The Fairfield herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1849-1876, 1871-11-22

| iS"' hEhtiHB "HN IL i'IcIC WINS IuuCt
marching to DO done wore generally
not disappointed in our expectations
Largo confagrations are looked uror
as infallible causee of rain. | have
never witnessed sach torrents of water
as dcluged tho country immediately
after the burning Of Columbia BY the
crobcl General Wade Hampton, u fact
that | was not aware Of till rcccstly
read Sherman and his campaigns"
These facts combined must provo
TO all unbiased mind that the thing
after all is not 50 impossible. And
certainly no more important discovery
could enlist the patronage of the
general government or engage tho
energies of tho scientific citizen.
Any farmer who has studied the
weather during tho past summer has
been impressod with three unu.u,l pho.
nomona besides scarcity of rain. First.
An unusually 'longe proportion of
cloudy weather;--densc watcrylooking
clouds obscuring tho sky for weeks
Mt time, and yot not rain enough to
wet handkerchief. Second, An al
most ontirc absence of lightning and
! thunder. Third. The scarcity of
heavy dues. The absence Of dews
attributable moro to the influence Of
the cloudy night, than to want of
moisturcs in the atmosphere.
Wo then have the absence Of light
ming aud thundvr ~, which to ac-
count for tho deficiency Of rain.
Which is to say that there waa want
ing either that electrical condition of
the clouds required for the condonsa-
tion Of the vapor or tho concussion
Of the lightning necessary to shake
out the water. If it were the former,
electricity might have bcep| supplied
by wires from tho earth, taken up
in balloons. 1fthe latter, barrel
ofnitro glycerino or gunpowdor car
ried up by the samo means and explo-
dcd by fuses or otherwise at the mo-
ment of entering the clouds would, it
seems to me have produced concusson
enough to have shaken on" all tho wa
ter in that ncighborhood.
Whether have accounted for the
cause of drought, or whether nitro -gly-
eerinc is to be preferred to deep pillow.
ing as remedy, you are Mt liborty to
Judge for yourselves. One thing l am
sure Of. Tho evil effects of it are upon
us in full force and must be met.
The past season has added effect to
that common place old saying that
| we have heard from our boyhood,
that the earliest corn is always the
heaviest, and has convinced nc that
with proper diligence at planting time
and with sscd maturing earlier, We
can raise enough for all purposes even
with the usual drought. Had we
plant cd seed that would have matur-
cd three weeks earlier even this year,
there is no doubt but that the State
would have made 100000 bushels
that must now be imported and paid
for from the proceeds Of a soanty cot
ton crop. =
dare say fow of you are aware of
tho Immense amour Is Of corn impor-
ted even Of ordinary years. I lad o.
casion to hunt up the statistics Of my
own District for the year ending 18th
July 1870 and was startled to find
that we failed to make our bread by
l34,544 bushels of corn and by 10000
sacks flour. Whilst it required lO34
hhds. bacon to grease tho throats Of
our hungry negroes and 1881 bales,
of North Carolina broom straw to keep
alive tho miserable skeletons improp-.
'erly classcd as horses and mules. All
this after we had purchased $63,3oO
worth Of commercial lnanures with
which to enrich our lands. Fairfield
is considered one of the good farming
Districts Of tho State. and | mi ght
argue that what IS true of her is true
Of tho whole, with the exception of q
very few. But will compute that
tho 20 Districts only import half as
much. (There were 20 formerly,
I'm not posted in the modern geography y
of the State). We will then have
tho statement 20 Counties County
as applicable to DR.. SCOTS domain .
Far as Districts, "poace and plenty
chcered tho laboring swain, tw enty n n
Counties thep, importing 67272 bush.
els Of corn will give us l,950,888,
bushels for tho State. An amour,
that can easily be raised at Homo b5
planting less cotton, whilst the in.
crease Of price consequent upon the
diminished area in cotton would ol
itsclf pay even if it was not assigned
to corn.
[ will hero bring to your notice ar
experiment. with corn which intend
to try next year, and which has al
ready served mo most advantage
Corn was selling at S20 and the ne
groes had stolen the larger half Of ;
miserable little scrop of lnubbins that
had made its way into the worlG
despite the impcdimcnts of bad sea
sons and worse cultivation and forcscc
ing the contingency Of having to buy
corn with little money to spare, wrote