The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-07-14
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.
How He Learned to Farm.

George Geddes, gives the New York
Tribune some facts relative to how he
learned to farm. 1t will be noticed that
he had the advantage of large wealth:
This letter, and the helplessness of
its owner, brings to my mind the mem
ory of days forty-fve years ago, when I
left law Office, having spent nearly all
my days in schools, to manage nearly
1000 acres of land, that then came into
my hands. 1 had been born and raised
on a farm Gust where now ive) and
had spent my vacations and the summers
of my sixteenth and nineteenth years at
home, and had formed some ideas of
farming as practiced in those days. 1
had held a plow some, and assisted in
haying and harvesting, but of the prac-
tlcal management of large farm GER
tainly knew but little.
The home farm being let on shares to
a very good man for the place, I put my
self under his instruction, and from him
learned something of the use of such
tools as the scythe and the grain cradle,
and the next spring assumed the man
agement. 1 knew enough of the bust
ness before me not to attempt its cen
duct in connection with anything else,
and had some notion of my great ig-
noronce of the business TINT circum-
stances made it imperatively necessary
for me to follow for life.
There were three farmers, living some
miles apart, but neither of them very far
from me, who had each for himself made
handsome fortune in farming, and each
was a marked man among his neighbors,
and to some extent led them by example.
Though very successful, they were quite
unlike each other, and neither would
hox Ill, - Il i.
others. But they agreed in one thing
they were each ready to give me advice,
and, 1 thought, were pleased when I
asked them, one at a time, to talk over
my doings. Many time, when at a loss
as to what I had better do, have ridden
to one of these men expressly.to tell him
my troubles and get his advice as to the
best thing for me to do, and I think I
always had my way made clear by their
counsels.
Another source of information was
found in my hired men, and have never
had good man work for me year that
l have not received some good hints
from, in regard to the best time or way
OF doing work on the farm.
Usc of Earthworms.
The common earthworm, though apt
to be despised, is really a useful creature
In its way. Mr.. Knapp describes it as
the natural manurer Of the soil, consum-
ing on the surface the softer parts of
decayed, vegetable matters, and conveying
downward to the more woody fibers.
which there molder and fertilze. They
perforate the earth in all directions,
thus rendering it permeable by air and
water-both indispensable to vegetable
life. According to Mr.. Darwin's mode
OF expression, they give q kind of under
til!age to the land, performing the same
below ground that the spade does for the
garden, and the plow for arabic soil IL
Is, In consequence, chiefly Of the natural
operations of worms that fields which
have been overspread with lime, burnt
mari, or cinders, become in process of
time covered by finely divided soil fit
ted for the support of vegetation. This
result, though usually attributed by far
mers to the working down" of these
materials, Is really due to the action of
earthworms, as may be seen in innumer-
able casts of which the initial soil con-
sists: These are obviously produced by
the digestive proceedings of the worm,
which take into their intestinal canal a
large quantity of the soil in which they
feed and burrow, and then reject it it in
~@~o
manner, says Mr.. Darwin, ga field, man.
ured with mari, has been covered, in the
course of eighty years, with a bed of
earth averaging thirteen inches in thick
ness.
But few vegetables are in more gen
eral use for both winter and summer
than tomatoes. And while their cultiya
ton is very general, but few persons
understand how to grow and develop
them successfully. The vines are great
growers, and in rich loose soil all that is
necessary to raise and have them tumbled
In heaps, like "some deep tangled Wild
wood, Is to cultivate we'll and keep the
weeds down. These tangled, luTuriant.
topsy-turvy vines, while they NAV pro,
duce abundantly, never produce 80 GOOD
fruit, nor do they ripen it as it should
be. ItC is necessary, in order to have
good tomatoes and to have them early.,
to set the plants about four feet apart
and keep them well staked and tied ND.
A good stake can be made by cutting
small bushes down, leaving them about
hve feet long. with some of the limbs
on drive these stakes down near the
plants and train and tie up as the plant
grows. Keep the laterals well pinched
off and the fruit win be much earlier and
finer than if the vines are tumbled into
one undistinguishable mass. The young
fruit needs the sun, and any system of
pruning and training that will give it to
them is better than letting them fall
down. s~
The Potato Beetle.
The Colorado beetle has made it's ap-
pearance already in the East, and mil