The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-07-12
BILL ARP'S LETTER
Disoour8es Upon The Damage
Wrought By Inoessant Rains
TELLS ABOUT HIS WONDERFUL BEANS
And Reverts to the Story of Jack and
the Bean Stalk"-Digresses to other
Topics.


morning that we have had in three
weeks-for twenty-one days it has
rained every day save one. The crops
are in bad fix; the corn and cotton
are hidden by grass and weeds and
labor is scarce, for the negroes are
wanted in the mines. Most of the
wheat has been cut, but how much of
it will be saved cannot yet be told.
Within my recollection of fifty years
[ do not recall so much rain in har-
vest time. According to scripture, it
seems to be the same old story, for
Solomon says, GAS rain in harvest SO
is honor unseemly in. fool" They
had too much rain and too many
fools then just as we do now. Maybe
Providence sends the rain to try the
farmer-to make them diligent and
shifty.
I travelled on the East and West
railroad last week for so miles and I
noted some farms that were clean and
nice-the corn and cotton chopped out
and the wheat shocked in the field; one
of these belonged to widow, and she
and her three girls and one boy were
just finishing the cotton. Markham
dident write anything about the woman
with the hoe, nor the girls, but one of
these girls was merry enough to wave
her bonnet at somebody on the train
besides me. Some farmers sit down
and wait for tomorrow's sun to dry off
the ground; but tomorrow's sun dident
shine, and so they wait till next day.
Others slap in every chance and do
something; 1 know one who began to
cut his wheat Monday morning just as
soon as Sunday was gone-for Sunday
was the day it did not rain. He cut
half that night and all day Monday
and got through with his 30 acres, and
he says he will make 700 bushels.
Another diligent farmer made 400
bushels last year on twenty acres, and
sowed it right away to cowpeas and
sold his peavine hay for more per acre
than he got for his wheat. That is
business-and Solomon says, "Seest
thou man diligent in his business;
he shall stand before kings" am
no braggart, but let me say that if l
had waited for the rain to quit would
be singing that old song, ga man of
words, but not of deeds, is like gar
den full of weeds" l worked between
showers, and sometimes when Mrs.
Arp called and called me to come in
| 2out of the rain I pretended l didn't
hear her, and struck a few more ticks
for Mr.. Mark ham. / wish you could
see my bean arbor-not butter beans,
but the best and most prolific bean l
ever planted. l had them last year on
my corn patch, but they do better on
poles or over a cane arbor. Plant two
rows of beans five feet apart, and
when they are we'll up stick them with
canes. Lap the small ends of the
canes together on the ground, and get
your wife or daughters to tie them in
three or four places-all of uniform
length-then arch them over the
beans, and nature will do the rest.
/ never saw half as many beans as
hang from my vines. OF course the
rains have stimulated the growth of
everything, and it's lucky the vege-
tables grow upward instead of outward.
planted my potatoes in trench that
was shoveled out and MANFRED with
ashes-wood and coal mixed-then
covered with pine straw and some earth
on that. They are the finest l ever
grew, and come out of the straw al
most clean enough to cook without
washing Pine straw is very valuable
in garden and is cheap, costing only
80 cents for good load. 1t is good
mulch for strawberries, and l am ex-
perimentlng with it under few to-
mato plants; most of them I have
! trained up to stakes, but I saw a mar
Nket garden near Memphis and all the
tomato vines had tumbled over on
wheat straw, and made more fruit,
though not so large and fine as when
staked.
A garden is a small experimental
farm, and is of as much consequence
and more pleasure, especially if you
mix flowers with it. Don't throw away
your coal ashes; mixed with wood
ashes, they are a fine fertilizer. Mr..
Berckmans says that ashes produce
fruit, while stable manure produces
vine and foliage. Ashes will double
Lu6 Qudullly VI SlIaW DclIlSo' DOSlS
generally come up too thick. Thin
them out and transplant; cut off part
of the tops, and the transplants will
make the best beets. just so with
celery. But don't propose to teach
old gardeners, for some of them can
teach me-my neighbor, Mrs. Fields,
is the best gardener 1 know of, aud
am satisfied if can keep up with her.
have some of my wonderful beans
planted to poles. The poles are from
eight to ten feet high, and it interests
me to see the bean vines reaching uI
to ind something higher to cling to.
The tendrils are now two or three feet
higher than the poles, and still reach.
ing up and feeling around in the air.
4 am going to give them some fishing
i pdles fifteen feet long today-wish
had some twenty feet long.
III They remind me of Jack and his
bean vine-my children and grand
N cbildran nevar tire of that good old