Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-09-18
"NOTHING IS GIVEN SO PROFUSELY AS
ADVICE."

1t has always seemed a bit funny to this writer
that the press-both secular and religious should
be so prolific in advice to other people as to how
they, the latter, should manage their own bust
ness.
The fact that 'they all do it" and some do it
badly, is, we suspect, one of the reasons why the
the average farmer stood out so long against what
is termed book farming"
Too much advice of that sort tends to turn farm
ers against improved methods and the teachings of
men who know not only what is best to be done,
but how to do the thing needed to be done, and in
addition, possesses the genius to reduce to writing
wishes to promulgate.
But as it is fashionable to give advice to owners
of land ard tiIlers of the soil, and one
GAS good be out of the world as out Of the fashion,
the BEACON cheerfully falls into line.
In last weeks issue of this paper there was a
timely, sensible, and we'll written communication
from our fellow-townsmen, Hon. Henry Minor, sug-
costing the ACCESSIBILITY of the sowing by each
prairie farmer of a small area to wheat.
Under favorable conditions, that is a crop that
often has been, and may again be, proftably grown
in this section.
The late Mr.. Dunstan Banks, whose home was
in Columbus, Miss. and who owned a plantation
near what was then Cobb's Switch, but now is
Bent Oak, on the M. & O. R. R., between Artesia
and Columbus, put eighteen acres of fresh post
oak land in wheat, in 1868 or 1864, which made an
uncommonly fine yield.
The writer has often, in years agone, heard Mr..
Banks say that it was the best crop of wheathe had
ever seen growing, and while he did not measure
the yield accurately, he was satisfied it Welded
fifty bushels per acre.
Owning the plantation Immediately adjoining
that of Mr.. Banks, and living upon it, was Mr.. AL
len Motley, and Mr.. Motley also, often made men.
ton to the writer of that field of wheat, saving il
was the best he ever saw in any country and thai
he told Mr.. Banks that he thought fifty bushels te
the acre was a low estimate.
. The writer was told that the land first received
! a heavy dressing of cotton seed-a treatment thai
: would be impracticable now, perhaps, because Of
D the greatly increased value of cotton scotland the
: grain was sowed in the fall of the year. Those are
the only facts we can at this day recall with refer
:. ence to that particular crop.
!. HE BEACON does not doubt it would paw an,
farmer or planter of the East Mississippi prairie
belt to put in a small area of well prepared land il
wheat this Fal-the preparation including fertili
zatlon; as well as blowing and narrowing to secure
>, a good seed bed.
J, If prosperous conditions prevail and the Weld il
a good' II may be found possible and profitable t,
# nave the.product ground in the county.
ID Even if it be not practicable to have the whea
grown manufactured into flour and its by-product
or to sell 1T on the market at a satisfactory price
:, 1t can certainly be utilized on the farm-can be fe,
We TO advantage to poultry and to the animals on tn,
farm so as to give some return upon the cost O
the crop,|thec cost of the seed wheat, the use Of tn,
land and the cost of labor in the tiliage and hary