Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / June 23, 1886, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, 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
0 f .7 ft V 11 I 7Y INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE , PAR AMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY Vol. 1. WINSTON, N. O., JUNE 23, 1886J No. 20. OUR FARMERS' CLUBS. What our Farmers are Doing and How the Work of Organizing is Progressing; trinity club, June 12, 1886. Subject : " Clean Fields Clean Seed ing:' W. W. Andrews. Fields are clear ed of noxious weeds in two ways. First, by turning stock upon them. This is not complete for two reasons. Many seeds eaten by animals will germinate afterward and make weeds again ; and some weeds will be re jected by tlie animals and go to seed: If animals are turned in for this ob ject it is best to have three or four kinds in the same field. Second, by thorough cultivation. This seems to be the only way to clean a field properly, of weeds and grass. The plow is the best implement, the turning plow not one that will edge it up, but one that will turn the soil over flat. If there is any one thing I know positively it is that the soil should not be turned deep. Beep plowing is an absolute necessity, but not with a turn plow. To clean a field start yourturn plow in March, follow in same furrow with a subsoil plow as often as you think best. In about ten days there will be a crop of weeds and grass started. Turn again for every ten days until frost or seed time. An old philosopher has said : "The best time to stop a pig out of the field is just before it rets in." The best time to kill the seeds of weeds is jus: before they seed. If there are stumps and rocks in the field hoe around them. Mow the" hedge or fence corners, and make your neighbor mow his-if you. have to shake your fist right under his nose. By the summer following you have not only killed the weeds, but your lands have become friable and much improved in fertility. God helps those that help themselves. Fertile elements are always passing over our fields, and will be absorbed by them if we have them in proper condition to receive those element?. They are a free gift, you don't have to mortgage your farm for them. Now that you have got your field clean sow wheat and none of it will turn to cheat. A. Parker. It may be an easy matter to keep a farm clean if you begin in the forest and clear away the timber yourself ; but to take an old farm that is thoroughly seeded with noxious weeds and clean it is no insignificant job. St. Paul said, " Let us walk worthy of our voca tion." Our trade is our vocation. Good citizens do all the good they can. Let a farmer do all his work cleanly. The sloven that suffers nox ious weeds and tares in his grain damages his neighbor, the miller and the one whose grist follows his. Churchmen who are guilty of such ought to have charges preferred against them, for they know they do their neighbor a wrong. If you are beset with thistles all around it is hard to keep them down'. When society is ! educated up to a right standard we will ".have a statute to punish such offences. D. M. Payne. rCleanliness is a di vine law. The beasts for sacrifice were required to be clean ; arid Da vid in lamenting his great sin against Uriah asks God to give him a clean heart. Sin is uncleanness. ' Where filth' abounds the laws of God ; and man are winked at. ' A meaner act is seldom done than the. devil did when he sowed tarcs among' the good man'rvheat iwhile he was asleep. How caiva-4nan be a good, clean man when! hedged about with I filth? Filth is prolific ; not subject to smut, rust or, any of the blights. It consists in a multitude of things ; sprouts, briars, weeds cock e spelt, cheat, and lastly, and : greater than all, garlic or . .wild onion, the great arch enemy of the grist and the oven. Garlic almost defies hail storms, tor nadoes, cyclones, floods and freezes. While you are destroying the seed on one en dthe ' othei in the ground is multiplying faster than the ingen uity of man can devise instruments of destruction to keep even, much less destroy. Their introduction in this section dates within the memo ry of persons now living. That they are on the increase is plain and alarming. Like the skunk, the of fensive part is its scent. This is per meating. Kearly. all .domestic ani mals graze it. If eaten just prior to slaughtering it utterly ruins beef, mutton, pork, poultry, milk, butter and cheese. Nothing renders these things so repugnant. The man who plans an implement for its final de struction will be immortal in his tory, and live in the meriiory of man as long as Howe, Fulton or Morse. What is more unsightly than fence ways grown up in briars and bushes too high to look over and see the crops within? It is an infallible sign of laziness ; and the man who suffers it is willfully so or born tired, as some would say. The only remedy is to clean the seed" planted and wage an incessant war against all that is growing, and in time it may be conquered. If all the farmers would set a resolution and carry it out to fight the tares in grain to the death, in ten jrears they would very nearly disappear. The are luxur iant this season, and will get an ad vantage that it will take time to re gain. Dr. Parker. Every farmer should know at sight every useful plant and noxious weed, so as to know what to let grow and what to exterminate. A field overgrown with cheat, spelt, cockle, wild carrots, fennel, dock, red-root, thistles and the numerous other pests, is a standing disgrace to the owner, and" publishes his shame to every passer-by. If he knew it, he is harboring enemies that will sap the life out of his land, double and treble his labor and cut short his profits. All of these vile cumber ers of the ground are very tenacious of life and are determined to repro-.' duce themselves a thousand fold. Nothing short of a most heroic battle persistent to the end, will subdue these enemies. Don't allow a single one of them to mature their seed this year on your places. I have thorough ly made up my mind on this point and the success I am hav ing encourages me to persevere. D. M. Payne, Sec'y. MOUNTAIN CREEK FARMERS CLUB. This club is made up of substan tial, intelligent farmers in that splen did farming section around Bostick's mills, llichmond county. r The club now numbers about fifty members and is in a most prosperous condi tion. The Progressive Farmer hopes to have a detailed report of its progress at an early day. Among the many : commendable things it has done, is its action in establishing an annual dinner, at which farmers and their families will meet and pass, a day of Roeial pleasure. The first of these delightful occasions will be held about the middle of August, when, in compliance with a kind re quest, The Progressive Farmer hopes to be present. There will be a meeting of farmers at Lewisville, in this county, next Saturday, 26th inst. Everybody' is invited to come. Col. Polk, editor of The Progressive Farmer, and other speakers expect to be present and address the meeting. - ; " "; ' The farmers complain that wheat is very light and in some of the bot toms it was hardly worth reaping on account of the damage from the recent freshets -Two , or three blockade stills were knocked up over about Julian and Columbia Factory last week ; arid we hear one of our citizens in the neighborhood of Lib erty had a lively race; leaving be hind him a-quantity of beer and whiskey .-r-steoro Courier. , ', -There were twenty-six persons arraigned for trial last week": at-Fcd-eraLCourt in Charlotte, most of them for pettyooftenses. v ; vV-' ' - WHAT WORK WILL DO. Some Facts, Figures and Suggestions by a Thinking Farmer. For the Progressive Farmer. STRAWBERRIES. O Mr. Editor. My strawberry bed measures 18x10 ft., with eleven rows 20 inches apart and 10 ft: long, and plants every four to five inches in the row. The whole equals ; 1-250 of an acre.1 Several years ago Mr. Griffin of our town purchased the original stock of plants from a Rich mond, Va4 nursery,'' but could not tell me the name of the variety. A neighbor of mine obtained runners from this bed and transferred them to her garden, and I; secured run ners from there in the, fall, (Nov). 1884. By comparison with descrip tions and cuts iu various catalogues, I have decided that it is the Wilson. In November, 1884, I set these runners, as above, in moderately rich soil, with an exposure to east by southeast. The ground has the yellowish subsoil common in this country , and being on the slope of a hill running down to a wet weath er branch, resembles very much a pipe clay, though with manureand good working it remains cheesy and friable under all circumstances. The soil is thoroughly drained.. It pro duces fine corn and luxuriant clover, which I think is a good guide in se lecting soil for strawberries. The ground was not specially prepared for the plants, nor was it manured further than in the previous cultiva lion'as a portion of the garden. I did not think at the time of paying any special attention to, the cultiva tion of berries, and set out tfitJ plants to please my wife. Yet the plants were carefully set in line, as I gen erally do with anything of this sort that I undertake. With a few wat erings all the plants lived and did well. They were kept clear of grass and weeds and well covered before frost, with cornstalks and grass. They were uncovered a little too late in the Spring of '85 to get the 'very earliest berries, but they grew off, and gave us, the first season, one and a half gallons of fair berries. To protect. the plants from the hot sun of the summer, I allowed some vol unteer okra to grow besides plant ing corn here and there in the mid dle. Leaving , the okra was a mis take, as the stalks grew very large and it was impossible to remove the roots without injuring the plants. I had learned another lesson about putting crab grass on as a cover, as the seed germinated in the Spring and gave me much trouble. The second season the plants were cov ered with cornstalks and pea-vines, after having been carefully .worked and kept free from runners. I Would have forked in stable , manure just before covering, but did not have any. This season the plants were uncovered on the 16th day of March and as the weather was warm, they irrew off at once. They had a thor ough working on. the 26th of March,, and a good coating ot rotted (not slaked) ashes, worked into the mid tiles the only manure, used since they were first set out. The, plants were again hoed shallow in April and watered once, as the month was without much rain. On the 30th of April, whilst the plants were filling with fruit and blooming, and just after a good rain, they were , care fully ! mulched by laying cornstalks and : narrow strips of board 4 near along the stems, and filling the mid dles with sod that had accumulated in the fence f corners iiiaking a neat andthorough job. Just as this work' was: completed a heavy shower came arid 'settled 'everything down, and reyiveu 1 tne plains aner ; me uauu ling necessary for such' work " The results for this season have beeri so far' beyond my expectations, and so far, ahead of anything hereabouts that I'give you the facts to use in any way that may encourage and benefit others. o.vT. Auury. nr.rr. ; -I gathered the first ripe berried on the 5tK of May and gathered the last about the 5th of June, amount ing in all to 28 : quarts, Methodist measure. I sold 2 qts for 30 cents each ; 1 qt for 25 cts; 6 qts for 2Q cts. each, and 4 qts for 15 cts. each in all 13 qts for $2.80, or one half my berries. : As my bed is 1-250 of an acre, at the same rates, the yield on an acre would be over 200 bushels, and half the . berries would bring the handsome sum of $700. I gave away 6 qts and enjoyed the rest on my own table. , . ; t Five quarts tof the berries sold measured 3 inches in circumference ; five other - quai ts were good ; sized berries and the rest of the 13 J qts were ordinary. This for a Monroe market, which has been glutted with berries at 5 and 10 cts. What would not such berries bring in a city mar ketj.handled as mine were ? In sel ling, I used the little wooden .trays of the grocer, lining them with straw berry leaves, that projected above and around the fruit in a very tempt ing manner. Being on a rented place, without any intention of remaining, the run ners were pulled off as I gathered the berries, and I am still pulling them off; otherwise, I would have: saved "sets" for enlarging my bed another season. I, have planted an early maturing corn in every other middle to . protect the plants from the heat of the coming months. A REMEDY FOR CUT-WORMS. Plenty of plants, red pepper and patience. The first must be prepared in the hot-bed ; the second gathered from' the vegetable garden the pre vious season, and the last is abund antly supplied from the same source whence Job obtained" his.1; No pat ent on this. mulching. A patch of ground was roughly broken up with the plow early in the spring, turning up in great clods. Mr. H. broke these clods and levejed the ground; preparatory to planting; but before this was accomplished the "big raih,r came and the land all ran together, seemingly worse than before. If was left in this condition awaiting t;a season," and in the mean team a heavy coating of weeds grew up and took possession. Mr. H. again went at this patch, cutting down all the weeds with his hoe, but, on attempting to dig with , his mattock, found the ground coming up in hard flakes. In disgust he left it the second time to await "a sea son." The month of April proving dry, and the ground being needed for cabbage plants, the old gentle man went with his rake and mat tock, about a week after the weeds had been cut down, intending to dig and break the clods. What was his surprise, after raking a way the weeds e and making his first lick, to find that his mattock sunk up to the han dle in a mellow bed of soil. The old gentleman, who is a great gardener, ! was so agreeably surprised at this 1 result that he smilingly related the fact to the writer while each of us hung on to his respective side of our division fence. He readily agreed to my explanation of the matter, which was that growing weeds rap idly take up and evaporate water from' the j soil; but, as soon as cut down, the j- act as a mulch and ar rest evaporation, thUs rendering the soil beneath them mellow and fria ble. The lesson to be learned from this : individual fact is, that y where we have land covered with a growth of weeds .which proves too hard to plow,; instead of waiting for "a sea son," mow the weeds and leave them lying for few days, when, nosdoubt, a surface plowing ' can I be given, which, in a few days , more, can be followed by any desired deptlUn : v. t P On i the: . same5 principle ; those far mers who are so often ' complaining of a want of a season' fbr?;?uch a. piece of land 1 6rft)r uch a ;'crop,; woul d : fi rid i t profi t a b 1 i n m ore re spect s than' one, tosharpeii and harden the plovr pdirits and; go ahead by 'making "a season,"; VitKj well puK vejized dry dirt. L. Land that has not been-broken in somei time might ad mit of a mere scraping at first,' but after a fevy days' the depth could be increased, and so on until any-' re quired depth can be reached. Land thus prepared often furnishes better seed bed and better results to. grow ing crops, arid remains in better con dition throughout than land preparcti with "a season." Crops may be successfully ' culti vated in prolonged : dry weather by continually stiiring the surfaee ; and, if the ground has been deeply plow ed at the preparation I would rather take the risk of, prolonged dry to. prolonged wet. ;This frequent,; surface-stirring, or "dry dirt" mulching, during; prolonged droughty is the only available method of; mulching for, a general, crop. ..;.,'!-,; ' MULTUM IN PARVO. ' 1 Good drainage, deep plowing, good seed, and frequent ' workings, both deep and shallow, on any lands, with little manure, will secure better av erage crops than are now made at considerable expense. Idleness and wastefulness and ignorance, with the best lands, and hundreds of thou sands of dollars' worth of fertilizers, can never take the place of industry and economy and intelligence. I). C, Anderson. Monroe, N. C, June 16. 1886. Jtate items. There is a man living in this place who has been tried 52 times c tray - a a j3f . . ' . 1 ior ainerent peiiy onences imu con victed of 51 of tXiiim.ffigh Point' Enterprise.) vi , : v: - The distillery of Mr; 3i B.Hhynd, on the waters of Muddy Fork about eight miles from Shelby, in No.;5 township, was destroyed by fire on! Friday night. Shelby Aurora: 1 ) - Some few of our farmers have, gone into tobacco, raising this, year; in a very small way. r They seem to fear to venture far in this departure, from the all-cotton system. Roanoke Patron. ' ' ' . A large portion of, Davidson i county will tend much . less grounds in tobacco this year than last, owing, to the fact that farmers have been, unable to obtain a stand. A man told us that in his neighborhood grasshjOppers have destroyed; whole fields of tobacco.- Salem jPress. u ; .1 -The good old county of , Etlge- . combe has in its treasury $23000 tpj the credit of its school fund, an in-.r crease of $6,000 in two years. ; Mr. William Gay killed three mad dogs one day this week, and he is: ready to kill more , if they v come about. They bit several? dogs aiuij hogs in, town and they, will likewise -perish. Tar River Talker . -; . z ; Ther finance committee of our railroad syndicate Messrs. J., 1) Williams, E. J. Lilly, X A. Gray, Ji; T. Morehead and others -are in VVil-j mington this week, for the'1 consid eration of matters looking; tothe possible extension of the pape,:Fear & Yadkin! Valley i railway .; to ; that v city.- FayeiteviUe Gazette. :, !Jt'.yi! The most of the early wheat has ' been harvested.' It has, turned but; fairly well, though :n"ot so f well as it ' promised a few weeks ago, owing to ; rain, rust, etc. : The later . wheat isJ not near so good, arid : the crop,rfon ' the average, is about the ; fiame, a last;year- The oat crop' w;cxcel!ehti Cottdnis looking up, tobacco plarits are doing well, and corn, though iu -the grass, proiiiise firs.t-rhte Stdies-? viEe Landmark. n i: :;;n ;i; v.liii"I,,:i:fr . w-WjjJiave been:shown ;b3 Oapt. Shaw a sample of .thp, Guinea grass now growing on his farnu i;.Cai)tairi ; Shaw, obtai nvel , the 4 seed i from: the West Indies, and jt 7vjU gr)v five feet high and is'triost excelfent feed tor stock; ' wny wouia n toz pay- p iriake thh gniss equal with clover arid the blue grassof KentucUx?; is adapted to t lir s6KJVa$hhwibn ' 2M t; U in t! ?:'!, Pi1 k Hi ill i j' f! ft ' i! i.l .j u i Si n n ! i if! ill hi i ;! i
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
June 23, 1886, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75