The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-09-07
Red Oats.
D. wyaa Aiken in tie Rual o'rolntan for September.


d. Byaa Aiken in The Rural Cs,rolntap for September
We have so frequently written in these
pages about red oats, and have sent them
! to so many sections of the State and
{ South, that we Thought every farmer
a sowed them, and that if he did not, that
he at least had heard of their intrinsic
worth. But much to our surprise we are
in almost daily receipt of letters making
enquiry about this invaluable grain.
How much do you SOW to the acre
Il When do you sow? Why do you sow in
A cotton land? What becomes of the cot
4 ton stalks? These and hosts of similar
questions are asked nowadays. and we
will answer most of them 80 that there
an be no error either in the sowing or
reaping, and to be plain and explicit,
we will simply narrate, as we have fire..
4 uuently done heretofore, a. little expert
ment during the past season: o..
In 1875 one of our tenants planted q
twelve acre field. flour years old4 lin cot
ton, land d:good and strong, oak and hick-
ory. We, determined to put this field in
red oats, and hence advised the tenant TO
postpone as late as practicable the last
4 ploughing of his cotton. This was done,
and on the 10th August we gave him
i eighteen bushels of red oats, and advised
him, to run two sssweep'' burrows IN his
cotton, then SOW the oats at the rate iof
one and half bushels per acre, and
| c0ver1the grain with one; sometimes two,
! more; similar furrows. Taking his own
time about it,sshe consumed just two
weeks in laying by, that field of cotton;
! and we paid him two dollars for sowing
our oats in his cotton. The ploughing
! we did not pay for, because with his OWN
mule he was giving his own crop whatit
needed before it was laid by. 5.4.,i.;sa
A fine stand was secured, and the oats
grew off very rapidly. The winter being
warm, this crop would have made lux
uriant sheep pasture all the winter, but
| it was not. touched by stock except occa-
sionally when hunger would force O lot
Of the tenants COWS to mount the fence
and gorge themselves. This was done SO
frequently that at!times the crop seemed
literally ruinedanr -.
i But we had faith, for we never yet have
had q crop of red oats to 'come up miss
ing" at harvest time. About the middle
Of February these intrusions were put a
stop to..,c sssc!
The first week in, March the wife and
children of our tenant were paid twenty
five cents per acre to knock down the
cotton STALKS low enough not to interfere
with cradling.t ;a q:
| Early in June the twelve acres were
harvested by FIVE Graders, five binders,
two sh0ckers, one water carrier, at an
expense Of twenty-five dollars. The
work was we'll done, and was good
days work for the laborers, the oats be-
ling in places SO heavy that cradling was.
done to great disadvantage. Gould the
crop have, been harvested duwith a reaper,
however, we believe many more bushels
would have been saved. g il5i 20;
These oats were stocked in large shocks,
sometimes thirty bundles in shock, and
capped by simply laying one or two bum
dies across the top of the shock. a week
after being cut, owe began to haul them
lin, but the very next:day rain fell and.
continued to fall for five consecutive days.
Much apprehension was: felt abont the
grain crop, every one was predicting ruin,
because the grain would sprout in the
field. Our faith was not shakeng because.
we knew red oats had never yet disap-
pointed the farmer. :. j,
] In due time, after the rainy season
ended, we began to haul, hiring our ten:
ants, with their own teams, to haul those
oats from that field to our dwelling place,
a distance of six miles, paying one dollar
and q half for every two-horse load,
hauling two loads a day, and twenty doz-
en- bundles to the load. We hauled nine
teen loads, and though none of these oats
were intended to be- threshed, but to be
| cut up as needed and fed to animals off
the plantation, we have so frequently
threshed this grain and know SO well
what it viii yield, that we are warranted
in saying that every load would have
measured twenty bushels of shelled oats.
They are now housed snugly, and care
| fully packed away in a loft that expert
ence teaches us holds just enough oats
| to feed three horses for twelve months.
We have that many now feeding upon
them, and we are confident these oats
will feed them aud have some to spare
when the oat crop of 1877 is harvested.
| Now let us see what these oats cost us.
First, there is the seed, eighteen bushels,
worth last fall eighteen dollars. Then
| we paid for sowing two dollars. Then
for knocking down cotton stalks one
dollar and fifty cents. Then the harvest
ing cost twenty-five dollars. And finally
we paid twenty-eight dollars and fifty
cents to have them hauled TO our stable,
six miles off. Well, with our tribe of
little ones, we ourselves packed away
these oats, and ought to have been paid
for it, we will say, three dollars. Add to
this the wear and tear of the land, with a
fair interest upon the investment, say of
two dollars and fifty cents per acre, or
thirty dollars for the. twelve acres.
live knew of any other expense we
would add it, but we do not, and really
think we paid more literally all around
for our work than most of our neighbors
would have done. Could we have posi-
bly, spared the time we would have sowed
the field and paid no one else to do it..
Lack of time prevented our being with
the reapers, and hence we believe we
paid at least two dollars too much there.
Too many irons in the fire compelled us
to pay for the hauling, which might have
otherwise been done with our own team.
And the packing away was a frolic, no
money out, but simply valued at three
dollars.
But with all these high charges we be.
lieve we have housed three hundred and
eighty bushels Of beautiful oats, at an
aggregate cost of one hundred and five
dollars, or less than enty-eight cents
per bushel. Three bushels of these oats
are worth two bushels of corn. Can any
farmer in the South grow corn at forty
two cents per bushel?
This is the fourth crop Of oats we have
hauled six miles in the sheaf, and never
before has it cost US over twenty-five
cents a bushel, housed. We say then
earnestly to our readers, SOW red oats,