r Farm ]" Department D*v?4ed I* tb? laUrttla of Those taiiifd in AlncalUral Pursuit*. CouH -Cled by J. M. Broty How's Crops? This Is quite a common salutation amongst us farmers. I doubt if we ask this question so much to learn of our neighbors' crops as to get the opportunity to tell of our own. The readers of the Cultivator are not Interested in our crops, we know that; but if there are any conclu sions to be drawn that will be of benefit to the readers In making a crop themselves, then the personal part vanishes, and the matter be comes something of Interest. You are not Interested as to whether I have a good crop, but the chances are that you want to know why I have a good crop. Perhaps the main thing to mention as a factor in the production of a good crop this year, would be the last year's crop. Last year we laid ] our plans to make a more extensive use of a certain fertilizer whose mer its we all know, but are slow to use to Its full extent. We hear a great deal amongst farmers about guano. Someone has made a name for an other valuable fertilizer and given us the name, Cow-ano. I^et's make an other word, and speak of Pea-ano. | For this fertilizer, properly utilized, i seems to solve all the farmer's prob lems relating to aoll fertility; and j indirectly will solve very nearly all his problems of whatever nature tin y i may be. At a farmers' Institute late- i ly. we were summing up the benefits that would accrue to the farmer who followed a proper system of crop ro- | tatlon, using liberally of this Pea-ano, ' and made the statement that even their wives would love them better under such a system of farming. Most of our cotton land this year was in peas, one way or another last year. We try to follow this rule. Peas before cotton always. Where this rule is followed the cotton al ways does well. During the early wet spring, the cotton where pea stubble or vines had been turned un der grew off better, and never seem ed to suffer from the wet weather, as It did on other lands. And then again, when the dry weather of Ju ly and August was beginning to make cotton suffer on some lands, our cot ton that was fertilized wlht Pea-ano continued green, and held Its fruit. On this cotton I find more of the I early grown bolls, as well a1* more of tho latter crop. This seems to be making it going and coming. Of course we would not discount the deep plowing that was done on ! these fields by way of preparation; nor yet the extensive use that was made of the harrow. The liberal use made of other fertilizers, all home mixed, should be mentioned; but all | these things together with good cul- I tlvatlon do not give without the peas, I what they do with them. Always j start two or three years beforehand I to make a cotton crop; and if you go the right way, you will surely have a good crop of cotton when cotton year comes. When we consider the amount of j nitrogen found in 1,000 pounds of cottonseed, a fair crop of seed from j an acre, it Is no wonder that cotton needs plenty of nitrogen while It is ( growing. We do not hesitate to ap ply 50 to 100 pounds of nitrate of soda per acre to a growing crop of ( cotton; this on good land. We find that such an amount of nitrate of soda, applied in July, just continues the good work that the nitrogen from the former pea crop has been doing. Generally we have no trouble in getting one bale or more of cotton per acre on land thus worked and fertilized.?Southern Cultivator. ; It Saved His Leg. "All thought I'd lose my leg," writes J. A. Swensen, ot Watertown, Wis. "Ten years of eczema, that 15 doctors could sot cure, had at last laid me up. Then Bucklen's Arnica Salve cured it, sound and ?well." In fallible for Skin Eruptions, Eczema, Salt Rheum. Boils, Fever Sores, Burns, Scalds, Cuts and Piles. 25c. at Hood Bros. Stumps, Brush, Weeds, Grass. We pay a larger tax every year for stumps, brush, weeds and grass than is required to support our mu nicipal, county, State and Federal governments, to endow all the col leges and educate all the youth ot the land; and we get no return. A ?tump not only occupies valuable space but it prevents the use of | Improved implements for better and , more rapid tillage of the soil. The | cost of farm labor is on the increase ! with the certainty that thiB will con- i tinue till the equation of wages on j the farms and in the town or city is ] more equal. The remedy for higher ] priced labor on the farm is the use i of more and better teams and imple- 1 meats. If the day wage on the farms i of tha South advance* from .75 to 11.50 then each farm hand must plow, plant, and cultivate twice as many acres In a >lay as he did before and this Is an easy problem. Hut the stumps must go, and the farmer who does not iry to get rid of them will soon be a back number. The stump , farmer pays about $3.00 an acre ev ery year for the privilege of hav ing stumps in his fields. In addi tion. there are generally a few feet of utilized soil around every field ' stump which produce foul weeds and grasses to seed the land. What has been charged against stumps applies with still more force to trees, shrubs and brush patches ; in the field; dig, burn, destroy; they are natural enemies of the farmer. ' Straighten out the sides of the field, , square up the corners and avoid the short rows as much as possible; they increase the .work of tillage. Farmers have become accustomed to fighting weeds and grass In the cultivated fields that they regard It as a matter of necessity. They think the land Is full of foul seeds and of course they will germinate when : it rains. When virgin soils are first placed In cultivation they are comparatively ^ free from weeds and grass, and that , they become foul is due to faulty \ management on the part of the far- j mers. It Is not difficult to dlscov- | er the real causes. FirBt, careless I cultivation, which allows weeds and grass to mature seed In the cultivat ed fields. Second, little attention Is paid to the highways, the brush patches, the fence corners and the pastures, and they are almost uni versally breeding grounds for foul weeds and grass. It has been charg ed that the Southern farmer is care less. It may be true in some things, but In one thing too many of them stand first among the farmers of the world, theyn ever fall to raise a crop of weed and grass seed large enough to seed their own fields and their neighbors. The cost of this universal weed and grass seeding amounts annually to more than five dollars for each acre in corn, and ten dollars for each acre in cotton. In 1909 in the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, there were 40,965,000 acres In corn and 30,693,000 acres In cotton, which would show a yearly loss of over 511 millions of dollars. This loss can be gre?tly reduced by intensive cultivation continued as late In the season as possible and by mowing the roadsides, the fence corners, the I borders of 'he 'ields and the pasture In June and In August. At first it seems like a waste of labor, but its beneficial effects soon become appar ent. A persistent war on weeds and grass, stumps and brush, In the fields is one of the great progressive movements neecssary to progn ss in agriculture. S. A. KNAPP,, Spe-1 clal Agent In Charge of Farm De monstration Work, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Don't waste your money buying plasters when you can get a bottle of Chamberlain's Liniment for twen ty-five cents. A piece of flannel dampened with this liniment is su perior to any plaster for lame back, rains In the side and chest, and much cheaper. Sold by Hood Bros. Feed the Cow. Every year, during August and September, thousands of dairy cows | do not get euouglt to eat. Hundreds of men who would scorn to feed their cows 6cantlly In the winter time, actually very nearly starve them In the late summer. The late summer Is the critical test of the real dairyman's ability. The average cow which freshens in the spring gives a good flow of milk while on j the luxurious early pasture. Then as it usually happens, the late sum mer or fall drouth comes on, and the pasture shortens up, and rests. The average cow battles bravely under the unfavorable cftt-umstances. but by the end of September the milk flow has almost Invariably decreased from one-third to one-half. At the same time, the cow has been losing In flesh. She has been taking the fat off of her back to put Into the milk pall. We have known of cows on pasture so short and brown they scarcely furnished a mouthful, to produce fairly well of milk for a month or so; but In that time these cows lost from 100 to 200 ponuds of flesh. These cows were of true dairy Instinct and had drawn on their reserve to maintain their milk flow, in the fact of unfavorable con ditions. If these cows had been fed grain and soiling crops they -would have given more milk, although icarcely enough more apparently to pay for the expense and trouble. But that great loss In flesh would tiave been avoided and the Inevit ably shrinkage which sooner or la ter comes to cows which are fed >o)tly on bare pasture would have been prevented. The man who is keeping covi to | produce the maximum amount of milk and make money, rauci provide som-j supplement to his pastures In the late summer and fall. The cheapest and most convenient way of providing this eupplement is undoubtedly by the summer silo. Another way U to jiow siloing crops such as millet, sorghum, cowpeas, corn, etc. These are cut and fed green to the cows when the pastures first show signs of shortening. Aside from providing green feed to supplement the pastures, a true dairy-^ man will often find It profitable to grain feed. Corn and bran, with a little oil on meal, makes an excellent grain feed for cows on pasutre. Feed ing five or six pounds of grain feed every day may not seem at the time to pay, but many experienced dairy men report that, taking the entire year through. It pays. It helps pre- j vent milk shrinkage and that great loss In flesh which most cows suffer during the late summer.?Wallace's ; Farmer. "Can be depended upon"' Is an expression we all like to hear, and when It is used In connection with Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy it means that it never fails to cure diarrhoea, dysen- j tery or bowel complaints. It is pleas ant to take and equally valuable for children and adults. Sold by Hood Bros. Cows and Cows. Of the twenty million milk cows doing business n the United States, j there are probably not five millions , that pay a profit to their owners. The remaining fifteen .millions either only pay for their board and keep or J as in too many instances are a fi nancial loss. It is strange that Intelligent men j will keep cows and be troubled with them from year to year when they j are getting no profitable returns from their investment and work. But as to that matter it is equally srtange that the majority of farmers will continue from year to year all the j days of their lives to cultivate lands ? that are too poor to make profiiable ' crops, and to use inferior and un- 1 suitable implements in the prepara tion and cultivation of their crops. It is just as easy and much more sat isfactory to keep good cows, use the best implements, and cultivate the best land. It is often hinted by our neighbors of the North that the i people of the South are lazy. I am j not saying but what in some in stance.- hi least their suspicions ef laziness is well founded but the fact j that our people are willing to spend their lives milking cows and culti vating lands from which they derive no profit would seem to be an argil- i ment against this view. A really in dustrious person who had rather 1 work than play might be expected to grab hold of an unprofitable propo sitlon Just to satisfy his craving | for work, but for a whole community ; of lazy-bones to make a life business J of working when there is no profit j in the work seems unreasonable. . But whether we are lazy or not ! the fact remains that we use very poor judging in our work. We spend our lives and use our muscles doing work that nets no profit. A man will cultivate twenty acres in cotton. The cost of cultivating and gathering the crop from fifteen acres is fully equal to the value of the 1 crop grown on the fifteen acres and I there is not a cent's profit from | all the w ork done on this part of the crop. The remaining five acres | may produce enough crops to pay , expenses and leave a margin of I profit. Would it not seem wise to j leave off the unprofitable fifteen acres and do only the work necessa ry to care fo r the five acres? The net profits in either case are the same, but only one-fourth the work has to be done. And so with cows. Why milk a dozen cows when nine of them pay no profit. It is better of course to have twenty good acres and twelve good cows so as to oc cupy the man's full time but ra ther than work without pay it is better not to work at all. The lesson is very plain If we would amount to anything we must work with judgment. We can not shut our eyes and go it blind and reap any profit for our lifework. We must discard the sorry cows and im prove the unprofitable acres or be satisfied with a mere existence. A lazy man who VRes good judgment will accomplish nore than the most industrious who works in the dark. A combination of industrious habits and good judgment can not fail.?W. L. Williamson. A Floating Debt. "Oh, that's too bad. There goea my bat. and St isn't even paid for." "That's what they call a floating I debt, 1 suppose.'Pele Mele. "What rough-looking elbows that Miss Pearhley has!" Tea: that 1 comes from eating corn on the cob." Free Semple Aids Old Men The sudden change from years of activity of both body and mind to the quiet of later years causes the human system to undergo many changes, chief of which is in the di gestive organs. It becomes harder and harder to get the bowels to move promptly and regularly and In consequence many elderly men suf fer not only from the basic touble. con stipation, but from Indigestion. headache,1 belching, sour stomach, drowsiness after eating and similar annoyances. It Is first of all necessary to keep the bowels open and then to tone the digestive muscles so as to get them to again do their work naturally. A violent cathartic or purga tive Is not only unnecessary but harm ful. and something mild will do the work just as well. After you have got throufh experiment ing with salts and pills and waters of various kinds, and have become convinced that they do only temporary good at beat, then try Dr. Caldwell's 8yrup Pepsin, a mild, gentle, pleasant-tasting laxative tonic that Is especially adapted to the requirements of old people, women and children, and yet Is effective enough for anybody. Your druggist, who has handled It successfully for a quarter of a cen tury. will sell you a bottle for fifty cents or one dollar, but If you want to make a test of It before spending any money ?end your name and address to Dr. Cald well and he will gladly send you a sample bottle free of charge. This remedy la rapldtv displacing all other forms of medication for the cure of stomach, liver and bowel trouble, and families like Mr. O. F. Wisher's of Syca more. Ill . and Mrs. Carrie Culler's of 325 N. Notre Dame atreet. South Bend. Ind., are now never without It In the house. They have tested It and know lta grand value to every member of the family. Dr. Caldwell personally will be pleased to give you any medical advice you may desire for yourself or family pertaining to the stomach, liver or bowels absolutely free of charge Explain your case in a letter and he will reply to you In detail. For the free sample simply send your name and address on a postal card or otherwise. For either request the doctor's address is Dr. W. li Caldwell,R.50U Cald well building, Montlcello, 111. HOOO BROS. Stoves! Stoves! Hardware, Tinware, Crockery, Glassware. Galvanized Roofing, any standard length. Stove Pipe, any size. Going cheaper at S. B. Johnson's SMITHFIELD, N. C. % "BETTER CLOTHES" * X For full comprise the highest product in "ready- rJC ? for-service" clothes. Models from Fifth Avenue-- & jfj The patterns are very elaborate, therefore they % * ARE DIFFERENT x from the general run of "ready-to-uear" clothes. 5 %, You can wear "BETTER CLOTHES" longer than jf. any other clothes, flQ I AND THEY COST NO MORE ? % than the other kinds.?$6.00 to $25.00 for rea- tX J dy to-wear "BETTER CLOTHES." $12. to $49. (? J for made-to-order "BETTER CLOTHES." Boys' gf y and Youths' ready-to-wear suits $1.50 to $15 00 jg % GULLEY