The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-01-11
Farming i'm the South.

A long time ago the farmers of Yer.
mont and the farmers of Georgia lived
in the same land and were on level
in all that goes to make up intelligence,
activity and ability to get on in life.
You will find the same names of peo-
pie here that you do in any of the coun-
try towns in Vermont where the for
eigner has not crowded out the Yankee
stock. The Northerner has striven to
get more than mere living, his mind
has grown, he has in measure kept
up with the progress of the age. He
has gone to school, has read, has had
more or less money to procure culture
andssome Injuries. The Southern far
mer has gone backward; probably many
of the country people of the South are
not 30 high in the scale of civilization
as their ancestors were when they left
England. The farmer of the South for
the most part just barely lives, and it is
the poorest kind of living you might
think, yet he has enough to eat, and is
no doubt vastly better off than the low
er classes in the over.crowded tene-
ments of the great cities. But there is
in the Southern farmer a lack of man.
illness. He lives in shabby house,
wears shabby clothes, rides in shabby
wagon drawn by mule in shabby
harness, and has a shabby look gener-
ally. But he is kihd-hearted man
and takes lots of comfort. OF course
there are well-to do farmers, many fam
lilies are above this low level, dress well,
live in comfortable houses, drive good
teams, but the great mass are what
have described. OF course the farm
ing of such men must be shabby. They
do not take farm papers, not few of
them are unable to read at all, MANY
can read little, but modern farm
paper would be beyond them. This is
why they cling so to cotton growing.
They know how to grow that, newer
things they are afraid Of They know
how to grow corn, but to Northerner
it is strange way they have of doing
this. l have never seen the method
described in print, and it will interest
the reader.
Corn is planted here in March so
warm is the weather at that time of
year. 1t is necessary for crops to be
put in early while the ground is moist
from the winter rains, 30 that the corn
especially can get a good start before
the hot dry weather comes on. Cotton
will make crop on the winter rains
alone, but corn dries up from the heat
in the light soils here, yet there is usu-
ally rain enough sometime during the
summer to make crop. Only one
stalk of corn is grown in hill. This
seems foolish, but it is the universal
way in this part of the south. 1t grows
very tall, and there are generally two
ears on stalk. Corn is not cut as it is
in the north, but is stripped, that is the
leaves are pulled off and the stalk taken
off above the ears and these are made
into little bundles and constitute the
main part of the fodder used here.
The main stalk and the ears are al
lowed to stand in the field until the !
farmer gets ready to pull of the cars
which may be any time during the win
ter. The stalks are left in the field,
never gathered, the ears are often
packed away in the husks and husked
only as wanted, the husks being fed to
stock. The white corn makes splendid
neal, but there was time when we
could get no southern-made -four that