Southern world : journal of industry for the farm, home and workshop. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1882-18??, August 01, 1882, Image 3
THE SOUTHERN WORLD, AUGUST 1, 1882.
8
Pannuta.
The New York Commercial Bulletin makes
a somewhat elaborate report respecting the
peanut crop of the country during late
yean. The advices of that journal are that
the crop is annually increasing in favor,
and that the consumption keeps well up
with the Increased cultivation. The follow
ing figures are given, showingthe number of
bushels raised each year since 1873-74:
North
Tennessee.
Vlrzlnla.
Carolina.
1873-74
225,000
60,000
1874-75
350.000
120,000
1875-76
450,000
100,000
1876-77
780.000
125,00(1
1877-78
405,000
85,000
1878-79
875,000
85,000
1879-80
130,000
120,000
Totals
3,215,000
695,000
This furnishes a total crop during the
seven years mentioned of 6,435,450 bushels.
The total consumption in the United States
during the calendar years 1878, 1879 and 1880
is given respectively as follows: 1,066,000
bushels, 1,380,000 and 1,927,000 bushels—in
all, 4,37^,000 bushels. The production dur
ing the years 1876-77, 1877-78, 1878-79 and
1879-80 respectively amounted to 4,520,000
bushels. This gave a surplus of 197,000
bushels of peanuts grown during the years
in which the product had to meet the de
mand of the calendar years named. The
average price of the peanuts consumed dur
ing the calendar years 1878-80 is stated to
have been 5c per pound. This rate upon
4,373,000 bushels of peanuts gives a total of
$218,650 worth of peanuts, or an average of
$72,883 each year, or $6,074 each month, or
about $202 per day for peanuts throughout
the United States. This price, of course, is
at the wholesale rate. Something like five
times the sum would more nearly represent
the amount paid by consumers, or about
$1,000 per day. The Spanish peanut, a line
variety, has been cultivated with success in
Virginia. The United States export peanuts
to Canada, to Bermuda, and to the West
Indies. The crop for the season ending Sep-
- tember 30,4881, is estimated by heavy deal
ers in New York city as follows: Tennessee,
550,000; Virginia, 1,500,000 bushels, and
North Carolina, 120,000 bushels. In 1880
owing to the plentiful supply of peanuts,
the price fell off from 5c. to 3c. per pound
In 1881 the drouth through the peanut coun
try reduced the size of the crop about fifty
per cent, from that of the preceding year,
with the result of a corresponding increase
in prices. The outlook for peanuts for the
forthcoming season, which begins in Octo
ber, is reported by those most interested to
be very flattering.
A Word on Seeds.
short, vigorous climate of the northeast im
parts a quick and vigorous growth to the
plant; hence our dependence upon the Bast
for early peas, beans, cabbage, beets, pota
toes, lettuce, corn, turnips, etc. Some seeds
can be grown very well in the South—such
collard, tomato, okra, pole beans, melons,
etc., but very great care is necessary to pre
vent mi xture, and to keep up a good standard.
The qualify will deteriorate greatly unless
watchfulness and much care is exercised in
cultivating and harvesting. What man sit
ting at his table eating a plate of luscious
tomatoes will envy the dealer the insignifi
cant nickel paid him for the paper of seed?
No one is more in favor of fostering and oth
erwise encouraging home enterprise and
economy than the writer, yet at the same
time it is apparent to any careful observer,
that the different sections of the country are
in a great degree dependent upon each other
and thus it should be. The North must
have our cotton, the South must have the
early seeds of the North, and so on. But
enough for the present.
Live and Let Live.
Editor Southern World—Your paper
goes into every nook and corner of the
Southern world now, and it is becoming
more and more popular every issue. It is
therefore, very important that every thing
it publishes is correct and goes out correct,
for what has been written is very hard to
unwrite, and all “writeists” should write so
as to be prepared to say “What I have writ
ten I have written.’’
Now, as to your able correspondent’s arti
cle—"Saving Seed,” etc., in your May (1st)
number. Do you suppose there is a farmer
so careless in all the Southern world, as
pay such fabulous prices for garden seed, as
J. S. N. indicates they cost him, to-wit
English peas 60c. per quart, cabbage 50c. per
ounce, corn 30c. per quart, seeds in papers
to 15c.. onion seed 50c. perounce, turn.pseed
$4 00 per pound, beet seed $1.20 per pound,
carrot seed $2.00 per pound? While the fact
is that such seed are sold by our best South
ern seed houses, about ns follows: for the
best, well-teste 1 standard seeds, viz., English
peas 20 to 30c. per quart, cabbage 20 to 25c.
perounce, corn 15 to 20c. per quart, seeds in
papers 6c., onion seed 35c. per ounce, turnip
seed 50 to 75c. per pound, beet seed 50 to 70c,
per pound, carrot seed $1.00 to $1.25 per
pound, etc. Now you see there is a most
wonderful difference between these price,
and the prices given by J. 8. N. His figures
might induce many to grow seeds for market
only to be disappointed when seeking
market for same. Make all you can, get all
you can, and save all you get; also live at
home and board at the same place, Is all very
good advice I admit, but at the same time
every man to his trade or calling, is a very
good rule also. A farmer is not a seed-
grower no more than a physician is a manu
facturing druggist, or the shoemaker a tan
ner of leather. I presume it is not well un
derstood that a great many seeds cannot be
grown in the South to advantage. We have
a long growing season, consequently plants
bcome lazy or late, when grown in our cli
mate ; while on the other hand the quick,
Extensive Farming In Florida.
Floridian.
Messrs. Charles C. and John A. Pearce are
numbered among the enterprising, success
ful planters of Leon county. They own
about 1,200 acresof excellent land just west
of the corporate limits of Tallahassee, be
lieve in thorough cultivation, and use many
of the latest improved and best labor-saving
implements in their farm operations. This
spring they put in 70 acres of oats with
combined broadcast sower and harrow, and
they estimate the yield at 35 bushels to the
acre. Last week two of Emerson, Talcott
& Co’s Standard reapers were to be seen in
their immense oat fields, cutting down the
grain at the rate of 30 or 35 acres per day
They have a one-horse sulky rake that fol
lows the reapers and binders, and gather up
whatever is left scattered over the ground
and so thoroughly does it do its work that
it gives the stubble the appearance of having
been swept. These young men are also
raisingsome fine mules and horses, and have
a number of blooded cattle—Durham and
Alderney mixed, and a thorougbred Devon
shire cow, a fine specimen of that excellent
breed. Among their milch cows are three
that give four gallons of milk per day. They
are also turning their attention to fruit cul
ture, and now have over 300 LeConte pear
trees, and will this fall put out 1,000 more
and 400 pecan trees. Mr. John A. Pearce
has a 20 acre field of corn that will average
40 bushels to the acre. This corn was plant
ed and cultivated with a sulky corn and cot
ton planter and cultivator. One-half the
field is planted in Hardaway’s weevil-proof
corn and the other in Maryland white corn
the latter, being an early variety, is some
what in adva-ce of the former, and it is
rare thing to see a stalk with only one ear
while there are many to be found with four
and five, and some with eight. The Messrs.
Pearce are model young farmers; everything
is in good repair on the place, and all over
the plantation are evidences of industry,
thorough cultivation and good management.
An Alabama Endorsement.
Pleasant Hill, Ala.
Editor Southern World—I have been an
attentive reader and quite an admirer of
your paper for sometime; its first appear
ance struck me very favorably, the only ob
jection was that it was not published in my
own native State, dear Alabama, great “land
of rest.” Georgia deserves well, and we
congratulate her for her wonderful success.
It is ours to emulate her example.
You were exceedingly fortunate in the se
lection of a name. The time is past when
agriculture or farming, when applied to a
journal will only secure its failure. It is not
only a pleasant and appropriate, but a com
prehensive one. It is not confined to any
pecial line, but can run an independent
course; its columns are open to North and
South, East and West. It has raised its ban
ner to be fanned by the breezes of the world,
to invite immigration from ail nations to en
joy the blessings of our dear sunny land;
for it needs only to be seen to be admired
and appreciated as possessing advantages
over all other lands; long may that "banner
wave,” though it be not as of yore, “the
land of the free,” if it is the “home of the
brave.”
I hope its circulation will be broad and
extended, reaching every hamlet and home,
extending a welcome to the entire world.
U. J. Crumpton.
How to Con Fruit.
As the season for canning fruit is at
hand, we present the following:
First, prepare the fruit by picking it over,
peeling, or whatever else is required. Placq
it neatly in the jais in layers. Use none
but the best refined white sugar, as the yel
low is apt to impart a disagreeable taste and
color. It is hardly necessary to add any
water, though that may be done if you deem
it best, according to the kind of fruit. Place
a few straws or small sticks across the bot
tom of your boiler, put in water, and set it
on the stove to boil. Bring the water to
boiling point, and let it continue there as
long os may be required for that kind of
fruit. Set the jars on a table to cool, and
when the fruit is nearly cold apply the tops
and screw them down tightly. For cherries,
blackberries, strawberries, whortleberries,
grapes, plums, currants, gooseberries and
raspberries boil ten to twelve minutes, and
put a half pound of sugar to the quart of
berries. For peaches and quince boil twenty
minutes and use the same quantity of sugar
as for small fruits. Pears and tomatoes will
require a half hour or more to boil, and less
sugar is required for them, especially the
tomatoes. Examine the jars in a few days,
and if any of the fruit shows signs of work
ing, set it on the stove and boil again, tak
ing care to remove the cover of the jars be
fore doing so, or the steam will break them
asunder. Oive time to cool before screwing
tops down. The jars must be air-tight,
the fruit will not keep well.—-Rural Messenger.
ing is scant and the exposure great; but it
cannot supply the waste of muscle that is
involved in daily manual labor, or the loss
brain substance that is the result of men
tal toil. Pure fat does not contain the char
acteristic elements of nerve, muscle, bone
and brain, and can have no part in building
up those portions of the system. Its use Is
therefore confined to supplying or keeping
up the heat of the body, and increasing the
accumulation of fat. We would not abolish
the use of meats. Their moderate use is
very wholesome, convenient and gratifying
to the palate, and in some coses almost indis
pensable. But that too prominent a place is
assigned to bacon on our list of foods for the
table, we do not hesitate to aflirm, and that
the use of butchers' meats in our cities, is
far less necessary to health and the proper
nourishment of ourselves and children than
a good quality of wholesome bread, and
an abundance (in season) of fresh vegetables.
As is well shown in the article referred to,
beef and mutton are costly forms of food,
and bacon, at present prices, but little less
We invite attention to the article.
R.
Early Dividends.
Capitalists are fond of buying stock that
yields dividends, and are quite content now
to get bonds that will pay four or five per
cent, annually. A neighbor of ours spread
barrowful of manure taken from under
the floor of ahorse stable, about the middle
of April. The manure orearth had received
the urine of a horse for some months, and
represented the value of that commodity,
It was spread on about a square rod of old
meadow that had received no manure for a
dozen years or more. The grass took a fresh
start soon after the application, and clearly
defined the dressed plat by its dark green
and luxuriant growth. On the twentieth of
June the grass is so heavy, that it is partly
lodged and is ready for the scythe. The yield
of grass is certainly quadrupled by the top
dressing. Sixty days from the date of invest
ment, he lias a dividend worth at least one-
half the value of the manure. He will get
a second crop this season, which makes
another dividend. The sod below is enriched
with a great growth of grass roots, which is
an increase of capital, and will continue to
give fair dividends for several years to come.
He is so well pleased with this spring’s in
vestment, that he has enlarged the area of
top-dressing on the meadow, and applied
fresh manure from the stable, made up of
leaves, and horse and cow dung, on the 20th
of June. The grass cut on this second plot
was very thin, certainly less than a half ton
to the acre. He confidently expects a divi
dend from this investment in about sixty
days, and permanent Increase of capital,
Now is it not much better for a cultivator to
put his capital upon his own land, under his
own supervision, and get good dividends,
early and often, than to invest in railroads,
steamboats, factories or Wall street? In
vesting at home, he knows just what he is
about, and with an average expenditure of
brain and muscle, he can command early
dividends, and keep them coming. The
farm is a machine to make money. Let us
keep it in good repair and turn out the dol
lars.—American Agriculturist.
Flesh-Food.
Elsewhere in this issue of The World will
be found a very readable and instructive ar
ticle, taken from the columns of the New
England Farmer, that staid old representa
tive of the land of steady habits and apple
“sass;” and a most excellent journal it is
too. We copy the article because it reflects
our own views on the subject, and contains
so much that is practical. The masses of the
people are but little informed on the subject,
and some vital errors have long held sway
in the minds of the laboring classes. The
South is often referred to as the land of “hog
and hominy;” not because of the great
abundance of bacon and corn produced, but
because of the almost universal reliance on
these articles for food. It is a very common
idea that a man cannot perform arduous
manual labor without a full daily ration of
bacon, and that fat meat is better, because
more strength producing than lean. On the
contrary, not only is the first idea altogether
untrue, but the second is like unto it. Fat
meat is a very convenient form of fuel-food
to keep up the animal heat of the body in
very cold weather, especially when the cloth-
The Farmer a Hecbnnlc.
NO 1.
We write not os a professional mechanic,
but as a farmer. The professional might say
that the farmer had better “stick to his last”
and send to the skilled carpenter or wheel
wright or blacksmith when he has occasion
for a job in either of their lines. As a gen
eral rule the old aphorism is correct, but its
application is to the farmer, or lawyer, or
physician wh^is led by caprice or want of
stability to leave a business in which his
talent and training have fitted him to suc
ceed, and venture into a business or profes
sion for which lie has no qualifications.
A farmer ought to know a little of all
the trades and professions. He has a little
world to himself and family, not often in
call of a neighbor, and at a greater or less
distance from the “shop.” He or his son or
one of his laborers must know how to keep
a tool in order- and properly use it, or he
suffers material loss and inconveniences in
having work either not done at all, or very
unskillfully executed, unless he “sends to
the shop” for it, and pay out money that
might as well have been saved.
A farmer has more leisure time at his
command from his ordinary labors of the
farm than almost any other man. With his
wagons, plows, harness, grain machinery,
hoes and forks, fences and gates, dwelling
and farm buildings, milking and churning
utensils, washing appliances, etc., there is
hardly a day that passes in which there is
not an occasion which demands the use of
the mechanic’s tools, and some measure of
the mechanic’s skill in their handling. Yet
there are many farmers who have not even
so common and indispensable a tool as a
hand-saw, or an augur or a drawing knife in
their possession. They do find use for these
tools, and ever and anon a hand is sent a
mile or two to a more provident neighbor to
‘borry” a cross-cut or an incli-nnd-a-half
augur, or frow and wedge. Somo farmers
will even borrow a maul (bcetle-Yankee
reader) and “gluts.” Now every farmer
should have at least, a handsaw, square, two
or three augurs, gimlets, a chop-axe, draw
ing knife and jack-plane, besides the more
common, wedges and frow, spade and shovel,
<fec. A little shed or “lean-to" with a
good lock and key, will servo as a place to
keep the tools, and in which to work in wet
weather. A bench or screw clamp will be
■found very necessary and can be rigged up
at small cost. A larger farmer or landlord
will find it desirable to have a good sized
cheap building for a work-shop; and a forge
or blacksmith tools in one corner, if he or
some permanent worker on his estate has
skill enough at the start to weld two pieces of
iron together. A simple outfit as here indi
cated, will absolutely pay for itself in one
year and tbe tools will still be on hand.
Having the tools it is not only necessary to
have a place to keep them, but it is equally
important to know how to keep them in
order that it will be easy and pleasant to
use them. The skill in using them will gen
erally be quickly acquired by practice—on
the principle that practice makes perfect.
Skill in sharpening tools comes not so read
ily by practice, but is more dependent on
the observance of certain rules that have
been found out by experience or deduced
from mechanical principles, and tbe use of
appliances for holding tools when grinding.
We reserve this for the next number. R.
Mustard mixed with molasses can be ap
plied to the most delicate skin without
causing a blister.