davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26
Negroes as Gardeners.

We lived thirteen years in the South,
engaged mostly in market gardening, and
from what we saw of the colored race there
we long ago made up our mind that, with
the same education and the same chance,
they are the equals of white men in every
respect. The following account by Peter
Henderson, the well.known New York gar
dener and scotsman, of the doings of
firm of negro gardeners in South Carolina,
tends to confirm our opinion, and to show,
also, that the chance of honest, industrious
black men to prosper is by no means so
limited in that state as many are made to
think by the political writers, who have
other interests than those of truth to pro-
mote:
"In visit to Charleston, S. c., last
February, called on firm of market
gardeners, the Messrs. Noisette, who had
long been customers of ours for seeds and
plants, never dreaming for moment from
their intelligent manner of doing business
but what they were white men. l was
surprised to find, on asking for them, that
the firm was represented by two modest
looking colored men of middle age, who,
from beginning with eleven acres in
1864 had, in 1883, got to be owners of
seventy-five acres of valuable land, right
in the suburbs of Charleston, every acre
of which was worked in vegetable and
fruit crops in the most thorough manner.
Hardly a weed was to be seen, and nearly
oh thn foot In
fertility-and no wonder, for they use sixty
tons of stable manure and onefourth of a
ton of guano per acre. They had the
biggest and best manure heap I ever saw
in any market garden, having early learned
the Importance of that factor to success.
They employ an average of seventy.five
hands, or about one to each acre, which is
about the same as is required at the
North, though the wages psid-ffty cents
per day for women and 81 for mems
little more than half that paid North, and
when it is known that their early products
now sell for three times as much in
New York or Philadelphia as the home
grown vegetables and fruit, it can we'll be
understood how profitable the business
must be. did not ask Messrs. Noisette
what their profits on their seventy-ive
acres were, but / have little doubt they
would not be less than $4,000 per year,
and may be $50, 900, for, when cabbage sells
for twenty-five cents and caulifower for
seventy.fve cents per head, and when we
know that ten thousand plants are planted
on an acre, it is easily seen that market
gardening must pay in the South. Of
course every acre would not be so profita-
BILE, and occasionally crop, from insects
or other causes, may be entirely lost +; but,
over all, there is no question that the
business, conducted in the mastery man.
ner in which it was done by these two col
ored men, must be immensely profitable u
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

ton, does quite as we'll as Bradley's XII.
We are constantly receiving information
of this kind from our correspondents,
which does not surprise us at all, because
we have been making our own fertilizer
for dozen years, and know that there is
no need of paying as much as is charged
by the dealers for this class of goods.
OF course it costs something to put
these various materials together, to barrel
them up and ship them, to advertise
them, and pay agents to sell them through
the country. AS long as the materials
were not easily attainable by everybody,
and as long as nobody, or but few, UNDER
stood their nature, and how to combine
them, the dealers had it all their own way.
Our plan of spreading the facts before the
farmers, showing them where and for how
much they can buy materials containing
phosphoric acid, potash and combined
nitrogen, and how to mix and apply them,
is Just what is needed to bring down the
price of the manufactured article. The
more the farmers know the less easily
they can be humbugged," either in the
composition, or the price, of what they
buy. There is no need of any more makers.
The materials are cheap and accessible,
and will become even more 80 as the popu-
lar demand for them increases. just as soon
as the makers and dealers find that any
considerable number of farmers are buy
ing and mixing their own materials, the
prices will come down, until the farmers,
by buying for cash and by the carload,
demanding guaranteed composition, and
having the goods tested at government
stations, will get their fertilizers better
than they are now, and as low as their
English brethren get theirs.
What we are trying to do in this matter
spreading the facts before the farmers
is Just what, aud only what must be done,
to cause reduction in prices, so that Mr..
Ranslow can get his Bradley's phos-
phate at 1914 instead of $44 per ton. We
expect that he will yet see that time, an d,
old as we are, we expect to see it too. If
it were not that most of the agricultural
papers are afraid to tell the truth about
these matters, for fear they will lose the
advertising patronage of the fertilizer.
makers, the time of this reduction would
be greatly fastened.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

have spent more or less time in nearly
every section, including eleven years in
California and seven in the South. I'M
doubleday trees will grow more rapidly,
and produce earlier and more abundantly,
on the best lands of the Pacific coast, but
insects are getting to be more trouble
some there, the quality of fruit is not
near as good, and the market does not
begin to compare with ours. have let
bushels of the finest peaches rot on the
ground, year after year, because 1 could
not give them away, and grapes at q cent
q pound we're a drug. Not much profit
in that. Every section, of course, has its
peculiar advantages and disadvantages.
In the West, generally, fruit trees are
shortlived and markets poor. At the
South, generally, fruit decays before it is
even ripe, aud markets are distant and
transportation high. Here, in Vermont,
we can raise betterAavored and better
keeping fruit than it is possible to grow
anywhere South or West, and we have,
beside, the immense advantage of near
and abundant market. / am entirely
satisfied that the fruitgrower can get as
good return for his capital and labor
right here as he can anywhere in the
United States. Why, then, do we not
take more interest in the matter Farm
ers complain of the competition of the
West-here is a field in which we can
defy competition. They say their lands
are poor-they are rich enough to produce
the finest fruit. Oleomargarine, bonanza
farms and factories, cut down the profits
of the dairy and the field-but there are no
bogus apples and no corporations to corner
currants. l think the reason that Vermont
does not stand foremost in fruit produc-
ton, is simply the want of a certain west
ern quality in its people-call it dash, or
enterprise, or what you will. Certainly
we lack the quickness to perceive, and
readiness to grasp, opportunity that char
acterizes the quick.witted westerner. Now,
can't we get together and wake ourselves
up little I know of no better way
than by means of an association devoted
to horticulture. The benefits to be de-
rived from such an association are too
numerous, and almost too obvious, to men.
ton. We need it, we ought to have it,
and let us have it. E. e. HUNT.
Brooksville, VT, March 10, 1884.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26
Beginning to Come Down.

One of our Vermont correspondents
says that he has succeeded in getting
a carload of Bradley's superphosphate
(brand not mentioned) at $40 per ton,
delivered at a station in the central part
of the state. He says: "Your noticing
my wants in the paper made it known to
agents that we were after carload of
phosphate. Bowker's agent offered me
the agency for the Hill and Drill, to be
delivered at 1856. was led to think, by
the analysis of Professor Sabin of Bur
lington, given by DR.. Cutting in his Re.
port, pages 256 and 257, that there was very
little difference between any of the stand
ard brands. The Hill and Drill was
given at $35.O1, and Bradley's XII at
S35.17. You will not wonder that was
a little surprised at seeing Bowker's
Hill and Drill rated at 800 by the Con.
necticut Experiment Station. Now what
1 want to know is, what is Bradley's
worth, and am / getting cheated in the
Hill and Drill ?" We are led to believe
that the makers have different formulas
for different states. 1t is quite likely that
having to compete here with Bradley's
XL, Mr.. Bowker puts up his Hill and
Drill for Vermont of quality better than
he sends to Connecticut. We cannot "go
behind the returns" and merely give the
analyses as they are given in the report.
But we have no doubt about their being
correct, as we presume Professor Sabin's
were. also.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

REPLY.-Grapes succeed very well in
heavy soils, if we'll drained, but grape
roots cannot live in contact with stagnant
water, nor will the fruit mature if the
land is 80 moist as to be cold. But we'll
drained clay loan that has been well
pulverized eighteen inches deep, and
mixed with stable manure, ground bone
and ashes, will produce the finest grapes.
In our climate grapevine should be set
on the south or southwest side of build
ing, or of tight fence seven or eight feet
high. The branches should be tied, at in
tervals of foot or so, to the horizontal
bars of trellis, the bars to be foot apart,
one above the other to near the top of
the fence or the building. The side
branches of the new growth should be
pinched off after five or six leaves have
formed, and this should be repeated fire.
quently through the growing season. In
the fall, after the leaves are off, the vine
should be thoroughly pruned, leaving one
good branch of the new wood for each bar
of the trellis, cutting back all the rest as
far as possible, so that the new main
shoots of the next years growth shall start
as near the trunk as possible. The fruit
always grows on shoots from the preceding
years growth. After pruning, the whole
vine should be laid down and buried in
earth, and then covered with evergreen
| hOuoha
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

ton of the plain superphosphate, costing
(by carload) say $25 per ton delivered in
Vermont, and mix with it one hundred
and fifty pounds of sulphate of ammonia,
costing four cents pound, and one hun.
dred and fifty pounds of sulphate of potash,
costing two and one-half cents a pound,
and you have fertilizer that we guarantee
to be as soluble and to analyze better than
any fertilizer now on sale in New En-
gland. The 500 pounds will cost S3475
or at the rate of 1927 so per ton.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

REPLY BY AGRICULTURAL EDIToR.-
Yes, it is entirely practical. No one pre-
tends that there is a particle of the 80
called "soluble" phosphate in any soil,
even the very richest, nor is there any in
Peruvian guano, which all know to be a
strong fertilizer; nor is there any in hem
manure, hog-mauure, or any other kind of
dung. Yet every farmer knows that all
these supply an abundance of plant food.
All agricultural chemists are agreed that
when "acid" phosphates are applied to
the soil, they Immediately (within twenty
four hours) revert to the so-called insoluble
state, yet the crop is supposed to be sup
piled with all the phosphoric acid it needs
during the phole season The only advan-
tage that any agricultural chemist claims
for making phosphoric acid soluble by the
use of sulphuric acid is that, during the
few hours it remains 80, it is spread more
completely through and among the parti-
cles of the soil. For this single property
of the soluble phosphate the farmer has to
pay an enormous price. He can buy phos-
phoric acid in the insoluble form in the
ground South Carolina rock for two to
three cents a pound, or in ground bone
for five to six cents pound, while in the
commercial fertilizers he pays from twelve
to fifteen cents pound for the same
thing. And even if this belief in the value
of " solubility," which is 80 slight and
temporary, "sticks and hangs" in the
mind of the reader, let him remember that
a plain soluble phosphate, made by treat
ing the South Carolina rock with acid,
can be bought in Boston (ffteen to six.
teen per cent soluble) for 800 per ton.
Now all that is added to this, to make a
commercial fertilizer of the very best
quality in the market, is some heterogeneous
material and some potash salt. Take a
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26
eMeiU advertisements.
Three PeCuIiarities

A popularity of Hoods Sarsaparllla, which
is obvious to ALL is one hundred doses ono
dollar, - an unanswerable argument as to
strength and economy. II you are sick, try
this excellent medicine; it has given health
and happiness to many, and you may reason
ably expect 1t will TO you. The cures effected
by Hoods Sarsaparilla speak volumes in its
praise, and are constantly adding to its in
nuence. No better evidence of its worth is
needed, than its enormous sale. An article
without merit cannot attain the popular de-
mand of this medicine.
az have frequently tested Hoods Sarsapa-
rilla, and know 1t to be an article of merit"
NJ. Bixby, Holland, Mass.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

The superior qualities Of Hoods Sarsapa-
rila are secured by three pecularities; viz;
First The combination of remedial agents
used.
Second. TIL proportion in which they
are mixed.
Third The process by which the active
medicinal properties are secured.
These are peculiar TO Hoods Sarsaparilla,
and are unlike any other. The result of these
pecullarites is medicine of unusual strength,
which effects cures hitherto unknown. A
trial, or even glance at the article, inspires
confidence, because it bears unquestionable
Indication of a thorough understanding on the
part of those who originated it,
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

"My little girl was afflicted with scrofula.
so virulent was the disease, that her neck had
been lanced ten times. At the time she began
to take Hoods Sarsaparilla, there was a very
large bunch on her face. This we ex-
pected to open with the lancet; but to our
surprise the bunch began to shrink, and now
it has entirely disappeared Baby is in good
flesh; sores all gone; her appetite is good,
and she seems as well as any child"
William II. Conant, Lyme Centre, N. ii.
Attest: l live neighbor to Mr.. and Mrs.
Conant, and have always known them. The
above statement is true. Theodore Balch.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26
Shall We Have a Pathological Society 7

Mr.. Editor II rise to inquire, Why
have we not state horticultural society
in Vermont The reason is not that we
have not good fruit region, for we have.
l venture to say that, all things consid-
cred, there is not better state for profta-
BILE fruit culture in the Union than Yer
mont. speak with assurance, because l
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

THE New ENGLAND HOMESTEAD
Que of the very brightest, most thor
oughly edited and boiled down of all
American agricultural papers, is the Ner
England Homestead of Springfield, Mass
AS natural consequence, it has one OF
the largest calculations. Its market re-
ports are especially good. Issued by the
Phelps Publishing Co., at 50 a year.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

WE believe, with some of our cotempo'
raries, that fall calves can be, with proper
housing, raised with greater ease than
those that are dropped in spring or sum-
mer. If kept dry and well bedded, they
do not mind cold weather, and they are
just the right age to turn on grass in the
spring,-Amsricdn Dairymdn.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

Henry Dickson, wholesale grocer, and pro-
prietor of Dickson's Opera House, Kenton o.,
writes: "My wife has been troubled with in
digestion, and her blood has been in poor
condition. She has used several bottles of
Hoods Sarsaparilla, and it has been great
benefit to her."
"For the last twelve or fifteen years have
been sufferer from a milk Leg was almost
helpless, and could walk only on level floor.
Hoods Sarsaparilla has certainly made me
all over new, and cured me of my lameness
feel twenty years younger than / did"
Harriet Winn Burnham Me
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

REPLY-A bushel of ashes, or half a
bushel of lime, is sufficient for two-horse
load of muck. The muck should have
had time to drain thoroughly before
either is mixed with it, and the mixture
should be made as perfect as possible by
repeated shoveling over. 1t would then
improve by standing awhile, in order that
the acid of the raw muck should have
time to be entirely neutralized. A good
muck, so treated, is worth as mnch as
good stable manure. There is, however,
quite as much difference in muck as in
manure, in regard to the plant food it con-
tains. The first of the formulas referred
to {" soluble formulss) was to be used
exactly in the way and in the amount
that the commercial superphosphates are
used, but the second, containing its com.
bined nitrogen and its potash in the more
bulky form of cottons eed meal and ashes,
should be applied in proportionally larger
quantity, which would be nearly double
in bulk. AS regards the proportion of
phosphoric acid, it is not too much for the
nitrogen, if Professor Atwater's expert
ments are to be trusted, nor is it too much
according to our experience. Nor is it too
much for the potash, if there is enough
potash in the ordinary commercial fertili'
zers. The first formula will analyze bet.
ter, weight for weight, than Bradley's
XII, and the second one, though more
bulky, is as good as the first, cost for cost
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26
Scrofula

Hoods Sarsaparilla will cure, when in the
power of medicine, Scrofula, Salt Rheum,
Dyspepsia, Headache, Constipation, Bilious
ness, General Debility, Pains in the Back,
Kidney Complaint, Catarrh, Female Weak
ness, Cancerous Humors, Humors of the
Face, Ringworm, Pimples, Syphilitc Aztec
lions, Ulcers, Sores, Tumors, Scald Head,
and all diseases arising from an impure
state or low condition of the blood.
"Appetite poor, bowels all out of order,
scrofuous sores on my face and back. l com
menced taking Hoods Sarsaparilla, and with
three bottles my sores healed, and 1 am at
business again" j. Amberg, Chicago, Ill.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26
Question and Answer.

w. ID. Kinds, Townshend, Mass, wants
to know :" Is it practical to use the Charles
ton ground rock without its being treated
with sulphuric acid I? l am intending to
buy 5000 worth of fertilizers, and want
the best for the money"
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

II is books that teach us to refine our
pleasures when young, and which, having
so taught us, enable us to recall them
with satisfaction when old.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

Our country is kept prosperous by the
prepondersnce of frugality and humility
in it, which city people hardly know of.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26
A. M. FOSTER, Cabot, Vt.

REpLY.-That item, friend Foster, ought
to have been credited to the Popular
Science Ncws. We do not know anything
about the use of tincture of guaiacum for
favoripg, nor personally anything about
the sdulteration with glucose. But we
are credibly informed that great deal, If
not all, of the maple sugar bought in Yer
mont for shipment West, is mixed with
glucose syrup, and sold for maple, the su-
gar being depended on to give the flavor
It may be true that somebody has found
that guaiac does just as we'll. Yes, ii
has now become pretty necessary to buy
of the maker if you want anything good
and you are lucky if you get it good then
We have never known of maple sugar
being adulterated by the makers with any
thing worse than dirt.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26
Grape Culture.

j. c. G. writes 81 do not think have
suitable soil to grow grapes, it not being
light and dry enough. l have tried them,
but they did not live; perhaps 1 did not
set them properly, or properly fit the
ground. l wish you would tell me how to
do it,"
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26
Artificial Maple Sugar.

Mr.. Editor I'm your department in the
last WATCHMAN find paragraph
headed "One Kind of Maple Sugar." init
mating that much of the maple sugar and
syrup now sold is nearly pure glucose.
Now, who says this And what is their
authority? Please name any parties who
adulterate their maple sugar. 1 am &C
quainted with many of the best sugar
makers in this section, and do not think
one of them uses any adulteration what
ever. Morale rder your sugar direct
from the maker.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

WHEREVER there are no great riches
there is no great poverty.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26
Purify Your Blood

Hoods Sarsaparilla is made Of sarsaparilla,
dandelion mandrake, cherry bark, iva ursi,
dock, and other valuable medicinal agents
long and favoraby known for their power in
Graduating disease and purifying the blood
A Druggist says; /" II is fortunate to have a
preparation like Hoods Sarsaparilla, that you
can recommend to your customers, confident
it will suit them.'
If you are suffering from Scrofula, Salt
Rheum, Catarrh, Dyspepsia, or any blood dis
ease, and are DESTROYS of more information
regarding the value of Hoods Sarsaparila,
we shall be glad to send you book containing
a few of the wonderful cures effected.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26
Muck and The Formulas.

Canterbury" asks "What portion of
ashes or lime do you use with muck, so
that it can be used for crops at once !?
How much ground do you intend your
formulas (of March SHY for corn to go
over? Is not the proportion of phosphoric
acid too large? ?"
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-03-26

all the Bradley" or any other "phos-
phate," that they want.
AS to the farmers being fools, we sup.
pose that minister, or any other man, is
no more of a fool before he learns. Greek
than he is after he has learned it. And so
farmer is not fool because he does not
know the composition of fertilizers, or
where the materials are to be had, and at
what price. Nor is he fool for wanting
to know, nor is an editor humbugging
his readers when he answers their request
for information to the bes of his ability
1t is not question either of foolishness
or of "humbug" at all. This whole sub
ject, and the questions about it, do not
differ in their nature from other questions
in agriculture-such, for instance, as the
inquiries addressed to us by Mr.. Ranslow
himself in regard to strawberry culture,
and the numerous other questions con-
stantly coming to us, aud all other editors,
upon the practical matters of the farm
and the household.
AS an illustration of the advantage of
spreading the facts before the farmers in
regard to artificial fertilizers, we may say
that there are already great many who
have been following the instructions Of
DR.. Cutting with, as they claim, very great
saving to themselves. Mr.. Freeman Fair
child of Derby Center says he and many
of his neighbors are doing this with much
advantage. Our Waitsfield correspondent
&C. f. J.," in our issue of January 90
says DIR. Cuttings fertilizer, costing $l5 Q