Wichita eagle., 1889-10-11
aailY - eagle
CAPT. JANE SMITH.
A GEORGIA WOMAN WHO HAS BE-
COME A SUCCESSFUL FARMER.

-
COME A SUCCESSFUL FARMER.
Left to Care for an Aged Mother, She and
Her Sister Have Bought and Improved
the Farm Their Brother Rented-They
Buy Only Coffee and Flour and Live Well.
BY the roadside three miles and a half
from this town there is comfortable looking
cottage with big old fashioned stone Chin
ney, and in the background the stable and
corn cribs. There are forty comfortable
matronly hens picking about the yard, and
under q tall ivy covered tree is little log
house from which ON rainy days and even
ings you will hear the noise of the loom and
the droning Of the spinning wheel. Ip- the
front room of the cottage is an aged lady who
rises t. meet the stranger, and says blandly,
'Who are you"
When he makes known his business, she
calls some one at the spinning wheel:
"Jane, a gentleman who wishes to see you. :"
Miss Jane appeared at the door in home
spun frock and greeted the stranger.
''No, don't want my name in the papers.
] have only small farm, and l don't see that
my business interests any one else" said she
rather indignantly. Some notice in the local
newspaper had offended her, and she refused
to talk; but on disavowal of any discourte-
Gus intent she consented to tell her story
IN THE FIELDS AND AT THE LOOM
Miss Jane Smith is known among the peo-
pie of this neighborhood as Capt Jane
Smith, =" and has won this distinction by the
energy and courage with which she has
tod hor m ind hmm
bred acre farm Left on rented land with
only mule, two cows and four hogs when
her brother went to the war, she and her sis
ter have, out of crops of their own tillage,
supported themselves and their aged mother,
bought the farm and built comfortable
house. Their brother had just planted crop
when he was called away to fight for his
home; and the neighbors seeing his anxiety
for the welfare of his mother and sisters he
IVES leaving without protector, promised to
see that the crop was tended until his return.
Turning away from these home cares to the
stern fortunes of war, he set his face toward
the enemy, sitting care as best he could until
at last he buried it in a soldiers grave.
In the mi 1t of their grief these young
wamen realized that their own hands must
make a support for themselves and their
mother or they must be dependent ON their
neighbors. With heroic resolution to be in
dependent they set to work The neighbors
came and plowed the crop, and Miss Jane and
her sister did the rest with their own hands
Rising at o'clock summer or winter, they
worked afield till after sunset and fed the
stock in the dark. From supper till 10 O'Clock
there was a constant clack and clatter of the
loom, with the hunlming of the wheel rising
above it. They spun and wove the cloth for
their garments, and the white and colored
counterpanes that they wove in elaborate
patterns, with six sheets of harness, are ap-
parently new twenty years after they were
made, and would almost cause store bought
Counterpart to turn crimson with shame.
Everything they used, except coffee, was
made at home, and in war times they made
that by drying chips of sweet potatoes. They
raise everything to eat-corn, wheat, sor-
ghum syrup, vegetables, hogs, chickens and
every thing that could be produced on the
farm
By such industry and economy they had
saved $50 by 1873 when they bought the farm
for $500, paying $3.50 cash. In four years
they paid the other $3.50 and went on with
other Improvements. Three years ago Miss
Smith built new house for $500, paying the
carpenters So. so a day as the work was done
Miss Smith believes in fat hogs. She always
raises hogs, and never has lean ones. The
four killed this winter weighed a33 pounds
net, and the largest 275 pounds. The smoke
house is well supplied with hams, shoulders,
Sides fowls, lard and sausage meat. Their
plan is to salt the meat and let it hang till
March, when the salt is rubbed off and the
pieces are washed and packed down in ashes.
The hams are put in sacks, and keep perfectly.
81 never kill hogs till they are two years
old, said Miss Smith. SIT is easier to keepa
grown hog than pig. When it is over
year old it takes less feed"
In the lot was a mule that Miss Jane picked
out of a stable three years ago and bought
for $1l9. The mule is as gentle as a pet G,
and Miss Smith says she would not sell r
SITS. The old mule that was bought
Smith two years before he went to tn Is
still there. He is 80 years old, and stil g
to do good work Miss Smith hitched n
up yesterday and plowed up the garden.
STANDING AROUND IS NOT THE WAY.
When asked how she made the crops, Miss
Smith said: II hired the hoeing done and
did the blowing myself until / had the house
built. l plowed day after day None of us
were ever sick a day in our lives, and never
lost q day out of the crop except when / was
away on business. We never had doctor
In the house till this winter, and he came 10
see mother, who is now 81 years old.
''We raised this year bales of cotton,
about 200 bushels Of corn, oats and fodder
enough for the stock, potatoes, sorghum
syrup, hogs and chickens. and wove the cloth
we need We don't buy anything now but
coffee and -four. We used to raise wheat,
but there is so much trouble to get it threshed
that we buy flour now TO save trouble 1t is
no more trouble to raise wheat than it used
to be. The farmers rut their cotton seed all
on the cotton land and expect the other land
to make wheat without the seed, and ii won't
bring it.
''Some years We don't make so much as
others, but have never lost crop. don't
subsoil the land, and don't use any turn pillow. |
We Just watch the crop and work it. When |
l go to the station l see fifty men standing
around doing nothing, and know most of |
them ought to be at work at home That is |
the trouble. 1t takes work to make CROPS" |
Mrs. Smith. the aged mother OF Miss Jane, |
brought out an Irish spinning wheel seventy
two years old and Of a peculiar pattern 1t |
spun more even thread than lie other and /
worked with treadie. Among her house |
held relics.w patchwork quilt made of |
English calicoes before the Revolutionary
war. The calico was made with a linen |
warp snd printed in elaborate patterns The |
quilt was yellow with age, and had been hid |
IN q cave with other goods to keep them out |
II reach Of the Tories
The poultry en- the place are carefully /
looked after, and the forty hens had furnished /
the family and given eggs for sale. Year be- /