University of South Carolina Libraries
VOL. XLIII. WINNSBORO, S. C-.. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1886. NO. L ? 111 III i ? . FORSAKIXG THE OLD PATHS. GENERAL .JOHNSON HACOOD I'LEAD*! y FOR A MIXED HUSBANDRY. An Essay Read H?*fore the !?tate A-jrinsIturn! ! * Society and th#- (iranu'e at Tii<-:r J?D1 ! I Summer Mirllas on Auxas! 3, ?H>.y. ' It is doubtful whether, in all tlie Ihsc ' since South Carolina was the hunting I ground of the Indian, any single fifth of ? a century has witnessed within her borders a relative progress in material welfare equal with the last. It needs no com pnation 01 stauscics 10 siiov, iius. at Columbia, the beautiful city in which you arc holding this summer meeting. Compare her in 1865, sitting amid ashes and her population feeding on the refuse cattle of Sherman's supply train, with her ' condition to-day. See her waste places rebuilt, often more substantially then before; her homes onee more sur-j rounded with the comforts of life, and | her people on the streets and in the j marts again steadily asserting themselves j in the battle of life. Columbia in this j but represents the State, and in the do-' gree of her rehabilitation does not more j than equal the general progress. The uncomplaining fortitude, the incomparable energy of the South in the struggle to restore her fortunes, broken in the j late civil war, has been witnessed with i ~ . 1 \?- *>.11 rt v* /I 1H>/ I ? WAC'^iTl f c I iiULLL-LUlUA/i! UJ tlia,cixlv^L LKJ xxx* iumvi yivociiio ; as much of the. heroic element as any- j thing in her history, from Sumter to { Appomattox. AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION. Yet, notwithstanding this successful progress, and at its close, our agricultural interest finds itself depressed, the chief product of its industry selling at j best with no sufficient margin of profit, j and"Uften, in individual cases, at a point j below the cost of production, which im- j 2>erils the accumulation that has been j made. The agricultural mind is earn- i estly and with justice demanding the reason why. It has been suggested that it is to be jaund in onerous hira&fiial legislation and wasteful public expenditure. Others, going deeper into the analysis, have ^ sought the chiei cause of the trouble in the faulty business system upon which our industry is based. There is perhaps truth in both these suggestions, and each deserves attention, but as to their relative and practical importance in the consideration of a meeting of South Carolina agriculturalists a few thoughts occur. The taxes paid to the General Government, indirect though they be, are probably the largest levied upon our pursuit; but in their levy and expenditure we have an interest and control in UUIIUJUU1L WALil -LUl>J Hill i ii/na Ui j Indirection makes it difficult to asver-! tain what we actually do pay; and ex- j tensive community of interest both complicates its efteet uj>on our spociai industry, and makes the desired change Lard to"accomplish. With an overwhelming ^ ^Toting-majority at the polls, and with ordinarily a majority of representatives in the State Legislature, State levies and expenditures have been and remain within our immediate control. The sup-. port of Government is 'a necessity, but every cent taken from the taxpayer beyond its economic and efficient administration is oppressive. Does the present management of the State Government favorably meet the requirements of this proposition? VI think it does. It is not iirotpridpfl that, there is no room for re trenehment and reform. With somespecial opportunities of observation it lias seemed to me that improvement may be sought in the direction of a more simple and a cheaper county administration; of confining the disbursements of w the charitable institutions of the State, jaMeh exclusive of the interest on the public debt consume one-third of the State levy, more rigidly to those who are j proper recipients ^ charity, and in mak- j ing the labor of convicts a source of income, to the relief of the taxpayer. The inequality obtaining in the assessment ior taxation and the failure of the forfeited land laws to enforce the collection of taxes operate injustice and demand redress. All of these may be looked to. "When in position to do so, I have myself urged them upon thd attention of our law-making power; but it has not been indicated where retrenchment an.l reform to an extent appreciable in this connection, can go further at this time without in my judgment impairing the efficiency of the public administration, or curtailing expenditures in the best interests of the people. Be this as it may, however; take things as they stand, and let us consider. The State and ordinary county taxes, together with the two-mill school tax, are, one year with another, about ten mills, upon a valuation of property at little over one-half its selling price; and estimating them per capita they are about one and two-thirds dollars to the population. Ho v.- much can the burden of such a tax affect any healthy industry? Now subtract from the sum thus taken from the farmer what he must pay for an efficient and well ordered government, if this be not such, and you have the measure of practical retrenchment; but in the infinitesimal, proportions of the saving made when distributed among the individual farmers have you found adequate relief from the widespread depression of our calling? There are other assessments upon the ndustry of the farmer and hens upon j his land which pass under the name of and are coliectcd as taxes. These being in no just sense taxes, breed confusion in the popular mind as to the amount of taxation. I ailude to county and township subscriptions to railroads. They are simply business investments made by the county or township upon business considerations; stock in tl:e railroads is _ always given in return for the subscriphu tion, and expected improvements in the property of the subscriber is a further inducement. These investments, like s others, are sometimes wise, and sometimes not; but it is well to classify them correctly. If a farmer buys a mine, and the purchase money is collected through an officer of the law, it is not taxes, because the officer happens also to be the tax collector. The farmer has acted in his individual capacity upon his own responsibility. The profits of the transaction are not to be credited to good government; nor its losses charged to maladministration. TEE REMEDY. "Without ignoring, or I think under-j rating, the effect of financial legislation, j either Federal or State, upon our agri- i culture, I am of those who find that the | chief cause of its present depression is j the faulty system upon which it is di- i rected. Of this system it has been said that it looks to sending abroad everything that we produce, and bringing back even-thing that we consume. That with it home commerce is nothing; exports and imports everything. That whenever our capital finds investment outside the farm, it is in railroads made necessary by this system, and whose obvious interest, lying in securing the longest Laid of the largest freight, is to intensify it. And finally that under it t!:.' producer is given over to the ride of that class of business people who are occupied merely with the distribution of the prouacis of labor, adding value td </i;!y 5 v change of place, aii'l that the merchant and the transporter have it ail their own way in apportioning the avails. This may be too trenchant criticism, but we are compelled to admit that j there has been much force m it in the past; that there is too much force in it [ now; and, until it substantially ceases to apply to our methods, I can see no abiding prosperity for us. We are too cxclusively devoted to agriculture, and our agriculture is confined to too limited a range of production. The standing injunction of the agricultural journals, ' Keep the boys on the farm," is based upon fallacy. It should be, "Send a fall proportion of them from the farm.'.' Put them to developing the resources of our forests and mines; send them to the trades and occupations which will supply .-.4. T.of Ik.,-*- f *>. Li-*-* oKmo/1 <10 >> AJLet t ?? \J, kSll V iiVllJL WV1VUVU ! Build up manufactories of any and c-vcrytliing for which, there is demand. Invite capital'to embark upon these industries by favoring legislation. Thus increase the class of profitable consumers, and make for the farmer that home market, which is for him the best of all markets, and without which he cannot diversify to its most profitable extent the products of his farm. The markets abroad, the farmer finds the circle of competition widening as he goes, and he is handicapped with freights to an extent that confines his shipnnnts to special and not always his most profitable crops. With us the list for exportation embraces for the larger part of Hie State but a siugle item, cotton. Bice takes the place of cotton in a small section, and there is some talk of introducing tobacco as an additional so-called money crop. But what we want are the consumers to take, and the crops to be sold, in the home market. Fresh meats, the products of the dairy, fruits, vegetables, live stock arc transported witn a tumcuny anti at an expense which limits the distance to which they can "be sent-, yet it is in -the production of the most perishable of these that the fanner finds the most remunerative results of his labor and the largest increase in the value of his land. An acre devoted to market gardening, near a city, will rent annually for what will buy rr.-^ to ?ya acres devoted in this State^cTcTftW^^^^r.vhen live stock is the object (the least prt^i^able of the products enumerated, because^ the least perishable and the easiest transported to distant markets) a Kentucky blue-grass farm will rent or sell for three times as much per acre as a cotton plantation. Without going further into these general considerations 'it does seem to me that the progress we have made since the devastation of the late war has been, not because of, but despite the system upon which we have worked; that the depression we are laboring under is the legitimate consequence of that system; and that as long as we adht re to it we will continue to have our periods of elation and free expenditure when the price of our single money crop, from causes which we do not control, is lip; and our periods of despondency over cramped resources, when it is down. We cannot, it is true, escape the vicissitudes of seasons. nor evade the primal curse; hut we must no longer look so exclusively to foreign markets, nor in any any market suspend our fate upon a single hair. "We must, by diversifying the pursuits of our people, enlarge the home market, that alone fully repays the farmer's labor, and in ordering that upon the farm we must recognize the law of chances, Tvkich is as rigid as any other imposed upon nature. Like the insurance men, we must spread our ventures. ov'?r a broad surface to hope to realize a reasonably certain profit. AGBICCLTUKAI, CAPABILITY OF THE STATE. Circumstances sometimes forbid a mixed husbandry and compel adherence to the one crop system, but in no section of this State do such limitations exist. *- * 1 * Tt . _ 1 VI _ Hi me coast region, oesicie me vtuuauie crops of rice and sea island cotton, easy access to large centres of population make market gardening more or less practicable on every farm, and the natural perennial pasturage of cheap, unimproved highlands and swamp, combined with a climate requiring no winter shelter for stock, gives opportunities unsurpassed even on the Western plains for the addition of pastoral farming. In the middle section of the State, between tide-water and the falls of the rivers, and in that part of it which more especially constitutes the cotton belt, on almost any one plantation mav be grown each Southern staple that is planted, and all of the cereals. The soil seems specially adapted to root crops; garden vegetables and fruits do well. The soil, a sandy loam, is not so well adapted to the usually cultivated grasses, but valuable natural grasses are found, and the Bermuda is naturalized. For a pasture grass the latter is unequalled on such lands, and Dr. Bavenel's experiments have shown that, highly fertilized, it may also be cut for hay with extraordinary results. There is no question of the success of the Means grass for hay under similar circumstances. The various soiling crops are, however, grown [ with such facility in this region that, under the system of preserving by ensilage, the necessity of hay from meadows | for home use is done away with. Going above the falls of the rivers, from thence to the mountains, everywhere are to be found plantations with bottom land enough for hay and corn, level land enough for small grain and cotton, and broken hillsides, once fertile bat now less remunerative under tho plough, yet producing good natural pasturage and capable of being brought, under the hoof of the sheep, to the highest condition of grass production. The soil and ciimate of this part of the State are naturally adapted to all the grasses that are cultivated. In situations away from water courses, (and they are few,) where alluvial lands sufficient for meadow are not "T&und, the general character of the country remains the same, and, as in the middle region, ensilage may supplement any deficiency in hay product. Such are the varied agricultural capabilities of our State, and the exnibit is under rather than overstated. It is only because of the exclusive attention given to cotton that the impression ever could have obtained that the cereals and grasses were not suited to oar surroundings. * 1 TV Ti_ _ 1 iiie crop oi corn grown oy x>r. -rar^cr. i near Columbia, and the crop of oats of Colonel Wylie, at Lancaster, remain respectively the largest on record, the corn crop reaching 200 bushels and the oats crop 181 bushels per acre. Dr. Eavenel's croj) of Bermuda hay near Charleston Avas ten thousand pounds to the acre, exceeding more than four-fold the average crop of the United States. 3Ir. Childs, within five miles of where we are sitting, profitably grows and sells with the Means grass $10,000 worth of hay per annum. Colonel Rion's growth of lucerne in Fairfield yielded ten cuttings in the season, and by actual measure-ment twenty-five feet "of growth. Tne Egyptian millet, a luxuriant and valuable forage plant, is cut from six to se\i n times and gives a total growth of eight to ten feet. The market gardens near Cliarlesv n are unsurpassed anywhere. Within the last four years the growth of watermelons for market has been introduced along the line of the South Carolina Railroad in Aiken and Barnwell counties, and the profits have been such that this year fjvc thousand acres are devoted to the crop. Last year one fanner, }Ir. "Wcthersbec, of Barnwell, sold one hundred car.oads for ten thousand dollars, finding his market in Charleston, New York and Cincinnati, lie informs me that his net return, the expenses of production being included with cost of marketing, was something over ?6,000. In the same section of these counties, on the Bidge in Edgefield, and at other points, orchards are cultivated for the home and Northern markets with^eminent success. ; In Greenville and in other counties the culture of the grape upon a large scale is no loncrer an experiment. In short. whenever individuals or a neighborhood have broken loose from old-time traditions, the ability to successfully vary our agriculture has been conclusively shown, j GRASS AXD LIVE STOCK. I The summer meetings of our societies j have largely the character of experience meetings, and it is in this that in the judgment of many lies their chief value. Having been requested to do so, some details in my own experience of converting a cotton plantation into a _ farm of mixed husbandly, with grass and live stock as the leading features, will be submitted. As in all new departures, mistakes were made, difficulties encountered and losses incurred with wl-'ch it is unnecessary to trouble you, out to save some younger brother of the plough, who is dissatisfied with exclusive cotton culture, from traveling the same path, resulting methods will be ireely given. The experiment was commenced in 1878, and made in the upper part of the State, on Saluda Eiver, twelve miles by rail from the town of Xewberry. The plantation contained near a thousand acres, of which about one-half was creek and river bottom. Of this Lost about 300 acres had been cleared from fifty to a hundred years and cropped chiefly in corn, wituout manure. The high lands were hilly, their original growth were oak and hickory, and the soil varied from a red to a whitish clay, with more or less loose surface rock. Those high lands had been nearly all cleared, culti vatcu witn nttie attention to preserving the !.?<:?, fl-nd when beginning to fail jtumed out to be grown up in pint??, k> be again cut cloven and cultivated. This process bad been repeated at least three times since the land was in original forest. As a slave plantation, it had been profitable; after emancipation, under an ill-devised system of tenantry, it had been unprofitable and the property became much impaired. The buildings had became dilapidated, fences almost gone, ditches filled, and the arable land cultivated in patches, a vigorous growth of young pines over most of it. The establishment of a meadow, tlie restoration of a portion of the arable land to good tilth, and the cutting down of pines and shrubs on the balance to promote the growth of natural grasses for pasturage, the alteration of old buildings and the erection of many new ones, together with the putting up of first-class fences, constituted tlv permanent outlay. Live stock, tools am1 implements had also to be purchased. THE MEADOW. The meadow consists now of seventyfive acres of first river bottom, being a pure alluvium. Stumps and sprouts were carefully eradicated, the land flushed close and deep with nairow one-horse ploughs, Bermuda grass roots sown broadcast and ploughed in shallow, then heavily rolled to make the surface as smooth as possible. The best time for this work was found to be from after frost in the sp.xing till hot summer weather set in. The annual weeds that sprang up witn tiie grass were cut ana raked by liorse-power and carted off the land. The meadow is ordinarily subject to frequent winter and occasional summer overflows. It lias received no other fertilization, except in some small experimental plats, none of wliich have given satisfaction. The summer overflow, if coming just before a harvest, is injurious; if before the grass is tall enough to be mashed down by the sediment deposited, and time enough for subsequent rains to cleanse the blades, they are, like the winter freshets, advantageous. When the whole or any part of a crop is muddied by a freshet it is perfectly cleansed by running it through a machine combining a whipper and fan arrangement. After t.hf- mpfifJnw fnllv sfit. sav n.f+^r tiie second year, including the occasional damage from summer overflow, four to five thousand pounds of merchantable hay may be expected according to seasons from such a meadow. Ample barn room is necessary to making good hay; railroad or water facilities for transportation to market are essential. Hay, bulky in proportion to value, will not bear transportation for any distance over a highway, and local railroad freights approximate too closely the cost of cou-! veyance by wagon. Water carriage is best and cheapest. When the location is not adapted to marketing the hay, only enough should be harvested for winter feed of live stock, and the rest grazed on for summer pasture. Indeed, the best husbandmen contend that if justice is done to the land no hay should ever leave the farm on which it is crown. except in the shape of flesh and bones. So far, with my meadow in a few hundred feet of a railroad, and special conveniences for shipping, the bulk of the hay has gone to market, and it is the largest and most remunerative market crop of the fa.im. I have not been able, however, to advantageously send it. for sale farther than to towns from sixty to one hundredt miles away., Bermuda, from its tenacity of life and from its well known character as a pest in hoed crops, should be put for a meadow only when it is intended to stay; and here its staying qualities are of immense value in comparison with grasses that require reseeding and resetting every few y?ars. Cultivation, however, is to some extent necessary. Harrowing benefits it, and a thorough scarilication every other year with a sharp cutting instrument that does not disturb the smoothness of the sod is desirable. Thus far the river overflows seem sufficient to keep the meadow productive. The seventh and eighth crops have been the largest, reaching each over 5,200 pounds per acre of hay, weighed when cured and baled for market. CORN". The second river low grounds on this ?l ~ i. i _ piave stru il uuiu icuuciuuscxay, reqiuriiJ^ thorough drainage, and from long cultivation deficient in humus. Enough of this is set apart for corn culture, and the remainder thrown into permanent pasture Producing without manure from twenty to thirty bushels to the acre, fifty acres annually under the plough is enough in the general scheme. TMs fifty acres alternates with as much -re either in P spring oats or in weed fallow, tlius add! to instead of decreasing the supply f. humus. 3Iore than one year in wfeed ! fallow injures the tilth for the next succeeding crop by the land becoming too foul. Corn is a poor market crop, troublesome and wasteful to handle, and no more, therefore, is grown than can be profitably fed. Very little of the blades is gathered for forage, sometimes none. It is too expensive and is not needed except as a change to hardworked- or sick : horses. OAXS. Spring oats are planted in rotation with corn on the second low grounds; fall oats 011 highland in rotation with' cotton. In the cotton rotation the land is sown dow n immediately upon harvesting the oats in peas, fertilized with either ash element or kainit. When the peas are matured, hogs, and 110 other stock, are pastured, not too closely, upon them. The value of the peas to the hogs is estimated at about the cost of the pea and ash element crop, leavingits ameliorat mg value as ciear gam. lhe cotton receives two hundred bushels of compost in the drill, which is found to be as much as can be advantageously applied to the acre in that war. The oats crop, neither spring nor fail, receives manure. The crop is threshed as soon as harvested, both to secure economy in feeding the grain and by careful housing to save the straw in the best condition for winter forage. Cut when not over-ripe and cured without or with little rain, it is valuable. Salt, in putting it away, makes it more palatable to stock. The yield of cats has varied with seasons from twenty-live to forty-seven bushels per acre. coxro:.*. The United States department of agriculture in ISTu estimated the average yield of cotton in the South at 1GG pounds of lint per acre, and the cost of production at 9* cents per pound. Sir. Henderson, the commissioner of agriculture in Georgia, is quoted as placing the crop of last year (1SS5) in that State at 150 pounds of lint, and the cost per pound at 0 cents. The average yield in South Carolina varies little from that in Georgia, and there is with me uo doubt of the near approach to accuracy of the estimates of cost made on the basis of i.1. .1 x. . c . i: Hf - f ^ uiax raxe ox jJiuaucuuii. .auuy ox xxiu items of expense, lxowcver, are fixed, and with a larger yield the cost per pound decreases. In Hammond's Hand-Book | of South Carolina are given in detail the expenses of two crops grown in 1882? one in Newberry of *00 pounds of lint and one in Fairfield of 300 pounds-to the .acre; the firs- cost 0[ cents and the lust m-r pound. In the same year I kept for^y-.pwii satisfaction a careful account with the cottoD-Qrop on this farm; the yield. Letter than ttSflaL was 410 pounds of lint to the acre and the cost 0 -i-10 cents per pound. These figures show that, with middlings ruling at from 0 to 10 cents at the seaports, cotton by itself can be no profitable crop. Analyzing the items of expense in my accounts I find that 3 G-10 cents, or'something over half, was in manure, meat and bread for the laborers, and feed fur plough animals. These" under the system of mixed husbandry are made oil the farm and sold at full price to the cotton crop. It is just here that in any ! such system at the South, cotton corner ! in, and planted only to a proper extent is valuable. If sold only at the cost of production, it has purchased the manures fiwm +! ?/> 1 i ra cfn/ilr on/I f 7Trn in+r* money t!ic provision crops or the meat into which they have been previously converted. These are some unsaleable, and others marketed "with difficulty, while in that respect cotton is unequalled. It is transported with more facility and less waste than almost another farm product, and is as readily exchanged for gold as the note of a solvent bank. The limit of the cotton crop is the extent to which the compost made on the place will go, some thirty to forty acres; and the seed is all fed to sheep or working oxen; none of it is used directly as a fertilizer. TCRXIPS, EYE, BARLEY AND CLOVER. About six acres of ruta baga turnips are sown annually on land upon which stock have been recently hurdled. This is sufficient for the iiock of sheep to which it is fed. Larger crops, with a view to feeding also to cattle and hogs. ! have been tried and abandoned. The ruta baga remains sound in the held all winter and is dug as fed. Barley for soiling, and rye and red clover for grazing. are sown. Tlion<?h erood for this purpose, rye does not do as well as oil the sandy loams of the lower country. Barley is highly remunerative for early spring soiling, and red clover sow:: as a separate crop on hurdled land has never failed to catch, and docs as well as I have ever seen it in Virginia or Kentucky. From forty to fifty acres are now set aside for these crops. PAST CK AGE. There are, as stated, seventy-five acres in meadow, one hundred acres in corn culture, fifty being planted alternate years, eighty acres in the cotton and oat rotation, and say fifty acres in small crops. The remainder is permanent pasture or forest. Of tliis near -lOOacros ir> itLV-UiJ > viUMVfcWu xuuii) i ?ywi.i toms an<l highland,) or highland la:own with lis as "old Held," upon which all the short-leaved pine has been cat down a:id the young deciduous trees left for shade. " This constitutes the summer pastures. Its cultivation consists in keeping down shrub growth and an annual spring scorching ofit of dead grass. Under this treatment the soil of natural grasses has steadily improved. It carries, including cattle, sheep, hogs and colts, some five hundred head of stock. A separately fenced past-ore is accessary ior the hogs during the lambing season. In the winter the gleanings of the com fields, the aftermath of the meadow and the canebrakes of the swamp forest, (which are not grazed in summer,) are a valuable resource. SHEEP. Commencing with fifty native and fifty Southdown ewes, broad-tailed bucks were bred to them and their female progeny for four years. Then a pure bred Southdown buck was put with the fiock and recently a Shropshire has been \ added, the broad-tailed being withdrawn j to the came extent. The number of breeding ewes was increased to near three hundred. These were found to betoo many, and two hundred adopted as the right number without further provision of special pasturage. The flock has been kept principally for the lamb market and tiie product oi wool is a sec- ] ondary object. Barren ewes are culled for sale; breeding ewes have been verier- j ally kept as long as they were fertile. In j nine years three sheep have been lost by J dogs, none by theft. There has been a j little scab a^ d other disease of a sporadic character. -No epidemic of any kind; some deaths from accident, some from old age, and a few from unknown causes. The loss of grown sheep from all these causes has varied i'rom 3 to 10 per cent., with an average of less than 5 per cent. The number of lambs reared in proportion to ewes has averaged SI per cent. From Christmas till middle of April the flock receives as much Lay as it v> i!I eat j cic:tu at night, with. per head, a pint of ! cotton seed one niglit and one large tar- j nip sliced up the next. At other times ; it subsist upon the pasturage heretofore indicated. From early spring until Christmas the sheep are hurdled iu open movable pens; in winter they are yarded ; at niglit upon litter with sheds provided i that they can use at pleasure. CATTLE. Cattle have been 'bred chiefly for beef and work animals, the calves getting nearly all the milk from their dams. ' Recently a dairy for the sale of butter i has been undertaken with sneeos thus far. Selected native cows were bred to a Devon bull with a Brahmin cross. The half-bred hei fers v,*ere bred to a shorthorn bull with a like Lrahmin cross, and now a pure-bred Devon is being used. rni ij. i i :,i ? a ?//e resuiL nas ueun ru-piu iuiniu\cinciit and a handsome herd of general purpose cattle. No further crossbreeding is contemplated. Devon bulls will bo used in future. About tifty head of cattle are kc^:. The straw;evop and some secondc lass hay is reserved for their use i-i bad weather in winter, and when high water keeps them from the canebrakes. They also in winter are yarded at night on iitter with adjacent shelter, and arc! hurdled in summer alongside of but not j with the sheep. In hurdling, the land is ploughed before and after the stock is put upon it. The size of the pens is determined by the number of stock, upon a calcuh.tion that one cow is equal to three sheep and that rive hundred sheep wiil in seven days manure an acre. This is more than profit, and other writers consider a fair dressing. It is believed to be the equivalent of at least seven or eight hundred pounds of iirst-elass fertilizer, and the permanency of its effect, with fair after treatment, is such that it is thought to add ten dollars per acre to the value of the land. The manure of animals is applied by hurdling at onethird of the expense of compost. . COLTS. Colts have been the least profitable stock handled. Jioth mules and horses have cost nearly'their full value to rear them. Some are still bred both for the . pleasure in dealing with th?..n. and .because they too purchase the grain and forage crops at full value. Mule colts pay better than horse colts of the common breed. IIOGS. nogs nave given sausiacuon on iv?oi different plans. First: Keeping only i enough to be reared on natural pastur- > age and the waste of the place, receiving | grain only when put up to fatten for slaughter; and second, (which is now preferred,) keeping .enough to make them the chief purchaser; of the corn grown and the clover and pea crops. This is the only stock not carefully. ~\"rs^^Levery night during the year, and th?flH|fcjto^ittlc if any loss by theft. Iiastfc^l. immunity from epiclcmic diseases. EHSTluTdd^erkshire grades are used, and sales on from eight to twelve months old, luJcV been found most profitable. WOI:K aximaIiS AXD SLvcnix^r.Y. Six large and active mules are needed, : fori five yoke of oxen.are kept principal- ! ly for teaming. Tiitre i?--t ally ploughed, but are ntterlv niiiLi?fesi-i machines. The hay harvesting machines ; used are: 3 mowers, 2 sulky rakes, J ' tedder, 2 hay carriers, 1 hay du ster and ' 1 Dedcrick press. A self-binding reaper, ! a Chicago screw pulverizer, and a No. 0 corn-mill of the American Grinding : Company have given satifaction. The ' manager must be more or less of a me- : chanic, and a shop well equipped for re- i pairs bo kept on tlie place. The wear ! ; and tear of machinery and implements, including blacksmith and wheelwright work and material used in lvpuir, lias ; been 15 per cent, on first cost. If this ; work be clone promptly and as thoroughly as possible, it will, including material, ' be about S per cent., and the remaining 7 per cent, will express the insidious ; effect of age which repairs short of reconstruction cannot reach, These calcu- 1 lutions are based upon careful, and judi- ' cious use, and shelter at all times when 1 not in the field. 1 LABORERS. j One active and reliable negro has charge of all the live stock, including ; work animals when at pasture. He has a , collie to assist him. Other laborers are not allowed to keep dogs. About three- j \ fourths of tliis man's tunc is thus occu-; < pied. Beside the manager, one white < man is foreman and assistant; six negro ^ laborers, including stockman, are em- \ ployed by the year. Job labor eqniva- ? lent to the work of four laborers i'or the ] year is hired at different seasons, as ' needed. '; CONCLUSION. < Under this system separate accounts ; with each crop show that, per acre culti- ] vated, hay if the most profitable; oats i next, cotton next, and then corn. Of i the live stock, in proportion to capital i invested in each, hogs, sheep, cattle, < colts, have proven remunerative in the 3 order named. Each product of the farm, ] however, supplements the other, and I > < am by no means sure that a larger devel-j i opment of any one would not, under j J present conditions, injuriously aiiect ii> ! 1 standing as given. What ha.s been writ- j 3 ten of this experiment is ba-cd upon the !? data, of the previous eight years, ih^ : unprecedented rains and j rebuts of the .< lust two months of this year have been J daniagingly felt there as elsewhere in this and adjacent States. It is too early to speak positively, but I have reason to think that in the face of a common calamity the result will confirm the j adage that "It is best not to carry aii of ' our eggs in the same basket." Jrotltc Oils Vi rilt? n >i:or; ."lO'.ci frti:rj '5 m:s. j I heard to-day the story of a Troy I shirt factory girl which has elements oi j the wonderful in it. A new hotel, to be j called the Burwick House, is being built ; at Rutland, Yi., at a cost of $25,000 to , $30,000. A former Troy laundry girl is . the capitalist in this venture, although i the house is; named after her brother, < who is the ostensible proprietor. -Her ] name is Mrs. Phoebe Churchill. She ' married an officer of the United Stutes Navy, who was blown up in n premature 1 ex? lusioii nt ilcll Gate at j?ome mage in improvement. Two fjiiien cauio forward to claim him as husband. (J:ie was from South Carolina. Ho was living with her at New York. The other was this Troy girl, and she succecded in es- , tablishing the validity of her claim and securing >2,000 insurance on his life. A considerable sura of money that was raised iu New York was divided between the two women. Mrs. Churchill having j j known something of the laundry busi-. ' ness at Troy, entered into partnership j' with a gentleman of that city and stated | an establishment in New York city. j They now have four or eve kundri-js: J here which are equal to a bonanza, and it is from this source that the money Las , come for the construction of the Burwick i House.?Gath in Cincinnati Enquirer. "Keep going straight ahead," says a i writer. Tin; is al! very well, but when : there is a bull dog in the path we would rather go roend him. {'(>'.(; ::;s ?vho ?o.\"r i?av. Iia::;* c! :!i!* O.j-i.'a! li.iw Found Thorn Oi:t 21;.! are f'arefi:!. (Vi ' in..-. )- Notes is Pittsburg Dispatch.) Some queer tilings can be seen about the Capital during the last days of the session. One of the queerest is the crowd of collectors. Coming to Congress may be an lionoi*, but it cannot be saiil to make men honorable. The average of dead beats in Congress is quite as gre:;! ;ls o::L -ide. Ou the last days of the sos-ion yon will find a swarm of ilorists, ihvrv stable men. hotel and boarding house keepers, constables and professional Coll-, etors, swarming the corridors, hiking after delinquent members and trying to catch them in the halls. There are members who systematically rob hotels and haberdashers and all sorts of tradesmen right and left. No tiling 6an be legally done with a member of Congress for obtaining money under false pretenses, though it is a jailabie offense when committed by common people. The only remedy is to make the transaction known. It the records of the Congressional dead beats could be printed a c-ood many people would be astonished, ihe most reckless prodigality in luxuries, such as carriages, dowers, wines, cigars, etc., is the usual life of the Congressional beat. There are poor men and women here who Lave catered to' these members with the idea that men holding such honorable positions must of necessity be honest, who have tried in vain to collect what is due them. These dupes actually suffer for the necessaries of life, while the Congressional debtors are aping men of wealth :n high living. The sergeai:t-at-arms' office couli tell a disgraceful story of bogus checks, duplicated drafts and violated obligations?a story too unpleasant to print. The hotels and restaurants, and even the barber sh ips, would simply repeat the story. I was standing in the livery office . i iilard's the other day, about to call ior a coupe, when a Northern. Congressman hurried up and asked very peremptorily for a carriage. "Haven't got one, General," said the agent, blandly. "Sorry, but everything is out." As soon as the member went away the agent inquired if I would have the coupe. "That's all right," he remarked; "we've got plenty of carriages, but he's a dead bear. Never pays for anything. Why, I've got a bill against him in here two years old. The gall of the man!" "Are there many such men in Congress Vf "Yes, quite a number; we've been stuck often?beaten out of hundreds of "* 11 * * J ' < ? ^ --..1 1 ilobars?i)t uoiii rjcnators anu meuioers. They are the "worst customers in that way, because yea cari'jt force collections. They li;\i-Ily ever have anything more than their clothes; you can't arrest and punish them; you can't garnishee their salaries. And the airs they give thembfl ,esi V?'e are very careful about trusting Congressmen, 1 tell you!" ? mmnr* 1-1 ^di ? Mo.int .Ktaax Outbreak. The ^present outbreak seems to be or x stupendous scale, though as yet it has lone cuiaparaiiveiy trilling damage. "We a,ar < :' aV oi lava, t\vo;_ or_thiv-;; ^3:::; ...j. roovlngito wnwa-rd.witi. j accelerated rapidity as it roils. ovei < steeper gradients. As it comes from the 21-ater on the summit it has hitherto ' jhiciiy 6vei:iowed the desolate wastes ol 3 Lava, lU-h-.-s aud scoria? which have been accumulating from time immemorial as ] sonliapjratiou followed conflagration. 1 But v.'ith its tlery breath it has beer. 1 licking up the gardens and vineyards 3 that girdu.- A i-jolosi to tiie westward, and ] the i::i;:'.';;ta5i:> of the village have beer. 1 startled;tilts, uncertain from day to day is to the reach oi* the ruin that is over- i Liking them. And Xicolosi is but one < of some-seventy villages all built on the ] Hanks of the mountain and more or less j in continual peril. It may be asked why ] the people, after so many -warnings and j calamities, persist in living on the thin ] ;rust flooring the fields over those sub- ] terraneous furnaces. The fact is that < the friable soil formed by the decom- j posed lava is of marvelous fertility where i there arc the mean.? of irrigation, and it i is very easily wrought?as in the forest region wo eo^ie up n magnificent groves ] 3L' the oak, the ilex and the chestnut, the < nine, the beech and the lime. So that i tlic villagers run the risk of being occa- i iionf Uy ruined or swallowed up in con- : sideration of the corufort they enjoy be* ? tween times; and, putting their trust in ] [he guardianship of the Virgin and the saints, congratulate themselves on being much better otT than, their neighbors. I'et when you see -Etna in the glow of a jicilian sunset fancy can scarcely associate the mountain with menaces of death i;ul devastation. Xot even in the transparent air of the Libyan desert, ilickering over t.ie burning sands behind the iiuge pyramids of GLizch, are the >pk-ndov.i of the dying banset more glori3u.<. The hidden furnaces would seem nysfcerioiioiy to add an intensity of sympathetic icl'oction to those celestial lires A oraago ; i crimson, till the liaslnng igLl.-. l'.:.ii;;g ilo'.vji ::i o vivid purples, make lac oairen lava beds and the broken precipices blaze in what may be f :<;^i:caiiy ../ed as great breadths f jf purple pickled cabbage. Xo artist ; i:is over :a;ight those tints, which are dimply unsellable by pen or brush.? [ibekwood's iiuugazine. A Df!i5?era!c Lie ?.ot Criminal. ' All indictment agaiust John Fink, of f E3aliinir?r:*, an alleged swindler, was Hua-heci in Detroit on ^loaday. About , wo years ago Fiuk sold to the Detroit JIa >' Company the recipejior a ( icrfain labn ating concoction which J:c . . .V u ? . < V ill.. KJil, iUJU fc'cred ?spr ot'-to howa. certificate from . & 1 send, of Philadelphia, in j juppi.rL CiiUiK. The company Lt il't: iiiLricato.- for ?100. but the ? i-iiii denied knowing of Fink )>r hi* :i| :*itv. >r. Fink refused to dis- , jorge the The prisoner's counsel , i.-'-i :::i: s :::rt!cie by means'of a lie iid not. tn:.:iie si.j.uic.-,' constitute false } ire I;! !i:c <:;dy ground m; which a h:T j f !':(! . could be brought igai: ' tlsui iie positively knew hat th mixir.ro would uot save 10 per :cnt. o! represented, or that he ivas ii. . . . vfithout knowledge tliat it This view* was entertained by i:ul- : vi:o held that, whatever : k . it:- ns were, they did not, Uidcr :!k' ! r.vt-r iii.i's us taken, subject am t cninin-.i prosecution.?Chicago Tri'j".tie. y ; : ii. gentb mosquito has ^ -cacnea ..k- >;agc or ner ousmess life, it should be :i comfort to refined minds ind tender bodies to read the appended v'rart from Thorcau: "I was as much ] itVei'.-d by the VJham of a mosquito < l:.i f iviviole and unimaginable tour j ;agLi my nnariment u.t earliest dawn. ( when i was sitting with my doors and win- l i.?wsopen, as i could be by any trumpet i lhal ever ^ang of fame It was" Ilomer's j L-irquli.-:u: i'.-elf ::n iIliad and Ouysfecy in s die air. slaving its own wrath and wander ] tags. There was something comical about < it: a standing advertisement, till forbidden, 1 ?i' the everlasting vicor and fertility of the world." ~ 1 THE GREAT EVOLUTION' TRIAL. IJr. Woodrow Cleared of the Charge of Heresy? A Statement of the Case. (Fro n the A'i-usU Chronicle, Avgu-: 19.) This is tlic iirst formal arraignment ci Dr. Woodrow in a Court of die Church authorized to try his case, although his peculiar teachings have been reviewed and criticised in every assemblage of this denomination. He has been cleared of the charge of heresy, and escapes even the admonition which was the mildest form of punishment he could have received, and which, I believe, would have been the penalty selected by the prose cutxon. The case will be taken, on complaint, before the Georgia Synod, which meets at Sparta in November, and as this body has been against Dr. Woodrow, the verdict of the lower Court may be annulled. But annulling a verdict of not guilty does not establish a verdict of guilty, and a new trial before the Presbytery could have but one termination. So much, then, for Dr. Woodrow's ecclesiastical character. Three of the four Synods -controlling the Theological Seminary in Columbia may, and probably will, vote to turn Dr. Woodrow out of the faculty in accordance with tbe recommendation of the General Assembly. That, of course, will sever his connection with this institution. Dr. "Woodrow's point was that he could not afford to resign under fire, and that, as he has been cleared of teaching error by the Court having jurisdiction, he will remain until he is removed by the formal order of the Synod. As Dr. Woodrow has two large publications in Columbia, and as he occupies the chair of natural science in the South Carolina College, he will remain in Columbia at all events. The features of the tiial were full of interest. The two persons pitted against each other were prominent men. Dr. Adams, cf Augusta, conducted the prosecution in a spirit of candor, courage and high ability. His argument was said by Dr. Girardeau to have been the most masterly presentation of that side of the question that has yet been made. I saw no evidence of malice or intolerance. It was the clean work of a man who did his duty in the most direct way, and did it well. It was not an enviable position? that of prosecutor. It was a contest with Dr. woodrow in his own field, among liio /VM friA-n^c \'rt mon L-nmvc 1 ipt+ro* than Dr. Woodrow what he docs believe, and no man marshals his proofs so completely. It is hard to fasten error or to impute heresy here. Dr. Woodrow says he believes the body of man was formed by successive steps through succeding stages of lower animal life. The objectors say he does not give full credit to (iod. Dr. Woodrow says he recognizes God in the whole development from beginning to end. The objectors say God created man out of dust. Dr. Woodrow insists that the exact process of Creadon is not told in the standards of the Church or in the Bible; that science is not forbidden to try to work out the problem, and that the Church should not set up arbitrary or illiberal barriers. The personal .-4' tlvo? had its effect upon the cast;. of the Presbytery had been asb^^J*^ with Dr. Woodrow for thirty yearly. Ihey refused to believe him a dangerous man to the Church. Others of 'the younger ministry had studied under him it Oglethorpe University and at Columbia. They did not incline to the belief li. .1 i.:. x i l til .iiai ulls leacuuugs were neieueiu. -uj recognized him to be a pillar of intellectual strength in the Presbytery. It [vas not easy to secure a verdict of guilty igainst this sort of man. Dr. Woodrow's handling of witnesses ivas wonderful. He has a trained and subtle faculty. His mind is alert, and .lis output this time was liner in threadng evidence from the stand than in naking his appeal to the Court. He is i skilled debater. The examination of Dr. Girardeau by Dr. Woodrow was the keenest contest of the trial. It was a jlash of flint and steel, edge-cutting and spark-throwing. It was quiet and infuse. Both men are masters of controversial forces. Dr. Adams proved the better advocate: Dr. Woodrow the more adroit attorney. Jne is impulsive and eloquent; the other vary and logical. Dr. Adams is full and iond, and his eyes shine with lire and icrvous force. Dr. Woodrow is quiet md collected. . He is precision itself. ELis face is pale, his eyes clear and passionless and his demeanor indicates cool letermination. Both men I believe were born abroad md are of Scotch extraction. This nieetng might have suggested the array oi Caledonian extremes. You might almost ;ee Bruce and Balliol personiiied there. r - 1 x_ 2. _ .*.i_ . 1 i was giau 10 note me ui iriendly courtesies ui the train thisaiterloon. The personal relations arc not listurbed. 1 think Dr. Adams has sus;ained his reputation and made friends ; ;ven of his opponents. Dr. Woodrow las, of course, gained all the ollicial adrantage of the trial and proven his strength in his home Presbytery. The vote on the indictment stood a* 'oiiows: Yeas (Guilty): Ministers -i, :lders 5; total 0. Nays (Not Guilty;: Ministers 4, elders 10; total 14. l>a.<te Hall ii! tiie i'arlor. The hands on the clock were reaching , iround toward 12. She had yawned rex-atedly. but to no avaii. He was immovable. At length she said: "I understand you are quite a base ball )layer?'' "Y-a-as," he replied, 'T play a gweat leal. Do you admiah the sport?" es, indeed." "What do vou like the best about it':" ''I think I like to see a home nia occasonally, ;:s wtli ;;s anything." "Y-a-as," he returned, "I vewy warely icore one." "But you must be a capital short slop," vas the rejoinder, accompanied by a sup-! pressed yawn. He studied for a few minutes and thee cached for his hat. An Ohio I<lea. A dispatch from Springfield, O., states .hat the decision of the school board, , hat colored children and white children ' shall attend separate schools, has made! he colored population indignant. Tiii- I s wrong. They ought to be too proud | :o get mad. If the "p'or white trash" )f Ohio don't want to associate with the loscendants of African kings, let them ?o off by themselves and lead the lives jf "p'or white trash."?Brooklyn Eagle. m ^ The Baltimore Manufactures' llecord! publishes in its last issue a large number >f letters from leading manufactures in ;iii juris ui me country us 10 me present con lition of business und the prospects for the :all and winter. These reports, -.vith 1'cv. ixceptions, tend to indicate; u decided improvement; and, as a whole, the Record lays, are the most encouraging facts yet presented as to the return of more prosperous times to the manufacturing interests of :he country. A common by-word?I'll pass. j TKS IXVEXTOR OF SACCHARIDE. j An Accident Lea;"s to an Important Discovery? A ;::.st3i:cc V;"hk\: Out-Sa^arsSn^nr. j Dr. Constantino Fahiberg, tlic ini ventor or discoverer of saccharine, tlio new coal tar sugar, is a tall, well-built, handsome German-American, of about thirty-eight years of age. He speaks the modern languages fluently, and despite the celebrity that has so suddenly fallen upon him, is quite diffident and reserved. To an inquiring reporter, who had called upon him for the express purpose of conversing with him on the new sweetening agent, he said: ? 'H( v,- di 11 discover saccharine ? Well, it wa partly by accident and partly by study. * I had worked a long time upon the compound radicals and substitution products of coal tar, and had made a number of scientific discoveries that are, so far as I know, of no commercial value. One evening I was so interested in my laboratory that I forgot about supper until quite late, and then rushed off for a racal without stopping to wash my hands. I sat down, broke a piece of bread, and put it to ray lips. It tasted unspeakably sweet. I did not ask why it was so, probably because I thought it was so:ue cake or sweetmeat. I rin.ced my m ath with, water, and dried my mousuiche witli my napkin, when, to my snprise. the napkin tasted sweeter than the bread. Then I was puzzled. I again raised my goblet and, as fortune would ^ have it, applied my mouth where my fingers had touched it before. The water seemed syrup. It flashed upon me that I was the cause of the universal sweetness, and I accordingly tasted the end of my thumb, and found that it surpassed any confectionery I had ever eaten. I saw the whole thing at a glance, i had discovered or made some coal tar substance which out-sugared sugar. I dropped my dinner, and ran back to the laboratory. There, in my excitement, I tasted the contents of every beaker and evaporatit.g dish on the table. Luckily for me, none contained any corrosive or poisonous liquid. "One of them contained an impure solution of saccharine. On this I worked then for weeks and months until I had determined its chemical composition, ira cb uttcioristics and reactions, and the List modes of making it scientifically <jid commercially. W hen I first published my researches, some people laughed as if it were a scientific joke; otheis, of a more skeptical tum, doubted the discovery and the discoverer, and still others proclaimed the work as being of no practical value. When the public first saw saccharine, however, everything changcd. The entire press, European and American, described me and my sugar in a way that may iiave been ecluying, but was simply amusing to me. Ami then came letters. My mail lias ran as high as sixty a day. People wanting samples of saccharine, my autograph, or my opinion on chemical problems, desiring to become my partner, to buy my discovery, to be my agent, to enter mv laboratory and the* like. a w0:st??2fctj success. "What have I done? I have started a company in Germany to mannftctuie snfrfrnyfop. v.-'fo r. of_ ^000,(KX> "marks. Tiiey are already at wofkj" SbTE ' are now producing the new sugar. It ^ fc^^r rather v?"e sell it, betwggE ??0 these figuresifet^vri'oiy before a year has gone past. I would rather have started in this country, which is my home, but the high price of skilled labor, and the high tariff on the crude materials (tine chemicals) of which saccharine is made, deterred me and my friends from so doing. I will say, however, that if applied chemistry continues progressing as it has done in the past decade, we shall open branch works here within the next five years." Saccharine is proving a wonderful success. It is used already in many ways. It is employed by the makers of glucose and beet sugar. These are inferior in sweetness to cane sugar, but superior in flifyestihilitv and liealthfnlness. The ad dition of a trilling fraction of saccharine makes them the equals of the finest cane sugar in the market. Saccharine is so sweet that a tcaspoon'ul converts a barrel of water into syrup. A small wafer of it converts the bitterest quinine solution or aciu di'-iuc into a regular molasses. it will, therefore, be invaluable in disguising and destroying all the bitter and sour tastes in medicine without changing the character or action of the drugs. Saccharine does not decay, mould or ferment, neither is it attacked by bacteria. It has no injurious effect upon the human system. What effect has been noticed is rather beneficial than otherwise. This immunity from decay will render it oi great utility. Where sugar is used as a iiavor and not as a jlooci, is Lounu i. j ?jo ie^iaccd saccharine; where a^ a foou anci liavox* combined, it will not be. In the future the new sugar will be used by druggists, physicians, bakers, coniectioners, candy makers, bottlers, preserve and pickle makers, liquor distillers, wine makers and dealers in bottlers' supplies. riC FORMATION* OF SACCHABISE. Tiic nc >' coal tar oduct, saccharine, v.hieh is o\p;-ctcI to i rove very useful pa account of its ssreeteazBg power?in icspcci .o v.hieh it .i'.:::.-.'!. to c:uie sugar in liie rano oi ??0 l0 i'-1 Viinch considerable antiseptic properties are combined?was mentioned at length bySir Sydney Ilescoe in a recent discourse at the lioval Institution. This new substance was described by the lecturer as the most reriirkable of. all the marvelous products of the coal tar industry. It is not a sugar, but contains carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, oxygen and nitrogen; and its chemical name is benzoyl sulphuric iniide. It is neither a nutrient nor a.i.':on. It ii derived from, the toluene of coal tar, by a process comprising at least seven distinct steps; the whole contributing a triumph of synthetical chemistry. Toluene is first heated with sulphuric acid oi IGb-J,- degrees Twaddeli. but not above 100 degrees* C. .liter all the original toluene has disappeared, the mixture is run into wooden tanks partly iiiled with cold water, where it is stirred up with, chalk. The mass thus neutralized is -lit--red tlirough a iwi mother ition folio solc&onof <foe sodium calta ihus obtained is evaporate!""'*'^ and tlio solid residue dried bv^nfeam heat. This material is then mixed with phosphorus trichloride, and treated v>itli a current of chlorine. Certain residuals are then driven oli. and the apparatus contains two snip iO -?- +?* chlorides?one solid and the otner liquid. Only tlic latter is capable of yielding saccharine. Tin's is now separated, mixed with solid * ammonium c .rl .;ai'e. and steamed. After jjomci . arihe-r mecliauieal treatincnt, tlicl'x- --- ^::'"i^-d by potassium permar^anaL;, and, nnaily, the pure saccharine is pr c; jitated by dilute min. 'nil _LL . 11 i2i> sweater tasta than sugar, and a faint, delicate flavor of bitter almonds. This is the sc-iu-ou of liie year "when you cau get what you Uo not v/aat real choap,