Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-03-17
NUMBER 81.

don't beat the dragon, you may call ms
Gunter = / pulled the fire all out o
the arch and got some clean shells ant
sand, and went to scraping and scour
ing out my kettles. About sun down
) had got everything up in shape again
: ready for good start in the morning
: / filed my kettles with sap and gather
cred two or three barrels partly full.
when night stopped my further work
until the morning. When the sun set.
it was just as clear-not a sign of a
cloud to be seen.
As / went past my wheat, | just
thought, Now, if / make good run
with the sugar business. and with such
a field of wheat as that is, it will make
batter-cakes taste pretty good,'' When
| went to bed that night there was not
a cloud. In the night, sometime, /
woke up suddenly. | thought the air
smelled as though it had rained. | got
up and looked out of the window.
could see the stars shining, but all
across the bottom it looked white.
thought, There must have been lit
tie shower" and the fog was rising. |
went back to bed. As | did SO the
| thought struck me. That is water,'
I bounced out of bed and dressed in a
hurry. When / opened the door could
| hear the water roar. | ran down to
the bluff-and such a sight. A steam
boat could have run all over those
fields. Every fence was gone and the
water was just rolling in great waves
from hill to hill.
As soon as daylight came, which
was not long, could see that every
| Ihay-staek. and all the corn-shocks, all
the fences were gone, and the water
still all over the fields. About noon it
began to go down, so / could see the
ground in places. About four O'Clock
it had got back in its banks. But
such a sight. My wheat was washed
| up in great windrows and piles, in
places covered up with naud: in places
| the bottom of the burrows looked like a
wash-board. My sugar troughs, bar
rels, and every vestige of my camp.
except my kettles, were on the way to
New Orleans.
This was Saturday, the day for our
mail. While | stood looking at the
prospect. some one brought me my
american -4gricalturfst. / took it,
and the first thing | saw was an article
headed, Harrow your Wheat" :"
said, by George! I would like to see
some wheat to harrow, For / don't
see anything that looks like wheat in
this field. But / will read it and see
what you have to say about it. .
read, ITO harrow your wheat in the
spring is as good for the crop as to
plough your corn and it went on to
explain, and what the effects would be.
As | read | said. L will trv it, and if
it makes me any wheat out of this pros
pect, | shall be believer in the Agrf |
culturist all my life; for | don't believe
all the narrowing in the world will do
any good to this wheat. =
By the next Tuesday the ground had |
all dried off nice and good. / had a |
good new harrow and good pair of
horses. | hitched the horses to my |
harrow and went to narrowing. When |
the horses would go through those
piles and windrows of wheat plants, |
they would pile on the teeth of the
harrow, and as We went along the |
wheat plants would fall off and scatter |
all over the ground. / narrowed that
ground until had it thoroughly sifted |
and the wheat well distributed over
the field !,
There was one piece of about half of
an acre that was not as badly washed as
the rest. / measured off one half, and
that ! did not harrow. Now we will |
see if narrowing does any good.
don't have any faith in it, but We will
see The old saying is, the proof of
the pudding is in eating it"
Well, in few days we had some
warm showers and my wheat began to
look little better. The result was,
when I cut that wheaton | did cut it
I don't think / ever cut any better
crop in that field, and when threshed
and cleared up / had four hundred
bushels of just as nice wheat as / ever
raised, and as for that half acre not
sound head was on it. II / had not
narrowed the field / would not have
had head of wheat that year; and did
It pay me, did you think? four humid
red against nothing; and / have found
1t TO pay ever since. But where was
all Of my sugar and nice syrup to put
on the cakes2
| often think if we farmers would
put in less ground, and cultivate what
we do put in better-put the work on
one acre that We put on two or three
We would make better crops. There
is no profit in cultivating poor ground;
it takes just as much labor to till the