The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-12-15

here worked as long and as hard as
they do among "the old red hills of
Georgia." they would all be making
big money. But it is so easy to
live here that they do not put in
more than four months steady work.
The average farm is from fifteen to
thirty acres, anc. from these patches
families make a splendid living and
some money. You can grow any
manner of crop here, and it is easy
to make from 80 to 100 bushels of
corn or oats per acre. For the two
succeeding years, young boys in this
county made respectively 221 and
21O bushels of orn per acre, and I
saw a patch from which a negro
made 80 bushels per acre and only
ran around his crop one time after
planting. They also grow ribbon
cane syrup, making from 800 to 500
gallons per acre, sweet potatoes and
anything else in the way of fruit or
cereal.
Did Not Depend on Cotton.
But to return to my subject:
When the European war broke out
last year it had no effect whatever
On the people Of Jones county, but
was really to their profit. Not one
farmer in ten owed a dollar, and
they were able to hold their few
bales of cotton, which they did. You
can today start out in the country
and buy at almost any farm home
you pass corn, oats, meat, beef cat
tie, or aught else in the way of pro-
visions. Our merchants every week
ship off carloads of home-raised corn
oats, syrup, potatoes, pinders, and
other produce. Every farmer has
a large herd of cattle, and they do
not have to feed them more than
ninety days during the year. The
whole county is covered with a thick
coating of nutritious carpet grass,
which is now as green as in spring
time. Each corn field is planted in
the velvet bean, which natures here,
and cattle are turned thereon when
the crop is gathered and remain
in fine condition without other feed.
l do not suppose there are a hun
dred pounds of fodder pulled in
Jones county, as there are so many
more easily gathered forage crops.
Our farmers do not buy anything
on credit, paying cash for even their
fertilizers. And all of this indepen-
dent prosperity has come about since
the advent of the boil weevil. Be-
fore that pest appeared the farmers
OF this county raised cotton to buy.
supplies on time and they were kept
in the ~lowgrounds of sorrow and bur-
dened with debt. They are now as
independent as woodsawyers. In
my trips out in the country 1 notice
improvements going OF everywhere.
You can now buy in our market
splendid fat beef at from 8 to II
cents per pound and during the WIN
ter wagon loads of dressed hogs are
seen daily on the streets. A short
time since a certain beat issued
bonds to build a schoolhouse, and
the bonds were bought by farmers
in that community.
county have accomplished under boil
weevil conditions certainly the in
dustfious and enterprising people of
Georgia can likewise accomplish.
While the farmers do not handle so
much money, they will in time adj
just themselves to the new and
changed situation, and become more
Independent and well-established on
the bedrock of enduring prosperity.
Plant Early Cotton.
Our farmers have stopped the
work of burning old cotton stalks,
for it is an endless task. and does
not check the insect. The only way
to grow cotton in infested sections
is to start early in the season. and
pick off and destroy the weevils as
fast as they appear. But this means
they can be kept down, and even as
much as a bale or more Of cotton