Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1910-06-23
AGRICULTURE in EMPIRE STATE
AS SEEN BY A FORT MILL MAN
Dahying the Principal Industry, but
Grain and Fruit growing Also Re-
ceive Much Attention.
written for The Times.)

written for The Times.)
Farming in New York State
differs greatly from that in South
Carolina-the soil is different,
the climate is different, and thus
the crops are different.
Dairying is the greatest agri-
cultural industry in New York
State. Nearly every farmer has
a herd of at least Is or 20 cows,
and often as high as SO or even
a hundred. The Holstein is the
popular cow. The Jersey and
Ayrshire are seldom seen, the
Guernsey much more often, but
the Holstein is everywhere. She
is large, lazy, eats a lot, but gives
great quantities of good milk,
and the modern Holstein is not
bad butter producer.
Most of the milk is sold 70 the
Borden company for about 2
cents a quart. The Bordens
ship it in regular milk trains to
New York and other large
Eastern cities, where they get
Scents a quart for it, yet the
farmers make money at 2 cents.
Of course every dairy farmer
raises most or all of his feed,
consisting of clover, timothy,
and alfalfa hay, corn silage, the
different grain crops, such as
corn, wheat, oats, barley and
rye. Much hay is raised for the
market, being baled and shipped
to the cities where it commands
a high price. The busiest season
on a New York farm is in July
during the hay harvest, when all
the idle men and boys of the
towns and cities go out into the
hay fields to earn their ST. 25 or
$1.50 a day.
Corn, wheat and oats are i'm
portant crops. The corn is
planted in hills and forced to
rapid growth and early maturity
on account of the short season,
it being their endeavor to harvest
it in not more than 12O days
from planting.
Fruit growing is a profitable
industry. There are few who
enter into it without drawing
comfortable incomes. 1t seems
that the most prosperous New
York farmers are apple growers.
There are many sections of the
State where apples are grown
that equal the famous Hood
River apples of Oregon in beauty
and even surpass them in flavor.
Niagara county, in New York, is
famous for its grapes, apples
and pears. Cherries and plums
are grown for the city market.
Peaches are also grown but not
as successfully as in the South,
for in New York the peach seems
to be out of it's natural environ
ment.
Dairying, hay, and fruit are
the principal lines, but the New
York State farmers follow others
to greater or less extent. The
raising of truck crops, especially
on muck lands, is a growing in
dustry. The raising of blooded
stock, horses, cattle, swine, ETC., =,
rivals that of the blue grass re-
gion of Kentucky and Tennessee.
Beef, cattle, sheep, and poultry
come in for a share.
One noticeable thing is that
fho forroo,-c ora oil I'M fo doto ~,
their ideas and practices. They
are guided by the experiment
stations, they hold conventions
and farmers Institutes, they
patronize farm demonstration
trains. The Grange, a national
association of farmers, is a pow
erful factor in the prosperity of
New York State.
The condition of farm labor is
excellent. The average farm
laborer in the North is a young
man. usually a native white,
sometimes a foreigner. He re-
ceives from $40 to $50 a month,
according to ability, and his
board and washing. He is treat
ed as one of the family, eats
with them, goes to church OF
any neighborhood social func-
tion with them and has the use
of horse and buggy when he
wishes to take his best girl for 6
ride on Sunday afternoon or the
Fourth of July.
On the whole we must con.
,clude that the New York farmer
is a nrOSnerOuS man. The very