The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-07-01

weeks-for twenty-one days 1T 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, Tor
Solomon says, ''As rain in harvest so
is honor unseemly in a fool" They
had too much rain and too many fools
then Just as we do now. Maybe Prov
idence sends the rain to try the far
mers-to make them diligent and
shifty. / Travelled on the East and
West railroad last week for sixty
miles and | noted some farms that
were clean and nice-the corn and
cotton chopped out and the wheat
shocked in the field; one of these be-
longed to widow, and she and her
three girls and one boy were just fin
ishing the cotton. Markham didn't
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 be-
sides me. Some farmers sit down and
wait for tomorrow's sun to dry off
the ground but tomorrow's sun didn't
shine, and so they wait till next day.
Others slap in every chance and do
something. / know one who began to
cut his wheat Monday morning, just
as soon as Sunday was gone, for Sun
day was the day it did not rain. He
cut half that night and all day Mon
day and got through with his thirty
acres, and he says he will make 700
bushels Another dilgent farmer
made 400 bushels last year on twenty
acres, and sowed it right away to cow
peas and sold his pea vine hay for
more per acre than he got for his
wheat That is business, and Solo
mon saws: 'SeeSt thou a man diligent
in his business; he shall stand before
kings" / am no braggart, but let
me say that if | had waited for the
rain to quit | would be singing that
old song, GA man of%words but not
of deeds is like a garden full of
weeds / worked between showers,
and sometimes when Mrs. Arp called
me to come in out of the rain / pre-
tended / didn't hear her, and struck
few more ticks for Mr.. Markham.
/ wish you could see my bean arbor-
not butter beans. but the best and
most prolific bean | have ever plant
ed; 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 well 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 vegetables grow up
ward instead of outward. / planted
my potatoes in a trench that was
shoveled out and manured with
wood and coal mixed, then
covered with pine straw and some
earth on that. They are the finest |
ever grew, and come out of the straw
almost clean enough to cook without
washing. Pine straw is very valuable
in garden and is cheap, costing only
80 cents for a good load. 1t is good
mulch for Strawberries, and | am eN-
perimenting with it under a few to-
mato plants; most of them | have
trained up to stakes, but | saw a mar
ket garden near Memphis and all the
: tomato vines had tumbled oyer on
wheat straw, and made more fruit
though not so large and fine as when
staked A garden is a small expert
mental farm, and is of so much con-
sequence and more pleasure, especial
ly if you mix flowers with it. Don't
throw away your coal ashes; mixed
with wood ashes, they are fine fer
tiliZer. Mr.. Berkmans says that ashes
produce fruit, while stable manure
produces vine and foliage. Ashes will
double the quantity of Strawberries.
Beets 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 gardner / know of, and /
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 up
to find something higher to cling to.
The tendrills are now two or three
feet higher than the poles, and still
reaching up and feeling around in the
air. l am going to give them some
fishing poles fifteen feet long today
wish / had some twenty feet long.
They remind me of Jack and his bean
vine. My children and grandchildren
never tire of that good old story. How
a poor widow had q little boy named
Jack who was good to his mother,
and one day Jack saw an old giant
coming. His head was as big as a
small barrel, his eyes as big as saul
GERS, his nose as big as my arm, his
mouth like the end ora big stove pipe
and his teeth like iron spoons. He
came up the road snorting like a
horse, and was singing;
81 smell the blood of an Englishman;
Alive or dead | must have some."
Jack ran in the house to his mother
Il