The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-04-12
SCENES IN SOUTH GEORGIA.
AMONG THE BRooKs COUNTY COT
TON AND CORN FIELDS.

Man Represented BROOKS County In
the Georgia Reeorstruction Convention.
oUITMAN, Ga, April s.-"Come out to the
smoke house, 4" said Major Cutler; that tells
the story Of a plantation in these days"
The Major, ut over eighty years of age. had
Just come In from n horseback ride OF six or
eight miles over his 30 00-acre plantation.
leading the buggy In which rode Judge Joseph
Trlman and the writer. jumping down here
and there TO open n gate or let down bars. point
ing ont from one hilltop n 0O0.acre field
ploughed and ready to he sown with cotton
from another n 40O.acre field planted with
corn. and climbing nimbly among the timbers
OF HE gin house. under which lies a rich bed
Of phosphate.
BE careful there. - he had said frcm the depths
of the gin.house cellar, where he had gone TO
get II sample of the phosphate; when the state
Geolouist came down here to examine this stuff
he slipped and took n dive into the water"
As he spoke NJ the smoke house the Major
took II big key from It's place on the wall, for a
Georgia smoke house is not a place to stand
with open doors.
A dozen times that morning, at q dozen diff
ferent plantations, the Judge and the writer
had been invited To VISIT the smoke house. 1t
IL q detached building always, perhaps on nc
count Of the danger Of fire. built always Of logs
IL DDhTubs III NuIitS Al cih Och iNNb w
twenty feot square. according TO the size of
the plantation. Major Cutters Is of the larg.
est size. and as he threw open the door, there
Issued q real Southern breakfast odor of smoke
and bacon. The only visible roof In the In
terror was pork in lite dried and smoked stage.
Small timbers. studded with hooks, ran from
end to end, and from every hook hung a ham, q
shoulder, or Q slab OF bacon. These Georgia
delicacies hung not only close enough to
touch. but were packed close together, 80 that
the entire ceiling WAS a mass of smoked pork.
In the middle OF the floor four boards were
nailed together like a box, and this. filled with
earth, was the fireplace.
How many animals do you kill for planta-
ton use?'' the Major was asked.
About forty or fifty hogs every fall. " he re-
piled. but that generally leaves us some
cured bacon to sell. We try our best to eat It
up. but II can't always be done. Brooks coun-
ty hams have made q repu tation for them
selves. and our bacon Is as much q cash staple
as cotton. No doubt the Judge has told you
that this county is called the Hog Heaven
because we export moro than a million pounds
of pork every year.. besides eating all we cam"
To find such a smoke house on one large and
well managed southern Georgia plantation
would have had no significance, but 1t was
the same thing everywhere; not only on the big
plantations. but on the little ones; not only
on the small farms, but among the negro cabins.
He is a poor Georgia negro. in rural Brooks
county. who has not his own log smoke house
stocked with provender to make his heart glad
on cold winter mornings.
With his big cotton fields a dozen miles or
more from Quitman. and his real old fashioped
plantation house. surrounded by the cabins of
easily be mistaken for a real old time South
ern planter, And so he Is II thirty years Of
fSsieh Of Pit thoses Thirty fa r %s years s'h he sI is as s" good s% go %
down East Yankee as Massachusetts ever pro-
duced; Nobody would suspect, to hear the
the blue uniform of a Major in the United
back peaceably and bought his 1000
acres of. land in Brooks county, and became
one Of the people. as many another Northern
They are fond of telling here a story of
Major Cutters early days In Brooks county:
put Georgia back into the Union. Those were
fences and barns and cabins Of Brooks county
were only whitened embers lying in deserted
in the State. was cnt,tled to send one delegate
to the Convention In :Milledgeville that was
a ,sstin %Sea to tS s.vs ee GsSFg Cooked " n ssoa s's ,n.m in f life =
good. man to send they could find no man
Of the important trust than Major
ton. and had heen a Federal soldier. but they
knew that, his heart was with the country. and
= Much to everybody's surprise. while the
Convention was still in session. the Major
why. what's the matter. Major, was
adjlH xsIssr5 ysSiS h ssfa done lion Msi T sn ystsr
members Of the Convention are nothing but a
to stay and deliberate with such fei.
lows AS that. l guess mott and away he went
out to his plantation a. Ia NJ Possibly ii he may have
'colored field hands, but at all events Brooks
county considered the point well taken. and
Union without her aid.
Isaac NJ; Cutler. the Majors brother. a re-
on the plantation, and deyotes the time to
shooting, birds In the south Georgia forests.
by the welcome he gave his visitors.
have just finished dinner" said he: but
70 matter mu r., Come right in there is plenty of
This is only a sample, of the plantations one
finds, in driving south from Quitman through
ter and no larger than scores Of others. And
the same thing is found on going rorthyard.
passenger naturally concludes that the whole
Of south Georgia is a great pine forest; hut he
n has sn only !, r TO stop a, at d q station b, and drive " mile
Far from being fiat. the country i as undu-
lating as any farmer could desire: In this sec
cred a little iaunt. and fifty or sixty miles is a
good days drive; and in such a drive the tray
elle- finds himself on a hilltop every half hour
or so-on, a hill high enough to mman
miles OF the surrounding country.
From the top Of any one of these hills the
scene is strikingly suggestive of the Mohawk
Valley in New York or IT." Chester Valley in
Pennsylvania. More hills rise in the distance,
and lively streams flow through the valleys.
II is as little like the Northern notion OF he
far south as can be imagined, except that tho
March ana April suns shine not, and the green
woods are bright with dog wood flowers. Every
field in sight is ploughed, ready for planting. or
has been planted. or Tie p.oughs ARE running
II. Some great fields, often three or
four hundred acres. are green witt. oats. In
the fields not only men are at work, but wu-
men, too, all colorcd. Men and boys do the
hut the planters who SOW their cot
ton by hand are fond OF getting experienced
pld women 10 sow the seed. They say that mo-
body can SOW cOttouseed as evenly or as care
fully as the old woman who has been at such
work all her life.
There should be Just about so many seeds
dropped 10 the lineal yard, and the old woman
gets them there every time. She loes II with
. peculiar motion unknown To- seed sewers In
the North. With the lag of seed sluug over
her sh9qldc". she dips her hand into the open
the back Of the hand uppermost. she
throws them into the row with almost exactly
the motion Of n woman thrOVyiup A gtnIie AT "A