Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1917-01-26
Letter From Brazil

especially. The letter below is take
from from the Scott County Register.
Last Thursday and Friday
travelled by train as far as from
Meridian, Miss, to Shreveport
La. and during the entire tril
| don't think | saw more thai
1000 acres of land in cultivation
yet practically all of the land
saw is we'll suited to farming
and cattle growi lg. Some of i
is rich and full of lime and 7;
per cent of it has very little veg
citation on it. except small shrubs
from 6 to IL feet high. die
not see one acre for 100 miles
that had been plowed before
planting, and all the cultivatine
will be done with hoes. Before
the land is dlowed it is scrapeC
clean with hoes and all the vege.
tation burned; then it is planted
with hoes. It takes four men &
day to plant one acre..
The other part of the trip shows
little more progressiveness
Just occasionally a field is plant.
ed, but the cultivating is done
with hoes. Most of the plows
used are German make-a re-
versible turn plow---and it is a
good plow, too. 1t is strong,
light and cheap. Scott county
needs lots of plows like it for the
hill lands.
The principal crops that I see
growing are corn, rice, sugar
cane, Cassova plant and black
beans. The beans are planted in
the corn, and they seem to in
variably do we'll. We may have
the same bean, but if so, | have
never seen it. 1t is borne in a
pod similar to the butter bean
we grow in gardens, and it looks
a little like the speckled pea.
These beans are always served
at every meal and are very
good.
Rice is a very staple crop here,
but the most of it is planted by
hand and cultivated with hoes.
but the yields are good. The
threshing and hulling are done
by hand. toe, mostly. One soon
loves to eat rice the Brazilian
way. Swallow it with very little
chewing; for if one tries to chew
it the teeth are too often en-
countering small rocks. | broke
one took soon after came here
and it cost me $3.50 for a fill
ing, so | am now typical Bra
lillian when eating rice, for |
think it is cheaper to swallow a
few small rocks than it is to have
teeth filled.
Corn is now about A to 6 inches
high and rice is just coming up.
Cotton is being planted. | plant
ed two of my demonstration
farms two weeks ago and will
visit them tomorrow and see if
my instructions have been car
ried out about the first cultiva-
ton, | have to 90 about the Cis-
tance from Meridian to Vicks
burg to reach them.
l used 9-inch steel beam Avery
plows for breaking the land.
Oxen, two yoke. were used to
pull the pillow. The people here
drive altogether different to the
way we drive. Here one man or
boy walks ahead of the team,
and one man-sometimes two
walks behind. They use light
poles about 6 feet long, with a
sharp nail or wire in the end and
when the OK is the least unruly
the driver strikes him with this
goad. I've seen oXens' sides and I
hips bloody because of the dri- '
ver's cruelty. {
After the land was planted !
and the first rain came, used a {
disc harrow two to four times, [
then the section harrow, and S
planted fiat, because the land has I
splendid subsoil drainage, as well i
as surface drainage. None of
the men work with have either +
plow lines, back bands or traces, '
but necessity will make of any |
of Us inventive. | used SADDLE 9
girths for back bands, and used a
planted leather roaps for traces, /
and for lines | did without. A S
man, and in two fields Il was the c
mani led the mule while another C
had the planter. Practically all il
Of the cultivation will be made n
with the Gee Whiz or Spring S
Tooth cultivators. am using a 2
little Durango seed-some mixed v
Texas Big Boil and C
some native cotton. i want to t.
saw that l am impressing these r
people with the thorough pre- p
oaration | gave the land. | have G
l. L. j.