davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-12
BARREL CUCUMBER CULTURE.

I notice in recent issue of the Fort
Worth GAZETTE your article on cucum Der
| culture in barrels, and was rather surprised
| to find you making sport of the method. !
| am in favor of barrel cucumber culture, and
can give you method that if correctly re-
sorted to, will pay 1000 per cent over the old
method. for either cucum berS. gherkinS,
| melons or squashes. Get tight barrel
which fill half full of good and well rotted
compost. Sink the barrel about twelve inches
into the garden soil, having first bored into
the bottom o. the barrel equi-distant around
near the edge six two-inch holes. Plant six
hills of, say cucumbers, about two feet from
the barrel opposite the holes. Fill the bar
rel with water and the job is finished.
Capillary attraction and percolation does
the work for the plants. Refill the barrel
| about every ten days, and can assure you
that the yield will be enormous. 1have seen
this tried on a small scale-why not work
as well on large scale9
Center, Tex. WILLIAM Z. Lone.
If our correspondent will refer back to
our article mentioned, he will find that the
barrel culture of cucumbers there touched
upon, proposed planting the cucumbers di-
rectly in the barrels. 1t did not even rec
ommend holes in the bottoms Of the barrels
for drainage. OF course it could not be
made TO work, for the soil in the barrels
| would soon become sour, and hence poison
Gus to plants. But the method suggested
by our correspondent, as above, is a good
one as we know from having tried some
thing like it ourself. It is simply iviga-
ton and liquid manuring at the same time.
Our plan differed little from his. We
bored only three holes in the barrel, not in
the bottom, but in the sides just above the
head, and planted only three hills of cucum-
bers, two feet out. We think six hills
would crowd the plants too much. The
bottom of the barrel we filed to the depth
of six inches with very coarse gravel to
prevent the manure from packing into and
clogging mp the holes. Straw or other
vegetable litter should never he used in
stead of the gravel, as it would eventually
become acid. Above the gravel we placed,
TO within one foot of the top of the barrel,
entirely well-rotted stable manure. Over
each hole outside, we placed a gallon of
coarse gravel or pebbles to favor the escape
of the liquids. Every fourth day we filed
the barrel anew with water. The result
was very good.
Our correspondent mentions reflling his
| barrel every ten days. If by this he means
renewing the compost that often, we think
| his method would be rather troublesome,
and if he means reflling with water only
we think his reilIings would be too far
| apart for very dry season.
Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-12
NAVY REAN FAHURE.

An article of yours on navy bean culture
for Texas moves me to report our poor sue
cess with the crop the present year In the
Illinois colony of this region. We each
planted small patch of navy beans, put
ting in and cultivating about as you direct.
The vines have made a most remarkable
growth, blooming freely, but there are very
few pods They are still growing, but the
prospect for good crop of beans is
extremely poor. Possibly the soil was too
rich for them. In Illinois thin land was
always considered best for Yankee beans.
All our other bunch beans have yielded fine
crops. Shall plant again in September.
WALTER ID. BENTLEY.
Thornberry, Clay county, Tex.
Doubtless the failure is due to some local
cause, and you may have it in your notion
that the soil was possibly too rich. The
same conditions favoring the crop in Illinois
would ne very apt to favor it in Texas
Our reason for believing your bad success
has been due to some strictly local cause is
based upon the fact that we have had
numerous letters from Texans reporting
the navy bean a first-class success with
them
Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-12
WORTH OF THE cow.

In late public address the Hon. James
Wilson of Iowa remarked that where men
farm for dear life the COW should stand out
prominently among foremost considera-
tions. She is the farmers best friend.
Whenever he is harassed with debt or
whenever he is struggling to make good
start in life, it is the COW that comes TO his
assistance, paying off his mortgages in the
ore case and placing him upon the high
road TO fortune and independence upon the
other Her capacities for good are almost
unlimited, and in no other direction can the
farmer so surely improve his condition as
in developing and cultivating these capaci-
ties to the highest degree Those who keep
cows, and as many of them as circum-
stances will permit, and take pains TO have
them of good quality, maintaining them in
a style favorable 10 their thrift, will find
them not only IN agency to which man
can resort 10 save himself when misfortune
presses and all else fails to bring relief, but
that they are a sure means of advancing
the farmers prosperity at every stage of
its progress. But the cows seldom have a
chance TO show what they can do, and to
what degree they are capable of
contributing to the fortunes of their own
ers. Upon large number of farms they
are not maintained in sufficient numbers to
fully accomplish their mission, and on
vast majority they are of the common, I'M
improved sorts to whose development no
effort has been given, and which are inca
pable of realizing for their owners one-half
the profit which could be secured from
highly improved animals. And this is
largely inexcusable in these days, when the
improved breeds are selling at such reason
able prices that every farmer can afford the
means to replace his present inferior stock
with that OF better character, or at least
secure crosses with which to grade up to a
higher point the stock he already has. If
the average COW in her present estate is
worthy of the good things said of her, what
words of praise would do her sufficient
honor. If all the cows in the country were
Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-12
ABOUT OUR BLACK LANDS.

In discussing the merits OF the black
lands of Texas, a friend and myself have
agreed to disagree. He contends that the
superior productiveneSS of these lands IS
owing to the more moist nature OF their
soils, while am arguing that they are OF a
cold, dry nature, and therefore owe their
productiveness entirely to the very large
amount of plant food which they contain.
Please settle the question for US through
THE GAZETTE. q. HARDwICK.
Grayson County, Tex.
Our decision is that you are both mainly
correct; Or, in other words, both of your
arguments put together tell about the
whole story.-In the recently published
government report on irrigation in the
United States Professor Robert I. Hill
saws the soils of Texas which most rapidly
drink up the rains that fall upon them are
the sandy soils, and next TO them come the
chalky soils, such as make up what we call
he grand prairie formation. While these
soils would appear entirely dry soon after
a moderate shower of rain, the black
waxey prairies, where there Is much clay
in the structure, would remain wet and
muddy for many days, all due to different
degrees of porosity-page 2l1. This would
seem to make it plain that our black lands
hold moisture longer than do most other
Texas lands. Then, as to fertility, it is
well understood that, as a great body,
these black lands are the richest lands in
the state.
All clay lands are considered more or less
cold. Sandy lands are classed as the
warmest lands, and clay lands are regarded
as colder than these in proportion 10 the
greater per cent of clay contained in their
make-up
Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-12
on DRYING PEACHES.

Please give US through your excellent de-
partment of the Fort Worth GAZETTE some
information on drying peaches after the
plan pursued by the fruit dryers of Cali
fornia. We know all about drying peaches
in the old way, but the old-faShioned, black
looking fruit would not take on the market
nowadays. / suppose some kind Of evap-
orator will be necessary, and we would like
to have you describe the best one TO be had
at reasonable figures. letting US know
where it might be bought and at what
prlce. c. 0. CHOPLET.
Hunt county, Tex.
If you know all about drying peaches on
the old plan you know it all. No evaporator
is needed in the dry atmosphere of Texas
evaporaters are not used in California. An
evaporator is necessary only in such humid
regions as one finds in the lower states east
Of the Mississippi river, and northward.
One of the old plans of drying peaches
was to dry them entire, leaving the seed in,
but that plan is not practiced now-such
fruit would not sell well on any market
Beyond this there is nothing new in drying
fruits, unless it should be that peaches, ap-
pies and the like are sliced thinner than
used to be the style. You speak of black
looking fruit, but there need be none Of
this. The light color Of modern dried fruit
is due to process entirely outside of the
drying-it is bleached. Than to bleach
fruits nothing could be more simple-any
one can bleach fruits who desires to do so,
and it is entirely necessary in case of dried
fruits put up for market. Then aside from
having it in the prevailing fashion there are
other good reasons why dried fruits
should be put through the bleaching pro-
cess, as we shall presently show.
One of the best authorities on driving
Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-12
THE PECAN AGAIN.

You have been giving US readers of TIE
GAZETTE much valuable information con-
corning the pecan. The way you are able
to write about il. proving up everything
You say, is almost enough to make one con-
clude that you had done nothing all your
life other than study the pecan. Your
evinced willingness to respond to all In
quiries with reference to the matter has
given me the assurance to ask you a few
questions
l. read in the papers of thin-shell
pecans. and thick-sheQ pecans, and paper
soft-shell pecans. Are all of these differ
ent varietiesi If so, how are we to dis
tinguish one variety from the other!
g / also read of pecan orchards and
pecan groves. Are these something differ
entl If so, what is the difference If not,
which is most correct, grove or orchard.
Weatherford, Tex.
There are but TWO kinds of pecans-thick
shells and thin shells. These might, of
course, be divided into various marked va
rieties, though we are not sure that they
are as yet. Paper-shells and soft-shells are
simply incorrect descriptions. We have
never yet seen pecan that had softer or
more papery shell than was common to all
other pecans. You may get hold of So
called SoIt-SneI pecan anu crush IL easily
with the hands, but this comes simply Of
the fact that the shell is extremely thin
II you examine that shell closely you will
find it composed of exactly the same ma
terial, put together in the same way as the
thick-shelled pecan. Precisely the same
may be said Of the so-called paper-sheu
pecan. If any difference, the thin shell,
what there is of it, is really frmer than the
thick shell.
Quite number Of people writing about
pecans speak of pecan orchards, but they
Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-12
HELP THE DEW.

The Rural Messenger says dew is of the
greatest consequence to crops not under ir-
rigatiOn, especially in time of drouth. In
deco it is the life OF the crop at such time,
and since the farmer has il within his
power to materially help the dew along in
lis good work he should be ever prompt to
do 50.
One of the greatest helps to dew lies in
shallow surface tillagc: that is, making all
the surface loose and fine. This not only
acts Is a mulch to plants. arrestng evapora-
ton during the day, but it also forms de-
posting place for moisture IN the night.
No land with tillable crop upon it should
be allowed to cake on the surface. Dew
viii collect in finely and freshly pulverized
soil when it would not do so on crusted
soil
Land that was deeply broken in spring,
and is protected now by a mulch Of fine
dirt on the surface, will yield moisture
freely from below and receive dew freely
al night. and between the two the crop will
be supplied with about all the moisture it
requires until it reaches the seeding or
caring stage, when rain is desirable.
TO promote dew, then, keep the surface
clean of grass and as fine as YOU can make
il. Do not disturb the roots of the crops in
hot dry weather. Work upon the surface
and let the roots alone.
OF cousre this refers to the crop while
growing and yet under culture. When a
crop IS finished 10 the '.laying-by" there is
little chance OF doing more for it yet in this
case if the surface soil could be pulverized
so often as it evinced disposition to cake
the crop would be greatly the gamer SO
Ioun as il stood in need of moistIre
Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-12
Webster says of the orchard, that it is ian

Webster says of the orchard, that it is ian
Enclosure or assemblage Of fruit trees; es-
pecially of apples, peaches, pears or cher
ries; rarely Of nut-bearing trees" This
ought TO settle it that an assemblage Of pc
can trees is no orchard. a grove he defines
as "a group Of trees smaller than forest,
and without underwood, planted, or grow
ing naturally as if arranged by art and
very generally attaining their full proper
tons This clearly lets in an assemblage
Of pecan trees as a grove. Pecan grove"
IS evidently the correct term to use.
Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-12
OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

This department is devoted to answering
such questions may be asked by our sub
scribers, which may be of general information.
Inquiries OF personal character that require an
swer by mail should always have stamp in
closed. Please give full name and postofice
address in addition to any such signature as
Subscriber or "A. g. ID, not for publication,
if against the will of the writer but to admit of
direct communication should such thing be
deemed necessary. Address as directed at head
nj this
Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-12
THE SMALL FARM.

MIR. Waldo +. Brown, the well known
Ohio writer of sound agricultural litera-
ture, says the man who manages a small
farm, first, to supply his family a. that he
possibly can for the.r support and comfort,
and then chooses wisely some specially for
Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-12
pEaSry CULTURE IN TEXAS


troobcrsl, and that 'he crop is giving every
promise Of an enormous Weld. When,
some months ago. VIC offered through these
columns a somewhat exhaustive ARTICLE on
peanut culture. Giving it as our firm con-
yictln that the crop might DE made
spleEdid Thing .or Texas, we had no idea Of
leulniug i, This early day that the crop had
been put to the test on Il scale so grand as
mentioned above. But hats the right way
70 settle all such questions.
Cant Norton success is no surprise 10
u whatever For many years we lived in
the midst OF the peanut-producing regions
OF Tennessee. cu,tiyating the crop there.
OF course that enabled Us 10 well study the
requirements OF the peanut, and when later
We We @ Afforded an opportunity of study
inc Texas We were enabled to see clearly
that Texas possessed every requirement of
The crop. In our article referred TO We
vcnlurcd the opinion that A. no distant day
Teas would De supplyin" the whole civil
ilcd world with peanuts, and Capt. Nor
tons tc,1 would seem 10 Indicate that we
coaId NOT have been far wrong.
The peanut is not Al all an expensive crop
10 crow and yet ready for market. It's cul-
fure is no more difficult or costly than that
Of sweet potatoes. Tie harvesting costs 4
little NOR. but not so much as cotton.
-,omr kind Of machinery for harvesting and
preparing tho peanut for market might be
easily invented. ra doubt. but Us vet there
seem, 10 bn nothing of the kind. The pea
nut ,-4fscrs OF Tennessee. Virginia and
North Carolina dp all The work By main
strength. as we say. but even on this plan
the haryes.ino and pr.parat..l IS not very
expensive 4 igrn pow is run around the
rows. throwing the dirt OF and leaving the
plants staud. .g. on a blurred ridge. In some
ease. hands follow the rIow. pulling the
buurars up by hand. shaking out the loose
SOL and la,fre Them along the fn.row 10
ber..,.n. ND ;,5d ral.tri 20 the driving shed
II 9TH ....l-..- .rne best plau. we think.
one man r,uny.s the pIov with a prong hoe
,pa,afo digq.r, aad striking down at the
side Of .,. barred ridgr pulls the hill over.
can 4 mi, almost rs fast as he can
walk Auo,lor prr.ou follows him and,
or9sri,o tn,. vino, Of each hin. shakes out
1h,. lcos,, soil There is ALWAYS more say
Il, n, This rIar ,},an ip tIo other. As simply
,,i,IIiun mn ihc biurhe, leaves a GOOD many
,,pts in the ,rr,uud. bur pulled out with A
,,,,, l,, ,...,,l. all The mis- come, ON
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-14
He Carried IL.
From the New York Sun.


Three or four Of us had closed our umbrellas
and gathered under . store awning at the lower
end Of Market street, Philadelphia, to wait for
q grip car. Along came a colored man, carry
ing faded and rent old umbrella. and We an
noticed that he carried the shelter tipped for
ward at such an angle that his feet we're pro-
tected at the expense of his back.
stop, sir" shouted the man at my left, Who
had the look and bearing Of judge.
Yes. sab; what's wanted2'' queried the col
ored man.
Il want 10 show You how 10 carry an um-
brella. Your toes are dry, while your back ~
ell wet. don't believe that one person in hfty
knows how 10 carry umbrella 20 ~ 20 eSs
the most protection out of 1t"
Its an old one. sab"
Yes, see; but You don't grasp the handle
right Here-take mine"
Yes. sab" -
Take the handle with your right hand, s.A
carry it ON line with your right shouldsr.
There-thats better" 49,.
Cant git along wii sich stiffness. ssh.~
Yes you can Nov wslk mp 10 The cornss
and back Hold the handle on . line with year
shoulder. That's it-go ahead"
The negro marched on 81 steady psos. sad
while he was stepping Cd the gentlsnsn tur,sd
IFS . knack to shsltsr yoursslf under 4.
umbrella, particularly II il rains hard. -
the want OF this knsck provokes NE when -
it,"
We agreed with him, and the minute, p....d
by and car came down.
why, where did the Niger 70 tol" asksd
the owner of the umbrella
We looked up and down, but he had di~p-
peared Ihe man ran up ths strees- tive
dne silk umbrella with . gold handle-not -
he could see- We started 10 rally him q bin -
We went mp on the car, but he checked us BY
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-14
BLACK HENS, Eggs.
Why 1t is That They Come Bigger Than
Those Of Other Fowls.

Why 1t is That They Come Bigger Than
Those Of Other Fowls.
An old woman with green bonnet and UNI
brella to match approached a stall at the Center
Market early yesterday morning ana asked if
the eggs exposed on the counter for sale were
fresh.
I'VE don't advertise to sell rotten ones,
ma am, said the dealer crustily.
mo, s'pose not" rejoined the customer.
'Id like two dozen, if you please; but I'm very
particular about havir' the black hens eggs
always"
The merchant Of produce gazed upon her
with an expression that was half indignation
and half disgust.
'How can I tell which were laid by black
hens?' he growled. If you know Just pick
EN- out for yourself"
The old woman smiled pleasantly, and pro-
ceeded to select from the basket those Of the
eggs which she designated as the black hens i,
while the dealer held bag fol their reception.
He noticed that all OF those she chose were Of
extra size.
ma'am," he said finally, when all the largest
ones in his stock had been picked out.
"Oh, yes" replied the old woman, as she
paid for her purchase. ITS always so. Good
After she had gone the merchant rubbed his
chin thoughtfully for two three minutes and
then remarked to himself:
by Jove, 1 call that about the slickest trick
I've had worked on me for many day. Black
hens eggs, indeed, All she wanted was a
chance to pick out the big ones, and she got 1t J."
With that he looked not spitefully but admir-
ingly after the old woman and the green bon
net. who stood for twenty minutes at another
stall near by and Chartered over the price of a
terrapin, which she insisted ought to be cheap
because the length of its toe nails was an in
fallible indication that it was old and tough.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-14

Deen HlHut IrOH tIIIs COUNTY, upon
Europe, particularly England, for dogs
of the highest pedigree regardless Of ex-
pense, so that there are at present in kennels
on this side Of the water beasts as superb ever
barked- No price is considered too big to pay
for prize winner. 5000 being thought not
overmueh for a champion St. Bernard, whila
even fox terriers have brought as much as
81, 500. Many such dogs have never been seen
again on show. being purchased merely because
the buyers wished TO have frst-rate specimens
on their places. On the other hand many gen.
tlemen have started breeding farms. spending
large sums of money in securing the best possi-
bic ock for propagating from The bushes
is a very profitable one when properly pursued.
young puppy OF fine strain will often sell for
$500 while a single sire is worth sometimes to
its owner Il 600 or even more in a season.