102 
'T'JiEJ RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 0, 
be locked up. A fine clay soil, weighing 70 pounds 
per cubic foot, and containing 11 per cent, or 7.7 
pounds of water, may be so dry that crops will wilt 
in it and stop growing, while in a coarse sandy 
soil weighing 100 pounds per cubic foot there may 
be a good supply of moisture when it contains but 
two per cent, or two pounds per cubic foot. The 
reason for this is that a certain thickness of water 
film covering soil grains is wholly unavailable to 
plants, and the soil grain surface of the fine clay 
soil cited is so much larger than that of the sand 
that 7.7 pounds of water to the cubic foot of soil 
leaves the thickness of the layer on the soil grain 
surface much thinner than is that on the coarse 
sand grains with only two pounds of water to the 
cubic foot; hence growth is arrested in the one 
case with nearly four times the amount of water 
about the roots that permits a maximum growth in 
the other. _ f. h. king. 
COTTON GROWING IN GEORGIA. 
Being interested in your discussion on what part 
of the dollar the producer gets, and having noticed 
G. H. F.’s report, page 42, I wish to add a little to 
his report, giving figures for this locality, as they 
differ in some respects from figures given. G. H. F. 
gives the cost of preparing the cotton for the market 
after it is gathered, together with proceeds, which 
might be misleading to some readers who are not 
aware of the cost of producing a crop of cotton. 
It will cost more proportionately to produce one bale 
of cotton than it will five, six or ten bales, and 
figures here given we will consider one bale of ten, 
or, in other words, multiply the figures given by 10 
and then you have cost and proceeds of a crop of 
ten bales. 
It will take two acres average land, worth here 
$15 per acre. 
Interest and taxes on land. $2.25 
000 pounds fertilizer @ $27. 8.10 
Preparing land, planting and seed. 7.00 
Cultivating five times . 5.00 
Chopping . 2.00 
Hoeing (twice) . 3.00 
Picking, @ 50 cents per 100. 7.50 
Hauling to gin. 1.00 
Cost of getting to markets as -per G. H. F. 5.96 
Making total cost.$41.81 
Proceeds of one bale cotton, 518 pounds lint cotton 
@ 9 cents .$40.62 
1,000 pounds of cotton seed, worth on farm 2-3 cent 
per pound . 6.67 
Total proceeds .$53.29 
Loss cost of production.$41.81 
This leaves a balance of $11.48, which divided by 
two gives $5.74, the net amount produced by one 
acre. I have made no allowance for capital invested 
in team and tools, no wear and tear of same or 
deterioration of land, in itself a grave problem, for 
no land will continue to yield this amount year after 
year without increased cost of fertilization. Cotton 
being a crop that needs clean cultivation, naturally 
adds no humus to the land, which soon becomes 
deficient, thereby lessening the yield and impoverish¬ 
ing the land. If these things were all considered and 
reduced to figures you would see it would make 
amount received less than cost of production. This 
estimate is very conservative, as it will cost more 
on an average farm than the figures here given. I 
believe from the signs of the times that low-priced 
cotton will soon be a thing of the past. The south¬ 
ern farmers under -the direction of certain institutions 
are being educated, educated in more ways than one, 
too. They are beginning to see that there is more 
money to them in raising their own supplies at 
home, which means cutting down the acreage in 
cotton and improving their lands. They are learn¬ 
ing to some extent what part of the consumer’s 
dollar they are getting, and are “sweating under the 
collar about it, too.” They have no love for the 
gambler in farm products, or in anything else, and 
if New York was situated in any one of the cotton- 
producing States illegitimate trading on the Ex¬ 
change would soon be prohibited. And, too, I believe 
the American cotton mill men are overlooking the 
greatest opportunity that ever existed for them, for, 
with decreased acreage, there will be smaller crops, 
which will make itself felt in the market before 
many months; there will be a great demand for the 
genuine article, and as the foreign mills are quietly 
absorbing everything offered, somebody will wake up 
after it is too late. J. w. bledsoe. 
Carroll Co., Ga : _ 
GROWING A BEAN CROP. 
I have recently purchased a 160-acre farm. Soil is clay 
loam, and lias been used as a dairy farm. I wish, by the 
use of improved machinery to solve partially the hired- 
help problem. Will you give your opinion of beans, as a 
crop? What variety, what fertilizer, and what tools will 
be needed ? p. M. b. 
Jefferson, O. 
No crop grown, except cabbage, fluctuates more in 
price than beans. I have known Medium beans to 
sell as low as 50 cents, and within two years the same 
kind to go quickly at $3. Yet for periods of five 
years beans are sure to pay well. The old notion that 
no matter how poor land was, it was good enough to 
produce beans, was as far from the truth as pos¬ 
sible, for no crop will respond better to fertility of 
soil than beans. Almost any kind of soil, provided 
it is rich, will produce a good crop of beans, but the 
ideal bean soil is a strong friable clay loam, but not 
enough clay to be cloddy. As the greatest obstacle in 
bean growing is weeds, and to subdue these by hand 
labor is both tedious and expensive, the best prepara¬ 
tion is to kill the weeds before the beans are planted. 
To do this a sod is the best starter, clover preferably, 
but any sod will answer if rich. Plow quite early in 
Spring; though many good crops of beans are grown 
cn clover sod that has been mowed and at once 
plowed and fitted. But by plowing quite early and 
then cultivating the same as often as the weeds start, 
by' time to plant most of the weed seeds will have 
germinated and been killed. As beans are very sen¬ 
sitive to frost or even cold rains it is better to wait 
until the ground has become warm and all danger of 
frost and long cold rains is over. Here in western 
New York beans arc planted from the first to middle 
of June, and I have known fair crops of Medium 
beans when planted as. late as July 4. More Medium, 
Pea or Marrow beans are grown than any other, and 
the price is more stable, yet I have a friend who 
makes a specialty of Red Kidney, and who makes a 
lot of money with them, but no variety fluctuates more 
in price. / 
Beans are legumes, and if furnished plenty of 
potash and phosphoric acid are quite able to get needed 
MAKING BUTTER FROM ONE COW. Fig. 46. 
nitrogen from the air, so that for fertilizer one should 
be selected rich in these two elements. At the same 
time a liberal quantity of stable manure, if free froir# 
weeds, will show well when the beans are thrashed. 
Beans here are planted with special bean planters in 
rows about 30 inches apart, the planters planting two 
rows at a time, and using a half bushel of seed per 
acre, more or less, according to the size of the variety. 
They are cultivated with ordinary corn cultivator, 
either riding or walking, as often as necessary to 
keep the ground mellow and free from weeds. They 
are seldom hoed by hand, though sometimes weeded, 
but if the soil was well fitted before planting, very 
few weeds will trouble the bean, as it grows quickly 
and soon shades the ground so there are few weeds 
that cannot be reached by the cultivator. When the 
crop is ready -they are harvested with a special tool 
that cuts a little under the surface and .takes two rows 
at a time. Men follow in a day or two with large forks 
and throw about four rows together and as soon; as 
cured they are drawn into the barn. Men go about 
with special bean thrashers which thrash and clean 
them at one operation. The only special tools used in 
the bean crop are the planter and harvester and 
neither of these is very expensive. 
When ready for sale the buyer pays so much a 
bushel and takes out a sample which he weighs, then 
sorts out the broken and poor beans and other im¬ 
purities and weighs them, and in this way ascertains 
how many pounds will -be sorted out of a bushel and 
from the price, whatever it is, he deducts five cents 
for each pound sorted out. Suppose the price $1.50 
per bushel and the sort-out 10 pounds, the seller would 
only be paid $1, or take an extreme case, price $1 
and after a rainy bad harvest they sorted out 20 
pounds, the seller would get nothing. This plan in a 
year like this, when no crop would sort out more 
than one or two pounds, may not be so bad, but in 
some years with much bad weather at harvest time, 
when beans sort five, 10 or even 15 pounds per bushel, 
it seems hard on the grower, especially when the 
buyer keeps the poor beans and can sell them for 
from 30 to 45 cents per bushel. j. s. woodward. 
LIFE IN BALDWIN COUNTY, ALA. 
This is a new country fresh from the woodman’s ax. 
Little can be said of what, has been done, but much can 
be' said of its possibilities and what is being done. 
The soil for most part is a sandy loam, with a red and 
yellow subsoil. Some think the red soil is stronger for 
corn and cotton. The sandy soil is certainly better for 
potatoes and all vine crops, it is much easier cultivated, 
and I think retains moisture better. The land here is 
level to rolling, and is covered with a heavy growth of 
natives grasses. Numerous cattle and sheep range over 
the land. Piney woods stock are not fed anything during 
the Winter months. Cattle get quite poor before Spring, 
but sheep do fairly well. We can grow here about every¬ 
thing that is grown in the North, with the possible ex¬ 
ception of tame grasses, wheat and apples, although they 
are all being tried in an experimental way with more or 
less success. It seems to me all conditions are here for 
Alfalfa—except lime or alkali, of which there is none in 
the county. We can grow here side by side wool and 
cotton, corn and sugar cane, oats and rice, peanuts and 
potatoes, peaches and tigs, pecans and walnuts. In addi¬ 
tion to these, quite a lot of oranges of the Satsuma 
variety are being planted, and quite a good crop was had 
down near the Gulf of these oranges this season. Nearly 
every dooryard has its banana plant; of course it is more 
ornamental than fruitful. Still where -protected from cold 
north winds, one can have a few bunches of fruit. Cape 
jasmines, with their waxy green leaves and still more 
waxy white flowers, are a thing of beauty, and blossom 
the whole Summer through. Rose bushes have such beau¬ 
tiful dark green waxy foliage. We have one in our yard 
that has blossomed every month since we came down 
here in April. We also have an Easter lily in tlie yard 
that has blossomed five times since we came here. On 
Christmas Day we had from our own garden new cab¬ 
bage, onions, radishes, peas and turnips. Corn-growing 
here is different from what it is in the North. In the 
West they have the Campbell method of growing crops; 
here they have the Williamson method of growing corn. 
Corn grows so rapidly here that it must be stunted or it 
will exhaust itself before earing time, and make but few 
ears. My own corn last year. I planted and covered six 
inches deep; in nine days it was ready to cultivate; in 04 
days from planting I cut some stalks to take to a farmer's 
meeting: they measured upward of 12 feet. The Wil¬ 
liamson method is to plow your ground in Fall or Winter 
into lands five or six feet wide with a strip five or six 
inches wide left in the dead furrow. In the Spring “bust” 
out this strip with a single shovel or "middle buster” they 
call them here; plant your corn deep in this furrow. 
After it is well up, run a furrow on either side of the 
row, give no more cultivation until nearly earing time, 
then fertilize and keep cultivators going until laid by. 
This is not full details of this method, but enough to 
give an idea. In this way the crop per acre has been 
increased from 10 to 25 bushels to 00 to 80 bushels per 
acre. 
The native people here, who constitute only about one- 
tenth of the population, do not take kindly to farming; 
they have always been lumbermen and turpentiners, but 
since these stately pine forests are fast disappearing, and 
the large sawmills are nearly a thing of the past, they 
are turning their attention more to cultivating the soil. 
They stick largely to cotton and sweet potatoes. These 
two things are a blessing and a standby. Cotton is always 
money or can be turned to money at any time. Sweet 
potatoes are a standby, as one man said who has a large 
family of 12 children : “You can come nigher raising a 
family on sweet ’taters than on anything that grows on 
God’s green earth.” They can be grown so abundantly 
and with so little care, and can be prepared in so many 
different ways, and are so palatable, that they are good 
all day long. Figs bear in June and another crop in Sep¬ 
tember, and figs preserved with sugar cane syrup will 
just melt in your mouth. The southern people here al¬ 
ways insist the land is poor. True, it. needs heavy appli¬ 
cations of fertilizers. Commercial fertilizers are used, 
but well-rotted barnyard manure is best, except for Irish 
potatoes, which are the money crop ; they are grown here 
to perfection. Two crops a year are grown, first crop 
going to market in April and fore part of May. They are 
a profitable crop when markets are good, and express 
charges do not take all. Radishes, snap beans and cucum¬ 
bers are other shippings crops that pay well. Often three 
crops can be grown on the same land, in the same season ; 
for instance after the early potatoes are off. on old land, 
you can plant corn; when corn is laid by a volunteer 
crop of Mexican clover comes, which makes excellent feed 
for all kinds of stock, and in November you can seed 
this same land to Winter oats and in May cut a fine crop 
of oats. Now it will readily be seen that such heavy crop¬ 
ping must need heavy fertilization. One can have some¬ 
thing to eat from his own garden every month in the year 
here if rightly managed. 
This letter has grown longer than I intended it should, 
but I* cannot close without saying something about this 
most delightful climate. In all my life I have never seen 
such beautiful weather as we have had in the past three 
months. We work out of doors almost every day in our 
shirt sleeves, and we do not have to rub bur ears and 
blow our fingers and our noses and stamp our toeses. 
The sun shines so bright and most of the foliage in the 
woods is green. The only ice we have seen this Winter 
has been a few crystals around the edges of the watering 
trough a few times. Being as we are, surrounded on 
three sides by water. Mobile Bay on the west, Perdido 
Bay east and the Gulf on the south, makes the Rum¬ 
mers much more agreeable than in the North. True, it. 
gets hot here sometimes in the sun. It is always cool in 
the shade. The women folks here have an advantage over 
their northern sisters; in the hottest days they can take 
their work, and sit out on the veranda and enjoy the cool 
salt Gulf breeze, which seems to have a kind of neutraliz¬ 
ing effect, which is best expressed in the words of a travel¬ 
ing man from Cincinnati who located here last February. 
He says, “It’s so cool and so restful and so quiet that oiie 
can almost taste it.” Along Mobile Bay from Daphne to 
Magnolia Springs there are many Summer cottages and 
Winter homos of wealthy people and Winter tourists. A 
few years ago Theodore P. Rhonts had a beautiful home 
near Daphne on the water* front. The house was, or is 
not elaborate, but the gardens were the finest on the bay. 
T^et no one labor under the delusion that this is a para¬ 
dise, where one can get on without work. Y’ou must work 
here and work hard, the same as anywhere if you expect 
to win out. The country is new and hut sparsely settled 
and the land must he cleared of stumps; there is no un¬ 
derbrush. I know of no place where one who can labor, 
and wait, can make such a beautiful and attractive home 
so cheaply as here in Baldwin County. g. h. f. 
Loxley, Ala. 
