The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1909-05-13

(By DR.. B. F. Ward. in Union Adyo-
cate.

cate.)
Solomon said, "The sluggard will
not plough by reason of cold: there
fore, he shall beg In harvest and have
nothing"
This famous Jew, in practice, was
not exactly an exemplar in good NOR
ais, but he had great deal of COM
MON sense. In fact, much OF his
philosophy has not been improved up
ON to this day. His advice was al
ways good, though he did not always
take heed of his own counsel.
I'm Hebrew, the meaning of the
word,, Solomon, is Man of Peace,
and seldom has name been more
expressive of a mans character.
Solomon was a man of peace. He
did not love strife. He had no mill
tary genius and did not seek to- ex-
tend and strengthen his kingdom by
war and conquest as many of the
other Jewish kings had dome and yet,
under his reign the throne of Israel
reached the highest point of its glory
and granduer.
The Jews have never taken to ag-
riculture in any age. For many gem
erations they have lawless and noma-
die Cowboys, 'and like the cowboy of
today, they were always in search of
wider pastures and ready for a
scrap" with anybody who question
ed their right to depredate upon
their neighbors. Many of the people
whom they conquered and plundered
were civilized and rich in agricu[
ture. Solomon was a man Of WON
derfuI observation and versatility OF
talent. He loved wine, women, and
wisdom and, from these subjugated
people, he learned to love agricult-
ure and had evidently made it study
From the fact that it seems to
have been cold and not heat that
deferred the farmer from ploughing
I'M Palestine, in consequence OF which
he lost his crop and was reduced to
beggary, 1T is evident that Solomon
regarded winter ploughing as indist
pensable to successful farming. A
good crop could not be safely calcu-
lated on then, any more than now,
without previous preparation of the
land in order to be ready for seed
ing when the warm spring weather
should arrive.
BENJAMIN Franklin, said,
Plough deep
While sluggards sleep,
And you will have corn
To sell and to keep
That is everlastingly true as the
old proverb that honesty is the best
policy" man is simply a fool to
be dishonest. If he should cheat
the Jail and accumulate money by
dishonesty, his conscience will kindle
for him a hell ON earth, to say moth
ing of the probable temperature that
may await him in the "undiscover-
ed country"
If our lands in Mississippi were
thoroughly broken to a depth of ten
to eighteen inches so that the rains
falling on them would penetrate and
percolate to the deep, well broken
and spongy snbsoil, instead of rushing
and carrying with them the thin SUI
perficia1 soil, We would soon begin
to see the difference in productive
ness. 1 know 1t will be claimed that
If our lands that are subject to over
flow were broken during the winter
they would wash away; but it must
be remembered that only very small
per cent of our lands in cultivation
are subject to overflow | have lived
i'm this section of Mississippi since
1916 and talked with many old citi-
zenS who came here Immediately af-
ter the Choctaws had been exiled
from their homes and the graves of
their fathers, and have frequently
heard these old men say that you
could easily rum walking stick into
the ground to the depth of twelve int
ches almost anywhere in the woods.
Why was this? 1t was because the
Indians, ever since their occupancy,
had regularly burned the woods every
spring, thus destroying all under
growth and securing a thick anG
abundant crop of grass and wild pea
vines, the roots OF which kept the
sod loanny and porous, so that all
the rainfall soaked deep into the earth
instead of running off and taking the
soil with it, Here we had, to per-
fectionL the same results which We
may secure, in large measure from
deep ploughing. Then there We're no
washes or deep gulFes in the woods,
now there are plenty of them. Then
the creeks and branches all had cham
nels, now they have practically none
because shallow ploughing has permit
ted the soil of the fields to be car
ried down by the rains and deposited
in the beds of the streams.
Strange as 1T may seem, the wood
land in Mississippi has gradually
grown poorer for fifty years. Where
one half of a body of rich woodland
was cleared and brought into cultir
vation fifty CIR seventy-five years and.
the other half left uD1isturbed in
virgin forest, for half or three-Quar-
ters of a century, it was found that
the portion cleared fifty years ago
was richer and more productive than
the remaining portion will be when
brought into cultivation now.
The reason is apparent. AS the
country settled up and safety to the
fencing made it necessary to- quit
burning the grass i'm the early spring,
a dense underground soon took pos
session of the woods and chohed out
the grass an1 vines Consequently,