The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1908-07-09

Blyn, Washington. June 26, 1908.
EDITOR GOLD LEAF am a lone
homesteader in the State of Washington
the Western portion thereof. Being a
North Carolinian, | like to read your
paper. | saw an article therein under
date of May Z, and while it is late
day to refer to what was then published,
| cannot refrain from doing SO. I have
laid awake nights almost ever since,
praying for the repose OF the soul OF the
writer OF the article in question which
was headed Corn and Its Uses," and
credited to the Southern CultivatOr. l
always eagerly read articles about corn.
| was raised on a farm and claim to
know corn; also about what quantity
can be produced on an acre, though
for the past 35 years | have been work
ing at the publishers trade, intervening
a decade serving the Government in va
rious capacities, and am now on a ranch,
seemingly returning to my first love.
Now | am somewhat skeptical on
many things, especially when assertions
are made on matters seemingly impossi-
BILE. if not untrue. But when the Guilt
rator says an annual corn production OF
approaching 200 bushels an acre, with
record of 265 an acre, and the GOLD
LEAF has the temerity (?) to republish
that "whopper" without one line OF ex-
PLANTATION CD then | have to ask the
good Lord to also excuse that deluded
editor; for he doth not know what he
doeth. That CultiVa tor editor may not
| be farmer, but know that the GOLD
LEAF editor has planted, thinned, hoed,
plowed and pulled corn-even taken it to
| the mill-and eaten of the corn pone, so
| dear to the appetite of a Southerner
| bred and born. / do not care to doubt
the integrity of these publishers, but
am somewhat of a Missourian when it
comes to telling me 200 bushels OF corn
is an average yield per acre. Why, that
makes 40 barrels (the former Southern
style of measuring corn) to the acre.
| The GOLD LEAF must bear me out that
| during the sixties 40 bushels of corn per
acre was a fine crop and we knew OF
places that would not produce 40 gal
| Ions of corn on an acre. | cannot now
recall the quantity of corn produced on
| the great Pollock farm on the lower
greatest corn producing lands South Of
Missouri from 1855 to 1875.
The late L. B. Manning grew as high
as two bales (of 400 pounds each) of
cotton on his Blue Marsh land in upper
Halifax county in the sixties, when many
farmers could get but one bale on two
acres. And many doubted that two
bales could be produced on one acre, but
such was the case. And his best corn
land produced but 20 bushels an acre.
But when it is claimed that 265 bushels
OF corn can be produced on one acre of
any mans land, not excepting the rich
bottoms of the Nile in Egypt, where Jo-
seph secured his supplies in the days OF
the Pharoahs and Israelites, then you
must "shoW me-"
will say this: In the summer of 1906
1 was in Alberta Territory, Western Can
ada; at Calgary l was shown wheat
that was claimed to have gone 60, and
oats that went over 100 bushels to the
acre. That looked pretty stiff to me-
but didn't see the grain or the area Of
land measured, but was merely told oil
it, and | 'put it in my pipe and smoked
it." That is high farming, but does not
begin to compare with that 200 and
over bushels OF corn per acre as that
Southern CuhiVator claims. l do not
see how he can face a real good ''corn.
dodger" when placed before him on the
table, especially if made from that 265
bushels an acrecrop-without imploring
Providence to accept thanks for the
bountiful supply OF corn-"cornucopia. y
W. T. M.