The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-11-27
A NEW AMERICAN EDEN.
Queer Legends of Turnips and Pumpkins
Where Immigrants are Wanted.

There is a man here from Georgia
burdened with schemes for making his
region prosperous. He owns land by
the thousand acres and thinks that if
he can persuade immigrant farmers to
buy OF him it will be to their everlast-
ing prosperity, and help him along III
the world, besides doing little for his
state. Hedoubts not that his motives
are patriotic "The people of Geor-
gia," hesays, s'don't bother their heads
about immigration. Foreigners may
come there if they want to, but they've
got to come without begging. "We
don't mind their coming if they'll set
tie among us and learn our ways, but
we don't want 'em in colonies, bringing
their socialism and communism and
their other isms with them to destroy
the peace of our state. Give us immi-
grafton, but not colonizatfon.' That's
the way they talk and that's why we've
had no agent to turn foreigners down
our own way"
"What inducements have you to Of
fer to farmers?"
Nothing extr 'ornary, I reckon. My
regions the Eden of America. That's
all. Amt. no place that can beat it
for crops"
"Corn-?"
zone hundred and thirty bushels to
the acre. Plant in April and gather
in November. One plowing, no hoe
ing. Fodder till you can't rest. Have
to pull it from horseback. Why!
Stalks so high can't reach to the top.
There's only one trouble with growing
corn in Georgia; you don't have
enough nubbins to feed your steers"
"Nubbins for steers?"
"That's what's the matter. The
ears are so big that steer can't get
'em in his mouth. See? You've got
to chop 'em up, and that takes time. :"
"Do you grow potatoes?''
"Sweet? No. They grow themselves.
We just give 'em half chance.
Run furrow in the sand, drop in
your seed, cover it with your foot as
you go along and leave the crop to it
self. 1t grows summer and winter and
you needn't ever dig it for a year or
two. OF course, by-and-by the Eaters
get too big to be good. At Is month
old half a one makes a meal for ter
persons"
'sAnd turnips?"
ga few. It don't take many to do
u.s. We daren't SOW the seed as your
Northern farmers do. We check off
the turnip patch like chess-board,
making the corners eight feet apart, SO
that the turnips won't crowd. 1t
don't do to have the turnips too
thick. How large do they grow?
Well, I had IA merino sheep, fine fel-
lows they were, and 1 use to fold 'em
every night for fear of dogs. One day
three of the biggest were missing and
the whole farm turned out to find 'em.
We hunted for 'em ior two days, killed
IT dogs on suspicion. and gave up the
search The next day [ found the
three inside of one of my turnips. You
see they had jumped into the turnip
patch and eaten their way right into
one cf the vegetables"
Glow could you feed such things to
your stccl1?"
"Oh, we have to chop 'em up. I use
15-foot cross-cut saw on mine"
"How about pumpkins?"
"Pumkins? They fairly sweat, they
grow so fast There amt no prettier
music than the sound of growing pun
kins. Best scare-crow in the world,
self-acting. Crows and blackbiros wor-
! ried US lots until made the discovery
Plant one in your raspberry patch and
the birds won't come around. Why?
The growing pains and the groans OF
the punkin frighten 'en away. Ever
hear of Prnkin Vine creek? Got its
name from punkin vine. Years ago,
when the Cherokee Indians lived in
North Georgia, they wanted some sort
of bridge across the creek. There
wasn't tree around, and they didn' t
know what to do An old settler said
he'd fix it. He planted a punkin seed
near the bank, and, when the vine be
gan to grow, he trained it in the direc-
tion of the water, In o few days it
grew across to the other bank, and
bore big punkin on that side, which
held it SO that the Indians could cross.
Any old farmer down there'll tell you
that story From what I've seen OF
punkins readily believe it,
''Is yours a good fruit country?
any apples2''
More'n we know what to do with.
I turned my hogs and my neighbors
into my orchard the other day to see
if they couldn't rid me of a few BUSHES
of the fruit. They didn't do much
good. 1 drove through the next day
with a horse and buggy. The apples
were so thick on the ground that there
was regular sluce of cider following
me wherever I went. Mashed out, you
know, by the wheels and the horses
hoofs. That'li give you some idea OF
our fruit crops. Anything else you'd
like to know"
"Is it all like what you've been tell
ing me?"
"Every man for himself, you know.
Pm talking for my own region. ]
haven't Travelled much"
"Do you mean to say"
"Young man, haven't got time to
go into details. Do you want to go
to Georgia? Come down and start
newspaper"
A wooden ship of 1928 tons is a