Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-11-28
OUT IN TENNESSEE.

OUT IN TENNESSEE.
Rev. J. L. Oates Finds Much Of In
terest to Homo People.
Troy, Tenn. November "a: I sup
pose that the farming operations Of
any country are the most interesting
of all. Almost everywhere a store is a
store and a bank Is bank, but dirt
differs. Judged by our standards out
home the soil here is very fertile.
Spread this soil two inches thick over
York county. and II would be as fer
tilizer. No rock, no sand, no clay;
very few quilted hillsides, very few
waste fields, very few deserted homes.
Take some Of the best Kings Creek
bottoms where there Is no sand and no
|craw-fishy clay, and you have very
fair sample of this county. or an al
most pure alluvial type. this soil needs
only to be planted and plowed and
fine crops are produced with little la
bor Some cotton is raised here, but
only as a side issue to the main crops,
corn and wheat. They have been
gathering and marketing ever since
we came out here. The corn Is
/ rslip-shucked in the field and hauled
directly to the market where some Is
placed in the elevator. but the greater
part Is thrown directly into the walt
ing cars for shipment to some corn
cencer. Each two horse load averages
about twenty-five bushels, and the
loads pass by the hundreds They
cover the roads early and late. and
trot to get ahead Of the other wagons,
and gather around the side track wait
ing for their turn at the car door, just
as our wagons wait around the public
gins. The people do not keep up with
the corn market as we do with the cot
ton. I cannot find anyone who knows
the amount this county has produced
In the past. how much 1t Is making
this year. how much Is kept at home.
nor how much Is being sold. / only
know that at Rives, town near here
about the size of Hickory Grove,
from $50 to 200 carloads averaging
$50 bushels to the car is sold annual
ly, and that much, very much, Is fed
up at home. The price was 5S cents
per bushel when we came out here,
but has since risen to 81 cents per
bushel. The crop Is fine this year,
ranging from twenty-five to eighty
bushels per acre, and that without any
fertilizer whatever.
Being a corn country, this Is also a
hog country. Duroc-Jerseys, Poland
Chinas, and Berkshires, with the two
first named predominating, fill the
country. All the way from pigs to 400
pound porkers, you may see them.
With rings in their noses and without
rings in their noses they grunt and
squeal The people fatten for their
own use, and kill so many OF them
that they waste a lot. They fatten
them for market,--one man near here
buying up and feeding fifteen hundred
this year,-and drive them by here by
the dozen, by the score, by the hun
dred. They crowd them into the cars
and they are whisked away squealing
to ST. Louis, to Louisville, to Cincin-
natl to become sugar cured hams ana
bacon. But people are complaining OF
the low price, the highest grade bring
ing about five and one-half cents on
the local market.
This is also a wheat country. Acres
and acres and acres are sown down
this year. Some of 1t Is not up yet,
much Of 1t has already covered the
earth with green, and cows and sheep
are turned on 1t for winter grazing
The owners say that this grazing does
the wheat good and does not injure
the land. But they tell me that the
wheat yield per acre is decreasing
somewhat, and that from fifteen to
twenty bushels per acre is pretty fair
yield.
A good many sheep may be seen,
but no special attention seems to be
given them. The cows are to me a
disappointmt A few fine thorough
Dreds are found, but very many seem
to be Of a nondescript breed and do
not show that the owners take much
pride in them. I've seen nothing In
the way Of beef cattle as fine as the
herd of Herefords at the York county
cattle show, and nothing in the way
Of mixers to compare with our Jer-
seys and Guernseys.
Most Of these things sound good, but
this Is not all. There is another side
to the question. To begin with, the
farmers here have never learned the
art of improving their land, or OF
fertility. They do take a run down
field and sow it in clover or peas, but
that Is about the extent Of their build
ing up practice. Some Of the land in
the county Is somewhat rolling. and
while it does not wash as quickly as
our own. still 1t does wash some. L
have not seen anything any more sub
stantial than a pile Of wheat straw
thrown in a gully In the way of pre-
vention or reclamation. Necessity has
driven the South Carolina farmer to a
position far i'm advance Of this In the
way Of saving and building up what
he has. Another thing is that they
know absolutely nothing Of the value
of stable manure here. They keep
horses and cows by the thousand, yet
irlx Of q
1t Is thrown out by the load
into the barn lot and left to go to
waste. Any one could have 1t for
hauling 1t away, but no one seems to
care even that much for 1t. One fell
low told me that a few people did
throw a little of II on their gardens, |
but not many. They are taking much |
from their soil, and giving little back.
and the game of subtraction cannot |
last forever. And the land is high. |
From $4,000 to $4,000 per acre Is |
the price with a good deal Of 1t bor-
dering the latter figure. Since they
seem to have nothing much in the way |
Of fence law. the cost of fencing to
the farmer must be something tremen-
lous. Farm labor is high, and I think |
far more independent than in Caroli- |
IA. When you count up the price of |
ands, the cost of production, and the |
inal returns, l believe that specified |
amount Of money invested in York |
ounty farming lands will yield bet
.er return than the same amount in
Vested here. And while car loads of |
,orn and hogs sounds prosperous,
here seems to be fully as large a pro-
portion of people here who are hard |
pressed as In our own country. In
act, stranger hearing that / was
rom South Carolina, stopped me on
he street one day this week and told
ne that he had left his home near
charleston about forty-one years ago.
hat he wanted to go back home and
lee where his father and mother were
,uried, but that he had never been
Ible to spare sufficient money.
Commencing at Nashville and con-
inuing for the next 165 miles I looked
n vain for really first class roads.
lee no graded roads around here.
Nhera are M cand-nlou roads and mol