Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Nov. 24, 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
I 5BlE ftlOGRESSITE 'fiblER. 77 INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. Vol. 1. WINSTON, N. O., NOVEMBER 24, 1886. No. 42. OUR FARMERS CLUBS. What our Farmers are Doing and How the Work of Organizing is Progressing. TRINITY CLUB. Discussion : Hotc to Make Money on the Farm. Dr. Parker. Mr. Sumner, a mem ber of our club, asks the question, How can we make money on our farms? and it is certain that we are all deeply concerned in the solution of this problem, standing as we now do at the end of a very unfavorable season for paying crops. With irregular and uncertain labor, with short crops' and low prices, with taxes to be paid in this month and other outstanding debts to be pro vided for, with all these things press ing upon the farmer, the outlook, we must admit, is rather gloomy. But notwithstanding all the bitter experiences of 1886 on the farmers I am fully satisfied that there is not I only a good living to be made on our ordinary iarms; out tnat there is a handsome profit besides to be made alone by farming. To do this however, the soil must be rich, deep clean and well drained, the seeding and planting must be done in good time and the tillage skillfully per formed. A well started crop is usu ally profitable and one put in late or under unfavorable conditions is sel dom satisfactory. Be ready, and be in time if you would succeed in any calling and especially is this true with the farmer. As farming is the real basis of all other business it must thrive and flourish or com merce and all trade will languish. Whether we make money or not depends upon our skill and our busi ness habits. We must manage well and work well and grow such crops as we know will pay. I will men tion a few. Wheat raising if well done will pay, so with corn, as you all know who have tried the proper cultivation of these, to ug,ind ispensa blc crops. Sweet potatoes, every far mer should grow largely of this im portant crop for home use and to sell. They are easily raised and will pay. I am selling off my entire crop readily at forty cents per bushel. Tobacco and cotton are both doubtful crops for us to tamper with. Unless we make a first class article of the former and two bales to the acre of the latter, we had bet ter leave them out of our rotation of crops altogether. Raise horses, mules and cattle. Good beef brings the easn" at any time in our home markets here. There is never any trouble in selling a good mule or horse for the cash. Raising sheep and hogs pays. We must raise our own meat and meal. The clover and grass crop is very valuable, directly as a money crop, besides it adds immensely to the fertility of our lands. Clover is the farmer's stepping stone to fortune. Raise Irish potatoes, beets and turnips in1 ample abundance. There is pay in each and all of them. Increase the production per acre of whatever crop you grow and work fewer acres. A. Parker. Of course management has a great deal to do with the mon eyed products of the farm, but you must have good, rich, clean land to draw from if you expect to make money off of the farm. Any farmer with a large family to support and educate, living on poor land need not look for much money until he brings his land to a high state of fertility. Although the process of reclaiming and enriching poor land is a slow and tedious one yet it may be done and a paying yield obtained. A man who economizes and foregoes many of the comforts of farm life and still labors on to enrich poor lands deserves the commendation of all. W. O. Harris. It is utter folly for any man to attempt to make money by farming unless he saves up closely. While such wastes prevail on the majority of our farms, how can we hope to make money? We must save if we expect to have. When I was a boy, even the well-to-do farm ers in my section made the most they wore and ate; if they did not they did without. We buy at the store more than we should. Most any man on the land we have around here can live and make money alone by farming, if he will onIy try. Notwithstanding the low price of flour there is money to be made in raising wheat, but we must quit the indiscriminate buying of so much phosphate. I believe in the use of phosphate but we must not go in debt for it. The large per cent on time buyers eats up the profits. Mr. John Dorsett is making nice money on cattle. He has just sold a milch cow to a neighbor for $50. ; There is big money on clover as an improver of land. The hay and seed make also a handsome income. One of my neighbors, C. P. Keerans, sold off two acres of clover twenty one dollars worth of hay and kept six one-horse loads for his own use, and realized twenty-eight dollars for seed of the second crop, making a total of $62, besides leaving the land in the very best condition for a wheat crop. Herein lies the great value of clover, you reap a paying crop and at the same time enrich your land. Wheat drills, reapers, mowTers, horse rakes and improved farm implements generally make us farm better, and enable us to do more of it ourselves and thereby be independent of uncertain labor. D. M. Payne. To make a surplus and place it where it is secured without detriment to the capital in vested is the key to success in any enterprise. Banking institutions are not always safe. Some of them fail. A person having a surplus and a safe depository for it is financially sound and happy so far as this world's goods can make him. To claim such a depository would seem absurd, but such is in reach of every young farmer and that too without the expense of a paid set of officers at large salaries, such as presidents, cashiers, tellers and directors. Banks fail when officials act perfunctory. To sail clear of such breakers the farmer should have one of his own offered by himself. Such a one was established when this planet was hurled into motion, which gave us the seasons, and branches have been chartered . at the ex ecution of every deed of con veyance since. The landlord who has a paid up stock in such is the happy possessor of one of his own; so secure that moth nor rust cannot corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal. None so needy as to steal dirt. Now to operate such an insti tution successfully is plain and com paratively easy. It only requires honest, manly, healthy labor, which none should evade. Manage to keep the farm at or above par by an in crease of fertility. To do this all cumberers should be destroyed at a stage that precludes the possibility of seeding either at the root or bloom. Never suffer your stock to depreciate on your hands. Never draw from it only for family supplies and on no account let them exceed your deposits. Draws for fertilizers of whatever kind and prudently made must be placed in the credit column, which will strengthen the stock in trade. Prudent purchases of fertilizers are good investments and always pay a handsome divi dend. In this way you may make safe deposits for all surpluses. This is the farmer's bank. With the management indicated I have never known one to suspend. One mistake often made is purchasing more land than you can pay for, and thus bur den yourself with accumulating interest, goes in the debt column. This cripples energy and fertility, and has a depreciating tendency, mildly called in financial circles em barrassment. The limit of yield has never been reached. It is a mathe matical problem to be solved by an increasing geometrical progression. When one limit is found another is in store by the same ratio. The amount of energy thus enkindled is not to be measured by human desire. The blessings to the human race that might be made grow out of such a course can be computed only by the same rule and for want of a limit would never cease. NATURALIZED AMERICAN SWINE. In addition to the articles on dis tinctively American breeds of swine in which the Poland-China, Chester White, Duroc-Jersey, and the Victo rias of New York and of the West, were treated of, we give some of the characteristics of our naturalized English breeds. The Berkshires were originally more or less sandy,,, as introduced into the United States about fifty years ago, but have since been great ly improved. They are black, with white on the feet, face, tip of tail and an occasional spiash on the arm or some part of the body. The face is short, fine, dished; ears ill most erect, but inclining forward: back straight, body round, tail fine, legs short and set well apart, length medium, bone fine. They mature very early. Their flesh is well mar bled and skin thin, and they have a large proportion of lean flesh to fat. Any white on the hog should be avoided. The Small Yorkshire is a white breed. Their faces are very dishing giving a rather snubbed off expres sion; ears nearly erect, inclining for ward. In general form they possess much genuine value, are very popu lar in England for their early matur ity and are becoming more and more sp year by year. The Suffolks are small white hogs, with very thin hair and fine pink skin. They are popular with amateurs and villagers. These swine are really modified Yorkshires. They mature early, and make fine, delicate pork if killed at eight to ten months old. The Essex, a blue-black hog, have many points of excellence, some what resembling the Yorkshire ex cept in color. They are popular in the Eastern States, and of late years have grown in favor in the West, for all those who admire a medium sized black hog. Farm, Field and Stockman. OUR POOR BUTTER. The poor quality of butter which comes to market is a standing reproach to American dairymen and farmers. The consumers of butter have in many cases given their sym pathy to the makers of artificial butter on the grounds that this pro duct is actually more eatable than that of the farm. This is an unim peachable fact, and should bring shame to many who have so loudly complained of the disastrous compe tition of the artificial product. No producer of any kind of food need fear competition so long as the qual ity of his products is satisfactory, and to make them so should be the study of every butter and cheese maker. It is not impossible nor even difficult to make good butter. There are a few guiding rules which have been mentioned so often that they are well known; the only trouble is that dairymen are too careless to practice them. Oleomar garine is a legalized product, and butter makers have a fair chance and a clear course before them to keep ahead of it. If they are beaten it will bo their own fault. New York Times. Mr. J. L. Honneycutt of Cham bersburg township, one i day last week killed a pig which was nine months old and of the old scrub stock which weighed 222 Ibs net A citizen of this place who is from 60 to 65 years old, bought the other day, the first ready-made article of wearing apparel he ever bought in his life. It was a pair of pantaloons and J. Harvey Stevenson, Esq., was the purchaser. Statesville Landmark. W. J. Caton has two very large hogs. They are just 14 months old and judges say they will weigh 400 pounds net. The geological survey party broke up camp here last week, and drove their 13 horses to Morganton. Their equipment has been ware housed in Lenoir until next spring, when work will be resumed here. Lenoir Topic. The cotton seed oil mill began work this week on 200 tons of seed. The season has opened lively and the prospects are that the mill will suceed in buying enough seed to keep it running all the year. Eliza beth City Economist. There are thousands upon thous ands of acres of our most fertile lands that will lie idle next year if the stock law is repealed, for the people will not be able to do the fencing, in fact our fences had about rotted down before the present law went into ef fect. : Warrenton Gazette. Friend Will Bonner has placed on our table a parsnip which grew in the Captain's garden. It weighs six pounds and a quarter, and is a curiosity worth seeing. W. H. Moreslander, of Blount's creek, on Saturday night, week ago, killed a 300 pound bear on his farm. He was a big fellow for a fact. We were shown one of his paws on which measured 2 inches. Wash ington Gazette. Capt. E. J. Parrish, one of the livest men in the State will rebuild at once and be ready to sell the far mer's tobacco in a few weeks. The smoke from over 1,000,000 pounds of tobacco now ascends from the smouldering embers. Truly Durham is to-day a great smoking tobacco town. Capt. C. A. W. Barham has some silver sugar tongs made in 1782. They have been in continuous use for one hundred and four years. Durham Recorder. There is a great scarcity of good seed wheat and oats, but our farm ers are managing to get in a good crop, especially of wheat. Nor are they done sowing, but are pushing the work forward vigorously. The corn crop of the county and of the state has turned out well the best that has been gathered for years. Some say they have made more this year than for the two past seasons. The wheat and oat crops with us were a failure but taking it all in all it is perhaps the best we have had since 1880. Chatham Home. The cars of the Cape Fear & Yadkin Valley railroad are at Be lew's Creek, seven miles from Wal nut Cove. We learn that Messrs. McRae & Cb. are going right ahead mining for silver a short distance from Danbury. It is said that sev eral samples of the ore have been assayed, and so well are the parties satisfied that it will pe a paying en terprise that they are having houses put up preparatory for permanent work. It is said that the ore is very rich and the outcrops are visablefor several miles along the side of the mountain. Danbury Reporter. Daniel Bray has a small hound with which he caught more than 100 rabbits last winter, and accord ing to his start he will make an im provement on his record during this winter. Milk cattle are in lively demand. We heard no less than a half dozen parties enquire for cows during the last week but we did not know where to send them. There were several good hogs killed in this neighborhood last week. Mahlon Charles killed one that weighed 360 pounds; Pleasant Bodenhamer one, 386 pounds; Henry Stewart and David Wilson also killed Rome good ones. William Cook, of Waughtown killed a pig six months old that weighed 224 pounds. Salem Press. The cotton factory shipped last week 29,524 yards of chambrays and 27,747 yards of bag cloth, worth $3,239.09. Durham shipped last week 52,754 pounds of smoking tobacco worth $20,239.58; 1,300 pounds of snuff ; 4,742,000 cigarettes worth $15,484.50. At the warehouses last week 58,972 pounds of leaf to bacco were sold for $3,415.21. Capt. E. J. Parrish is the largest to bacco buyer and wholesale leaf tobacco dealer in the State. He had the largest warehouse in the State and last year sold over 80,000,000 pounds of leaf tobacco upon his floor over 2,000,000 pounds of which he bought himself. Durham Plant. EFFECT OF MANURE ON SOILS. The effect of manure on soils is various. LQng manure on sandy soils tends to make the land still more dry, and hence should only be applied to this kind of soil in a thor oughly rotted, condition or better as compost. What sandy soils lack, as a rule, is humus, and compost or thoroughly rotted manure is just the condition to kindly perform this office. Many persons, perhaps a majority, suppose that manures leach down through the soils and are lost. If the soil is nearly a clear sand this effect will take place if some crop is not growing thereon. But crops on sandy soils, in the presence of manure, eat out the manure very fast, and hence this apparent dis appearance of manure is accounted for. It goes quickly into the crop if in a soluble state. Loams and clays, on the contrary take up and hold the manure indef initely if not accepted by crops. If occupied by crops, it is given up, 5 but all the constituents of plant growth being present, the eating out of the manure is not so quickly seen. The reason why manure is more quickly eaten out of sandy soils is that they are more porous than clay soils and hence more amenable to the action of the oxygen of the air, and this action of oxygen upon any material liable to decay is what re duces such material to a state by which it may be taken up by the plants, Hence, if the soil is clayey, long undigested manure will be indicated. It tends to render such soils more light and porous. On sandy soils every means possible should be used to render the soil as compact as pos sible, while the naturally firm clays should be used to render them the most productive. Yet there should always be a due relation to com pactness in any soil to reach the best results.- Farm, Field and Stock man. PACK THE LUNGS WITH AIR. Deep breathing and holding of the breath is an item of importance. Persons of weak vitality find an un interrupted succession of deep and rapid respiration so distressing that they are discouraged from persever ing in the exercise. Let such per sons take into the lungs as much air as they can at a breath, and hold it as long as they can, and they will find a grateful sense of re lief in the whole abdominal region. Practice will increase ability to hold the breath and the capacity of the lungs. After a time the art may be learned of packing the lungs. This is done by taking and holding the long breath, and then forcing more air down the tracha by swallows of air. The operation may be described by that of a fish's mouth in water. To those who have never learned it, it will be surprising to what extent the lungs may be packed. Caution at first is needful but later practice will warrant large use of the treatment. The whole thoracic and abdominal cavities .will receive immediate benefit, and tem perance in eating, good airand right exercise will bring welcome improve ment. Herald of Health.. . i" J
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 24, 1886, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75