Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1878-06-13
Oats and Oatmeal,

Perhaps the Stato of South Carolina
nevor harvested suOh crop of oats as sho
will this year. After long experience in
oat sowing, and continued effort to procure
q sort of oat that would yield good crop,
and DC proof against rGat or blast, our
farmers seem to have at last discovered the
article IN tho Valuable rcd oat, now SO OK
tcnsvcly sown throughout the State. What
o ooon that little grain has been to the
farming interest of tho State, few mon eau
conceive who havo not watched its intro
duction and general cultivation with sort
OF experimental interest.
Its presence as staple crop suggests
some moral reflections 1t has como in our
poverty like special providence. TO de-
pend upon growing corn to feed tho boasts
of bnrthcn, and SO much of tho human raco
as sojourn on South Carolina soil, would
entail upon our farmers au endless poverty,
and perhaps want and starvation to plough
animals. But just in tho nick of time
comes tho red oats to save us from industrial
failure, and to secure for us political indie
pendencc; for we believe tho truthfulness
of the assertion we hoard made not long
since, by distinguished lawyer Of the back
country, that cred oats whipped tho fight
in 1876" For, said no, whom tho red
shirt, at tho proper signal, unhitchod his
plough traces, mounted hia stccd and threw
the half-bushci sack Of red oats behind him,
hc meant business, and business with him
meant political victory. Aud how many
hundreds, yea thousands, Of such heroes
did wo sec in 1876? Lot thcir cpitaphs be
engraved upon the grateful memories of a
Disseminated people.
We heard another man say, (and hc was
q practical farmer, and successful one
too,) that in South Carolina VIC can raise
oats at ten cents per bushcl. While we
think this somewhat oxtravagant, We are
prepared to belicyo any man in South
Carolina can grow bushel Of oats almost
as cheap'y as no con peck of corn, and
we again nssert, as wo have often asserted
before, that thrco busncls of oats arc equal
to Ten bushels Of corn in maintaining plough
animals. Then why it is that wo do not
grow oats to export from South Carolina no
ono can tell, except that tho farmers have
not yet become wcancd OF from their in
heritcd farm policies.
But wo said that wo aro growing this
year an immense crop of oats, Then tho
next question is, what will wo do with
them when harvested and threshcd? Will
VIC glut the market, and almost giyo them
away, ns VIC havo done occasionally horcto-
fore? Wo hopo not If properly fed to
any and all kinds Of animals they can be
mado to- pay bcttor than by selling thom
upon crowded market.
A fine market might DO opened even for
homo consumption, if our millcrs would in.
trcduce tho proper machinery for grinding
them. Our farmers, and the negroes in
the country, would laugh at man who
would advise them to eat their own oats,
and yet there is nothing moro wholesome;
and to day there arc mon in South Carolina
who cat, asa portion OF thoir daily food,
oatmeal porridge, but send all tho way to
Baltimore and New York to get the oat-,
meal out of which it is mado. 1'hcre can
be little doubt but that if boiled outmcal
wero to become prevailing breakfast md
supper dish, wo would require moro milk,
and this would require moro cattle, and
moro cattle means moro fresh meat, and
moro fresh meat means less bacon, and less
bacon means better general health, and
better health means moro happiness. So
just SEQ what might follow eating oatmeal.
Wo clip tho following from Northorn
oxohaugo:
"For tho past forty years, says an English
maD, have mado my breakfast off pint OF
oatmeal porridgo, with very raro exceptions,
and nothing olso, fasting for four hours
aftcrward. If, howovor, l tako any other
form of broak fast. find m vsolf vorv hunor.u