Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-03-23

waited acre Of Irish potatoes surprised
the neighbors with the amount 1t pro-
duced. Two hundred bushels were
what he harvested from the patch
and. selling them at go cents q BUSH
Ell, he had $120 to show for the first
| crop. 1t was only the LIST Of June so
he Immediately prepared the and n
planted the acre again in June corn.
i After that the work came thick n
fast. The cane was ready to be cut.
| He moved 1t, let 1t cure and stacked
away two tons Of fine hay in the barn.
He could have gathered another crop
| of car If he had let 1t remain, but the
pumpkin yams must be planted. So
he prepared and bedded the ground.
and one cloudy day just before a LII
he pulled the potato slips from the bed
where he had grown them and planted
this acre also with a second crop.
The cotton then had to be plowed,
and when that was finished the four
acre cornfeld, in which he was also
growing a flourishing crop Of pump
kins, was calling for him.
The peach and plum crops were very
short this year, owing to a late frost,
but the Powell orchard never suffered
in this respect. The old trees had q
bumper crop. Prices being good, after
Mrs. Powell had preserved what she
wanted, Sam sold $40 worth Of plums
and s11O worth Of peaches, making a
total Of $3.50 income from the fruit,
not to mention the preservings for fam
lily use.
Early in the winter, before the fam
lily moved, Sam had made arrange
ments with a breeder Of a fine strain
Of Plymouth Rock chickens to get ten
settings Of eggs. For these he was
to pay $3.50 a sitting. Mrs. Powell
already owned a mixed breed flock of
fifty hens, but Sans plan, with which
his mother heartily agreed, was to re-
place the mongrel stock with the thor
oughbreds. The first Of these sittings
were Matched while it was yet cold,
and before summer came on, with its
excessive heat and insect pests, the
whole ten had been brought off and
more than 100 thrifty young Plymouth
Rocks were running about the farm.
The ample range and shade and the
rye sowed in the orchard made the in
come from poultry almost clear profit.
Chickens require little feed when they
can get green stuff and insects. Be-
sides the Plymouth Rocks Mrs. Powell
| raised six dozen common breed fryers,
which she sold at SO per dozen, or $1S.
From the thoroughbred flocks, after Sc
lecting seventy pullets and five roost-
ers to keep, she sold the culls for $16,
roosters at 81 and pullets at so cents.
The egg market was very low during
the summer months, but even at a few
cents a dozen $50 worth were sold his
| year and the family had all they could
consume at home. Finally, in the fall,
the old flock Of common chickens was
sold, bringing rs cents each, or $3.50
in all. Surplus milk and butter from
the two COWS brought $50 for the year.
/ oul lulS WdSll Oh. 4hC SoAO Va
watermelons, cantaloupes and vegeta-
bles contributed its share. Sans wa
termelons were a long white variety,
sweet as sugar. These melons always
brought something above the regular
market price. In all the young farmer
sold $40 worth of melons and vegeta-
bles.
The June corn made a fair crop.
Sam sold the roasting ears at n
cent each. These brought him $50.
Then he cut and cured the stalks for
feed. The ground being once more
| cleared. he plowed, narrowed and
planted it in turnips.
Sam found that a little farm of If
teen acres car keep two or three
people very busy, especially when the
farm is made to hump itself, growing
one crop right after another. Hardly
a day passed that he or his sister
didn't have to drive to town to sell
something. Whenever it could be ar
ranged Sam always let Florence go,
for then he could be hurrying the
heavy work forward.
September came and Florence enter
ed the high school, but Sam, badly as
he wanted to begin, found it impossi-
BILE to do so until after Christmas.
However, he began studying at night,
and for all the hard work he did he
managed to keep pretty close up with
his classes.
Late in the fall he dug the acre Of
sweet potatoes, after stripping off the
vines and feeding them to his hogs,
and found that he had $50 bushels Of
pumpkin yams." He stored twenty-five
bushels for home use and sold the
other 1875 bushels at 81 per bushel.
Sam Powell never forgot what the
government agent told him about seed.
When his contest acre was at matu-
rity he went down the rows and tied
strings to the stalks that bore the most
and the finest ears.
In the same way, also, the young
farmer selected his cotton seed. Here
and there in the rows he found stalks
that were unusually large and perfect
in shape. These were generally in
some rich place where they had been
particularly favored. If they were
heavily loaded with bolls and the bolls
were large and low down on the stalks.
indicating that they would open early,
Sam tied white strings on them in
conspicuous places.
1t may seem that with all this work
Sam Powell had little or no time for
pleasure or recreation. Such was not
the case. however, though he some
times had to work longer hours than
he liked because he was not able to get
help.
But Sam had got in the habit Of
using his mind. He never initiated other
people in doing a thing without stop
ping to think why it was done or If
there was a better way. He o found
out that it pays to keep oneself fresh
and vigorous. BY taking the proper
rests and breathing spells and working