The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-17

of prosperity and this is also true of all the towns along this line through Georgia on to Waycross where night overlook us and we turned south for Florida.
 Room for Improvement.
 While, as stated, the country has made great advances along any lines, yet there is room for, and there should be a still better system of farming carried on l want to mention here a few things which to my mind would aod greatly to the beauty as we'll as to the fertility of the soil and bring to the country larger revenue.
 Drainage.
 I will first notice the matter of drainage Much of the land through which this sec ton would be greatly benefited by a good system of tile drainage There is no doubt in my mind but that much of their lands has an acidor sour sub --iI nd this can best be converted by drainage, subsoiling and the use of lime. When we have such rains as we are now having and when wa ter is allowed to stand co~ering the soil for days it has a bad effect upon it and some means should be provide for carry ing off this surplus water from these level farms, and tile drainage is best and cheapest in the end.
 Again many of these fine farms would look better if there was less stumps and bush on them. Then again stock should , not be allowed on land this wet weather as we see them doing through the country. Again these farms would look much prettier set to winter pasture, rye and such or to alfalfa than they do with old dry cotton stalks standing on bare soil Object Lessons.
 A few farmers alonr tho line have pro- vided winter pasture by sowing rye or winter oats, and every such effort has proven a success and is furnishing an 1 object lesson of what can be done where one will only try to do. Nor Is this all we saw on many farms, fine fields of turnips and collards and these every farmer can and should have on the farm. Why just to think of a farm with nothing growing Ion it green either for man or stock for six months of the year. What kind of living is it? There is really no excuse whatever for such neglect in this country This is said to be one of the everest win ters ever known in the south. Yet we see winter rye growing right ahead and furn- ishing fine grazing for all stock. Strange that when a farmer can see what his neighbor is doing in this respect he will nowt follow the example Why it will cost only about s1 .00 for aeed rye to SOW one, acre and every acre of land in all the south should be covered over all winter with some growing crop if nothing in the way of clovers or grasses have been provided the next best thing will be to SOW winter rye wintaer oats and winter vech.
 Then think of the vast amount of com fort a family may receive from a good supply of winter vegetables and there is a line of such that may grown almost any winter in this section as well as In many other section of the south. I see gardens green with winter cabbage. eel cry. collards, lettuce. onions, rale mus tard. parsley and turnips, but the trouble is that these gardens are few and far apart. They should be seen cn every farm.
 Crops Damaged by Frost.
 The cold wave extended through Florida and all oranges on the trees except few in protected localities were frozen and rendered worthless. I saw hundreds of bushels on the ground under the trees all of which have no value. The trees are badly damaged also and many young trees may be entirely killed. The damage to vegetables has also been heavy all tender vegetables such as beans. and to- matoes were killed. Such crops at cab bage celery and cauliflower seemed to have sufferer very little. The loss of the tomato crop os the greatest loss in veg etables.
 Great activity in planting and preparing to plant crops is noted. Planters are preparing for planting large crops of water melons and cant1oupes. I saw few small gorden plots of Irish potatoes up and looking well which seem 4 to have escaped injury by the cold. I will leave Jacksonville today. Sunday. February 12 for trip to Mobile and New Orleans dis tricts and may have something to say of crops fin those sections