Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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HE most vivid recollections ol every man and woman brought up on a farm must be of tnt golden harvest time. Even th? persons whose farm experience has been limited to protracted visits to the country are Hkelj to retain mental pictures of the gathering of the grain as the most lasting impressions of sue i intervals-provided, of course they remained in the rural domain long enougl to witness all phases of the harvest-time activitj and long enough to contrast the rush and busth cf thia busy period witn the more placid existence of more normal timet "down on the farm." The average city dweller whose early years - - re spent on a farm harks back to nothing sc lewdly as the picturesque annual drama of th< bringing In the sheaves. And the city dweller -country-bred or not-Indi , catas the fascination of thia phase of farm opera tions by his longing to ""pitch hay" when he ln -radea the agricultural reg ion for his vacation. That is, h? ia enthusiastic ?bout pitching hay until he trios It Perhaps he wonld not deem it quite so much fna If he bad to do it l'or a livelihood and If he could not quit his Job whenever he happened to get tired. So, too, the farmer boy, 'transformed into a city .dweller who looks back so longingly at the good old -harvest times on the old homestead, is very prob ably, after the fashion of mankind, remembering the ^pleasant things only and forgetting the disadvantages of the harvest 'season. It has quite escaped his memory, most likely, how he was routed out of bed -at daybreak or earlier when there was har vesting to be done and how he turned in with the chickens and slept like a log from sheer .exhaustion. He has lost all recollection of the nerve-racking anxiety, shared by every member of the family, lest lt rain before the harvesting was finished, and he passes lightly ?over the reminiscences of those weary hours under a scorching sun with no protection save a broad-brimmed straw hat, its lofty peak filled with leaves to help break the force o? dd Sors shafts. Harvest time on the farm, past and present, marks the climax of the year in hard work and In worry-In short, In nerve and muscular strain generally. Of course, it Will be under stood that reference is made to the season of the grain harvest To be sure, there are what might be termed harvest seasons at intervals all through the season, from the time t a strawberries are ripe in the spring, only the farmer never thinks of dignifying the garner ing of these crops by the name of harvest. In the eyes of the tiller of the soil harvest time means the crucial juncture for gathering the .grain-particularly the wheat-and storing lt away in barns and elevators, or mayhap load ing lt direct on the railroad cars that are to .carry It to the flour mills or to the ship which ?will carry lt overseas to sup?>iy the bread - ?ate rs of Europe and the Orient In the old days practically every farm in the land had its harvest time and lt held the secret -of the profits of the whole year's work on the tann. That this is true no longer ls due simply to that tendency to specialization which ias Invaded the farmer's occupation as it has .every other field. Nowadays we have chicken farms and truck farms and fruit farms and -other kinds of farms, where attention ls so ? concentrated upon tho one product in hand that the proprietors do not raise enough grain for the needs of their own stock. On such special farms the once universal "harvest time" ls unknown. But to make up for them -we have vast farms in the west and on the Pacific slope, where wheat is the product -specialised, and In consequence we see on these big fenns harvesting operations which in magnitude and picturesque features so far ?overshadow the corresponding operations on the old-fashioned farm east of the Mississippi that there ls literally no comparison. One odd thing about harvesting is that al most all methods are yet in vogue in one section or another of the country. The ex planation is found, of cours, in the fact that the first cost and the operating expense of -the great steam harvesting outfits designed for the bonanza farms of the west are such ?as to make them Impracticable for the farmers -controlling small areas. Consequently, these .farmers are getting along, and getting along "very well, with the old-time equipment, modern ized by the Introduction of some of the im provements devised originally for the big power machines. We are not any longer har CASE OF FAULTY Scientist Could Not Foresee Brilliant Future In 8?ore for Gifted Woman. Mrs. M. M. Sherwood, a popular ^English writer for young people near ly a century ago, industriously kept a full diary during the busy part of ?er life, and as upward of seventy seven books and numerous pamphlets l>y her can be traced, she was undoubt \ \?._ flail, as they uo ^ inls day in wu European countries, but the small farmer ls, perforce, putting a great deal more manual labor into the gathering of his grain thrn is the owner of one of the west's 5,000-acre wheat fields, where combination harvesters, drawn by traction engines or 40 or 50 horses, perform automatically every function from cutting the stalks as they stand in the field to delivering to the waiting wagons the threshed, cleaned and sacked wheat, all ready for the market, without the touch of a human hand. Under the old conditions harvest time on the farm meant hard work ior the women folks as well as for the men and* this is still the case just in proportion as the old-time condi tions yet prevail. The burden of responsi bility that fell upon the farmer's wife and daughters was that of feeding the harvest hands. To be sure the wife had help, for her = neighbors all pitched in and helped even as their husbands and brothers, on a similar co operative basis, were assisting the farmer In getting in his grain-a service that would be repaid in kind as the turn of each came in the round of harvesting activities that em braced the whole countryside. Under this plan, when harvest time meant a continual succession of neighborhood gatherings, there were compensations of the farmers' wives in the opportunities for gossipy gatherings that went the time-honored sewing circles one bet ter, whereas the farmer girls might behold romances grow under their eyes as the lads, fresh from the harvest fields, had most con vincing evidence as to the prowess In cookery of the local belles. As a development of this system, that was scarcely an Improvement from the feminine standpoint, came th? plan of harvesting by means of hired hands-possibly through the medium of a "crew" that accompanied a portable steam harvester that made its rounds from farm to farm. Under this plan, which is yet the approved one in most sections, the farmer's wife and daughters have to get up three meals a day for a dozen or a score of husky harvest hands and yet they are not so sure of assistance from the other women of the neighborhood as was the case when these latter had no similar duties at home through the presence of the men folk at the common harvesting rendezvous. Worse yet, the young ladies have scarcely the Interest that was mani fest when the volunteer harvesters to be served were the eligibles of the neighborhood Instead of, as now, nomadic laborers or, at best, college boys working for funds to put them through school. Latterly there has been some relief from that phase of the harvesting system which has meant so much hard work for the fair sex. It has come through the introduction of cook wagons or kitchens on wheels which accom pany the big threshing outfits from farm to farm and serve food to the harvest hands right at the scene of their work-thereby saving, by the way, the time that wt;s formerly spent in JUDGMENT usy woman. In her autoblog he records that she entered r the most happy circumstan ig blessed with a remarkably ititution. a big child," she writes, "and rapildy that I was at my full vhich ls tall for a woman, at years of age. But my appear licated nothing of that pecu f mind which, whether good or bad, was soon al ifest In me. "I have often he a singular story brother when he \ Our parents took were at the palace ard; and Mr. Edg< Dr. Darwin were tl brought in to be Darwin took my b since seen a Fren by one leg, excla time, 'What a n "B#/jvc/f?c /yy r/ff SrY?/?rfjr s5c?yy?~//y 7?vswH?sir ?y going to and from the farm house This latter was a considerable item if the farm house was located sev eral miles from the harvest field In which the men happened to be work l> ing at noon. These kitchen cars have been in use to some extent for sev eral years past, but great Improve ments have been made in them of late. There are now provided for the use of the big traveling harvesting crews "range wagons," with several ^S^A of the largest size kitchen ranges .? ? truck, and more won. derful yet is the "steam cooker," which looks very much like a fire engine, but which per forms marvels in quick cooking. Why, in the early morning, for Instance, coffee will be. ready for all the members of the largest harvesting force within twelve minutes of the time the fires are lighted. This plan of cooking for the harvesting crews has virtually WHEN THE SR Each time the shah of Persia went to Eu rope, where he spent large sums, he procured the money needed for his journey not only by raising a loan, generally in Russia, but also by another method, which was both Ingenious and businesslike. "Before leaving his possessions," writes M. Paoli in McClure's, "he summoned his chief officers of 6tate-ministers, provincial gover nors and the like-and proposed the following bargain to them: Those who wished to form part of his suite must first pay him a sum of money, which he fixed In accordance with the importance of their functions; it varied be tween 50,000 and 300,000 francs. In return, he authorized them to recoup themselves in any way they pleased. "Here we find the explanation of the large number of persons who accompanied the shah on his travels, and the quaint and unexpected titles they bore, such as that of 'minister of the dock yard' (.hough Persia has never owned a navy), and one still more extraordi nary, that of 'attorney to the heir apparent' "Although they sometimes had romantic souls, they invariably had terribly practical minds. Eager to recover their outlay as quickly as possible, they practiced on a huge scale and without scruple or hesitation what I may describe as the bonus or commission system. This explained how on each of his trips to France the shah was able to spend from eight to twelve million francs in pocket money. "He always carried a loaded pistol In his trousers pocket, though he never used it On one of his journeys in France he even took it into his head to make a high court official walk before him when he left the theater car rying a revolver pointed at the peaceable sightseers who had gathered to see bim come out. As soon as I saw this I ran up to the threatening bodyguard. " 'Put that revolver away,' I said. It is not the custom here.' fterward made man ard my mother tell about me and ray ras three years old. us to Lichfield. We , visiting Miss Sew sworth and the first Sere also. We were looked at, and Dr. rother up, as I have iciiman take a frog, ?ming at the same obie animal!' My brother was then a beautiful "Mr. Edgeworth's eye then me. and having looked at me i time, he paid some compllmer parents on my well-nurtured nature. He then patted his o head, and added, with no gr derness to their feelings, '1 may depend upon it, Mrs. Bi wants it here,' and the little his own brow were repeate hint made my poor mother, while, very uneasy."-Youth's ion. ? G#AM/V r/?rc/u?3 o/? OJEMJV* become Imperative on the large farms of the west, California and the Pacific northwest, owing tr the Immense force of men needed to garner the grain on these baronial estates of the "wheat empire." On one of these big farms in Oklahoma, which may be cited as representative, there are in use twenty-two har Testers and binders, each of which average a cut of 250 acres of wheat per season. Similar ly, on some of the Dakota farms one may see in season anywhere from twenty to forty ma chines in one far-flung line, charging into the golden sea of undulating grain. Merely the drivers of these machines make a goodly force, to say nothing of the other members of the harvest crew, and when anywhere from fifty to one hundred horses are employed in harvest ing operations, the care of these animals is In itself something of a chore. Perhaps the most picturesque feature of harvesting on the big farms beyond the Mis souri river comes when the operation is carried on at night by means of the illumination of torches and locomotive headlights, supplement lng the light of the moon, if the latter be available. Drought and other causes may im pel the western farmer to work his harvest crews double time in order to hurry in the sheaves, but as a rule the grain grower In these favored sections of the country is not constantly menaced by thunder storms such as have, from time out of mind, caused anxiety in every eastern farming community until the precious grain is safely in the barn. The se curance of adequate help in harvest time is one of the big problems of almost every farmer east or west who raises much grain. The im nrnvprl harvpntlnc marhlnen that cut down the number of men required for the task have helped some, of course, but lt requires a cer tain number of men to operate the machines and in times of prosperity when labor ls scarce the farmer often finds that heavy Inroads have been made in his season's profits by the fancy prices he has had to pay for the hired hands to handle the crop. m TRAVELED "But I had to insist pretty strongly before he consented to lay aside his weapon. "The shah, for that matter, was no less dis trustful of his own subjects. I observed that when the Persians were in his presence they adopted a uniform attitude, which consisted in holding their hands crossed on their stom achs, no doubt as evidence of their harmless intentions. It was a guaranty-of a very cas ual sort, we must admit "For the rest his 'alarms' displayed them selves under the most diverse aspects and in the most unexpected circumstances. For in stance, there was no persuading him to ascend the Eiffel tower. The disappointment of his guides was increased by the fact that he would come as far as the foot of the pillars; they always thought that he meant to go up. "But no, once below an immense iron frame work, he gazed up in the air, examined the lifts, flung a timid glance at the staircases, then suddenly turned on his heels and walked away. They told him in vain that his august father bad gone up as far as the first floor; nothing could induce him to do as much. "The Instinctive dread of darkness and soli tude was so keen In the Persian monarch that he required his bedroom to be filled during the night with light and sound. Accordingly every evening, as soon as he had lain down and closed his eyes, the members of his suite gathered round his bed, lighted all the can delabra and exchanged their impressions aloud; while young nobles of the court, re lieving one another in pairs, conscientiously patted his arms and legs with light, sharp little taps. "The king of kings Imagined that he was in this way keeping death at a safe distance, if perchance it should take a fancy to visit him in his sleep; and the extraordinary thing is that he did sleep, notwithstanding all this massage, light and noise." Quality Designated. Claude Grahame-Whlte, the cham pion of the air, has, says the Pitts burg Chronicle-Telegraph, like most young Englishmen, a very keen and delicate taste In champagne. Mr. Gra hame-White lunched the other day with a compatriot who offered him en thusiastically an Italian champagne. "There," said the host, smacking his lips, "that is what I call an honest wine!" Mr. Grahame-White tasted '.se mawkish and muddy beverage arid rejoined: "Yes, poor but honest, eh7" AYRSHIRE DAIRY COW flost Economical Producer of Milk and Butter. lesldes Possessing Many Excellent Qualities She ls Mott Attractive Looking Animal and Perfect In Form and Udder. (By C. M. WINSLOW.) The Ayrshire ls the most econom cal producer of milk and butter of ny of the so-called dalry breeds, pro luclng the largest quantity for the ood consumed, and yielding tho larg !8t net profit This has been proven n competitive public tests. The Ayrshire produces the most de ilrable milk for the milkman of any >f the dalry breeds, because of the iniform high quality in total solids/ )laclng it above the standards re hired by state laws. The Ayrshire milk 1B the most sat sfactory to peddle because it will >ear transportation without churning Oldhall Ladysmith 4th, 24669. Win Dalry Show, 1910. Boghall Snowdrop. Show, 1910. to butter, and will hold its uniform quality to the last quart in the can. Ayrshire milk is the favorite with the housekeeper because it has a good color, and never looks blue, even to the last that ls poured from the pitcher, the cream remaining in the milk to give it a uniform quality un til the last is used. *> Ayrshire milk is of the highest value for infant food, because lt is most evenly balanced in the bone and CABBAGE AS A GARDEN CROP One of the Most Important Crops Grown by Market Gardeners Plant Food ls Essential. Cabbage is a crop which is grown l-~ -- vor?e.neT located within CCU Lei a wa. ? States are almost universally creanea with a considerable acreage of cab bage, thus showing that the gardeners of these regions have given consider able attention to the production of this crop. The soil for cabbage must neces sarily vary in different localities. In one area it may be of an alluvial char acter, while in another it may be se dentary, and in still another it may be characteristic glacial drift The fact that cabbage grows well In all Wakefield Strains of Cabbage: A, Charleston Wakefield; B, Jersey Wakefield. these soils indicates its adaptation to a wide range of conditions. The main thing with cabbage ls an abundant supply of immediately available plant food. Market gardeners rely chiefly upon stable manure for their supply of plant food. Fertilizers also form an important item in the expense of pro ducing cabbage as a market-garden crop, the quantity used depending up on the quantity and character of the supply of stable manure. The ferti lizers chiefly used carry a liberal per centage of available nitrogen in the form of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia (often as much as four or five per cent), six to eight per cent, of phosphoric acid, and eight to ten per cent, of potash. As a result of the wise use of manure and fertilizers the soils of the market-gardening zone around any city or large town rapidly improve in fertility and the gardener is able to groiw a greater variety and larger quantities of products. Raising Colts. It takes a lot of money nowf to buy a team of horses and those farmers who have mares ought to look Into the future a little, against the time when they will need a new team or it may be a good plan to raise a colt now and theu to sell. Better think the thing over and per haps it will he concluded best to breed the mare this month or next Horses bring good prices and on many farms it will pay as well to raise horses as any other stock. muscle producing qualities of any lalry breeds, thus making lt a per fect food for growing children. C?1 Iren fed on Ayrshire milk are not in clined to stomach trouble and make a. strong and steady growth. The Ayrshire has a strong, healthy body with a superabundance of vital ity and vigor, ls rarely sick, and slr} most never bas any disease of udder! OT teats, which ls probably one rea son why there is so much life-giving^ quality in her milk. The Ayrshire bas never laid claim) to being at the head of the dairy' breeds for butter producing, but the: official records made by the experi ment stations during the past few years, would Indicate that she la a. most profitable butter cow, and sec ond to none. The Ayrshire ls the dairy rustler of all the dairy breeds, thriving and pay in a profit where other dairy breeds/ can hardly exist because she is a vigorous feeder, and not all dainty ia her appetite, eating with a relish, everything that comes in her way fat the line of forage, good grass, poor grass and browse-all is food for the Ayrshire cow. The Ayrshire cow is a most not* J ner of Association Cup at National Grand Champion at National Dalry form milker, holding out well up to calving, and must be watched or she will not dry off, which makes her a desirable cow for steady profit or for a family cow. The Ayrshire ls the most attractive looking cow, and the most perfect cow in form of body and udder of any of the dalry breeds. She breeds the truest of type, and has the smallest percentage of poor cows of any of the dalry breeds. Leave ten feet ol space ai mu eua of the garden for turning rows and seed these spaces to grass for wide end walks. Cows should be milked regularly? and as nearly as possible by the same persons and at the same hour each night and morning. Plant plenty of sweet corn. It la a wholesome food, and the surplus, stalks and all is the very finest food for cows and horses. Remember to supply plenty of grit to the young poultry. They need It as much as mature birds. Grit forms part of their digestive system. Earthen water-fountains in the poul try yard are better than tin ones. The former will keep the water cooler in summer and warmer in winter. A narrow border of flowers, shrubs or vines may be placed along the spaces next to the fence and the scheme will enhance the beauty of the garden. Eight hundred miles of Improved roads are to be undertaken by the Southern Appalachian Good Roads association. Of these 300 miles are to be in North Carolina. The breeding of pigs in Denmark has been so scientifically conducted for years that it is claimed to be possible to obtain 600 sides of bacon Identical as to size, shape and quak lty. ROB SOIL OF ITS FERTILITY Farmers Deliberately Destroying One of Three Things Which Make Country Prosperous. 03y G. H. ALFORD.) Lord Bacon, the father of philoso phy, more than three hundred years, ago said: "There be three things* which make a country great and pros perous-a fertile soil, busy workshops and easy conveyance of men and things from one place to another.** Now our workshops are all busy, and' we certainly enjoy "easy conveyance of men and things." We make many complaints relative to the rules and regulations of the workshops, the prices charged for con veying men and things, and so on. We seem to think that we have a right to complain when the factories decrease their power of production or when the railroads allow their cara and tracks to go to pieces. When either of the two-factories or rail roads-cease to do their full duty to make our country great and prosper ous we send up a mighty howl and demand that the force of law regulate them at once. We, as farmers, deliberately de stroy the most Important of the three things which make a country great and prosperous. We are robbing the soil of its fertility and I sometimes think that the law ought to take hold of us and compel us to stop pursuing a policy that ultimately means a weak and impoverished country. We de mand that the factories and railroads pursue a policy which means pro? perlty for the nation. We ought to bf willing to take our own medicine.