The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-06-22

Anxiety For Grain.
 Great anxiety Is now felt for the grain that Is In the shock. and in some sec tions 1t has already begun to sprout in the shocks. 1hrashers can not run this sort of weather. Again the uncut wheat and oats are now dead iipe and falling badly and will soon all be fiat on the ground and clear loss unless stock can be turned in to eat it.
 ie1t Paris early Saturday morning for 5alFeston. travelling all day south through the state About l o'clock we got down 10 where conditions began to improve, ana where only the bottom lands were oVerhowed and crops drowned and where the uplands were not so badly washed. NO farm operations of any sort were to be seen anywhere from the center of the state north. Below the center few sec- tions of high land were so that work could be done There was some har- vesting and now and then cultlvator at work. From Galveston l came to iIous- ton in the night, and early Sunday morn Ing, June 12, I left Houston for New Or leans. l spent all day Sunday travelling through Louisiana. where I find conditions Tor the first time since leaving Birming- ham up to where I left them in my last report. Through this part of Louisiana there has been no heavy washing rains CT storms and crops of all kinds are prom ising and all well advanced. There has been over most of the rain Of the state rain sufficient for the crops, and most of | the crops have been well cultivated and are safe. Thousands of acres of fine corn is now in roastingear and there is mois- | ture enough in sight to finish up the croP.
 { Along the Southern Pacific Railway through Louisiana there Is certainly q thrifty, industrious class of farmers. Here the crops are now more than I claimed for them nearly two weeks ago in my June report. They have been having much more favorable weather for develop ment
 Floods of 1903.
 We are likely to forget and conclude that our present afflictions are the worst ever known. So that in the midst of all this calamity which has swept over such a large area of our country in the last two weeks 1t might be well to compare : this with the same kind of afflictions of last season. The floods of 1903 were far more destructive to town and city prop erty than have been so far the storms and floods of this season. The Kansas ! City flood of last season will go down In history as the greatest up to that time ever known in this country and as | property destroyer this flood has never had an equal Nothing like it or to be compared with 1t has occurred yet this season.
 The loss to crops last season was also very great, but seriously question whether It was up to our present losses, as the floods seem to be more widely spread and far more general in their de- ! structiol to crops and to the soil. Then again the storms and washouts last sea , son came earlier and quit in time for many crops to be replanted Now it is too fate to prepare the soil and replant, besides the supply of seed especially cot ton seed. was exhausted in planting the first crop, on account of the largely in- creased acreage
 SeasonabIe Hints.
 The question is now what can we say or ] do to help these farmers out who have lost their crops. There are a few things that confront them. First, the season is now well advanced; second. there are l thousands of acres that a team can not be got on for week or ten days yet, even 1T 1t were to cease raining; third, what crops that are left will need rapid culti- vation just as soon as the condition of the soil will permit. So it is a serious | question as to what is best to do What | l would do under the circumstances is | this: would try to SOW enough sorghum | l for my stock. then if l had the time to spare I would SOW every foot of my land | to stock peas. These I could use for grain or hay crop. Or if there was no l time to harvest they could be turned un- der to improve the soil However, let me say here that it Is usually a waste to | turn under good crop of peavine hay for fertilizer, as we get this in nitrogen stored on the roots of the pea so that the hay crop saved and fed to stock on the farm and the droppings from the stock saved and turned back to the farm is better economy than to turn under the pea vines.
 But of course in all these matters the farmer will have to be governed by his circumstances and his abll- ity to do these things. However 1t would not be economy to let a present growing crop suffer for cultivation In or der to get late and at least a very un- certain crop planted on lands where crops are washed out. I should push the cul- tivation of what crops l had left and then as 1 could spare the time prepare and plant the lands where crops have been lost. There can be but little hope now for growing another crop of either corn or cotton, and so I would recom- mend only the growing of some hay or forage crops and put the land in peas. these will put the soil in fine condition
 
 Too much can not be said for the cow or stock pea and every farmer should all ways have a supply of seed at hand ready for just such times as the present.
 Labor Question.
 Here is another hard problem that the farmer has to meet. We hear the cry all over the country for help and the farmers can hardly get any extra help. so that this, too, has to be taken Into consideration. Many farmers, especially in the new territories cannot afford to hire. They are stripped of all their means. Many were living in little shacks or tents All they have is water soaked. and the very best they can do is to do what they can with what labor they have ir their own families
 This labor question is becoming more and more serious all the time. and the only way I see for the farmer to protect himself is to grow more grass and stock, to learn the use of improved farm i'm plements, and also how to care for these farm implements so as to get the greatest amount of good rom them, as well as to make them last as long as possible This question of help will have to be con sidered in deterining what Is best to do with the soil where crops have been de- stroyed As l stated in former paper 1t Is not the intention of agricultural writers to dictate to farmers what they should do. but merely to suggest these ! practical matters as help, and leave | the reader to apply them in accordance with his surrounding conditions. Crop Recuperation.