The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-06-19
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 lie 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 are bad and
getting wosse /; our farm buildings are
dilapidated our stock is lean and badly
cared for labor is unreliable;" 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 enumeration. There Is
much unseemly and unnecessary croak-
\ ing among us, as there always is every
| where; but the conditions we have
| indicated are sad facts with too many.
1 They are making no progress toward
| prosperity, but getting poorer and
1 poorer, year by year. This is the dark
side of the picture. and it is the only
side that many are able to get a glimpse
/ of at present, In some parts of the
| south there may be few indications OF
| any change for the better, and the
croaking which we deprecate is scarcely
to be wondered at, and we are slow to
blame those who are running down hill
for not seeing those who are ascending,
| HOI DtlietlhS III ps's7ioio " dcOCAo.
| THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THE PICTURE.
This we fear is too seldom looked at.
\ Some may doubt is existence, because
| thew do not see it. 1t is as clearly es-
tablished fact, however, as the reverse
1t shows, first, a slow but steady
4 progress in both the theory and the
practice of farming in the south /; sec
| ond, that the use of fertilizers, both
home made and commercial, lie 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 (and their number is increas-
ing) are making more per acre and
more per hand than they ever did be-
fore fifth, that an increasing number
of farmers are diversifying and plan
ming to diversity their crops sixth,
that that class called Formerly with
something like pity mixed with con-
Tempt, "smell farmers" are generally
more prosperous than they ever were
before, and are in fair way to become
large farmers in 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 SNAIL FARMERS.
Mr.. Daniel bennett, who has been
travelling in Louisiana and Mississippi,
reports through Our Home Journal
some cases illustrative of the pros
porous condition of the "small farm
ers or "pineland farmers" He says
"One small pineland farmer informed
me, that he always makes plenty OF
corn, pork and hay, and has made five
bales of Gotten, five hundred pounds
each, from four acres of pineland, by
the use of home made manure. He has
money to lend, and is not very hard
worker. 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 a
year, and he would have a surplus. A
farmer in the pinelands, in clearing
his land, put the brush and saplings in
windows, and cultivated between. The
| next yeae ne moved all the windows
that had not decayed and ploughed in
dark, rotten canes and decayed wood.
He made handsome property in few
years, cultivating pinelands. Another
says, ten acres of poor lands to a 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
potatoes, rice, sugar, molasses, milk, but
ter, fowls, eggs, etc., all produced on
his own farm, and he not man of
wealth. or of more than a fair amount
of intelligence. He is simply a man 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 vhrious states, re-
ports as follows: In the middle states
the maximum cost of wintering horses,
$48 per head, is IN New Jersey next in
order stands Delaware, $43; NewY
&37, and Pennsylvania, $50 Delaware
farmers, last year, received the highest
average price for hay, $50 per ton, and
those of New York the lowest, $13. 10.
New York received the maximum price
of corn, SO cents per bushel, and Della
ware the minimum, 70 cents. The price
of oats ranged from 50 cents in Delaware
to 60 in New Jersey. Averages of east
ern states were as follows: Maine, $37;
New Hampshire, $37; Vermont, S38
Massachusetts,, $45; Rhode Island, S48;
and Connecticut, $45. West of the
ing ranges from SO in Kansas to $28 in
Minnesota Iowa averaged s16; Mis-
souri,, S12, and Nebraska, $15 Farm
prices of hay vary from S.. So in Kansas
to $12.05 in Missouri. The cheaper
hay 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 80 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 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. Uulike the heron |
of the swamps and marshes of Florida, |
its neck is stretched to its full length |
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 il sent
through him like a dirk-knife, and he is
brought out as if on skewer. The
bird seldom misses its mark when it
does, as if Disguised with its blunder,
it spreads its wings. and with its long
legs stretched out behind, takes its
flight for another field. When the
blackbirds flock in large numbers,
picking up the scattering grain, the
heron will often stand mOtionless as a
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.