The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1915-12-03
BAMBERG COUNTY FARMER
GROWING COLORED COTTON

Educational advantages were dis
tinctly meagre. The only school he
ever attended, he said, was the "old
field" or public school "a few months
when quite a small boy and got only
smattering of the three RS. But l
have always been a student, teaching
myself" Both his mother and his
wife, who died several years ago, were
highly educated women, and it was
these who guided his faltering eff
forts through the devious paths of
self-education. Commenting on his
struggles to acquire information, he
said: "1t seems that much of the very
little | know came to me by intui-
tion. l never read a line in Shakes
peare until l was 21, and, strange to
say, | found there many passages I
knew, although l had never seen
them" He is an omnivorous reader,
particularly on subjects related to ma
ture study and has contributed many
letters to newspapers on cotton pro-
duction.
Back in the sos Carlyle Mckinley,
then on the editorial staff of the
Charleston News and Courier, chal-
lenged Mr.. Brabham's idea of pro-
ducing an upland long staple cotton.
A spirited controversy was carried on
through the press. And if the cotton
planter didn't withstand the incisive
arguments and skilled logic of the
forceful writer, he did contrive to
breed a hybrid long stable upland
cotton from the sea island long and
upland "short" which is now grown
generally over the State.
Besides the moral impetus and in
tellectual stimulation such creative
enterprise gives, the economic value
of the venture, if successful, would
be one of the greatest achievements
of modern science. The use of chemi-
cal dyes in textile manufacturing
would be obviated in that natural COL
ored threads could be fed to the looms
for the various patterns of cotton
goods.
Bred Hybrid Cow Pea.
Mr. Brabham was no less success
full in his efforts to grow different"
cow pea on his farm in Bamberg
county. The Brabham is a hybrid
between the Whippoorwill and Iron.
1t partakes of the character of both
parents, having the tall habit and
prolificness of the Whippoorwill and
the same resistance to wilt and root
knot and ability to hold its leaves late
as the Iron. Enormous yields have
been produced, and a crop can be
made where no other will thrive. The
yield from this is always in excess of
any other that has been tried in the
sand lands of the southern half of the
State.
AS far back as 1897 one cotton
farmer in South Carolina produced
four bales of cotton to the acre. Again
this year Lexington county farmer
more than duplicated this 10th CEN
tury record. In 1889 Capt. q. J. Drake
established a worldwide corn yield
which yet remains intact, when he
measured 255 bushels of corn from
an acre of land. Just few years ago
Jerry Moore, an 11-year-old boy, be-
came the champion corn grower of
the world when he raised 229 3-4
bushels. These maximum yields
wonderfully revitalized corn and cot
ton production throughout the South
and were powerful factors in demon
strating the value of intense cultiva-
tion. But the production of natural
colored cotton might produce even
greater revolution in cotton culture,
as well as a solution to problem,
menacing just now.-Staff Core
spondent The State.
IC rrDJTE