Evening journal., 1912-12-03

= iAuoStll Clnlliis Il Nlllti anu GA
pert on farming topics, writes in The
Country Gentleman of his observa
tions of farming and soil conditions
in Sussex county. While his criti-
cism of some of the farming methods
I'm Sussex is rather sharp In some in
stances. Mr. Smith points out the
possibilities of the sandy soil with
fertilizing treatment and livestock
raising His article, reprinted by
permission of The Country Gentle
man, is:
What crop are you going to put
in that field this year?' asked the
demonstration man of the farmer In
Southern Delaware.
Good Golly, mani nothin'. amt
goin' to put nothin' there; that field
needs rest.
Resting the land, That's why the
demonstration man was there That's
why | was there. It was not absolute
ly unnatural that the native should
think the land needed rest Il Is
tired-looking country. had for years
heard bad names applied TO Southern
Delaware IL was a land, so ! had
been told, of big farms, bad farming
almost for the asking II you didn't
mind living in the Middle Ages. Il
don't believe the farmers in Mexico
are so far behind as some in Sussex
County, Delaware" declared one in
formant
This sounds like very harsh talk
to put in print, but there are two
eAtenuating circumstances. One is the
-. hne n In
good spots to give it hope of redemp-
tion. II is one of the most spoJty
parts OF the whole Peninsula, and
that. is saying a good deal. In this
county are Bridgeville and Selbyvills,
the first and third strawberry-ship-
ping centers of the United States.
They are in prosperous localities with
land values of 500 an acre, and then
ten or fifteen miles away are places
where gloom, mosquitoes and land
naturally as good as that Of Bridge
vile or Selbyville may be had at from
SO to $50 an acre. r. anybody in
Sussex county reads this he has the
consolation of knowing that he lives
in one of the better parts of the
county, and he has the second conso-
lation Of knowing that II he reads he
The man who is the cause of the des-
pair in Southern Delaware doesn't
read: he hasn't time He is too busy
tending his one crop and loafing I'd
my certain knowledge they made all
manner of fun of Chris, the young
German who worked for a Northern
man who recently moved in there
The reason they made so much fun ol
4ufu ~
time in reading the agricultural pap
ers that his boss turned over to him
The people i'm Delaware themselves
make light of the lower end of theii
state, which. by-the-way, is very
much like the adjacent part OF Mary
land. A Dover paper related some
time ago the story of a storm tha
blew a COW over barn, and then add
cd. but she was a Sussex county
COW" There is a little slant TO thu
Peninsula" the people of Northern
Delaware say, "and all the trash an'
sand wash on down to Sussex AnG
then the wisdom OF the North goes OF
TO relate that the people down therI
are trying to get corn down to on
grain to the ear" Judging by To
looks of the corn there is, I fear
some ground for the charge, and the
have long been growing II one stall
10 the hill and thinking ten bushel
an acre a crop.
Land-POOr Farmers Who are Lazy.
The poor state Of agricultural pros
perity results in its being land tina
is largely abandoned, and the par
that is not abandoned isn't worke
very VIGOROUSLY Last July man in
foresfed i'm the country rode iron
Pocomoke City, Maryland, to Laurel
Delaware. a distance of torty-hV
miles. and saw only one man workin
in the fields. and he was on the dem
onstration farm that had been pu
down in the middle of this waste b
some outsiders to see what il is goo
for. have seen this year from th
car window. not far from the Della
ware MARYLAND boundary. stretch
about as much as the eye could tax
i'm from the car windows on bot
side of the track. probably 400 or 90
acres of unused, interested an
therefore recently abandoned Ian
with no sign of cultivation except on
little patch of sicSly corn that W
passed Just before we entered tn
pines again.
" If 1t wuzn't fer the Sussex count
wheat-pines at which the people ca
chop when all else fails-them SUI
sex county farms wouldn't be worth
darn said a man in the next count
and under present conditions he
not far wrong. AS now operate
those farms are good things to ru
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