The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-04-23
much weight of collard plants an acre
of good soil will yield.
SWEET POTATOES.

SWEET POTATOES.
Toward the last of the month the
potato Ueds will furnish slips for plant
ing. We do not advocate early plant
ing of this crop, as we have found
that those planted in May and June
require very much less work, yield
equally as well, and keep better. Far
mers are usually anxious tn commence
transplanting as early as the plants
Twill do. to avoid being too late in get
ting all the intended area planted.
1t Is better, however, to bed enough
potatoes to plant the desired area dur
ing the month of May and the first half
of June, replying afterwards on plant
ing the cut vines. We have more
than once made an additional bed
after the first Of April.
We have so often called attention to
the importance of the potato crop,
that it is hardly appropriate TO more
than hint at the subject at this time.
IT is rare indeed to find q farmer who
makes more potatoes than he can find
profitable use for. There is absolute
ly but one drawback in the culture of
this crop-the uncertainty of keeping
the tubers through the winter; and
yet it is probable that by far the great
er part of the loss by rotting, during
a series Of years, is due to careless
methods of housing or banking the
crop. Even if it is impossible to keep
the tubers later than Christmas. the
crop would still be very profitable
one for stock feeding. Hogs will
gather them for themselves, and moth
ing that we have ever tried will make
cheaper or better pork than sweet pota-
toes-not cUen corn.
The mention of pork reminds us to
suggest the wisdom Of planting some
crops especially adapted for summer
feeding of the hogs. Of course good
grass pasture, Bermuda for instance, is
desideratum but sorghum, collards,
roasting ears, early paintings of Span,
iSh peanuts afford q valuable succession
of very healthful and fattening food
for swine. Sorghum and green corn
(stalk and ally have always stood high
in the estimation of many successful
farmers, as food crops for hogs. But
says one, possibly thousand, ~ have
no hogs" Then so much the worse
for you. In view of the universal use
of bacon in all the farm houses and
cabins in the South, as we'll as in the
mansions of the cities, and The ease
with which pork can be produced, it is
one of the problems yet to be solved,
not h0,U to make pork, Lut why don't
every farmer "raise" his own? We
produced all we consumed during the
war; we can do it and ought to do it
now. But we are told that transporta-
ton from the West is so cheap that we
can buy bacon cheaper than we can
produce it ourselves. The same re-
mark applies with more or less force to
several other articles; beef, wool, but
ter, -four, Irish potatoes, hay, syrup.
But maybe we are Offering gratuitous,
or at least unneeded advice. Maybe
the great revival of hope, effort, ener-
gy and economy, largely due to the
wonderful growth aud salutary influ-
ence of our Farmers Alliance, is now
developing good natured boycott of
Western farm producls-such as corn,
oats, bacon, etc. Is it not remarka-
ble fact that the one single product
that is grown universally and eXten-
sively in the South than any other, is
the one single thing that we have no
use for on the farm, viz. cotton? We
can't eat it, we do not manufacture it
ION the farm. The farmer must sell
it and take what he can get for it. re-
gardless of what it cost him to produce