Newspapers / The Danbury Reporter (Danbury, … / Oct. 27, 1915, edition 1 / Page 19
Part of The Danbury Reporter (Danbury, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
nOCKINGKAH CQUNTT MM REBUILDS HIS j HI WITH LIVE STOCK AND LEGUMES: t Worn-Out Cotton and Tobacco Farms Made Rich r --Anyone Can Follow the Method Outlined \ Herewith-Peas, Clovers and Other Legumes c „ Planted With Corn and Small Grain Crop-Good £ Pasture Quickly Made By Using Waste \ Fertilizer. i (By F. M. Runnels in Southern „ Farming. > Recently I spent two days look ing over a string of farms in the Dan Meadows of Rockingham county, owned by B. Frank Me -1 bane. These farms are so sensibly and ecoomically managed, and so successful, that they immediately I become an object lesson to the * farmers of the South. On these ! , farms I was constantly looking I for some ground upon which to base the argument that what ap plied to these several farms could not be made to apply to the general run of farms in North Carolina and the South, but found none. I walked over miles of land 3 that gave every evidence that they were newly transformed. I had testimony of men who had resided for years in that com munity that fields now rich in blue grass, clover and alfalfa had been a little white ago tracts abandoned by their owners. Mr. Mebane has i.ot as yet gone into the instruction of modern barns and silos. "There is time enough for these things." he said, "when we have proved to the small that soil evolution > is of first Cuiwidttfation. I have studiously avoided doing j anything on any one of these places that the most helpless farmer ecu Id not do. I save what I need of my hay and store it in the old ramshackle buildings constructed a generation ago. My corn is put away in cribs or ; stalls just as nine-tenths of the farmers of the South put it away. i 1 CORN YIELD INCREASING EACH , Y EAR. Just before reaching the Dan River crossing, I saw cornfields that would not yield more than three or four barrels to the acre. Across the bridge in identically the same type of land, we enter ed cornfields where the yield is from 10 to 12 barrels per acre. I On the poor corn commercial [. fertilizer has been used lavishly, but across the river the land is enriched and made productive by crop rotations, by the planting of peas, and of the clovers, and soy beans. Here is an instance of how Mr. Mebane increases his own corn yield each year without artificial stimulant, and I give just this instance alone. The field con tained about 40 to 50 acres. Al | though the corn had gotten a '' late start due to an unusually cold May and June, followed by 1 a threatening drouth, in early August, the plants were vigorous j and heavily fruited, in one pari L > of this field the black variety oi soy beans had been planted al regular intervals between the corn when the stalks were nol quite knee-high. At the last cultivation crimson clover was put in broadcast. At the time 1 saw this corn, just before ma turing, the soy beans were ir full fruit, hip high, and the -crimson clover was coming on al as fast a clip as the shade would t | permit. The roots of the soy i ' beans were a mass of nodules. : each as large as a pea. The fine i mesh of roots feeding each stalk . could not be packed into a quart I measure. , 1 A well-known expert, who had j .•visited the fields a few days j , 1 previous and marveled at the > | number and size of nodules on r ! these roots, gave it as his opin ) ion that the nitrogen deposited . ! in the soil by reason of them had I an actual fertilizing value of S2O ; I per acre. It is a peculiar fact i! coming under my personal ob- I I servation that where a bunch of six or eight vigorous soy bean j plants were growing in imme- L ' diate touch with a stalk of corn, rI it stimulated rather than re *■ j j | tarded the earing. J In another field adjoining, the 1 ' soy beans had been planted be-1 j tween the corn rows at the time j g of the last working. The phuiL were knee high and in full bloom: „ 1 and the roots of each were clus-. g i tered with nitrogen, drawing 1 ! bacteria. Just beyond was: I another field of corn that is equal' g 'to anything in the Western corn 1 ' belt, and between the rows,' j',(here was a perfect mass of' Y peas and soy beans, both well j e ( fruited. From the first field thore j j. will be taken a full corn crop e and soy beans that will equal the' e corn value on the market. Be-: g | hind them comes the ciimson L | clover. The second field will 1 r ! afford splendid crops of hay from • I e ; the cutting of the beans. The | third field will yield abundantly !in peas for marketing, and pea j vines and soy beans for winter I feeding in addition to the corn;! n | and over the whole, cattle and s hogs will graze until January. i This thing that I saw can be • duplicated by any farmer in the y South. " AN INSTANCE WHERE BRAINS s I HELPED. • j On the former old and worn ' out places, Mr. Mebane has es • tablished his breeding and graz -3 ing pasture. He did not do this v i at once, but these magnificent f grass and hayfields are today the Y result of a period of soil develop ment by natural processes. On '• the washed hillsides, Mr. Mebane ™ begun by planting wheat in the 11 fall, followed by peas and clover s as soon as the grain crop was - taken off. In September he I-'would put these hillside lands i into grass and rye, at each sow y ing adding a little blue gras3 y seed, some alfalfa and always y clover. The following spring s would bring on grain again, with t more peas and grass, f I saw one demonstration of t the application of a practical e mind to soil betterment. Just 't below a rambling old barn sur t rounded by the usual stock area s was a hillside of 15 or 20 acres, I which when I walked over it i- was rank with a growth of mix n ed blue grass, alfalfa and Japan e clover, and here and there some it orchard grass. Mr. Mebane had THE DANBURY REPORTER observed that he was losing a 1 good deal of manure during 1 heavy rains or frosts. With one man and a spade he laid out two or three shallow surface drains that would collect washings from manure piles and focus the waste at a point just outside the corral fence, conveying it in a plain box drain 6 inches under ground to a point 200 feet inside the barren pasture. Laterals started this water in a fan shape down the hill That simple device with! proper rotation results in mak ing a SIOO-acre pasture in four 1 years time out of land that was not worth its taxes. In a pasture of 20 acres, divid ed about equally between steep sidehill and first bottom, Mr., Mebane had sown blue grass,, alfalfa and clover. I saw this pasture early in June. It was grazing then a few sows each with a bunch of six or eight weeks-old pigs. In September I walked through this pasture and saw 25 handsome shotes weighing from 100 to 140 pounds, and ready for the packer. I ask ed Mr. Mebane what it cost him to produce hogs by that system. "By charging land taxes to them," he said, "these hogs have cost me around 10 cents each to raise." Mr. Mebane raises perhaps 500 hogs each year I and he does it in this simple, in jtelligent way. He is a large breeder of registered Hereford?. ! Guernseys and Jerseys, and, as a , result, there are many caivfcs these lands that must be winter led. I asked him how he held ! down his expense account and he took me through pastures each lof about 25 acres. He waded j waste high in the rankest mixture of blue grass, clover and crehard j grass I ever saw. "Here." he said, "is the answer. The snow I may conic; hut underneath it will | be this blanket cf nutritious win ; ter feed. I never cut this but al low it to work all summer *nd fall, storing up as much natural winter feed as it will." LABOR QUESTION SETTLED. I was interested in the labor question and asked Mr. Mebane if , he had any trouble with tenants on farms given over almost inclus ively to grain, grass ar.d livestock. "At first I did," he said, "but I soon found that a little money was a dangerous thing. By se lection, I gradually get rid of the tenant who is always in need of a little change and begin to drill the others in the business of help ing themselves." If a tenant wanted one, two, three or four milch cows from my herd, I let him have just as long as he took good care of them paying me a nominal monthly rental. He and his wife en couraged to produce milk and butter on a small scale, but suf ficient to bring in a cash income without interfering with their af fairs. I let them take care of on shares: in that way a tenant be comes a meat producer. He is encouraged to raise chickens and seil eggs, adding to his weekly support. I let him have a good, strong mare to make a grain crop, but he must take care of her foal until such time as I want to turn the young mule colt out to pasture. He gets a comfortable home tc liye in and the usual proportion oi hay and grain crops. He farms his land and takes care of the stock according to my instruct ions, and I am no longer bother ed with the tenant problem." ' These Dan Meadows farms witfc ' their simplicity and economy of operation offer a University training or object lesson to any farmers in the South who can I spare expense or take the trouble j to spend a day or two there, and see for themselves how success can come, not from disbursement of money but by the employment of man's intelligence, and see a ; veritable garden of five thous and acres. I The banks of the United States now have so much money they hardly know what to do with it. A year ago banks began piling jup reserves and these funds reached such proportions that Secretaryo: the Treasury McAdoo criticised the bankers for not lending the money to the farmers on easy terms to finanee their i crops. At that time it was shown | that the banks in somejinstances were carrying reserves as high as 175 per cent. This fall, however. ' the situation is different. ; These reserves now repre sent an actual excess of wealth, ! | for which there is no legitimate ; demand, whereas a year ago the : farmers and small dealers were eager to get loans which the banking institutions withheld ' from them. Statesville Land- I mark. ! * Br ■ ■ i I If You'd Like to Have a Look at the to 4 Prize Winners in Clothes r 1 i e |l ———■—■— ma ——— ———l M v\m m I I I I d f Come in and See the New Fall and Winter 1 it I II Models We Are Now Showing for Men 1 *if and Young Men I ! I $6.50 $lO $12.50 sls and up I ii I And our Hat and Furnishing I I Goods Department is Com- I " I plete also with New Fall | ' 1 Wearables. Ask to See the 2 JI MAXIM, GUARANTEED, $2 MAT | I HENRY ROSE CO. | , ■ (Successors to N. L. Cranford &Co.) ■ 01 WINSTON-SALEM, N. C. I 1 J / \ J. A. JONES. J. J- GENTRY. :: BUY YOUR SHOES FROM :: JONES & GENTRY 1447 Trade Street. Winston=Salem. N. C. I EVERYBODY IS INVITED To come and get a bargain. New line dry goods, notions, shoes, hats, and groceries. A little saved on every purchase. A cordial welcome always awaits you at my store. !j E. H. CAUDLE, Rural Hall, N. C. 2'.»sepSt
The Danbury Reporter (Danbury, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 27, 1915, edition 1
19
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75