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Agricultural A Lone Star State Sample Of Compact Agriculture. Prize Letter in Home and Farm : S x years ago 1 married and went, to farmiug with a view to raising cotton as a money crop. I expected a bale to the acre, which wmr not impossible on black laud, properly cultivated, without Mr T-ioll Wouvil But he had made his appearance, and I saw that a change was necce8sary and must be made to make the books balauce at the end of each year, as 1 started to keeping books when we were first married. It is something of a job the year round, but still it is a pleasant one when you have become accustomed to it. A day book, or monthly as I may call it, and a ledger is all that's needed for the farm. 1 carry each month to ledger. At the end of the year I can account for every daily paper 1 buy and whatever is sold. It's there to show what it was sold at. But, back to the cotton: The weevil is here and we think to stay. But with dry, hot weather from June 1 to middle of July, and an early maturing variety of couon we are aoie 10 gee a gooa crop if properly cultivated. Iu 1904 1 only had five and a half or six acres of cotton. It made 6, 535 pounds. I plowed it out each week for eight weeks with cultivator and gathered the infested squares three times. 1 planted on March 14 and by July 20 the orop was all matured and ripening, it being Kinny's Improved. Up to this time I had raised only hogs on three four-acre fields, twelve acres in all, with a registered Poland China male and three well-bred sows, and I had a herd of twenty-five head of nice hogs. In October I planted two fields to oats. 1 have pastured them through winter. At the middle of March I take hogs ofF one lot and let them run in the other until eaten out or destroyed. By the time the first one will be headed out and getting ripe ; then I l _ i i? ? ? i ?? ? i ier me nogs nave tnem. wnen I do this the other lot has been planted in Spanish peanuts, while the third liekl has been planted to sorghutn about March 1. This is ripe by the time ripe oats is cleaned up. When hogs are put on sorghum, plant the other oat field to peanuts, and by Aug. 1 the first planted peanuts will be ripe and ready for hogs. 1 then plow the cane stubble and it comes out again and makes as good u crop as the first one was. This year I doubled the herd, that is, 1 have fifty live head instead of twenty five, as last year. .4 While growing hogs to gather the crops was a big advantage, I had to pump water bv hand: so r when I sold the fattened stock I p invested in windmill and tank, 3 with piping for hog pens, horse lot and kitchen, and you may imagine what a relief it is to come from the field at noon and night and simply turn the wat?r * j i _ r i ; i- e? I yu, uisieauoi naving 10 pump ior an hour or more. I am now fencing altogether twenty five acres in four six acre field. I am breeding for a 100 head for next year. If I have no setback, with the aid of four horsea, a good sulky plow, a 10inch cultivator, a two-horse riding planter for cotton, corn, sorghum and cantaloupe seed, I can Department. cultivate the forty acres all O. K. with only a little help in hoeing. You see the hogs do most of the gathering. The cotton cr< p is small, onlv five acres this year. 1 would it be less, but the two Jersey cows are very fond of the seed, and it pays for our trouble. We make $8 to $1) a month from the cows, besides having all the milk and butter that we need in the family. I do not consider milking a drudgery, as I have good stalls to milk in in bad weather. With twenty five acres to plaut for hogs to graze on, eighteen acres for corn, and with the aid of four or five acres in cotton, two acres in cantaloupes, I made $100 per acre on the cantaloupes, in 1004, and $50 an acre on cotton land net. So you Bee, with the aid of my wife, with her leghorn hens, bronze turkeys and the sale of butter, how we balance the books at wind up of the year. It is my aim to improve the land, the stock of hogs, the mule colts, the Jersey heifers, leghorn pullets, the bronze turkeys, and the two little girls, three and a half and five years old, by keeping dear old Home and Farm for them when they are a little older, as we have been subscribers since we began housekeeping. H. H. McOauley. Wallis, Tex. Dairy Notes. (By Shepard.) Salt is an everyday necessity to dairy cows. Irregularity interferes with tiltsecretion of milk in dairy coww. There is a larger proportion of waste with an old cow than a young one. Utensils for the dairy should have the fewest seams and rough places. Neither dirt nor odors can be strained out of milk. lfutter, when churned too long, becomes solid and greasy instead of open and grainy. No buUermaker, however expert, can make good butter from improperly ripened cream. Cows may be ever so good, but they cannot make milk without the materials to extract it from. In warming cream, never heat it. so as to melt any of it, as it will make it soft and off flavor. Learn well to make five cows profitable before increasing the number to ten. A stable may be apparently I.... .. l Ua.UA. ~ I. :?t: ? v/ivan (din y u i iidi uui uujcuuuii* able odors. A thorough whilewashing will remedy this. Because you are feeding the milch cows a liberal ration of concentrated food, do not think i( a reason for omitting plenty of hay and fodder. Dairying has reached that period when every step con nected with it must be conducted according to business prin ciples to securo a lair return of profit. A good cow will make more pounds of human food in a year than a steer will make in a life time, and you have the cow left over for next year. The time that a heifer is allowed to go dry atter her first calf is dropped affects her habit in this respect all of her life. Breed the heifers early and cultivate the habit of early ma turity. A heifer running until three years old before having her llist calf will rarely make a heavy milker. The Colored Farmers' Conference. Urgent Call for a Pull Attendance?Some Pertinent Questions?"Why the Colored Laborer is "Worth no More Than He Now Receives. Written for The News. What is the remedy for the very dark conditiou of things that confront us as a race in wns section r rainers, can you not stop your sons from loaling, sitting on the corners of th? streets, spending their da>'6 around the club rooms and de pots? Is it a fact that the negro race in many instances b degenerating? Under the shadow and intluence of the christian church and educational institu tious can we not have bettei men and better women? Our farmers' conference for Feb 22n< has before it many grand pr ?b lems for its consideration, llov many coloied men in the county that are able to take a lour, fi\e or eight horse farm and condu' t it to I be satisfactinn of thft nwn er without an overseer? IIow many colored farmers that hay made from six to ten loals o! fertilizer lrom the woods air stables? llow many colored farmers so thoroughly under stand the divert- ifying of cro| and the improvement of lam that he is willing to risk an ol fer from any man, who is will ing to iuruish him with supplie for the running of an eight horse farm? How many negro farm ers have provided all the board tor his garden so that when plowing time comes his wife will have no trouble in preparing her garden? What the country need most in the farming line is men thai can take large farms and control and conduct thorn to the advantage ol the owner and themselves. How ninny colored farmers can out down their num ber ol day8 of going to town this year and put them in the garden and potato patchos. We complain sometimes ol low wag es lor work, but how can the owner do otherwise when he pays him len dollars a month to work and pays a man twenty dollars lo keep him at work. Wl...? <1.~ i i:_i .1 tv iit'u nit* iMiiew i nai confidence in all mankind that lie can do a day's work as well without being watched as he can when the overseer is looking at him, then and not until then will the negro bo able to get full value for his labor. I pray the day when both the white and the black man will be willing to appropriate money to that man or set of men that will teach the races the best thing for both races. Let every colored farmer in the county see to it that he be present Feb. 22 at the great annual gathering. Yours, M. D. Lee. TO THE # TRADING PUBLIC! ; If you want to SAVE | your money during the present month, r Don't Spend A Nickle till you get our prices on Clothing, Shoes, Overcoats, odd Pants, Ladies' Jackets and a hundred other things. We have odds and ends in all these that we are going to close regardless the price. With best wishes to our patrons generally, V Funderburk Comp'y. r~u*nDcccT'i I nunoLO. \ | Horses, Mules, Mules! f & Our Mr. Mood has just closed another deal for six car ? ^ loads of Mules and Horses ?180 head. Two of these ^ ^ cars come here, one of horses and one of mules. Think ? of it, 60 head to arrive in a few days, and Mr. Hood ? wires they are the best we have bought this season. W 1 Some closely matched teams of extra fine mare mules V ? that weigh from 1100 to 1250 each. This is a grand op- { Jportunity to buy brood mares. Have some with extra ? finish and family broke. ^ 1 Buggies, Buggies. I Two solid cars to arrive this week, all kinds and styles. 1 * Wagons, Wagons. ? II lave just closed a deal for 100 more, and we have ? stacks of them on hand of all sizes?one, two, three and four horse with regular or broad tire. Come one, come ? all. Those who do not feel able or willing to buy a new ? p vehicle can buy a second hand, as we have at least 100 ? J second hand buggies, carriages and wagons on hand that J | W we are going to sell regardless of the price. Don't fail to W (Come and See Us f for we are far ahead of any retail stock and vehicle V dealers east of the Mississippi river. Remember our V f harness department. We manufacture all of our har- 1 J ness and have no competition. 1 j s Gregory-Hood Live Stock Co. $ I ( I ]