North Carolina Newspapers

m r . , h i ! 'WO $1.00 a Year, In Advance. " FOR GOD, FOR COUNTRY AND FOR TRUTH." Single Copy 5 Cents. VnL. XVI. PLYMOUTH, N, C. F1UDAY, JULY 14, 1905. i HER BONNET. Iler bonnet's just Hie sweetest thing, It flouts the world as she goes by, s tied down by the sweetest string, I d love to be that string, but my! U he bonnet might not be the thing Ko sweet if I should be the string. Her bonnet's just the sweetest thing,' It tips a bit above her eye. "1 he birds, the birds begin to sing, lhey want to sing as she goes bv, They think it's daybreak, and, oh my! It s just because she's passing by. From "Echoes From the Glen." I Manuk Del Monte. 1 fe 1 7i AltLY one morning, just be fore dawn, three of us were riding wearily down tbe slope of one of the great grassy hills some people can tueia mountains which lie be tween tbe provinces" of Isabela and Nueva Vizcayn. We bad been traveling all night by moonlight, and now as the east was growing rosy we were winding down to a little wood in the valley, where we hoped to find a mountain stream to give us water for our breakfast, and a thing of far more importance, grazing for the horses, for it was the dry sea son, and the grass on the hills was parched and dead. The breakfast .swung with mocking lightness behind Justin's saddle, merely a handful of cold rice rolled in the butt of a banana leaf. It was also tiffin and dinner, for we were traveling light and fast, and carried not even chocolate, nothing but the rice. I was watching the gyrations of the breakfast moodily, for I was sleepy and hungry and sore, when suddenly from the wood below us the crow of a cock rang out, shrill and triumphant. I was surprised, for few people live along a trail used mostly by bandits and head hunters. Suddenly from the slope of a farther hill the call rang out again, and then the whole wood echoed with the sounds -of the farmyard. "Wllat town is this?" I asked the boys, although we were at least a day's journey from any settlement which 1 knew. , "It is no town, senor," said Justin. "It is the ma nuk del monte the wild 4iicken which you hear." After saddles were off and the horses' backs were washed, the animals rolled and grazed luxuriously by the swift, clear stream, and Tranquid, prince o'f servants, dexterously unrolled the breakfast. He laid stones on the corners of the leaf, and patted the snowy mass of rice out smoothly, and filled a bamboo drinking cup from the brook, while I pretended not io see. At meal times Tranquid has a solemn and important air worthy of the most autocratic of London butlers, and I am a babe in his bands. 'Breakfast is served, senor," said Tranquid, gravely. "I come," I replied, with equal grav ity, and rolled over twice and came up on my knees, Japanese fashion, beside toy lowly table. . Just as I was going to plunge my fingers into the rice a cock crowed loud and clear among the trees close at hand. A great ferocity of meat hunger .swept over me. "Give me the boom-boom, Justin!" I commanded. "We will have manuk del monte for breakfast." The cock crowed often while I stole through the undergrowth, as softly as the ferns and bristly creepers would let me. As I drew near the crowing ceased, 4i nd 1 was peering about the brush and shrub for a sight of the cock when -whir! From the lower branches of a tree, fifty feet above my head, a splen did bird shot out Avilh a boom like a partridge-and sailed away between the trunks, a dazzling vision of,, white and green and gold. I was too startled to shoot, fox I had never before seen chickens that roosted like eagles and flew like pheasants and were as brilliant as humming birds. In a moment I' hard his strong wings beating on the other side of the valley, and I went back and ate my rice quietly. That incident began my acquaintance with the wild chickens, and they soon grew to be a very dear part of the for est life, bringing me an odd mixture of pleasant- memory and homesickness as J listened to them. We heard them always when we made and left our one-night homes along the trail. The cocks proved to be just as exacting husbands as their domesticated cousins, crowing their families home and abroad with fussy punctuality. If a gay youngcockerel or a giddy pul let lingered too long afield, the lord of the flock grew noisy with anxiety as the sunset faded. With the dawn he woke, brisk and important, and woe betide the sleepyhead of the family. There was no "Rouse up, sweet slug abed" for him, but an ear splitting call, and we often chuckled at thought of the sheepish haste of the laggard when, that sound penetrated to his sleepy train. A tropical forest is a thing of awe .and mystery, with its eternal dim twi light sud tangled creepers and innum E Her bonnet's just the sweetest thing; It roos in just the sweetest hair. And eyes and mouththe birds will sing, They think it's spring -when she is there, It's just because she's passing by, I want that bonnet, but, oh my! White rose of roses, why be shy About the sweetest bonnet string? The lads, the lads will sigh and sigh, For God's white rose that makes it spring And daybreak for the birds, and I Just want that bonnet, but, oh my! Copyright, 1904, by William Tage Carter. - m erable dark vistas which hide inhabit ants one seldom hears and never sees. Most of the creatures seem to feel the silent immensity and vagueness as a man does and seek safety ia unobtrus iveness. These brave, cheery btrfls alone were unaffected by it, and they crowed aad cackled and clucked about their -business of living as carelessly as if there were no such thing as fear in the world. l"et with all their independence they showed a baffling shyness, and many weeks went by before I caught more than a distant glimpse of one. Tranquid hunted them with painful devotion. But he was a child of the cities, lost in the mountains as a puppy would have been. When a cock crowed nea-r a camping place his face would brighten hopefully, and he would go creeping with the noiselessness of a young elephant. Back and forth he crushed in the brush, pulling branches aside with excessive caution and peep ing behind them. At last the bird would flush from a tree and shoot away in a blur of col ored light. Then Tranquid would straighten up with a nervous jerk, and cry triumphant. , "There, senor, I have found him! There he goes. Look! Look!" pointing up to the tree where he had been. On these occasions Justin always lay on the grass and laughed. Justin was a woodland philosopher, and has discovered that town-bred folk and wild chickens had been sent into the world for his amusement. He never deigned to take any further part in the pursuit. When it came to stalking a deer cr running down a pig he was all eager ness and skill, and would lead me for hours without a thought of rest, but chickens were beneath him. Occasion ally, however, as we rode along, a crow would caw somewhere above us. Then Justin was full of excitement. "Look, senor!" he would shout, point ing up to the empty sky. "I have found him. There! There!" In spite of Justin's jesting my desire to see a wild cock face to face only in creased with repeated failure. I never tried to shoot ono after that first experience. I would as soon have thought of shooting at a monkey. But I wanted to have one for my own, to look at, and draw pictures of and show to my poor friends who lived down in the plains through the hot season and complained of prickly heat. I even dreamed of presenting ono to my friend, the captain, and letting him create a new and lusty race of fowls, a breed which would meet the hawk in his own element and laugh at woven wire fences. At last, up in a little mountain vil lage, my opportunity came. Tranquid announced, with the respectful elation he sometimes permitted himself, that a man had a wild rooster. Would the senor like to come to see it? The senor was willing, so we went down the narrow grass-grown street together, stepping carefully over the babies and pigs that were basking in the sun. In the yard of a littl tubiedowr. shack we found a rusty brown bird tied to a post by a bit of twine about his log. The old man, his owner, scat tered a few kernels of corn, and the poor dingy thing pecked at them in a half hearted way. A hen came bust ling up and he pecked peevishly at her once or twice, and then hopped back j to his post and stood there, dull and round shouldered, like a sulky boy who i had decided that the corn was not of much importance, anyway, and had put his hands in his pockets. I was slow to believe that this could be a brother of the swift, bright bird which had boomed out of a treetop that first morning, but I presently discov ered that it was. The long, slender body, the powerful wings, the sharp, heavy bill, were the product of genera tions of wild life. And under the dust and .rustiness of the feathers there were still traces of the green and gold of the forest. The changes were due only to a changed mode of life. "The man says," explained Tranquid, "that he has had this rooster for a long time, and it is dirty. He says he will catch a clean one for the senor, if he pleases." Of course the senor pleased, and one bright morning we set out. The old man, our guide, marched in front, most importantly, for it is not every day that one has a chance to show a senor what a clever man one is at catching wild chickens, a'.d the old man knew that his grandchildren would tell their children about this expedition. Under his arm he carried a red fight ing cock. It struck me as a bit odd to carry such an animal on a hunting trip, One feels no surprise in the Phil ippines in meeting people with roosters under their, arms; it is quite the usual thing. Tranquid followed the old man, respectfully hopeful. Then came Jus tin, smiling, and I brought up the rear. A mile or so from the village the wall of the forest rose, dark and im penetrable. But at one point a stream came down from the hills, and there the field extended into the woods for a little way, making a sort of room, cool and shadowy, and carpeted with short, thick turf. Here the old man halted and waited till we all stood about him. Then he drew from the pocket of his blouse a bundle of twine, wound on four point ed sticks. Justin stopped smiling. Anything in the nature of a trap, any thing which matched man's wits against the instinct of the wild creat ures, interested Justin. The old man chose a spot of level ground and set to work. He drove one of the little stakes into the ground, un coiled the twine, drove another, and so on, until he had marked out a square, about a yard on a side. On three sides the twine was carried on the stakes a few inches above the ground, and from this fence, every hand's breadth or so, hung a little noose of fiber. The fourth side cf the square was a wall of brush, and at the centre of this the old man now drove a fifth stake, and tied his fighting eock to it by a very short tethei. Then he opened all the little nooses and spread thera care fully on the ground within the square. Justin inspected his work. "It is very good," he announced at last. "One would not believe that this old man could be so wise. The wild rooster hears this one. He wishes to fight. All roosters wish to fight al ways. He comes from the wood, danc ing, so! This one crows and fluffs out his feathers, so! The wild rooster comes to the little fence and they look at each other, so!" said Justin, using Tranquid for illustration. "He cannot pass under the little fence; it is too low. He cannot step over it; it is too high. He hops, so! His foot falls in the noose, and so!" said Justin, danc ing on one foot and cackling shrilly. "Abaa. It is very good. The old man is much wiser than one would think to look at him." The old man listened to this mono logue with disgust. "Now we shall go and be very quiet. The manuk del monte does not like noisy ones," he said, glancing at Justin. So we went and sat down where some bushes screened us and yet left us a view of the trap. After half an hour Justin curled up and went to sleep. The breeze was cool and the grass was soft, and soon I followed his example. I was awakened by a bell-like call from the forest. The captive rooster was dancing at his stake. Presently he flapped his wings and stood on tiptoe and answered scornfully. They chal lenged back and forth till at last, with a boom of wings, the wild cock, the very ono I had been dreaming of, dropped on the grass. As he caught sight of the traitor he spread all his splendid plumage and crowed again. And the red bird an swered bravely. After all, it was not his fault that he was a traitor. The wild bird ran forward with a swift, steady gait very unlike the awk. ward strides of his tame cousins, and lowered his head and spread his ruff. Then he stood . up straight and scratched sticks and grass into the air with a sturdy leg and crowed. The traitor kicked furiously at his tether, but it held, and the wild cock advanced to the fence. For a moment the two looked at eaci other with lowered heads, and thei they sprang. The traitor, of course collapsed in an ignominious heap. As the wild cock landed Inside the fence, his foot barely touched the ground. But the touch was enougn. One of the little nooses tightened about his legs, and as he sprang again he, too, carai down with a jerk. The birds were rising to face each other when we ran forward, and h turned toward us at the noise. I ex pected to see him struggle madly ta escape. But the brave little fellow faced us, and flapped his wings and stretched his neck, challenging us fear- lesslv. In a moment the old man had tossed a handkerchief over his head and loosened the noose, and I held him between my hands. I could feel the lithe muscles taut as steel wires beneath my fingers, and the heart beating furiously, but he made no sound and did not struggle. I looked at the lustrous markings of his back and wings, and the long, drooping tail feathers, and then all at once came a picture of the draggled, spiritless cap tive back in the old man's yard. 1 plucked away the handkerchief and tossed him into the air. Ills wings beat very loud in the still, ncss, and we all started. Then I looked round sheepishly. Tranquid wa star ing up stupidly, with his mouth in a big, round O. Justin was laughing, bul suddenly he pointed excitedly to Tran quid's mouth and shouted: "Look, senor! I have found him. There he goes. Look! Look!" And il would be hard to say whether the old man gazed at Justin or me with thf deeper, disgust,-Youth's Companion, REST AT LAST.'! ITere lies her head on the lap of earth, For the first time she rests since tha liouf of her birth. Her forbears for agea were folk known to fame, And thus in her days she was "daughter" and "dame." (She belonged to twelve clubs and read Horace at sight, And served on the school board with haughty delight. At the meeting of mothers she alwaya appeared To tell them how little ones all should ba reared. She golfed and she kodaked and automo biled, And whenever it pleased her she turned in and wheeled. The luncheons and teas and functions galore Which kept her all smiles made her hus band sore. When she'd nowhere to go, she found one day, She fell to the floor and died where she lay. And now lies her head on the lap of earth, For the first time she rests sii.ee the hour of her birth. Lippincott's. A friend In need will keep you broke. Philadelphia Record. Mr. Rinkpate "Part my hair in the middle, please." The Barber "But there is an odd number, sir." Cleve land Leader. "And you have no complaint to make about the flat?" "Sure, th fiat's so small there ain'troom for a complaint." Brooklyn Life. The Japanese josh jiu-jitsu. Is a terrible thing it it gitsu. You're up in the air Before you know where You're at when the awful thing hitsu. New York Mail. Miss Ann Teek "It looks like a nice parrot, but does it swear?" Dealer "No, ma'am, but that'll be easy enough. He'll be quick to learn." Philadelphia Ledger. Teacher "What are the primary col ors, Tommie?" Tommie "There are none, ma'am; only the High School pu pils are allowed to have 'em!" Yonk ers Statesman. Towne "The weather seems to b clearing up. I'm sorry I took this um brella to-day." Browne "Yes, the sin is all the greatc when you steal some thing you don't really need." Phila delphia Press. dayman (in front of the mirror) "I don't know whether to wear a white necktie or a black one this evening. What is good form for a man over six ty?" Mrs. Gayman "Chloroform." Chicago Tribune. New Boarder "The dealers say the high price of eggs is caused by their scarcity." Regular Boarder "That'll do to tell. The scarcity of eggs at thia hashery is caused by their high price." Chicago Tribune. "Why are you so irritated, old chap?' "Can't help it. My wife just brought some friends in to see the 'cozy cor ner.' Said it was a great place for mere trifles." "What of that?" "Well, I was sitting in it." Chicago News. We're living in an ago of doubt, And, if for woe or weal. No more with simple faith we put Our shoulders to the wheel. Butjn these iapid-auto days We count that help too slow; We all crawl underneath to iind Just why it doesn't go. Jutfije. The Rev. Dr. Fourthly "I hope, Brother Hardosty, you are not tinct ured with anthropomorphism." Dea con Hardesty (wondering where he has heard that word before) "Well, .some times I think I am, and then, again, I don't know. When you've had the grip good and hard it always loaves a lot of aches and unpleasant feelings you don't get over for a long timeI know that." Chicago Tribune. FucttlTe Pic. In a crowded Sixth avenue trolley car the other day a Avell groomed young woman had to stand close to a liatchet-faced middle-aged man, who seemingly was too absorbed in his newspaper to relinquish his seat Mi lady's hand was full of bundles. The conventional feet-disturbing back-action vibration got in their accustomed line work in spite of the protection af forded by the leather straps. The man with the newspaper chanced to rest one hand on his left knee, and forthwith a corrugated expression ac centuated the sourness of his counte nance. Then he tried the other knee. With frontispiece exemplifying com bined regret and discomfort, he said to the parcel bearer: "Madam, 3-our bundle is dripping on my clothes!" "Oh, my!" she exclaimed. "That rhubarb pie will be no good. I'm Berry about the leak, sir!" He surrendered his seat New York Press. The total number of bankruptcies iy England and. Wales last yea; was 4313, SOUTHERN FARM fiOTES. d r TOPICS OF INTEREST TO THE PUNTER. STOCKMAN ANO TRUCK GROWER. Notes on Ttalsin Irish. Potatoes. J. G. B., Wytheville, writes: "I hare ! a farm of 340 acres, mostly in grass, and want to make a specialty of hogs and potatoes. I have five cows and will use the sour milk and small pota toes for the hogs. We raised about 200 bushels on one-half acre of land last year, and I want to put out double that amount this year. Any sugges tions will be appreciated." You should find the raising of hogs and potatoes profitable, though it is inadvisable to break up a good blue Crass sod to grow potatoes on. A sod preserves the land indefinitely, and blue grass land will always be in de mand at remunerative prices. You could probably lease out part of your land to cattle raisers and make as much off of it as attempting to farm it in other ways, and grazing blue grass sod will cause it to improve, provided you do not allow it to be overstocked. A blue grass farm of 340 acres is a mag nificent possession, and should be held on to with the greatest tenacity and every effort made to keep it up to the high standard which it now seems to enjoy. The raising of sheep and lambs should prove a profitable industry. Sheep are regarded as one of the most profitable forms of stock that can be kept on the farm so the flocks are not made too large and the ewes are given proper care and attention. Besides that, they are not difficult to manage, and they rustle so avcII for themselves that they require comparatively little care. Hogs can be made a profitable ad junct on every Virginia farm, and more attention should be given to tins class of stock. They should have plenty of good range and a variety of crops should be grown for their special ben efit Among the most useful are small areas of red or alfalfa clover, cowpeas and sov beans sown so as to provide a succession of grazing, and if the hogs are farrowed in the spring, they can be grown cheaply on these grazin crops with the use of a very small amount of grain. Small potatoes will also prove valuable for them, and skim milk, when fed with middlings and a little corn, provides an excellent ration for hogs. Potatoes are a money-making crop at fifty cents a bushel, but they should not be grown on the same land year after year, or they will ex haust it rapidly. Potatoes can best be brought after a clover sod, as they enjoy a soil rich in vegetable matter. Good applications of phosphates and potash should be made to the land in tended for potatoes. The sulphate of potash should be used, and not the muriate. This is an important matter, for where the sulphate is used a more mealy and drier potato is obtained. It will pay you to use anywhere from 300 to 500 pounds of fertilizer per acre for Irish potatoes, even when put on good sod land. The fertilizer might consist properly of three io four per cent of nitrogen, seven or eight per cent, of phosphoric acid and ten to twelve per cent, of sulphate of potash. You can buy the raw ingredients and mix them in these proportions, if you prefer. Thorough preparation of the land for potatoes is necessary to the success of this crop. They should be planted in drills about three feet apart, and fifteen to eighteen inches apart In the drill row. Medium sized, uncut seed will give you the best results. You will find it advisable to diversify your crops and practice a rotation so as not to bring the same crop on the land two years in succession. A five years' rotation on the cultivated areas effcyour farm will tend to improve the soil. Andrew M. Soule. Kettorlnj; Land. Lands once famous for producing certain kinds of crops in many cases are doing so no longer. It should be felt and understood that the crop's chief support has to be in the soil, nere it must have its rations brought to it in abundance if it is to do the best possible, much as in the case of the food provided for the do mesticated animal. The open air will always have in in exhaustible supply what of the air's part and it ia a very large one is needed by it on this account, but just as what is usually designated food, as regards the other division of life cared for, cannot run short, if we are to have, a satisfactory outcome, so there cannot be less in the soil of what the plant re quires for its perfect upbuilding if all is to be well." Every plant removed, every weed even, from' the place in which it has been growing takes something from the earth. It is not difficult to set5 roost people can readily understand that if this goes on the time will surely come, no matter how rich the ground was at the outset, when that ground will not be able to give a crop the re quired support. This is the point where manure, arti ficial fertilizing, ought to be introduced -c r At the present day the greater th skill shown in operating under this r idea the better the farming. Many are the ways in which crops can be rotated and leguminous growths be used to help under this conception. This suggests much of soil restoration at a minimum of expense. The plan of taking all that the lanJ can yield and giving nothing back'ta support its strength has been fully tried in this country, and disastrous consequences only have ensued. Vast wastes in both the North and the South have been made in this man ner. When one section invites attention to the ajricultural defect of another it may be in order to Invite attention to this. Deserted farms are occasion ally made without an all-cotton system. Good farmers are fast learning, if they have not already done as much, what the different soils need to cause thera to do their best. It will not be amiss much, if any at all, for the position to be taken that the plant, the cultivated field, is the best starting place in this better direc tion, because it has the power, whicl the animal has not, of taking dead mat ter, the altogether inorganic, and con verting it into the living and organic. But though it can do this, it is wholly, unable to create anything, its power being limited to that of putting the different elements together, and 'bo making them a part of its own nature and into one whole. Its ability in thia respect does not, however, go beyond what is known as in available form within reach of its own fibrous or feed ing roots. . There is no longer any mystery about man's part in first-rate cropping as well as the plant's part. A knowledge , definite for the best action so far in this respect is one to justify the posi tion that particular kinds of plants fall ! where once they succeeded, at the same time pointing to what ought to be done to secure a return to the like is also in creasingly demanded. Home and Farm. ' ' . Itlnblnz CouipoiU on th Farm. n. L. B., Bluff City, Tenn., writes: "I would like some instructions as to how to compost and use home made fertilizer,, and what can be used on grass and small plants that is better than land plaster?" Composts are chiefly valuable for the purpose of utilizing rough material? that would otherwise go to waste. A compost heap may be made in one of several ways, leaves, straw, cornstalks and other material being utilized for that purpose, together with some rich black earth from a swampy place. The earth from these swampy places Is often not as rich in all the elements of plant food as some people imagine.'1 For example, it may need lime to bring It in condition for crop production, and it may also be deficient in phosphates nnd potash, though well supplied with nitrogen. The place for the compost heap should be carefully selected. A heavy clay excavated so as to leave a concave depression in tbe ground will make a suitable place, and as the soil is tena cious, there is not so much loss from leaching as would occur with lighter soils. Put down a layer of the material to be composted and then cover with, a light layer of rich earth. Some prefer to use lime, phosphates and potash to balance up the compost, as it were. The writer would always prefer to apply these directly to the field, and put the compost on separately. The compost heap should be situated so that it can be kept moist, though not wet. If kept moist there is less loss from the action of various forms of bacteria which break up nitrogen inta volatile forms. There is naturally mora or less loss in compost heaps, though they have tbe advantage. of providing a means as they stand, but as a rule it is better to get any material to be utilized for the purpose of furnishing nitrogen or vegetable matter in the soil as soon as possible. A compost heap should only be used as a last re sort As a rule, farmyard manure is the best fertilizer to use nnd that ob tained from compost heaps is one-sided in nature; that is, it contains a larger per cent, of nitrogen than of phosphates and potash. Therefore, good applica tions of these materials should ba made when the compost is applied, and if the land is acid, an application ofi fifty bushels of lime will bo an advantage. Land plaster is chiefly valuable as a means of setting free potash which ia not in an -available form in the soil, and so ready for the use of plants. Lime is a more effective agent to use as it corrects acidity in the soil, promotes the development of certain forms of bacteria which are essential to the pro duction of good crops, and set? free plant food. Lime, however, is not a fertilizer in any sense, of the word, and this is an important matter for you to realize so you will rot use it to ex cess and the permanent injury of your soil. Professor Soule. -