Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1918-12-25
COTTON IN THE MOUNTAINS,
Farmer Made Bale Oh Little More
than One Acre of Land.

Our good friend, G. d. Henry, OF
the Mountain Rest section, was in
Walhalla Friday morning, having
come down to have a bale of cotton
ginned. This bale was the result
OF all experiment that Mr.. Henry
mad made in the face of many warn
ings that he could not raise cotton
so far up above the recognized cot
ton line"
MIR. Henry ordered seed Of
specially early variety, but these,
came to him late, and the excessive
rains of the early spring prevented
getting the seed in the ground until
late-May 4th. And then there were
other drawbacks. For instance, the
moles took special liking to the
immediate area in which the cot
ION seed were planted, and they
went up one row and down an
other burrowing their way along
each row, thus destroying much of
the seed and reducing the number Of
plants on one acre about .one-third.
with two acres planted, and taking
off the damage done by the moles,
to&"trer with the disadvantage of a
late start, Mr.. Henry feels that his
experiment with cotton up in the
mountain section Of Oconee has
proved that 1t is not impossible to
raise cotton profltably much beyond
what IS ordinarily recognized as the
limit Of the cotton territory. At any
rate, he is much pleased with his
hrst experiment, and will try 1t
again. He figures his bale as coming
from little more than an acre of
land.
Mr.. Hcnry's reference to the de-
structive work Of the "mole rat"
brings us to ask some farmer who
has observed closely along this line,
whether or not the mole itself does
harm other than by disturbing the
3 roots Of plants by his burrowing. 1t
may be that Mr.. Henry can answer
the question himself Our theory
has always been that the mole de-
stroys nothing that grows, save by
his nasty habit of running under
things and pushing them up with
his back, and that the really destruc-
tive creature is rat that follows in
the wake Of the mole, eating the
seeds that the mole has made easily
accessible. Mr.. ,HenrE's reference
to the "mole rat" suggested to us
that there may be a particular breed
a. rat that habitually follows the
mole-in all probability the ordi-
nary field mouse, which Is short-tail-
Ell and excessively destructive. We
Ea'e, however, observed destructive
operations carried on in the tracks
of moles that led us to believe that
a larger rodent Of some kind ope-
rates In conjunction with his sup
posedly blind fellow-pest, the mole
We hope to hear further from Mr..
Henry's experiments. He is a wide
awake man, and worker, we are
told, Of by no means small ability
and certainly Of abundant energy
1t has been our pleasure to meet Mr..
Henry on several occasions in his
home community. If he Is as good
a worker in his own fields as he h
in the Masters vineyard he need ex-
plain to no one how or why he can
raise cotton so high up in the noun
tain sections. In church and Sun.
day school he works with a will and
energy that will not hear to failure
or discouragement. And he has a
mighty good community In which tc
use his abilities-both as church
worker and agriculturist. The peo.
pie of that section believe in and re.
spond to all religious enterprises
and those who know that section will
readily agree with us that the Noun.
tain Rest and milestone country
respond readily to every effort put
forth by man.