Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-08-15
OUR HOUSEHOLD
CONDUCTED BY LIZZIE O. THOMAS
THE ToRAcco rARM

Last week I went to see a tobacco
barn and to see the people handling
the raw product. Almost 800 acres
was planted in Madison county, Flor
lda, this year and when one remem-
bers that every acre is covered with
Stats just a little longer than laths
| 1t is easy to see where some of the
money goes. Imagine twenty or thirty
acres of land fixed like a grape ar
Dor, only the Stats are not more than
an inch apart. There are posts set
in the ground with wire stretched
from end to end Of the shades, as
these immense arbors are called, and
then fastened to blocks that are
buried four feet in the ground. The
Stats, or long laths, are laid on this
smaller sort. This is to make a
shade and to protect from hail. This
year after the crop was apparently
out of danger from bugs. worms and
all the other enemies there was a
terrible hailstorm and it wrought
| CO is grown for cigar wrappers and
the leaves must be perfect or 'My
Lady Nicotine will have n3thing to do
with them except as filters and that
lowers the price. of course. Cotton
has had a rival in tobacco through
out this section and when one hears
that some years a cool $500 an acre
is profit and probably the next year
the planter is glad to come out even
one sees why it does not make any
more permanently rich men than
cotton does. Many around here say
they are going to cut their acreage
next year and cover their crop with
cotton cloth.
L asked if the cloth would run the
cost up to a prohibitive price, and
was told that Florida growers could
get cloth that had been used In Con
necticut one year at a cost of 500
an acre. 1t will be put under the
| Stats, and the stout wire used to
fasten it there. These wires run
right over the rows of growing to-
bacco, then when the hail comes the
cloth will be cut between the rows
and all the hail will fall where It
can do no harm. The cloth. of
course, lasts only one year and is
then sold to junkmen for $40 or $50
per acre and then the papermakers
buy it, These junkmen handle 1t
twice, so you see this is again a
place where the middle man gets a
good slice.
From early spring until now the
place is teeming with hands, most
of it has been shipped and those
great barns and all those acres Will
Rbe idle until next year.
The planters have different ways
of disposing Of their stalks and roots:
You know the leaves are pulled OIL
| much as collard leaves are gathered,
There are three grades. Those nearest
| the ground are called sand leaves be-
| cause they are gritty. They, and the
tops are for filters.
| I asked why the stalk cutters were
not used and was, told that the
stalks are too hard" Some cut them
! off right above the ground, plow be-
! side the roots and then pull them
up and burn them. The stalks are
buried in the iniddles and after they
| partially rot the disc and cut them.
| Others burn them and some let them
alone until next year. Then there is
| a bigger crop of worms and bugs
! than there would be if the ground
| had been cleared earlier.
In tobacco as in any other one
! crop method there is a waste of
money, for the teams are employed
| all the time and they must be fed.
| It's a wise man that raises his food
| stuffs and can bank his surplus in
| stead of giving it for corn and hay.
AS I often tell the cotton planters:
| I can see no wisdom in selling cot
| ton to buy corn to make more cot
| ton to buy more corn. Plant enough
| corn, and some sort of pasture, to
have the cotton as a surplus crop.
| The excuse used to be that cotton
| was the only crop that brought cash,
but that is not the way now for
corn commands a surer price.
| The farmer who raises his whea
! meal. sot2tCAs and 'Sve" teui0~," con
| let things rise or fall. for his wife
! should have butter and eggs enough
| for the family and some to sell.
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