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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, JUNE 1, 1882. 8 $gru[ttUtti[Hl jUgpurtmtiL The Fence question. This question is exciting increased inter est in the older portions of the South. Our neighboring State of South Carolina has taken the lead in reforming the legislation on this subject. The local option was first authorized by law, by tiie vote of townships, then extended to counties, and finally the “bull was taken by the horns,” and the law made general and absolute throughout the State; The example thus Bet is encour aging to the friends of the fence law reform in Georgia. Like all questions, it has two sides, witii earnest and honest advocates. Taki ng a practical and perhaps a narrow view of the subject, is is quite clear that the voting on such a question should be re stricted to those who own the land, and upon whom the labor and expense of keep ing up fences at present fall, wherever the time-honored system prevails of fencing the crops and allowing stock free range. But we concede that the subject should be viewed from a more liberal standpoint. One of the fundamental principles on which our government is founded, is that private prop erty may be taken for public use. This principle, however, is not distinctly ex pressed, but is implied in the reservation, that private property shall not be taken for public use except upon “just compensa tion.” The principle governs in the impo sition of all duties upon citizens, such as payment of taxes, jury and military duty, etc., but in nearly every instance there is express provision made for compensation, or the duty or tax imposed is deemed but a just equivalent for the protection to the rights of personal life and property enjoyed by every citizen. So we suppose the old system of fencing and the laws which sus tain it, were based upon the idea that the greatest good for the greatest number was conserved by such system. This was un doubtedly true in the early settlement of the country. When timber was plentiful and natural pasturage abundant, it was so evidently cheaper to fence in the small area under cultivation, and allow cattle the free range of the country, that it scented to be the natural and only wise plan. But this primeval condition of the country no longer exists in large sections of the country, and men are now living who will live to see the best timbered section now remaining in as bad a case as the oldest parts of the country. Under the present laws of most of the South ern States, the farmer is required to incur the labor and expense of building fences for the benelit of the public; he must furnish the timber to make the rails; and moreover, he is compelled to furnish pasturage for the public, or resort to the expense of enclosing his lands, and all this without the slightest compensation. His property is taken for public use without compensation. And more than this: In most coses where duties are required of a citizen, or his property devoted to public use, he is not only paid a just compensation of the same, but he is at the same time an equal participant in the benefits, which cannot be said of the far mer who is compelled to keep up several miles of fence in order that his neighbor, who owns no land, may range his cattle and hogs on the uninclosed lands. B, Sweet Potatoes. Continue to set out draws from the bed if thrifty and vigorous. Later on, it is better to plant euttings from the vines, as the latter develops tubers earlier after setting, and they will keep better. Remember that the ground should always be freshly plowed just before setting slips or cuttings. It is more than equivalent to a good working to start them in fresh mellow soil. They will not only live better, but will require less work, as grass will not come up until after another rain, The potatoes intended for seed should be grown from cut vines; at least it is the commonly received opinion that the tubers thus grown, will produce smoother, better shaped potatoes next season, and we think our own experience sustains the belief. It is certainly true that late grown potatoes keep better, and this consideration itself, is sufficient to justify attention to this point. As this seems to be a year of revival in farming—and by this we mean a renewed ef fort to return to a wise and self sustaining system—we trust that Southern farmers will greatly increase the area in sweet potatoes and extend the economic uses of the crop. There are few, if any crops grown, that will produce so large a quantity of wholesome, fattening food for stock, as the sweet potato. We all understand and fully appreciate its value as fj/od for the table; yet even for this purpose they are not grown and preserved in sufficient quantities to supplv the home de mand, to say nothing of distant markets. But as a food for domestic animals, their use is practically measured by the gleanings af forded to the hogs after the “patches" have been more or less closely harvested. Very few farmers plant more than one-quarter or one-half acre of potatoes to the plow. In deed, the area devoted to them is oftener regulated by the number in the household of the farmer, than with any reference to the size of the farm or the number of mules, cattle and hogs to be sustained. Ho is gen erally well satisfied to produces six months’ supply for table use. In our judgment the sweet potato should be the turnip of the South, in the sense that the latter is one of the most valuable crops grown in England. Our climate, and the present condition of our agriculture is not suited to the field culture of turnips, or their production for stock feed. We have been too prone in our efforts at improvement in farming, to inculcate English methods and recommend English food crops, and while no general effort has been made to grow tur nips, carrots and mangolds for stock-feeding in the South, it is not for want of plenty of advice to do so, but rather a want of en couraging results of experiments that have been made. But the sweet potato is not only well suited to our climate and soil, and our careless methods, but it is also more nutritious and palatable, being highly relished by all kinds of stock. We would be glad to have the ex perience of other farmers, who like Mr. G. W. Munro, have tried the potato as a regu lar stock feed for mules and hoises. We should stand by our own peculiar crops and develop their economic value to the fullest extent rather than run after such products as have developed merit only under circum stances very different from our own. B. Practical Rnggntloni. Editor Southkbn World—Will you allow me through your excellent paper to call the attention of machinists and inventors to the importance of making what I call indi vidual farm machines to be worked by hand or one horse power. We make all our grain and bread stuffs; cotton for a money crop; all fruits except tropical. Two crops of Irish potatoes, rice, upland and creek bot tom, the best of syrup from Louisiana ribbon cane and would be the most independent people in the South if we had the aid of such machines as could be used at home by every farmer for himself. During two long visits to the Atlanta Exposition, I tried to impress this idea upon the machine ex hibitors, but their minds seemed set upon large cotton factories, steam threshing me- chines, etc., doing an enormous amount of work per day. We do want and ure willing to pay for a small rice hullcr, a small cotton seed huller, grinder and oil press, a light gin power without cogs, a dry dirt brick press, a small cut-off saw for firewood, wheat und oat thresher, small hand corn shelter that can be screwed to any table or bench, aud we want what we never expect to see, a light one horse riding plow. The ladies of this section wish to know whom to address for cocoons or silk worm eggs. This section is in the valley of Big Mulberry creek with a soil and climate well adapted to the growth of the worms and I think silk raising would prove a success. Your’s is the best agricultural paper North or South in my opinion. J. Hendrick. Collierville, Clinton county, Ala. A Booth Carolina Farmer. Editor Southern World—I consider your paper indispensable to farmers of the South ern States. I am better pleased with every copy. Farmers in this country arc waking up, planting less cotton, more corn, oats, barley, clover and wheat. I have twenty- five acres in oats that look remarkably well, and soon will be ready for the cradle, the greater part was sown last fall. I have one acre of ground that the pines were cut two years ago; I have burnt it over and broken it twice with a bull-tongue plow, expect to break it again, then sow it in peas the lost of June for experiment. I have a large pasture for my cows and sheep, part woods, the remainder in old field and bottom; the swamp grass is fine, it is fattening them every day. Having read through the col umns of your paper, bow to plant water melons, I have heeded the advice. Can’t you come around this summer and eat with me. J. H. A. Cedar Grove, S. C. Written specially tor the Southern World. Meteorological Interests. What the Havana are doing. Tornadoes. Home Idea about them. The Subject one of General Study. Editor Southern Wobld—At this time there is much interest manifested in scien tific circles in regard to Sun storms, and quite as much among meteorologists in ref erence to recent visitations of a similar character on a smaller scale on our planet. Even the Signal Service appears at this mo ment, to think there is something interest ing in the subject of tornadoes, which of late have been dropping down in various parts of this country with much fury and have been very destructive of life and prop erty in some quarters. Sergeant Finley,of theservice,it seems,lias discovered that there are really such things and that they have been occurring for fifty years at least; and the meteorological savuns at Washington begin to acknowledge their existence. There is good lcoson for this. The last two years have unfolded something of their history and brought them more particularly into notice. As tronomers are now very much engaged in investigating the surface of the Sun to find out if possible, the cause of the Sun storms. This kind of investigation 'has beea going on for a long time, and while it is whole some to science and apt to lead to impor tant results, I do not believe such methods will ever disclose the cause of these phe nomena on the Sun’s surface. I think the true cause is not to be found in the mere effects produced. The Signal Service has sent out its corps of meteorologists, or will do so, to examine the localities of the recent cyclones, and the effect produced by them, with a view of ascertaining their origin or cause. While in this case something may be accomplished for science in collecting the facts of the history and character of storms of this kind, I do not think the ob ject will be attuined. We must look for the origin or cause of storms somewhere else than in localities where they occur and in the effects they produce. I undertake to say that the vibrations of the recent storms, be longing to an interval or two defined and marked out by me long before they occurred, were feltovcra wide area of country, at the time, although their destructive effect was confined to places or spots, so to speak; and their cause if itcan'tbe ascertained, can just ns well be without their phenomenal effect as with it. For two years past the places of cyclones have been visited and the effects produced by them, investigated by men of science, and the subject prosecuted by a close examination into all the phenomena attending these storms with the sole pur pose of ascertaining their nature and origin. Elaborate papers have been read before scientific associations on the subject; but so far as any result has been reached, it may be expressed in a word—naught. Of course, I do not mean to criticise the efforts made in this direction by those whose opinions in such matters, from their posi tion, entitle them to weight, but I do mean to he explicit in asserting that results are not such as pretended, from these sources, and as many imagine them to be. However, it is now to be hoped at least; that the labors of the observatory, coupled with those of the Signal Service, will end in something more than smoke—that something more will result from their joint effort than a vast heap of unwieldy information, never to be utilized except in the differences which arise in the disputations of members of the scientific associations. While the astronomers and meteorologists of the Government departments can attend to their business in this way just as well without the opinion of an outsider as with it; it may not be out of place to present to the public, at a time of so much interest in the subject, something of the labors and inves tigations out of the highly favored circles of the observatories and departments of science. 1. It was shown year before last that 1881 would be pregnant with phenomenal out breaks of nature, just such as occurred. They were characterized, and the time and places of their occurrences given. 2. Information was given to the public last year at an early day, that these natural disturbances would reach their climax in 1832, and thut they would during this year, or thereafter, decrease gradually until in a year or two they would not be so marked. 3. Notice was also given the first of this year that the year would be remarkable for the number of its cyclones and the danger attending them. 4. The cause to which these phenomena were attributable was alleged to be in the combination of planetary perturbation of the earth’s orbit, the displacement of the elongated bulge of an atmosphere due to planetary altitude, and the maxima of Sun spots. Planetary grouping, planetary alti tudes and solar excitement were discussed as the exciting origin of the present cycle through which the earth was passing, of a most remarkable telluric paroxysm. The immediate result it was shown would be in tense heat for 1881 and numerous Sun strokes and heat prostrations in the large cities in Europeand the United States. Other natural outbreaks, such as arc common to these intervals of excitement were alluded to and freely discussed. The electrical storms were especially selected as a prominent featuro of the year. In regard to all this class of natural phe nomena, I only have to say the subject has been fully elaborated and the cause dis closed. In reference to cyclones, it can easily be proved that they occur every year, but in less destructive and a milder form than in periods of longer duration. Few persons have failed to witness the effects of cyclones and have escaped observing them in their milder or less destructive form. Their weight or altitude usually determines their character, and this is fixed by the air strata above and below. In their mild form or when their altitude is too great to result in danger, they can be studied with some de gree of certainty in arriving at a knowledge of them. In the first place cyclones often occur separately from any apparent storm range. In this form they are more apt to be mere cloud bursts and very destructive in descending and disintegrating, as it were, from an immense altitude. In the second place, cyclones proper usually are spot storms in the track of a general tornado, or storm movement. The general effects are sometimes produced by one or more of these spot storms in the same belt, but more often by different formations in concentric belts, and the cause of the results is confused, and often attributed to one and the same local formation. Any one can observe the formation of a cyclone when a storm is coming on or break ing up in hot weather. They are so common when not destructive at places, that I need take no further notice of the fact more than to suggest it, to make all who feel an inter est in such investigations, observers. The study of the. clouds is the most thrilling of all subjects, especially during the intervals of great electrical excitement. If the clouds are well elevated no danger need be appre hended unless they are descending to a lower air stratum. In that event, if they are thick and heavy, and in layers of dense vol ume well outlined, it would be well enough not to strain the eyes too much, as some times the nervous system is not equal to the sublimity of the occasion. About the breaking up of storms a few words, and I will close for this time. When we say a storm is breaking up, it may be, but if it comes on the next day with greater fury than the day before, we have simply been mistaken about it, and have been de ceived by appearances. In winter, early spring and late autumn, when stormsappear to break up, we are seldom deceived. But in summer, late spring and early autumn, we are easily deceived by the evening clear ings, after the thunder showers about us. As long as the clouds gather of a day time into thunder heads, the storm belt is passingover. The only distinction is purely incident to the soasons of the year. In winter the Min belt in our latitude is contracted into one general movement. In summer it moves in detached parts, broken or separated by the heated air currents which drive the moist ures into higher regions. Bains increase in the summer as the earth is gradually cooled by an increase of moisture below in its de scent from the cold regions above. In this season the rains are generally spotted, and the hottest and driest places frequently suf fer from a drought, unless the storm belt contracts suddenly over them, or there is an unusual amount of moisture passing over head. 0*o- K- Gather. Ashville, Ala. Note.—In Issue of May 15th of Southern World, in my article, the sentence begin ning, “Its northern rains or belt,” etc., should read, "Its northern rim or belt,” eto. I simply apply my remarks to the preten sions of the Signal Service work in agricul ture and not to the system as a huge ex pensive classifier of facts and data In the history of meteorology of great interest in the departments of science. Your allusion to so-called "weather prophets” I do not un derstand. I see no justice in it—no place for Us application. But even these upon