A Woman Rice Planter

by Elizabeth W. Allston Pringle

Went to Casa Bianca and walked around the banks. The little rice planted looks fairly well. Nat seems to be doing his best in face of much opposition and difficulty. On the way back stopped at Cherokee and found that Elihu got back with the flat of fertilizer at sunrise this morning, which was doing splendidly. It was most fortunate, for this afternoon the storm signals are out in Gregory. Mr. L. was afraid to leave town with his tug towing a lighter, so it would have been impossible to bring an open flat out.

October 2.

The fertilizer has been distributed over the alfalfa field and the whole field is in fine order. Now the delay is in the nonarrival of the seed. I have sent to the railroad station several times, but they answer firmly that it has not come. It is very provoking, for all the books say it should be planted not later than October 1.

October 6.

R. was obliged to leave to-day, and without helping me plant the alfalfa, as it has not yet come. It is too bad, for it would have been such a comfort to get it in while he was here. I asked him to go to the station very early to-morrow—the train leaves at 6 a.m.—and ask permission, very politely, to look through the warehouse himself for it; he seemed to think this an unusual and unreasonable request, but I know the ways of the freight office in Gregory so well that I am sure the alfalfa is there.

October 7.

Elihu returned at one o'clock, bringing the sack of 100 pounds of alfalfa and a note from R. He had asked for it and was told it was not there; then, politely, he asked if he might look through the warehouse; permission was granted, and almost the first thing he stumbled upon was the bag. When he told the man in charge he had found it and pointed it out, he looked at it and said: "Oh, that's it, is it? That's been here two weeks."

I called Bonaparte at once and used what was left of the culture R. had mixed, though I felt uncertain as to whether it was still good. It was only enough to moisten a half bushel which I had well stirred and then spread out on the piazza to dry. Then I proceeded to put together the stuff for a second lot of the inoculating liquid. I had had the packages quite a while, and felt anxious about it. It was in proportion for ten gallons, but I only mixed five, putting in half of the package of each instead of the whole. That is the worst of being so remote from everything—the difficulty of replacing things if anything goes wrong. Whether the tub leaked or the culture evaporated, I do not know, but the quantity R. mixed should have been enough for the 100 pounds, but it has vanished or rather "minished," to use a very pregnant negro word, and now I have to use these old ingredients.

October 8.

Put in the second ingredient of the culture, then got Bonaparte and two boys with the seed drill, which I had asked R. to rent from a neighbor, and proceeded to plant the alfalfa seed wet with culture yesterday, as it was quite dry. The Imp and Manuel were charmed to run the little drill and fought over it, for I would not let either one do more than six rows.