No. 6. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 645 



Their crops are queer in some respects. Their sugar-cane has to 

 be propagated by planting the cane as it makes no seed. The canes 

 arc laid in the furrows and then cut into short sections and covered 

 over with the plow. The grinding and syrup-making are the jolliest 

 events of the year. 



Their sweet potatoes they plant the vines. Long ridges are thrown 

 up and the vines (that have been produced in special beds) are 

 dropped along and poked down with a pronged stick. If you order 

 potatoes sent from the store the}- will send you sweet potatoes, un- 

 less you specify Irish. Their oats are a red variety from Mexico. 

 Their rye, a small hard variety, adapted to the climate. In place of 

 our clover for feed and renovating the land, they have the various 

 kinds of cow-peas, and a great resource they are for stock and for 

 the table. They raise fair corn and it has to be gathered and kept 

 with all the husks on or the weevil will eat it up. The millets and 

 kaftir corn do well. The most valuable root crop is cassava, which 

 yields an enormous tonnage of tubers and is excellent for cooking 

 purposes, and cattle and horses eat greedily of and thrive on it. 



In raising cotton, the seeds are strewn by hand in furrows, and 

 when the plants are a few inches high, they are, as they call it, 

 "chopped to a stand," that is the plants are left about two feet apart 

 and the planting, cultivating, picking and ginning is a twelve months 

 job. 



A large amount of tobacco is raised and requires constant going 

 over to pick off the worms that would make holes in the leaves. 

 This work is frequently trusted to turkeys, as they can be trained 

 to take rows in regular order and it is a smart worm that can escape 

 their sharp e} T es. 



Their Bermuda grass for lawns and pasture has to be raised from 

 cuttings, and roots of the grass, as it makes no seed in this country. 

 They grow almost all kinds of vegetables, excepting rhubarb and 

 horseradish, which they will not grow there. Their small fruits are 

 limited to blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries and strawberries; 

 the latter vines bearing from January to July. No northern fruit 

 trees do any good in that climate. Oranges, lemons, limes, grape 

 fruit, guavas, pineapples, bananas, tigs and grapes, making about 

 their list of fruits. 



The only kind of grapes that do well (except for expert cultiva- 

 tion) are the three varieties of the Scuppernong. They are not sub- 

 ject to mildew and they grow three to four in a bunch and are gath- 

 ered like plums. The vines are trained on a flat trellis and one vine 

 can cover an acre or more. Oranges are many named and distinct 

 varieties, kept true by using buds. The rusty orange is not a dis- 

 tinct variety, but in some of the pine land groves, a small insect 

 prevails that punctures the skin and the oil drying on the surface 

 gives the rusty appearance to the fruit. The hummock fruit is 

 always bright. Lemons are of various varieties and are cut when 

 two inches in diameter and still green and are made yellow by 

 sulphur smoke. Each orange and lemon has to be clipped off with 

 a pair of shears as they cannot be pulled or shaken without tearing 

 the skin. Pineapples are propagated from the spines from the 

 apple and from root suckers, as they have no seed. Bananas arc 1 also 

 propagated from suckers as they have no seed. Figs are raised 



