The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-07
FARM,

Farm NOtCs-SCme December WORK
As a rule there is very little work
done on the Southern farm during this
month. Mores the pity! To the OBJ
server travelling the public highways at
this season the country presents a
desolate and forsaken appearance.
There is little life to be seen. For
the tenant farmer especially it is a
time of absolute rest except so much
as is given up to recreation or his
particular sport. 1t may be only rab-
bit hunting.
There is very little blowing to be
seen. The merry song or shout Of the
plowman is hushed. There is very
little too to be seen in the way of
clearing any new land for cultivation.
1t used to be a distinctive feature Of
the December landscape in the South.
Except in a few out-of-the-way local.
tbs there is very little woods land
worth being brought into cultivation.
There is little native growth left any
where now in the domain of cotton.
Much of the land that bore its ma
turaI growth a hundred years ago is
now bearing it's second or third growth
of stunted trees of one kind or an
other. 1t is not worth bringing back
into cultivation now.
Where the land was at all rolling
these second and third forest growths
are all SCARED with gaping gullies,
steadily broadening into ravines.
They might be converted into very
fair sheep or Angora goat pastures but
il is not for the tenant farmer or any
farmer without capital to so utilize
such lands. 1t must be left to the
future for farm companies or men
with large cash capital to develop the
pastoral farming that these broad
tracts of Impoverished soil are alone
adapted to. 1t is all in the world
they are fit for. 1t may be many
many years before this land is proper
" utilized and made to pay its prop
er interest on the investment. An
other generation may see 1t. win
the extensive adoption of the no-fence
law, together with the almost complete
substitution of wire for fencing ma
terial. there is still other excuse for
the inactivity in the Southern rural
landscape in December. There is lit
tie fence making and repairing nova
DAYS as was the case even twenty
five years ago, when much of December
was devoted to that necessary feature
of Southern farm life.
Then again there is little or no ditch
ing or terracing done in these De
cember days, compared to what was
done fifty or twenty-five years ago.
The average negro tenant can not De
counted on to even clean or open out
the drainage bitches that are still more
or less necessary to carry off the excess
of water, and that were established Tor
the purpose when the land was open
cd up years ago All this being true
or even partially so, what is there
left for the Southern farmer to 90
III the way of enlivening the hfeless,
lonesome Landscape of the closing
month of the year. Is there nothing
for him to do that will in some meas
,1re diminish the appearance OF desola-
ton that settles down upon field and
forest soon after the last locks of cot
ton have been garnered and the last
nubbin of corn cribbed?
AS is often the case December may
be a month with many days of splen-
did weather for outdoor work-plow-
ing, sprouting. terracing, hauling out
and applying lot manure to the tur-
rows, etc.
January may afford. as it oftener
than not. does day after day of such
Indictment weather. it will be impos-
sible to do any outdoor work. Three
Nears out of five, these relative con-
ditions characterize the two months.
December being more of working
month than January. January pad
weather frequently extends into Feb
ruary. Such seasons scores OF regrets
must come to the farmer for having
failed to make a proper use of sea-
sonable december. 1t brings COM
Portable feeling along in January. when
snow and sleet and rain hold their
sway to know that the foundation
dork has been laid--that the fields
have been listed up, that much, II
not all, of the strong, bulky, hot ma
nure has been put into burrows ana
covered so that it may begin the pro-
cess of decomposition.
December days are short days-at
most "nine-hour days" but they are
glorious days for working whenever
the soil is in suitable condition for
blowing. Except in the extreme South
ern part there is little farm work In
the way of sowing seeds or plant
ing.
There is plenty of work in the or
chard to be sure! The old trees can
he pruned and the soil drawn away
from close about the trunk, leaving
the base we'll exposed down to the
main roots. All dead. broken or sick
Nv looking limbs should be cut out.
Where the new fruiting branches are
thick, they should be carefully thln-
ned out. There is a lot of interest ting
and profitable work to be done in the
orchard and vineyard during this
month and the two following. 1t Is
we'll to do as much of it as pos
sible in December. Are you planting
out any young trees of any KIND
peaches. plums, pears, pecans?
Nearly every young white farmer
that owns his farm is doing something
in this way and it is we'll that he
is, There will always be profitable
market for first-class fruit and nuts.
II is well to set a few trees at time,
for then the work is better done.
Twenty-Five trees carefully set out and
cared for each season will soon es-
tablish a very nice orchard that IN
time will pay many times more than the
same area in corn and cotton. The
future Georgia will probably be fam
Gus for her big orchards and her broad
pastures and meadows.
Peach Tree Pruning.
Some of our readers may ask why
orchardists make so much of pruning