The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-19
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IN THE WIRE oRAs.
Cotton Poor-Corn Good-C Country
 Fast Developing.

GoILon 6OOf--Uorn Good-GOu0Lfy
 Fast Developing.
 Andalusia. Ala. Aug. 1T, 1903. Editor The Advertiser:
 home for an outing of several days in the wire-grass counties Our route. led us by way of OaK Bluff, Goshen Hill and Henderson. Ala, where We spent near and dear to us by the ties of na- ture. Here Henderson, we have a fa- ther and mother, dear brother and q never-t0-be-forgotten sister sleeping in the quiet grave. where loving friends laid them several years ago. Out of family or twelve at one time, ten are under the ali that are left of So large a family only lew years since.
 The fact that l have an only brother living draws the cords of brotherly love aronnd him stronger and stronger as the
 Saturday morning at o'clock we turn ca our faces In the direction of Andalu- westerly direction, which place we reach- ed early in the afternoon of the same day. where we are resting in the home of one of our sons, who. in common with a lot of others, is seeking to enlarge his bank account by legitimate methods.
 We are at least seventy miles from home, every mile of which contains more or other useful products. Having the ob- seryation of a long life, l am sure, do not exaggerate when say l never saw as much sorry cotton in any one year, and I will be equally as truthful to say never saw as much grassy cotton in any one year.
 As a rule, corn Is good and the whole country will be able. to bread itself for the next year, but 1 see no way for full cotton crop to be made It Is irn- possible for cotton, now very small and Can't make a crop of cotton and crop or grass at the same time on the same land. Tt can't be did," Now and then they are few and far between: they are truly the exception and not the rule, and desire to call the attention of your readers to this fact, that every. field of tilth, while all the sorry cotton, al- most without exception. is grassy.
 As Dewey's brilliant victory at Manila guns. so I am ready to conclude that the farmers success must depend upon how the man behind the. blow holds and cotton are plowed just before they need 1t, there will be no large grass found in it to steal away the plant food.
 The counties of Pike. .Crenshaw and Covington. are being developed very fast In an agricultural way. was proud 10 find such large areas of virgin soil await ing. the ..'woodman's ak" Here one can farm is not in your way; the hens lay on your own land and the biddies scratch the fat worm all around the premises with no let or hindrance from the strange cockerels or mother hens which are al- ways ready and willing and waiting to get up a general rucus. Andalusia, so long cut off from commercial marts, is now in sight of the whole Southern country, and her surplus is easily laid down be- side similar goods anywhere.
 The day is not far in the future, when Covington will be the garden spot of Alabama. The lands are cheap; they lie for the most part extremely well and the virgin soil will make fine crops without fertilizer; but when fertilized, large crops are made.
 MT. Jesse Jones, young farmer from Montgomery County. near Andalusia, is doing just as well as heart could wish on a beautiful farm, where now his corn stalks are grooming under the weight of the heavy ears, and the cotton is leaning in any direction on account of the great number of bolls which are rapidly matur- ing.
 May write again.
 J. R. McLendon.