The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-06-17
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Arp Successful In Raising Fine Vegeta.
bieS.
atlanta Constitution.

atlanta Constitution.
"Fate cannot harm mel have
dined to-day" That is the way we
feel just after a good dinner, especial
ly if We have earned it-worked for it
bodily and wanted it. But I have
heard folks say they were never hun
cry and not even the odor of cucum-
bers and onions in the dining room
would excite their appetite. I have
heard others say they had the appe-
tite, but were afraid to indulge it be-
cause of Indigestion. Such folks are
to be pitied. They have my sympa-
thy. But I sincerely believe that
work or physical exercise is a remedy
for both. I suppose that Shakespeare
suffered in this way, for he says,
"Now, let digestion wait on appetite
and health on both" Certain it is
his death was sudden and premature,
for he lived only fifty years. Milton
understood this trouble, too, for he
says that Adams sleep wa sweet, be-
ing bred from pure digestion. That's
the seoret-working in the garden-l
inherited that trait from the old man
Adam, I mean-and I sleep sweet
~, too, after I have worked in my gar
den. There is no insomnia about me,
but Mrs. Arp suffers from it some
| times when I am snoring like q hippo-
potamus.
I was Illuminating about the value'of
a good garden to the family-we had
an excellent dinner today, and l
counted up the cost. W. have five
in the family, and the dinner cost us
only 5 cents apiece, and there was
enough left for two or three more.
We had a small piece of middling
meat, about half , a pound, that was
boiled with the beans, and there were
seven different kinds of vegetables
from m ygarden. The butter and but
termilk was homemade. The rice
and cornmeal and huckleberries cost a
little-not much. Everything was
well-cooked, and all that was wanted
was an appetite and a good digestion.
I am reasonably proud Of my gar
den, for it is all my own work. | pre-.
pared the ground and dressed it and
opened the burrows and planted the
seed and cultivated the plants and
killed the weeds, and it is my espe-
cial pleasure to watch everything as
it grows, and gather the vegetables
and wash them at the back door and
call the good wife and children out to
see them and listen to their compli-
ments. We have had a long drought,
but I had a fortified against it. Every
hill was first spaded out a foot deep
and filled with water, and after it had
soaked into the ground I filled up the
hole with a mixture Of top soil and
barnyard scrapings and sifted ashes
and put OF some more water. Every
furrow I opened for beans and peas
and beets l let water run in it, and
then put the fertilizer in and planted
the seed. I had eighty holes to dig
for tomatoes and forty for ~squashes,
and as many more for cucnmbers, and
Notwithstanding the drought every
thing has grown vigorously. 1t is
hard work, and takes patience to lay
the foundation in this way, but it
pays. Ny squash vines cover a space
of four feet square to each hill, and
nv tomato plants are five feet high
and full of healthy fruit. Well, now
to tell the whole truth, I have a hy-
drant in the center Of the garden and
when the dry, hot weather was at its
worst I opened small trenches close
by the roots of the plants and turned
the water on and let it run slowly and
soak in and afterwards covered the
trenches with dry dirt. This, too, is
trouble, but it paid we'll. Some folks
sprinkle, but that does harm and no
good. 1t bakes the surface and never
reaches the roots--sprinkle nothing
but grass. Where water is plenty and
convenient there is no excuse Tor a
poor garden. 1t is better to dig deep
and fertilize and cultivate a square
rod we'll than to skim over half an
acre "nigger fashion" and see it dry
up when the dry drought as Cobe calls
it, comes. The intensive system is
the best for gardens. I know from
long experience. 1T made me sad to
see the crops on the railroad between
Marietta and Atlanta the other day,
Acres and acres Of corn not six inch.
es high and cotton almost invisible.
1t did look like perishing to death in
the name O. the Lord. It is a poor
country l know, but they could SOW
it down in peas and gradually i'm.
prove it so that u Georgian ,wouldn't
be ashamed for travellers to look out
of the car windows as theyride through
it.
It is astonishing how much inhu.
ence one good farmer has over the
neighborhood in which he lives. They
are very envious of each other and
will try to keep up with the best:
hear some say that their oat crop is q
total failure, and will not be fit to cut,
I see a few acres of oats in a field not
far from me that will make a good
crop. OF course there is something
in the land, but there is more in the
farming. Deep blowing, to begin
with, is absolutely necessary in farm
ing. I don't mean deep turning but
deep blowing. I know a farmer who
always follows the turn pillow with
bull tongue in the same furrow, and
he makes a good crop, whether it rains
or not. My good neighbor, Widow
Fields, has no hydrant in her garden:
but she always has the finest garden
in the town, and the secret is deer
blowing and fertilizing. I a over.
look her work from my window, and
it excites me to keep in hailiug dis
lance. She has an acre in the highest
state of cultivation, and will make more
on it than will be made on fifty acres
of that land below Marietta. Work OF
the gardens must not stop. Keep
planting successive crops every tel,
days or two weeks. and have a fresh
supply. A good, large family car
live we'll on an acre for five months
in the year. Raise your own straw.
berries and raspberries and buy wild
berries enough for jam and jelly
Then, if you have grapes and peache:
around, you can live like a prince and
always have something nice for com