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FASTI RAGE. GRAIN CROPS. The natural pastures are all that can be asked, furnishing' green feed from January until December. On'the wild lands where the pasturing- is light the water grasses, wire grasses, mutton cane, redtop, lespedeza and a score of others furnish a constant succession of varieties for all seasons. On lands which have been more closely grazed, “carpet grass” is at its best, and is to the coast country what blue grass is to the North. It “conies in” quickly on all pastured lands, and will bear more close grazing and hard tramping than any other good ptsture grass. It takes possession of every roadside, and even of the most sandy fields, after one or two seasons of grazing it remains fresh and green through the whole }’ear and is relished by all kinds of stock. Hay can be produced in great abundance and at a very slight cost, as heavy crops can be made at a nominal expense on fields from which other crops have been harvested earlier in the season. Whenever crops are taken off as early as July the ground is soon covered by a dense growth of crab-graW or a mixture of grass and Mexican clover, either of wlirch makes a hay of fine quality. ^ One old farmer said to usVecently: “Last year I had twenty acres of cucumbers in my peach orchard, and after harvesting the crop I kept the ground clean around the trees and then cut from the field thirty\five tons of as fine liay as I ever used, and that is good enough grass for me ” His hay cost him absolutely nothing but, the harvesting. The cow pea is another hay plant whichv always gives a profitable crop making two or more tons per acre of a hay which is fully as valuable as that from the best' jf red clover. Wheni ver a field is not needed for other crop's during any two months of warm weather it can always be ;trade to yield a good crop of pea vine hay. and four months my otl coldest weather will permit the growth of uieheav’js HarlP^ oats. 4 Among the grain crops corn and oats do well. Corn matures by August and oats in May, so that either crop is out of the way in ample time for cow peas or some other crop to follow. Upland rice is grown very commonly, and often two crops are made from the same ground, the second one being a volunteer, and worth nearly as much as the first. Sugar cane grows finely and nearly every family raises enough to make molasses for home use, while many farmers are finding it a profitable crop. Although the yield of cane is less per acre than on some of the alluvial lands of Louisiana, it contains a larger percentage of sugar, and so is worth more per ton than where heavier crops are grown. The pine lands produce heavy crops of long staple cotton, and that crop was formerly grown here quite extensively, but in recent years the rapid growth of the towns and their popularity as places of resort for both summer and winter visitors has made other crops more profitable. TRUCK FARMING. In a region where the growing season is so long and heavy frosts are so rare a small area of land may be made to produce an immense amount of truck in the course of a year, two crops being always possible, while threeor four are often grown on the same land. Planting begins in January and does not end until December, and there is not a day in the entire year when fresh vegetables may not be gathered from from any well managed garden. No finer sweet potatoes can be found anvwhere. The bulk of the crop is not planted till July, and as it is then planted on ground from which Irish potatoes, beans, melons or some other crop has just been harvested, it costs but little. Irish potatoes are often planted as early as December, and good fall crops are made by planting in August The soil and climate produce watermelons and canteloupe^ of the finest quality, and both are grown
Hancock County Sketch Book Sketch-Book-of-Hancock-County-1908-(03)