Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-19
DIXIE GOES AHEAD
By Frederic J. Haskin
GContinued From Editorial PageJ

[Continued From Editorial PageJ
ing DR.. Knapp had to build up the
rudiments of commerce before he
could do anything for agriculture. He
began by stimulating the people in
every way to put their products on
the market, and to raise money
crops"
Once some people came to him for
a contribution toward holding a bazaar
in order to make money for a neigh
borhood church. He asked them
what they would sell at the haZar.
They said they would make things to
sell. DR.. Knapp saw his chance to
get in a lesson in practical economics.
He pointed out that if members of the
community made things, sold them TO
each other and used the money for
community enterprise. they were pro-
ducing exactly nothing. Their time
was wasted. He therefore made his
contribution only on the condition
that it be used to plant the ground
where. the church was to be built in
cotton. All the neighbors were to
help care for the patch. When the
cotton was harvested the proceeds
would be devoted to a building fund.
DR.. Knapp's project carried and the
whole community had a practical
demonstration of how to raise and
market money crops.
DR.. Knapp also distributed high
grade seed corn, and persuaded the
farmers to plant it by promising to
buy all they raised at two dollars a
bushel. He never had to pay this
price because all the other farmers
were epvious of the tall, heavy crop
which grew from the fancy corn,
nYNf1 oil
harvested for seed. So corn planting
spread apace, and already the farms
were reaching up the hillsides and out
of the bottoms
The cotton business got its big
boost when some young men with
money came South loking for planta-
tions, They went first to the famous
Albemarle county, and asked the price
of the rich cotton lands in that State.
They found they could buy all they
wanted for one or two hundred dol
lars an acre; but they had been in
structed to pay only twenty. So they
went to the sand hills, where the soil
seemed much the same. and bought
great tracts of the rolling uplands
Here, to the amaZement of the natives,
they covered hundreds of acres with
growing cotton. Other men with
capital followed, and also others
without capital. Both classes gener-
ally succeeded. Cotton became the
money crop of the sand hills.
The most romantic incident in the
up-building of the hill country, how
ever, was the tanning of the soupper-
nong grape. This sweet and Juicy
fruit is a native of the swamps and
creek bottoms in the sand hill coun-
try. It's vines tangle themselves over
vast acres and bear great quantities
of the fruit, which is pale pink and
grows in clusters of three. The old
time Scotch settlers quickly acquired
a fondness for this delicious wild grape
and transplanted it to their door
yards. Nearly every homestead had
its souppernong vine somewhere in
the yard. from which the fresh fruit
was gathered and eaten. Some of
these vines covered almost an acre
of ground, and produced far more
grapes than the family could use; but
no one ever thought of marketing
them. They are extremely perishable,
and too sweet to preserve with sugar.