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22 THE SOUTHERN WORLD, NOVEMBER 15, 1882. Written apeclelly for the Southern World.] THE PHENOMENA OF THE CLOUDS. The stratus cloud Is most commonly ob served at night, aud in the fall and winter seasons of the year. It usually overspreads the heavens with a dull leaden cast for dnys and even for weeks at a time. Few, if any, have escaped the Indefinable feelings of de pression it sometimes produces in the feel ings. It hangs lowest of all clouds in the air; for when it rises to higher altitudes its den sity is lost, and if it does not break up into cumuli it vanishes in the various cirri forms already described. In warm weather it fre quently is seen from sunset to sunrise, pro duced by the spreading out and descent of the cumulus clouds from higher elevations, when these are not dissipated and do not entirely vanish before sundown. In the morning it is the fog cloud that envelopes us with its dry mist, or that is often seen rising from low places, rivers, etc., moving upward and spreading out in every direc tion, either rolling up into the cumuli, or disappearing in the sunshine, followed by a calm, clear sky. In summer the stratus gives us most of our settled rains, and in winter our prolonged snow storms. The tendency of the stratus to break up into tlie cumulus or to roil up into the folds or blocks of the nimbus, or of the latter to form the stratus, often produces local show ers, or very heavy rains. This cloud is seen at times moving with great velocity above while at other times it nppears to be perfectly still, and these features occur re gardless of the state of the air below. But it is the only cloud that gives us a heavy con. tinued wind of great velocity, and often with such force as to be very destructive to life and property. It is usually the great storm cloud, sweeping the country from one end to the other beneath it as it rushes forward in its flight onward. In the rapidity of its movements not unfrequently does it present the appearances of being torn or ripped into shreds; through the rents or openings the sun's glare pours of a day alternating sun shine and shadow, or in the night the flick ering pale light of the stars or moon peer out ever and anon upon the earth’s solemn scenery, haunted as it were, by the weird spectres of its mist forms of the air. The cumulus, cirrus and stratus clouds arc primary divisions. The first may always be known in whatever shape by its heaped or piled up appearance; the second is distin guished by its thin,,haze, or thread-like char, actor; and the third is easily made out by its horizontal extension in all directions of varied thickness and density. These are called primary clouds because there is considerable uniformity In their appearance. They are not primary because they form immediately from the rising va pors of the earth. This they may do, but as I have stated either of these clouds may be formed from the other or the secondary formations; and, therefore, I think a better division would be into simple and mixed clouds. The cumulus, cirrus and stratus might be regarded for the reasons given as belonging to the simple division of clouds, or clouds of one form. The force of tnis will be seen in the second division or clouds of two or more forms and which are mixed in their character. In this connection we have the nimbus, or the cumulo-cirro-stratus. The formation of this cloud out of the cumulus I have de scribed. The cirro-cumulus is a collection of white, small clouds considerably elevated. They are described as flocks' of sheep at rest, and resemble bushy tufts clad in snow. These are often witnessed just before sunset of a pleasant afternoon and give a varied beauty to the sky. They are said to indicate hot weather. When very closo, dense and round aro supposed to presage a storm. The cirro-stratus lay in long strips with undu lated edges When these are plentiful, the sky is called “ a muckerel sky ” on account of the resemblance of these barred clouds to shoals of fish, or the mackerel's back. Like the cirro-cumulus it presages rain, snow or storms; and when its tendency is to spread out into a thin sheet sometimes exhibits in a remarkable manner the solar aud lunar halos, paraselenes and parhclios. The cu- mulo-stratus is a bank cloud with a flat baso, with overhanging masses of fleecy, bulky knobs or protuberances. It has a leaden hue at night and usually stirs the air. It exhib its a tendency of the cumulus to form into the stratus in dry weather. But if the at mosphere is moist, it rapidly extends into the stratus. It not unfrequently is attended by sudden atmospheric changes, and for this reason is considered an intermediate between lair and rough weather. It imparts grandeur to mountain scenery at sunset. The cumulo-stratus and nimbus are the real thunderers of the sky, and these also are the local storm clouds. Whenever electrical excitement is witnessed preceding or follow ing a general rain or snow, it will always be observed that the clouds are either in the form of the cumulo-stratus or nimbus, or will be assuming these forms during such phenomena. There Is always a tendency of vapors to condense or roll up into a more compact form when thunder and lightning ensue. In overspreading mountains the cumulo- stratus presents some of the finest displays of electrical demonstrations, which, often during night-time render the scenery arti ficially grand. Frequently in the summer when the heavens are clear, except on the distant horizon, one of these huge forms, as if lost in its wanderings about thehill-tops or valleys, will sluggishly move over head, and astonish a reposing neighborhood by the commotion of its vivid flashes of fire, loud peals of fhunder and the roar of its warring elements, and there is usually a sense of re lief when it passes out of range; for seldom do they come without dreadful aspect and seldom do they depart without leaving some mark of tiieir dangerous character behind them. They are the parents of spot storms, or local cyclones and when several of them unite their forces, increasing in darkness, extent, irregularity and density, thus form ing the nimbus proper, they are usually very destructive. Those pendent shaggy or fringe clouds, be neath other clouds, are scuds, and the small dense watery looking clouds usually preced ing a more extensive range of clouds are called water bearers or pickets. Perhaps the reader can get an idea of the various kinds of clouds and their formation from what has been said. All these varie ties may be seen in a day, and sometimes there is such a commingling of the different forms as to come under none of the descrip tions given. This country is free-er of clouds than Great Britain. The winter or early spring is the season of most clouds in the United States. No one can have failed to have observed that the summer and autumn nights are usually clearest of clouds. The cumuli appearabont midday, and the months of May and June are said to be the seuson'of fewest clouds. This may be so, but I am inclined to doubt it. Geo. R. Catiibr. Ashvilie, Ala. Hweet Potato Vulture. Editor Southern World; In the necessities for increased variety and cheap food-products for the rapidly multi plying millions of inhabitants pressing upon the soil of this country, an effort is being made to utilize one of the easiest made, surest grown crops that can be planted in an immense breadth of country stretching from the Atlantic to the prairies of the West. When we come to estimato the possibili ties of production in this cheap food-product over so wide an.area, the question of supply is at once admitted. Transportation and the preservation of the article are the only diffi culties that are presented to the producer. The question of markets, of rapid and cheap transportation at such periods as the article is sought for consnmption, the exhibition of it in good sound condition are the only ob stacles to profit. At one time it was hoped that dessication or the evaporating process might enter into a large profitable distribution of so weighty, cumbersome a product to foreign demand. Recently the Southern railroads have been attracted to this heavy freightage and are offering increased inducements to growers to avail themselves of the profits of a crop, hitherto considered a mere appendage to a farm support. Your writer has for many years given at tention to the cheapest mode of tillage, the proper food, the best varieties, and the best, surest way to keep here perfectly during winter months so delicate a vegetable. I have “boxed the compass" as it were with every plan suggested to keep sweet potatoes from harvest time to harvest again. The difficulty is not so great in making as in keeping them sound and edible. As to varieties best to ship. There are early and later varieties planted in our State of Georgia. I have planted not less than a dozen varieties myself, and find that early kinds planted in the warmsandy soils on the sea-board counties from a time “the memory of man runneth not to the contrary" need not be eschewed for Jersey sweets, Jersey Reds, Virginia Nansemond or Essex county potatoes where the character of soil here seems so admirably adapted to this crop. A recent suggestion for the earliest to be found in Jersey and most palatable is not borne out in my experience. Thereisannu- ally marketed in Savannah by the Bulloch and Effingham farmers, the fellows (alias) (Cracker) who ride their cart shafts still to market as in the days of “King George III.” a small red potato—that is ripe to dig by first of July. This I have thought was the identical variety changed by soil and climate to Jersey reds. With' this soon comes the white and yellow yams,the Spanish varieties of pumpkin and white Spanish being still later. No one lias ever seen the perfection of this esculent, unless he has eaten it a day after being taken from the clay Dutch-ovens of some farmer who prepares the Spanish pumpkin variety for market, presenting it thoroughly done, with an exudation of sac charine juice around it, as if cooked in su gar. But we need not dispute about tastes. “De gustibus nil disputandem.” As in the grape for good wine, it requires just so many days of sun heat, under favor able circumstances, to mature a good wine grape, or sweet potato, with sugaT enough for its alcohol. The Germans on the upper Rhine make Rhine (sour) wine, but they know the excellence of Spanish and South France perfect wines. They will be glad to make their products pay for these other kinds. The potato revels in a light, rich soil, with manures containing a good per cent, of pot ash and vegetable mould. Thus about a a dung-bill or old sites of settlements are grown the finest specimens. The pine lands of South Georgia produce as fine as the world can exhibit if enriched by the tread ing and manures of stock. The earlier varieties are not the best keep ers, nor do they sweeten and improve by parting with excess of water by evaporation. The later maturing sorts are preferable as to late shipping. They lose much in weight, become solid and are justly worth more as food. Every season, therefore, from harvest time ought to exhibit good, edible sweet potatoes, until even mid-summer. The mode of propagation and seeding must vary somewhat, with the variety and the climate. The Spanish variety are best grown here by planting the cut potato, (as the Irish potato is managed). Other sorts are best propagated by the draws or plantings and afterwards by vines. The yam varieties from the vines or draws keep best, and ap pear healthier and give best results. If grown from the potato, the yams are more liable to rot. This is the experience of those who grow extensively for market. As to shipping qualities, the late maturing varieties mav not pay best, but will com mand in February and March, and during spring months the highest prices in North ern markets. I have seen account sales of the “pumpkin yam" at $5.00 and $7.00 per barrel in Now York in spring, with pressing enquiries for further consignments. This is “par excellence" the best table potato grown, Jersey sweets not excepted. In this latitude this crop is best kept in the same covering in which it matures, land, dry sand. We need have to keep the potato cool and dry ; never to reach a,tem perature over 00° nor lower than 45° if pos sible. My plan is to dig after first frost, or earlier if ripe. Put them in hillocks or piles 25 to 30 bushels on dry sand on the ground in a ventilated log or framed house. There let them remain a month or longer (if air is not too cool) to undergo evaporation or the sweating process. If the weather is cool, a light covering of dry hay (to be removed again). When this process of drying off is over cover all well with dry sand. They are then safe and convenient to handle. Bank ing fails herein a warm, wet winter or a very cold winter. In a more Northern clime my plan might not answer. Here it is per fect preservation until mid-summer. Whilst they would have to be kept warm in cellars and under earth banks North, here they would not keep two weeks in my cellar dry and ventilated. There are many details I might mention as to preparation of soil, bedding for draws, cultivation, etc. These vary in different latitudes und in different soils. But let us not go out of Georgia for seed potatoes. We are entitled to this by tradition and inherit ance. We might go to India or Egypt for upland cotton, seed, but let the Georgia “cracker” have his sweet potato undisturbed in a dozen differentsorts,colors,sizes, tastes, that will satisfy any reasonable improved taste. He has parted with his bacon and bread too liberally for his progeny’s comfort* He parts freely with his cotton; let him keep this boon, and independence smiles when home-made bacon, bread, coliards and pota toes grace the table of Georgia's yeomanry. Eemdon, Go. W. B. Jones. BROOK COBJf. Mode of Preparing the Ground, Plant ing, Cultivating and Harvesting. The ground should be thoroughly broken with a two-horse turning-plow in the fall season so as tp secure all the benefits of the winter frosts and left in that state until the month of April, when it should be again plowed and thoroughly pulverized. As soon as danger of frost is over the land can be laid off in rows (see below,) with a scooter plow, thus giving the land another working and making it in good condition for receiv ing the seed, which can be planted by any common seed drill at the rate of about three pints to the acre. Now, as to the cultivation which is necessary, the more work it rej ceives the faster it will grow, and, conse quently, the sooner will be off the ground and ready for market. When the plants reach the height of say four or five inches, it should have a good plowing and immediately after the hoes should be put in to chop it out, leaving some two or three inches for a hill two to two and a half feet apart without disturbing. In.two or three weeks it should again receive a good, close plowing, and final hoeing, when the hills left at the first hoeing should be cleaned out to one or two stalks at the most, which would leave the stalks every eight inches or thereabouts. At the last plowing, which should be in two or three weeks, according to the judgment of the farmer, it should then be plowed, the dirt being thrown well up to the plant. A three-hoed cultivator has been found very acceptable by the writer in taking care of the crop. The next thing to be considered is the mode of saving or harvesting the crop, and any carelessness or mismanagement at thl- point is very liable to take away all the profit of the foregoing aultivation. The first point with the manufacturer is color. It matters not how good a growth the crop may be if it is red from too long standing in the field, or dark from mould or wet, its value is damaged. It should be saved while green and cured with a view to preserving it in that color. Just as soon as the milk in the seed thick ens and becomes dough or starchy, cut it, leaving six inches of the stalk. It should be gathered the same day as cut and thresh ed, as the weight of the seed will soon heat and stain the brush if allowed to lay in piles any length of time. It should then be placed on racks or scaffolds, not over four inches thick in the layers, with a space of aboutsix or eight inches between layers, un der a shed or shelter. It should then be shaken up in the layers once or twice in two or three days, accord ing to the weather, so as to insure a free pas sage of air, when in two weeks of fair weath er it Is then fit and ready to be baled up and marketed. Land that will make a bale of cotton to two acres will produce 1,000pounds of broom corn, and so on up or down according to the quality of the land. The price varies from three cents per pound to six and seven and also as to the quality of brush. The market at this writing is at from fifty to one hund red and fifty dollars per ton. A. S. LENFE8TY, of Falvey & Lenfesty, Manufacturers of Brooms, Atlanta, Qa. Concentrated va. Diffusive Farming, Editor Southern World.—In your issue of Oct. 16th there appeared an address deliv ered to the farmers of Georgia at the meeting of the State Agricultural Society on “Inten sive farming.” This is the best thing that has appeared in the agricultural press of the country for a long time, and should be issued in pamphlet form so that every farm er in the Southern State scould have a copy. The address is so replete with common sense and practical suggestions, and shows such astonishing results in the recuperative and renovating power of home made fertilizers applied to lands literally worn out by ignorant farming, that we stand amazed when we think of the millions of dollars annually squandered by Southern farmers for commercial fertilizers. The point to be noted particularly in the address is the “intensive” part, which directs espec ial attention to the importance of concen trated effort on a limited number of acres. How many farmers spoil all their efforts and labor by diffusive instead of intensive farming? in other words, how many farmers endeavor to cultivate too much land ? In this address on intensive farming, we find the entire secret of the success of the farmer lies In operating only such a number of acres as he can thoroughly cultivate and manure.