the
cotton field. And so it is, both with fanner
and planter in very many instances, alas, too
many for our country and time, the tenden
cy has been to isolate into specialties our par
ticular crops, and to contract the basis of ag
ricultural operations into as nnrrow a com
pass as possible. This tendency is only of a
modern dale. In the day of solvency and
success, in the history of our agriculture, men
did not so reason nor so act. The prevailing
idea whs that the farm um 4 oe self-sustaining,
that it was sound economy to raise and
make in our farms everything entering Into
home consumption which could be secured
at borne at a safe and reasonable cost. Act
ing oH this principle, as we might with jus
tice and exactness call it, thousands of mules
and horses were raised in Georgia, but these
are now bought in Kentucky. Millions of
plow stocks and ax handles were construct
ed on our own places, but now they, too, are
brought from the distant shop. Hogs, and
sufllctOdtfor the purposes of the family, were
raised on our farms, but now we find that
htags itti-i (j* dm<‘o cannot live iu tbc same
tertffuryvairtLgosUjpbystpp we go backward
into absolute.and,prtiiitile'idependence on the
thrift andv-ehterprise of strangers. Com-
plaints and depression pervade the entire
farming community ; the staunch citizen of
the former time that stood impregnable on
his own soil, and with his hand on the latch
of his gate ready to throw it open to all com
ers, now feels the old time hospitality a bur
den, and thatclass that was once well housed
and secured, let what financial tempest come
that might, now is of all others most em
phatically the debtor class, and most hopeless
ly involved. Does the rule and triumph of
bad men and worse principles explain all this
decline ? The idea of exclusive cultivation
of a special, we care not what that staple be,
whether it be cotton or grass, is the reason
rather for our present embarrassments as
farmers and planters, and the grave compli
cations into which our agriculture has fallen.
As we are not writing from a purposeless
love of disputation, but from a profound in
terest in the question of reform, and from the
sinecrcst love of our section, we propose now
to give a practical illustration of the policy
aid exceeding benefit that is to be found in
“Diversified Farming.” But before we enter
upon this homely and matter-of-fact detail,
we must allude to an incident of expense and
oss which is too often everlooked in our es
timates of the year’s current business on a
farm where supplies are not raised at home.
How few 'ever count the cost of the mere
trouble and expense of collecting material
and making the proper selections and pur
chases of what must be procured from oth
ers. Is corn to be bought and brought home?
Who ever adds to the price of that corn the
time of a hand and team which are employed
in the transportation 1 In fact, who can un
terlake to say what that hand’s labor, and the
services of that team, were really worth when
they were very likely withdrawn in the very
crisis of the crop. Then the hurry and want
of caution witli which we act in the face of
narrow provision of the most vital neces
saries, inevitably leads to improvident and
usurious rates of expense. The work animal
is to be supplied, and who furnishes it ? A
stranger we have never seen, from Kentucky
or Ohio. We must take his representations
and if in debt, his credit price, along with
the mule or horse we should have raised for
ourselves on our own places, broken and
trained for our own use and according to
our peculiar notions of what was best for our
separate cases. A calm and concentrated at
tention to the farmers every-day work, is of
all things, next to economy, the most need
ful quality for securing a farmer’s success.
Can this frame of mind exist where the stores
are running low with fearful rapidity, and
the consumer knows not from whose barns
or smoke-houses, or with whose cash, he is to
replenish. Debt is to most men a hard task
master, but to the farmer he is a grinding, re
morseless tyrant. We venture to there
cannot he one farmer in every fifty' who is
pressed with debt or harrassed by slen
der supplies, that is quiet enough in his mind
to project or execute plans of restoration and
improvement either in his methods of culti
vation or in additions to his estate. T.’iig
struggle is one & self-ptYservaiion, and not
for enhancement or embellishment.
We will now proceed to a minuter treat
ment of our subject, and place before our
readers a few figures which w ill afford a clear
er insight than the discussion of general prin
ciples. Let us assume that two farms of
one hundred acres, each, are in the hands of
men of the same intelligence and means
The outfits oil these two places shall be the
same, and the capital to work equal. But
the proprietor of the one farm shall be a be
liever in the superior value ol cotton raising
and in the economy and wisdom of raising
col ion to buy all things needful for the support
of the family; while the proprietor of the oth
er shall hold to (lie faith of “ Diversified
Farming.” To make the comparison fairly
between these two men, we must insist that
they shall practically be consistent an
live by their faith. We must expect to see
cotton raised exclusively by the man who in
sists, as we have heard him assert, that it
was easier to produce a pound of cotton
worth 15 cents than it was to raise a pound
of bacon worth 12j cents. He must he con
sistent with his practice, when lie teaches and
proclaims that corn cannot be raised bv a
Georgia farmer in competition with the Ken
tucky or Ohio farmer, aud he must go to the
depot for his corn and forage. On the other
hand, a large proportion of provision and
forage crops must he the staples of the man
who denies the cotton planter’s theory aud
decries his piactiee, and believes in the doc
trine of “ Diversified Farming.
Then, let the one hundred acres of the first
named party he devoted to cotton. Let the
seasons be propitious and the yield so liberal
that no exception can be taken. We will
then have for every acre planted 250 pounds
of lint —say for the oue hundred acres fifty
bales, of 500 pounds.
At the dale of this writing, in the city of
Atlanta, this cotton is worth less by a small
fraction than 15 cents per pound. We assume
that it is all worth, the whole fifty bales, 15
cents per pound. This is, as all will admit, too
liberal an estimate, for who could gather the
sumrnor and “ storm ” pickings and prepare
them so that they should be of liko value. But
we say let this fifty bales of cotton be worth
the sum of $3,750. Here we have the year’s
Income to the credit of the man who believes
it is easier and better to raise all cotton, and
it does seem that it would be unreasonable
and in contradiction of universal experience
to claim a larger yield for liis urres. For
the present we do not discuss expense of
production. We now pass to the day book
of tlio man who believes iu the doctrine of
mixed husbandry. He plants in corn 50
acres of his hundred, and he should make on
laud that raises 350 pounds ol lint cotton to
the acre at least 25 bushels of corn, say on the
50 acres, 1250 bushels, worth to-day $1250.
Then we have twenty-five acres in cotton
Hl<g SSI ©Mir I ill sx'M,EL : MsxMi‘
producing 12i bales, worth say $937,50. Fiv e
acres in sweet potatoes should certainty-pro
duce 750 bushels, worth on an average of the
whole season $750 dollars. Ten acres in‘gts
will make 200 bushels worth $l5O. Two acres
in Irish potatoes will be worth and
three hundred bushels per acre ia now%>o
common a crop to brag on any longer. Two
acres in clover will make 8000 pouCbvtßßfh
to-day li cents per pound, say Six
acres in wheat, say eighty bushel* will be
worth $l2O. The fodder from 50\scres of
corn at 200 pounds per acre will be 4fovth at
market rates as we write $l5O, and the peas
from the same ground, at a yield of five
bushels to the acre, will be worth s3fsr We
have not included the value of the shucks
from 1250 bushels of corn, for we set them
off against the cotton seed from fifty bales of
cotton. Let U3 recapitulate. Fifty hales of
cotton at 15 cents are worth $75 per bale,
and the sum total is $3,750.
The “Diversified Farming" has made
Com worth $t,S5<A 00
Cotton worth 937 50
Sweet Potatoes worth 00
Oats worth 15g,00
Irish Potatoes worth J:Sll*fco
Clover worth J2jfcoo
Wheat worth t|H|
Fodder worth JBW
Peas worth
$4089 50
Showing a difference in favor of “ ltgpd
Husbandry" in the year’s work of three hun
dred and fifty-nine dollars and fifty certs.
But shall the comparison of advantagejitup
here? Here wc have in excess over the cotton
planter’s production, enough topay by way of
rent on the farmer’s land, more than thirty per
cent. We have for the one family a grf ss in
come of specious and alluring character, de
rived from a staple which represents in small
bulk large values. The sales of this pr iduc
tion are easily effected, and we admit, in com
parison with the marketing of other ag
ricultural produce, more cheaply effeo ad.
But here ends the advantage. The res lifts of
the year’s labors and successes must nIUANt
invested and reconverted. Reconverted
must be into the absolute necessaries
with transportation and all sorts of imposi
tions added. Then there are no incidental
advantages, none of rotation, of pasturtge
and gleaning, of manuring and improvement
of land. The supplies are in such shaped
and are of such character very often, as to in
duce either wasteful consumption, ol a
grudging and niggardly dole. While in nie
instance of “ Diversified Farming,” the inci
dental advantage are so numerous and im
portant, as almost to rank with items of
principal value. The amount of stock and
poultry which should be kept as gleaners on
the farm, are so vital to the support and com
fort of a family as to be now regarded by all
who are accustomed to a generous living, as
simply indispeusible. But besides all this,
who does not know the incieased ex
pense that would tall upon the
whole crop wits cotton ? It would be uttwj-
out of the power of t*he small farmer who®
planlcd one hundred acres in cotton to gath
er such a crop as we have allowed him to
make, with the same force which produced"'
it. He must from September begin the hir
ing process, aud as the season advanced
aud became more inclement, the charges
on his crop, for the mere gathering, would
become heavier and heavier. But let us sup
pose that these two representatives of our
farming ideas keep up for a series of years
their distinguishing differences in manage
ment. The man who elects all cotton can
never keep a supply of slock, and it is ques
tionable if he could keep at a living profit any
other stock except the horses or mules he must
of necessity have for his daily tillage. Weneed
not draw the inference. What would be the
state of that farm that supported no stock as
to its degree of impoverishment at the end of
a half decade. W hat sort of a life would that
family endure which, though located in the
country, had no butter, no milk, no mut- J
ton nor bacon? We have many such re
proachful examples to our rural economy and
management in kind if not to the degree we
have here depicted. One tiling is cerlaiuly
true, that while we enjoy in our favored sec
tion a wider range of production than can
be found in few others on earth, while our
hospitality might be mado illustrious by a
more generous cheer than auy other peop'e
could dispense, we yet are getting to feel this
hospitality a burden, and are unwillingly-ad
mitting to ourselves that that noble virtue is
becoming more aud more restricted every
day. Here is reason for it. Cotton is de
pleting the purse and shrinking the soul at
the same time. Men cannot warm their
houses with generous hospitality when, year
after year, the balance is on the wrong side
of the ledger, or can that hospitality thrive
on bitter herbs or on attenuated soups.
One more thought before we close this
discussion. Suppose on every farm in Geor
gia an abundant and generous supply of
provisions was secured for the family and
unstinted forage for the needful stock?
Would that our legislators and leading minds
would ouly stop to cousider carefully what
all that means. It means freedom from debt.
It means tax-paying power. It means au
abounding, fervent, good neighborhood and
hospitality. It means the love and adorn
ment of home, and the consequent devotion
of the possessors of happy homes, to this no
ble old State that wo mean to stand by till
death. With this superabounding fund of
good things of life, more money could be de
voted to schools, churches, the Introduction
of the thousands of domestic conveniences
which the nidimenlal aud uncompromising
necessities of life—such us food and raiment—
will not now sulfur us to think of. “Diversi
fied Farming’’ is our hope and, we say, in all
moderation, our only reasonable hope of se
curing this enviable state of domestic and so
cial advancement.
We risk nothing when we declare to every
fanner in the South who shall read these lines,
that every family of eight persons in Georgia
who owns fiftyacresofland may secure a boun
tiful support on less than fifteen acres. But
exclusive attention to a single staple will not—
cannot do this. Cotton will be the last thing
to secure this delightful abundance and inde
pendence. “Diversified Farming” will inevi
tably do it as long as a good Providence sends
us the “ early and the latter rain.” This is a
vital question, and we wish we had the space
left to expand the discussion of it as it so well
deserves. In fact it is the greatest of all our
social and economic problems. “A support
for the family” is the one great, fundamen
tal fact upon which all material life must
rest. But the solution of this problem the
Editors of The Grange, have suggested,
when they propounded the theme we now
discuss. In “Diversified Farming” we have
as we shall now, in as few words as possible
proceed to show, the safe and ready way out
of the embarrassments w hich now environ
our rural population. Let us take a family
of eight persons, the father and the mother,
and six children from sixteen to four years
ot age. This family couldjnot possibly need
more than one hunched bushels of corqjjneal.
This should be raised on four acresjof land.
No Patron in Georgia will consent to lag
so far behind the age as to consent to a small
er production than twentj'-five bushels on
an acre of corn. Nine barrels of flour would
be an ample , supply for our family. This
will require fs(%-five bushels of wheat, and
three acres will ho amply sufficient for that
yield. We now' have a half acre in Irish po
tatoes yielding at least seventy-five buhshcls,
and three-quarters of an acre of sweet pota
toes, which would allow a bushel of each u
week of these standard and delicious vegeta
bles for the entire year. One good cow, or
two indifferent ones, will furnish 800 gallons
of milk for 200 days in the year. At 12
quarts, or thereabouts, to the pound, we
would have 370 pounds of butter, besides the
buttermilk. One acre in clover, or broad
cast peas, is ample breadth for the fullest sup-
Iljly of hay for these two cows. With the bor
ders of our garden put down in lucerfie, -
which may be cut once every month from
10th-of February till the last of summer, tfie
supply will bo superabundant. Thirty hens
will supply 1200 eggs or 300 chickens. An
orchard of apple trees, containing 25 trees
standing on a quarter of an acre, will, if cared
for as the yearly crop is, bear in five years
an annual crop of seventy-five bushels, an al
lowance of three bushels of fruit for every
week for six months in the year. Now add
the fruit from twenty-five peach trees, and
the same number of pear trees, in all only
75 trees less than the writer has standing
on three-quarters of an acre, and we have for
present use, for drying andjpreserving, not
less perhaps than one hundred bushels of the
most refreshing and health-giving nourish
ment ever vouchsafed to man. Next, give
the, family the sixteenth of an acre in
the small fruits, strawberries, raspberries,
and gooseberries, for consumption
or exchange for more desirable commodities,
and we think the most enlarged expectations
in such provision as this would be fullj' grat
ified. We have not yet provided for lard
and meat. The yield of but five hogs kept
in the stye, if well cared for, will produce be
tween eight hundred and a thousand pounds
of meat and lard, which, with the butter al
ready provided for, would be an abundance
for our lamily of eight. If these five hogs, for
the ten months they are kept up, did not re
ceive a morsel from the garden, kitchen, or
the gleanings of the field, they could b(Gully
grown and fattened on one quart, each, of
meal made into mush. This would require
about 45 bushels of corn, which should be
raised on less than two acres. Wc have said
nothing of our horse with which all this corn,
wheat, and other stuff is to be made. A horse
may be kept the j-ear round in a livery stable
on seventy-eight bushels of corn and 1500
bundles of hay or fodder. With the pas
turage on a farm, fitly bushels of corn and fif
teen hundred pounds of hay would be ample
provision. Tiiis would require two acres in
corn and less than half of an acre in clover or
pea vines.
Let us go back, now we have laid the foun
dation of the family’s support on the essen
tials and indispensibles, and speak of the
seventy-five pounds of honey that three hives
will furnish, the grapes at one ton to the acre,
which 25 Concord grape vines will supply,
and the vast amount of the best food enjoyed
by the human race which only one half acre
in a garden will afford, to say nothing of
kids, lambs and pigs which a few acres of
enclosure would allow us or the unnumbered
acres of our commons and woods would sup
port
Let us now recapitulate. We asked for four
acres for corn bread, three for wheat, two
for clover or peas for cows and horse, for
the orchard one acre, for potatoes one acre,
for the garden a half acre—the sum total less
than twelve acres, we believe. High farming,
such as a Georgia farmer and Patron should
not be ashamed of, will accomplish all we
have assumed, and much more on less than
half the surface we have asked for. Indeed,
the small farm system, and the reform which
is to grow out of it, can only be perfected by
high culture, and after all it is the true econo
my, and in one decade will be the universal
doctrine and practico.
Now we are about through with our task.
What we have said we trust may be valuable
os a suggestion, if not as nu example to be
literally followed. We are sure our figures
are not fallacious, either as to the sufficiency
of provision and supply or as to the rate of
production. One closing remark may be par
doned. Let us reticct one moment on the all
pervading influence on our social life, our po
litical life, our moral life, which comfort and
abundance, universally diffused, would exert.
In the example, furnished by France, of re-
sources scattered or rather hidden, all over
that extended country, in nmazing affluence,
on her little ten-acre farms, held in fee sim
ple, the statesmen of the world may see what
a cheap nursery of patriotism, as well as
wealth, these well-tilled plats of ground stand
for. Let a man feel that this little patch is
his home for life, and is his to leave to his
children after him, and we may rest assured
that every one of its capabilities will bo
brought out that reflection, industry, interest
or hope can invoke.
For the Georgia Grange.]
COTTON CULTURE.
i
By W. D. Croom, Esq., of Houston
County, Georgia.
The subject which heads this article, has,
within the last half century, engrossed more
attention and elicited more skill, perhaps,
than any other subject connected with ag r
culture. It has brought into requisition, not
only the best agricultural talent of America,
but that of Europe; has, for various pecuni
ary reasons, contributed its quota for its
thorough development, all of which have
only gone tb make up the wild cotton-nMnia
which has well-nigh placed the cotton-grow
ing region of this country hors du combat,
and which would have long since produced
a lamiue unparalleled in the annals of this
country but for the teeming granaries and
smokehouses of the great Northwest. But
it is a patent fact to every rationally observ.
ing mind, that the pinacle of fame in this
subject has not yet been reached, from the
simple fact that the subject has not been
correctly studied nor judiciously practised.
Therefore, a few thoughts from my humble
pen will, I presume, not be considered super
abundant, since it is a fact that the many
changes wrought upon this country by the
fortunes of the late war, have made a thor
ough practical knowlcge of cotton-culture
more necessary to ensure the success of the
farmer than at any other period during its
history. Encouraged by the high price of
cbtton, and prompted (perhaps I’d better say
infatuated) by thq cotton mania before
laded to, immediately after the close of\ie
late war, the devastating arm of which, un
manacled, had swept cyclone-like over the
whole country, destroying in a few days the
amassed wealth of years, the farmers, true to
that indomitable pluck so characteristic of
the Southern people, without pausing to re
flect, set out to repair their losses, and build
up the future by extravagantly using com
mercial fertilizers at a ruinous outlay, and
planting cotton to the almost total exclusion
of every other crop. What has been the fatal
result? Let the poverty, bankruptcy, and
ruin which stalk defiantly abroad the land,
straggling in every rural pathway, tell the
woeful talc.
But I am digressing, and will at once re
turn to the subject. Sad experience, then,
has fully demonstrated that cotton can not be
profitably grown upon no whjcli is not
self-sustaining; but in this connection it
must be admitted that cotton growing in this
country is to ascertain extent a matter of
necessity. llow, then, is this to he done and
at the same time make the farm self-sustain
ing? These are the propositions for dem
onstration in this essay. Diversified farm
ing, based upon a regularly rotated system,
with a reduced acreage of cotton, at least
one-half from its present maximum, with a
higher and more thorough mode of culture,
are the great auxiliaries to be relied upon in
the consummation of these noble ends which
alone can disenthrall the farmer, place his
feet upon the rock of independence, and give
him that position which nature designed him
to occupy,—the noblest of creation.
Let every farmer resolve, henceforth, that
of every fifteen acres of land he plants, but
five shall be plauted to cotton, the remaining
ten planted fo grain and root crops. Let the
rotation be such as to regularly rotate the
same land around for cotton every third
year. Let cotton, in every case, succeed
small grain of some kind. Let the prepa
ration for cotton be thorough, plough the
land deeply, and apply the manure or fer
tilizer deeply in drills drawn three and a
half feet apart, which should be thoroughly
mixed with the soil by running a small spon
toon in the drill after the manure has been
put in; these are all protections against
droughts so peculiar to this country. Raise
a very flatbed,slightly elevated at the center;
this is also protection against drought. For
this latitude, if cotton seed be planted on
natural soil or home-made manures, the
planting should be from the Ist to the 10th
of April to insure success. If planted on
commercial fertilizers, a little later will he
better. The seed in every case should be
covered very shallow. Experience has long
since taught me that bad stands oftener re
sult from deep covering than any other
known cause, where good seeds are planted.
So soon as the plants are fully up, the cul
tivation should commence. It is a well
known fact to every observing farmer, that
notwithstanding cotton plants are puny at
first, they soon become strong and powerful
growers, whose roots are capable of penetra
ting the hardest soils ; ploughing
in the cultivation is not essential, but is Un
questionably injurious for reasons which will
hereafter be shown. Then, let the ploughing
through the cultivation be done with a broad
winged sweep, swarding at least twenty-two
inches. Chop to a stand by leaving the
plants two in a bunch, ten to twelve inches
asunder. It is not claimed that two stalks
in a bnnch will double the yield ovor the one
stalk rule so long practised, but the yield will
thereby be greatly enhanced. The plough
ings should be consecutively every two
weeks, and the hoeings in like manner till
the first fruit is grown, at which time the
cultivation should cease. The space of one
week intervening between the ploughs and
hoes. The land must be kept thoroughly
clean and free from weeds and grass, as
these absorb moisture and nutritious matter
much more rapidly than the cotton plants.
About the time the plants begin to fruit,
fibrous roots or feeders begin to grow and
permeate the soil in every direciion, ranging
near the surface, no doubt fur the purpose of
drawing upon the atmosphere for food for
the fruit not found in the soil. This is the
most critical period of the cotton crop, and
success or failure depends Uj on the manage
ment and cultivation at this period. Deep
ploughing is to be avoided as ruinous. These
fibrous roots must not be disturbed nor
broken by the point of the plough, nor must
they be smothered by hilling or dirting up
the plants. In the event of the former, a
retrogression of sap will be produced causing
a disgorging of fruit, from which the plants
can never be fully resurrected; in the event
of the latter, the plants and fruit will be de
prived of the benefits to be derived by these
fibrous roots from dews and hydrogenic
gases deposited upon the surface during the
night time, causing disease, such as blight,
rust, etc.
In conclusion, it is but simple justice to
state, that I have not vritten with a view to
encourage or extend cotton culture, but upon
the other hand, to impioveit and raisejMfl
a higher standard, that the acreage rnayTie
reduced and the supply and demand kept
within healthy paying limits, and that the
acreage of other crops may be increased in
like manner as the acreage of cotton is re
duced so that the farms may become self
sustaining and the cotton crop become a
surplus.
For tbe Georgia Grange.]
Cotton Planters,
Editors Georgia Grange: Permit me
through your valuable paper to offer some
suggestions about improving cotton. Di
rectly after the first picking, select for seed
the best five-lock bolls from the best stalks,
on limbs about half way up the stalk. This
is selecting observa
tion, and is of gres(, benefi%_But then there
is science in this business. '-lYrst observe
and understand the law of
ture’s beautiful laws remarkably exemplified
iu cotton. Choose your type, select from that
type, and from the product of these seeds se
lect again from year to year, until it becomes
fixed and established. To describe the type
of my own choice would occupy too much
space. Do not mix cotton, that is do not
plant cither different kinds or different types
together; they will surely degenerate. Its
chief mode of degeneration is by a multiplica
tion of its types and also tall stalk, long limbs
and long joints, thereby showing a strong
disposition to return to the cotton tree,
whence it came.
Year before last I bought one pound and a
half of improved seed cotton. This, the third
year, I planted about one hundred and fifty
acres of that cotton, and have a good stand ;
jsold between twenty-five and thSfULbJfshels,
and have about thjfty bushels left over. If
my orders and instructions had b?en better
attended to, the result would have been much
greater. A planter in this community would
do well to get a few improved cotton seed to
begin with, from Georgia, where science and
experiment have wrought out such wonder
ful results in agriculture.
Col. J. \V. Jennings, of Dennison, Texas,
in speaking of the obligations and advantages
of a membership of the Grange goes on to
enumerate and dereant in the following
practical and felicitous manner. We com
mend his suggestions to all Grangers, and
hope they will be carefully observed. He
says:
It is the duty of every Patron to know' all
that can be learned, ancl to communicate all
that lie knows, which would enlighten, in
struct, or benefit his co-workers in the
Grange. It is his duty to report the amount
ofland in cultivation, the prospects of crops,
the condition of bis neighborhood, bis ex
perience with certain kinds of implements
and seeds, the plan of grafting the best kinds
of fruit, the result of his experience in cul
tivating, liis theory of breeding and keeping
stock, the best kinds of stock for this country,
liia experience with hogs, and the best breeds
for this climate, his remedies for diseases in
stock, poultry, bees; iu fact, to make the
GraDge a school of instruction, thereby in
creasing the interest in its labors. Some
may say how are wc to gather this knowl
edge? I will say that no farmer who takes
interest enougli in the organization to become
a member thereof, but has some idea tl at
would be new to others, and they would
soon take pleasure in imparting the same to
the less enlightened brother and sister. The
sisters can give their experience in buttei
and cheese-making, in their arrangements of
household affairs, bread-making, keeping
both house aud out-door plants, their system
of preserving, making pickles, and every
thing instructing aud interesting.
The younger persons have an important
part to take in the Grauge, if they will only
take hold and exercise it. The proper sphere
for them is to arrange and beautify the
Grange, decorate it with fragrant flowers,
emblems of purity, prepare the feasts and
picnics, attend to the music, and make the
Grange a place of delight for older members;
we will then have taken the first step to
wards tilling the mission for which we are
created. We are nil, more or less, depend
ent creatures; to help one another and to
mske life's burden light, is one of the ends
we have to view.
We want more and better reading in our
homes; we should encourage agricultural
papers. Wc cannot over estimate the valu
able information gleaned from their perusal.
Our State agricultural papers are very
limited, and we should strive and get the
best. As Patrons, let us have more knowl
edge, and try and dispense it liberally, and
all will be well with our Order.
A zealous but Ignorant negro preacher, ill
expounding to his flock as to the astounding
nature of miracles, got a trifle confused as to
the matter. He said : “My beloved friends,
the greatest of all miracles was ’bout loaves
and fishes. There was 5,000 loaves and 2,C00
fishes and de twelve 'postles had to eat 'em
all, and de miracle is dey din’t bust.