The Savannah morning news., 1900-06-18
THE FARM AND THE GARDEN.
MATTERS OF INTEREST TO AGRI-
CULTURIsT AND HOUSEWIFE.

Booms and Crazes With Respect to
Farmtng-The Fad Now is AnGOra
Goats-How HorserAdish is Guilt
vated-Poultry ms soil Improvers.
In some locality or another and to an
extent greater or less, as circumstances
seem 10 warrant, there is boom or craze
about some new feature in farming affairs
always on hand. There may never b
again exactly such "crazes" that prevailed
some years ago in respect to hyacinth
bulbs or Shanghai chickens, but there is
usually something more or less like these
in some locality or another in this very eX-
tensive country. Just now in one secti7n
it is Angora goats exciting the ruralists
that would venture upon something that
seems to promise better profits than the
staple crop of the locality. In another
section 1t is celery. In another ginseng.
In another Belgian hares in still another
Angora cats! And so on. While the great
masses of farmers are true to traditions
and ho,d the even tenor of their way with
the crops their fathers painted and cult
waited without any thought of a hankering
after new things, still there are goodly
number in the aggregate who allow their
discomfort at the p.odding way of growing
rich with the Old groupings of the fathers
to lead them to new and radical changes
in their farm arrangements. They may
not all give up the old crop altogether,
but they venture upon them chiefly as
side issues. hoping, however, to soon dem
onstrate that they may safely cut aloose
entirely from the system than in all these
years of following stil leave them poor
and far short of the success they had
some years ago aspired to- In every sec
ton of our broad country the farmers are
keenly on the look for something new and
of better promise There are plenty of
good sober farmers who are ready to I'M
dertake even the raising of Angora cats
as well as Angora goats If they could only
be assured that there is sure money in
the Undertaking. We are told that some
Pennsylvania farmers had established
skunk farms a year or two ago. believing
there is money in it, and from all ac-
counts there are considerable numbers OF
Northern farmers who are engaged or
about to engage in raising ginseng to sell
TO the heather Chinee.
1t. has occurred to us frequently of late
that 1t is rather sad commentary upon
our boosted advance in civilization that
there should be held out to the Northern
tiller of the soil more promise of wealth
in such crops as tobacco, celery, ginseng,
Angora cats, and one or two others, than
in those more useful products that repre-
sent food and clothing for the civilized
man and woman. We are not at al dis
posed to speak disparagingly of that de-
lightful luxury, q Havana" cigar, or the
beached, crisp stalk of celery. nor do we
condemn the silky little animal purring
upon the hearth rug, but that they should
be so highly priced as to render more use
full plants and animals less desirable and
less sought after IS sources of profit does
seem to us reflection upon the sanity
of modern men or women.
There is q place in the world, no doubt
for what we term luXurles, but is there
not vast disappointment when an
Angora cat sells Tor $4,000, carnation
plant for $4,000, a bushel of wheat for ST.
and somewhere about 50O,C00OOO in want OF
the dollar to buy the bushel of wheat?
There is money 10 burn somewhere. The
legitimate farmer has little or none OF it.
We would advise him to boom something
and join a craze of some kind.