The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-06-18
FACTS FROM ALL SOURCES.
THE DARK SIDE OF THE PICTURE.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE PICTURE.
The prospect is not very cheering
| just now, it must be confessed. The
| last cotton crop Is sold and has not
| brought much money-or rather, it has
not put much money into the pockets of
| the planters. Our fences ere bad and
getting worse our farm buildings are
| dilapidated our stock is lean and badly
cared for labor ie uhreliable;" debt
and liens hang heavily over US our
lands need manures, but we have no
| money to buy them-but we need not
| go on with the qualification. There is
| much Gnseemly and unnecessary croak-
! ing among us, as there always is every
where; but the conditions sc have
indicated are aa1 fa6ts with too many.
| They ale making no progress toward
| prosperity, but getting poorer and
poorer, year by year. This is the dark
side of the picture, and = is the only
side that E1ahy are able to get glimpse
| OF at present. In some parts of the
south there may be few indications of
any change for the better, ana the
oroakipE witch we deprecate is scarcely
to De wondered at, and we are slow to
| blame those who are running down hill
and cot believing it possible to ascend.
TIE BRIGHT SIDE OF THE PICTURE.
This we fear is too seldom looked at.
| Some may doubt is. existencs, beCause
| thew do pct see il. 1t is as clearly es-
t@.biished a fact, however, as the reverse.
It shows, first, a slow but steady
progress in both the theory and the
practice of farming in the south sec
end, that the rso Of Fertilizers, both
hofae Ina5e and commercial, is becom-
ing better understood and, as a conse-
quence better results are secured by
their application third, that large and
increasing number Of farmers are i'm
proving instead of deterierating their
lands, year by year fourth, that good
farmers land their number is increas-
ing) are making more per acre and
| more per hand than they ever did be-
fore fifth. that en- Increasing number
of farf1ors are diversifying and plan
ming TO diversity their crops sixth,
something like pity mixed with con-
Tempt, "small farmers, are generally
/ more prosperous than they ever were
before, and are in fair way TO become
large farmers in a legitimate manner,
through a strong healthy growth in
prosperity and wealth. They put their
own hands to the pillow, as occasion
requires,
PROSPERITY OF THE SMALL FARMERS.
Mr.. Daniel bennett, who has been
travelling in Louisiana and Mississippi,
reports through. Our Homo Journal
some c3seh illustrative of the pros
porous condition of the {" small farm
- : II
Gone small pineland farmer informed
me, that, he always makes plenty of
corr, pork and hay, and has made five
bales of cotton, five hundred pounds
each, from four acres of pineland, By
the use of home made manure. I'd has
money to lend ard IS not very hard
wOtk6e, another small farmer made
thirty five bushels of corn from three
quarters of an acre of manfred land.
He said three acres of such land would
give him an ample supply of corn for
year, and he would have 2 SURPLUS. A
farmer IL tire pinelands, in clearing
his land, put the brush and Baplings in
windows, and cultivated between. The
next year he moved all the windows
that had not decayed and plougbed in
dark, rotten canes and d5cayed wood.
He made handsome property in few
years, cultivating pinelands. Another
says, ten acres of poor lands to hand,
with plenty of leaves, trash, and home
made fertilizers ploughed in, will pro,
duce more corn and cotton than forty
acres as they usually manage these
lands. One farmer in the poorest part
of the pinelands has this year the
greatest abundance of pork, corn, sweet
rot rIn
ter, fowls, eggs, ETC., all produced on
his own farm, and he not a man of
wealth. or OF more than a fair amount
of intelligence. He is simply than Of
good common sense, and farmer"
COST OF RAISING HORSES.
The agricultural department having
made inquiries as to the cost of raising
horses in each OF the various states, re
ports as follows: In the middle states |
the maximum cost of wintering horses, !
S4S per head, is IN New Jersey next in |
order stands Delaware, $43 New York, |
S37, and Pennsylvania, S36 Delaware |
farmers, last year, received the highest |
average price for hay, $50 per ton, and |
those of New York the lowest, S13.1 |
New York received the maximum price |
of corn, SO cents per bushel, and Della
ware the minimum, 20 cents. The price |
of oats ranged from 50 cents in Delaware
to go in New Jersey. Averages of east
ern states were as follows: Maine, S37; |
New Hampshire, $37; Vermont, S38;
Massachusetts,, $45 Rhode Island, S4S;
and Connecticut, S45. West of the |
Mississippi the average cost of winter
ing ranges from SO in Kansas to 1913 in
Minnesota; Iowa averaged SIG; Mis-
souri,, SIP, and Nebraska, S13 Farm
prices of hay vary from 1886 in Kansas
to S12.05 in Missouri. The cheaper
bay of Kansas and Nebraska is mostly
made from the Wild grasses of the
prairie. Corn ranges from 43 cents per
bushel in Iowa to 81 in Kansas, and
oats from SO cents per busheI in Iowa
to So cents in Kansas.
THE CALIFORNIA HERON.
The blue crane or heron of Califor-
mia, is one of the most useful of the
feathered tribe. In a field of alfalfa,
where the mounds thrown up by the
gophers are the thickest, may be seen
the long legged crane, with its sharp,
yellow bill, standing guard over some
fresh earth, in course of distribution by
the greatest pest, next to the squirrel,
known to the farmers. Unlike the heron
of the swamps and marshes of Florida,
its neck is stretched to it's full length
while watching its prey. It is generally
found standing alone in the field, as if
it had deserted its kind, and it's mission
was to act the solitary sentinel of the
meadow. Its bill is sharp, and as the
gopher with his feet and head pushing
the soil comes to the surface, it is sent
through him like dirk-knife, and he is
brought out as if on a skewer. The .
bird seldom misses its mark when it
does, as if disguised with its bIuuder,
it spreads its wings, and with it's long
legs stretched out behind, takes its
flight for another field. When the
flock in large numbers,
picking up the scattering grain, the
heron will often stand motionless as q
stick till the birds gather around within
reach, when it will send its sharp bill
through one in an instant, and make as
delicate meal as a hunter could wish.
SHEEP AND CATTLE IN AUSTRALIA.
A correspondent, writing to The Ecole
Agricole, from Melbourne, says that fat
sheep and cattle we're very plentiful in