2 TriC, rKUCrtCnOOlVH rvrJLYiE.lv LJ-uesaay, .November 3, i903
A Northern Immigrant Pleased With
Southern Farming Opportunities.
Editor of Tlie Progressive Farmer :
Your request for a few swords
about our section, at hand. Whilst
I am very busy planting1 peaches,
will give you a word.
I came South some ten years ago,
on account of health, and sought a
favorable location for stock and
fruit. I traveled over all the South
ern States with three items in view.
I found by United States census of
1890 Habersham County, North
east Georgia, amongst the Piedmont
foot hills stood one of the three
first counties in the United States
for health. For the pa3t five years
I have been testing this section for
fruit and grasses the apple in the
velleys ; the peach on the high ridges.
I find here old trees, 75 or more years
old, and still bearing. For over fifty
years now there has been but three
failures of the peach and cherry.
The reason of this is: We occupy
the Chattahoochee ridge or water
shed between the Chattahoochee and
Broad Rivers, 1,500 to 1,800 feet
above the level of' the sea the first
ridge from the Atlantic Ocean so
the humid waves of air strike this
sharp ascent and give plenty of wa
ter, 58 to 62 inches per annum.
Springs but a few rods apart, on.
either side of this ridge, flow into
the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic
Ocean respectively, making a perfect
water shed and drainage system.
The height also gives an air drain
age that fairly precludes the May
frosts, that peach men all stand in
so much dread of.
One can raise peaches almost any
where. I was born and raised in the
peach district of West Michigan, and
whilst that is a great fruit section,
still we can get almost two crops
to their one.
And our low freights and New
York markets, give us more dollars
per acre. Our land lies on both
side3 of the Southern Railroad, with
stations only two or three miles
apart through the whole belt.
Also the Tallulah Falls Railroad,
that branches off from here, is now
being extended into Franklin, N.
C, and this section for apples, is
even superior to ours, but the peach
grows in its perfection here, on ac
count of the soil having a great deal
of iron in it, giving better color, tex
ture and flavor, ftll kinds of nuts
and garden stuffs grow perfectly.
A neighbor has been shipping for
past three months, the famous Buck
eye Tomatoes, to Savannah, Ga., the
home of the trucker.
The buyers say, "never before have
we seen or gotten such fine fruit."
Our land varies in price according
to distance and elevation, the higher
the better for peaches, from $10 to
$20,Tr probably adjoining railroad
stations $50 per acre.
We can clear the timber, plant and
carry through the first three years
that is, cultivate and trim each
spring and summer months for, say
$30. We trim low and put out the
heads at about 18 inches from the
ground, keeping the heads open to
the sun, thereby getting a better
quality. We plant 18 feet apart, if
hills too steep, we plant on a water
level or contour. If level in squares,
18 feet each way. In the valleys we
put one-fourth to apples, that is, one
in each alternate row and each alter
nate space.
So far our peach crops have, the
third year, paid more than every
dollar we have in the acre. We can
show here the largest one, two, three,
and four year old peach and cherry
trees in the United States so say
the Assistant Pommologist of the
Unietd States Department of Agri
culture and the largest growers in
the country.
Our .soil is a sort of red loam, is
simply perfection. So far growers
from other sections have only one
fault to find, as two of the largest
in the world, wanted 10,000 acres
each in a body.
This is impossible to get, as the
strip is narrow, only one-half to one
and a half miles wide and only ex
tending in its best the centre here
at Cornelia going south and north
each way 10 to 15 miles.
Plenty of cheap land just for gen
eral farming can be had for, from
$2 to $5 per acre back a little from
station, say from two to five miles.
Since I and my friends determined
to settle here one year ago August
1st, after looking about for ten
years, we have bought some 5,000
acres and planted about 1,000 acres.
January 1st will have 2,000 acres
in peaches, apples and cherries. We
plant the standard varieties, Elber
tas, 65 per cent; Belle (the Elberta's
sister, only white), 20 per cent; the
Carmen for early, 10 per cent; a
very late peach for extreme South
ern markets, the otHer 5 per cent.
Dr. Henry, Director of Wiscon
sin's famous Agricultural School and
Experiment Station, whilst South in
August to deliver the address before
the State Dairyman's Association
whilst being shown over Mr. Wil
liamson's famous dairy farm, with
its Bermuda grass pastures, and the
amber cane, being cut for silage, and
over the writer's farm where is grow
ing the different varieties of forage
he remarked, that he never saw so
many or as good forage plants, grow
ing on a farm in the United States.
He saw four different kinds of corn,
four different kinds of cow peas, and
velvet beans, eight different kinds of
roots (namely, carrots, ruta baga
turnips, sugar beets, salsify, man
gels, parsnips, and artichokes). Of
the grasse3, Bermuda grass, alfalfa,
blue grass, crab grass, amber cane,
and now rye and essex rape, besides
five or six kinds of pumpkins, were
shown.
On top of all this, our cotton-seed
meal and hulls right at our farms,
beats corn in fattening cattle that
is, more fat in less days for the same
money.
Now, Mr. Editor, you see you
asked me for a letter, but I. cannot
get through enumerating our many
blessings, unless I say we have good
schools and churches, and a, larger
per cent of our population attend
church than any State in the North.
We hope to have our pure bred stock
farm of dairy cattle, beef cattle, An
gora goats, Berkshire hogs, colli
dogs and pure bred fowls, very short
ly now, as we have it commenced.
I came ten years ago from North
Dakota, and with ; our present expe
rience, would not exchange our
farms here for half that State, if
obliged to live in it the rest of my
days.
Yours truly,
L C. WADE.
Habersham Co., Ga.
The Goat Industry.
Editor of The Progressive Farmer
The goat industry of the United
States is the subject of a pamphlet
about to be issued by the Department
of Agriculture compiled by George
F. Thompson, editor of the Bureau
of Animal Industry. The census of
1900 shows a total of a little less
than 2,000,000 animals, largely found
in the Southern States. Not all
kinds of goat skins, the circular says,
are in demand for leather. The pelt
of th angora is, 'as a rule, too thin
and poor for leather, the longer the
hair of the goat, the thinner and
poorer the pelt. This applies to
goats not angoras. Among the
French mountaineers the raising of
kids for their skins is a leading in
dustry. As soon as the kids are old
enough to eat grass and other such
diet, the skin begins to grow coarser
and harder. The kid is therefore
penned, not only to prevent its eat
ing improper food, but to prevent
scratching and bruising. The con
ditions in the United States, it is
stated, especially as regards the item-f
of labor, are so unlike those of
mountainous France that it is not
probable that a similar industry
could be maintained here. We im
port from $20,000,000 to $25,000,000.
worth of goat skins annually, mostly
for shoes and gloves.
The bulletin discusses the ques
tion as to whether it will pay farm
ers to raise common goats for the
sale of kids, whose meat is as pala
table as that of lambs, and is in fact
sold in every large city as lamb's
meat. If a ready .market were estab
lished for kids at, say $1.50 each, and
if any one nanny goat can raise three
kids annually it . can hardly be
doubted that the industry could be
made profitable.
The bulletin points out that there
are vast acreages in this country
suitable for goat raising where per
haps no other animals would thrive.
The feed that goats prefer is browse,
with a small proportion of weeds and
grass ; therefore lands burdened with
brushwood and briers are particular
ly desirable. The pronounced" char
acteristic of angora goats for de
stroying brushwood, briers, weeds,
etc., has been exploited soextensive-
ly that many people have received
the impression that this was a trait
peculiar to the angora breed. This
is not the fact; the prediction of
goats for such a diet is common to
all breeds alike. Brush ridden land
is usually rich, but to 'clear it by or
dinary methods requires an expendi
turt varying from $5 to $40 per acre.
-" u.u uus work as thor
oughly,, why not employ them, even
leaving out th question of their
own profitableness? The bulletin
avers that a little investigation will
probably convince the farmer; that
the common goat is not so promis.
ing of profit as the angora. The lat
ter produces a fleece for which then
is a good demand at good prices
while the common goat contributes
nothing of this kind. Its flesh is
much more palatable than that of
the common breed, and it is less in
clined to jump or climb. On the
other hand the value of the Bkins
probably is less and the angora goat
usually has but one kid a year, while
the common goats have two and of
ten three. At this time there is a
ready sale for angoras while it can
hardly be said that there is a market
for the common breed.
GUY E. MITCHELL.
Washington, D. C.
Dairy Hints.
Avoid dust in stable. Do not feed
dry feed just before or during the
milking.
Just before milking moisten the
cow's udder and adjacent parts with
a damp cloth.
Remove the milk from the stable
as soon as milked, and strain.
If the milk is not going to be sepa
rated, cool at once to below 60 de
grees F.
Milk can be kept sweet from
twelve to fifteen hours longer by a
thorough and immediate cooling.
CARE OF CREAM
Cream should be ripened at a low
temperature. If the cream is allow
ed to become too sour, bad results
may follow, such as a strong, rancid
butter, containing white flecks or
spots of casein.
CHURNING.
Fifty-six to sixty degress in sum
mer and fifty-eight to sixty-two de
gress in winter are good churning
temperatures. The lower the tem
perature of the cream, the longer it
will take to churn, and the more but
ter you will make and the better will
be the quality. A high temperature
tends to produce a soft, sarvy butter,
containing a large amount of casein.
Such butter lacks body and will not
keep well. There is also too much
fat lost in the buttermilk. Stop the
churning when the butter grate
reach the size of wheat kerne
Churning should require from tniru
to forty minutes. After removing
the buttermilk, wash the butter
two changes of cold water and alio
ii to drain.
SALTING AND WASHING BUTTER.
" After the butter has been foffj
oughly drained, it should be we gtea
and spread out evenly on a butte
worker. It should still be in the f ofl
of small granules. Good, clean dug
salt should be sifted evenly over w
surface at the rate of tbree-qrte
to an ounce of salt to the potf
butter. The object of workup
ter when made as directed abov
to thoroughly incorporate sta
White streaks in the butter we
to the uneven mixing of tne s
The butter should be stampe
some simple, neat design
ped in parchment paper.
Wm, Buxkett. N. C. A. &