Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Dec. 17, 1895, edition 1 / Page 1
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1 1 Largest Circul tioa of any Paper in the South At lantic States. your Ad emeot in Soil. THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. RALEIGH, N. C, DECEMBER 17, 1895. 10. No. 45 PROGKESSIY FAEM1E. IJjLxJ NATIONAL FARMERS' ALLI ANCE AND INDUSTRIAL UNION. Mident-J. iTwaietta, Topeka, fl Rnavely. Leb Pa . rtary-Treasurer Col. D. P. Dun- tolumDia, d. EXECUTIVE BOARD. r TYMir'tra Huron. 8. D. : Mann Brandon, Virginia; I. E. Dean, Secretary, Harrisburg, Pennsyl- i: ; Hit null xuuci, xvoicu, v. JUDICIARY. V. Beck. Alabama. 7. iavio, 0AB0LI5A FARMERS' STATE ALU AN CEL. . ,ident - Dr. Cyrus Thompson, l8' :j,-LTnn nraham.Ridee 3-L reaiuciiw , -etary-Treasurer-W. 8. Barnes, T. B. Hoover, Elm City, vard-Dr. V. N. Seaweil, vma ,pia?n-Rev. P. H. Massey, Dur- r keoper-Geo. T. Lane, Greens N C istantDoor keeper Jaa. E. Lyon, : aArms-A. D. K. Wallace, arforlton, N. C. . 5e Business Agent-T. Ivey, Ral- N C stoe Business Agency Fund W. aham, Machpelah, N. C. jTITK COMMITTEE OF THE NORTH i OUSA FARMERS' STATE ALLIANCE. F Hileman, Concord. N. C. ; N. igiiih. Trinity, N. C; James M. oorne, Kins on, N. C. 1 ALLIANCE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE. in B-ady, Gatesville, N. C; Dr. Harrell, Whiteville, N. C; T. J. - ler, Acton, N. O. ft Carolina Reform Press Association. leers J. L. Ramsey, President; n,,! Viss- 'President : W. S. WJi X'UtHl , r - ' k&8, Secretary, PAPERS. taslTe Farmer. State Organ, Raleigh, N. C. irv Hickory, N. C. Jr ' Whitakers, N. C. lome. Beaver Dam, N. C. 'opulist, Lumberton, N. C. eople'a Paper. Charlotte, N. C. testibule. Concord, N. C. low-Boy. Wadesboro, N. C. Ina Watchman. Sa iabnry, C. ch. of the above-named papers are. liien lO Keep UW5 WJt v Int page and add others, provided are duly elected. Any paper fail o advocate the Ocala platform will k can now see what papers are iihed in their interest. m: T PTTT TTTT? TT. e crop of peanuts throughout the try appears to be short. It is likely the price will go higher, ive the seed potatoes exposed, as h as possible, to light and air, to ce the liability of sprouting to the mum. They may turn green but . will not hurt them for seed. rty years ago the Concord grape ..J 1 T" -1 - TTT T..1I recently died. The Concord was loped from a wild grape, and it is 3d enough grape for anybody, we you been keeping an account ie income and expenditure of the i during the year! If so, now is time for you to balance up your :b and see what has been the result our labors ia batter practice to prune the e treea ia the spring time when the es are well started; the wounds i heal mare quickly and effectually, extremes of winter weather are :iently exhaustive to the tree with having any superfluous demands e upon its vital forces. 3 a health measure, where large lb. ia of fowl3 are compelled to ;e on a limited mc'ovare, air eUked i should be liberally used. Let it cattered lata in the evening, after chickens have gone to roost. It greatly counteract the decompos nutter which is so deleterious. c. Louis paper thinks that the i crop has been over estimated to exten; of 600,000,000 bushels. That pretty high figure, dug that the ) has been over estimated we do not bt. Crop reports are nearly al way s ?erated to keep prices- down. The ito crop i3 also over-eetimated, in judgment. 3ere are few farms upon which it Id pay to do more draining than is done, and to do it in a much more Hive manner than ia usually the ery much even of the best and idest land would be improved if er drained, whilst much land not producing crops at all, or pro g very small crops, could, by this &8, be made to yield heavy crops. BEE CULTURE. Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer. Bee culture is an industry which has been greatly Eeglected in North Caro Una. It cannot be traced to any want of attention, but results rather from an inadequate knowledge of the habits of the bee. One of the principal causes lies in the defective construction of the hives. If the hive is not constructed so as to give the apiarian a correct knowledge of all that pertains to the life, habits and instincts cf the bee, he will certainly make many failures, and the result of this lack of knowledge has caused many to abandon entirely the pursuit of bee cul ure. The common bee-keeper may have many stocks of bees and may know that there is a queen, workers and drones, but the function s of each class and the relations which eiist between them are matteis of conjecture with him. If the means were properly directed for the labors of a colony, and the operations systematically carried out to secure the desired end, there would not be the lack of eucc2ss so often met with. After a swarm has been secured and placed on its stand and the bees allowed to prosecute their labors their success depends largely on the proper manage ment, and the knowledge of this man agement is within the reach of all who wish to acquire it Bae culture need no longer be regarded as a precarious pursuit, but one regulated by system, which can be successfully prosecuted in North Carolina. It requires but a small amount of capital and exacts but very little time, which can be rendered in leisure hours. The aparian should at the outset pro cure a series of movable frame hives to enable him to have perfect control of his bees. The Langstroth hive is one of the very best. He should thorough ly familiarize himself with the best practices of bee culture. In the first place he should set about transferring his bees into movable frame hives from the ordinary box hives. This can be done about noon in the working season when a large number of bees are out foraging. If he does not wish to make the transfer, he can hive his swarms into movable frame hives. If the bee keeper expects to accomplish the best results he must adopt some system of movable comb hives; he is then in a position to give his bees all the atten tion they may . require. After completing these preparations he will bo in position to prosecute the work more satisfactorily. The opinion prevails that bees live to a gocd old age, but such is not the case. This is verified by removing the black queen from a stock of black bees and giving, them a fertile Italian queen, which will commence laying eggs, and in twenty-one days youDg Italian bees will commence hatching; and in the working season when honey is plenti ful, and the young do the building of comb and the nursing of the brood, the old bees do all the foraging, and from incessant labors die, and in about three months no black bees will be found in the stock. By this means anyone can be convinced of the short life of the bee ; that is, in the working season ; but if an Italian queen is given to a stock in the fall some of the black bees will ba found in the hive the next spring, the reason being that they do not for age after the honey season is over in the fall, or before spring opens. J. W. Hunter, N. C. Experiment Station. If the aim is to increase the stock of humus in the soil, the quick and sure way is to grow crops for the purpose and return them .direct to the ground. The distribution will be far more per feet than when the crop is harvested and fed and the manure returned. One adds nothing to the manurial value of a plant by feeding it to stcck, but much ia lost. . CARE OF FARM IMPLEMENTS. It is deplorable to notice the glare of aste that is seen everywhere as one passes through the country. Careless farmers leave their mowers, binders plows and other implements out in the fields to take the weather unprotected The bright steel and ornamental mount ings of the handsomest, in one winter of exposure, will have become red with ruirt and decay will have begun. It ie difficult to compute the amount of loss caused by the want of care of farm im plements. Many a chattel and real estate mortgage has been brought about by this inexcusable waste. Every farmer cannot afford a finely-con-structi d storehouse for his machinery, but anyone can build, with little time and expense, a lean to shed of cheap boards; or a 'shelter made of a few poles and a roof of straw is better than nothing and will protect the machinery from the extreme vicissitudes of the weather. Mending a farm implement will prolong its period of usefulness. Nothing wears on machinery faster than loose bolts that should be tight and dry joints that should be oiled. Close attention to little matters of this kind often makes the difference be tween success and failure in farming. Wagons, plows and harrows will look better and last longer if painted occa sionally. The winter season is generally the be3t for such work, as time is then of lees importance than during the growing season. Every farmer should be the possessor of a good grindstone and a set of good files. During the dull winter days is the time to repair and sharpen farm tools. It is a saving of time to have a full set of good and well sharpened tools to work with. M. B Keech, Winneshiek Co., Ia. Is the ice house ready for the crop? If not, let it be at once cleaned out and repaired. If no ice house is already built or ice pit excavated, make an efftrfc to have one made in tima for this winter's crop. The advantage of hav ing ice during the summer is great, in deed an the. dairy farm it is almost a necessity. A house can be built at very small cost if the lumber is on the farm. Build it with double walls, say a foot apart, and pack this hollow tight with sawdust, and let the rocf also be double and similarly packed, and you can take care of all the ice you can store in the house. HORTICULTUBE A NEGLECTED SMALL FRUIT. "Gooseberries are as good as grapes," said an old Scotch gardener. Why, then, are they not more generally cul tivates? As a rule they are discarded, and efforts made to popularize them in this country have been failures. Eng lish large sorts mildew and American varieties are too small. Yet the small estot gooseberries would be excessively large were they currants and as re spectable as grapes. About 50year8 ago, a seedling named Houghton, from a wild American iri ety, was produced in Salem, Mafj. A few years later, Charles Downing pro duced a new variety of 1-ger sizf, which bore his name. Afr 3i the intro duction of the Downir, no effort seemed to be made j improvo the gooseberry family, util the imported English variety ..ailed Industry was sent cut by a New York house. This variety is apparently not at home in this climate and lacks vigor. While productive in the north of England, it is said to be unproductive in the South. A variety called the Triumph was dis seminated by a Pennsylvania nursery ten years ago, but its high cost has prevented its general planting. An other sort called Columbia appears to be identical with the Triumph. The Chautauqua, illustrated in Farm and Home at the time disseminated, has been found to mildew badly. When the Red Jacket, of which a reproduc tion embellishes our column, was placed on the market, I secured 50 plants and have found them to be vig orous and healthy and without a trace of mildew the past two seasons. This variety, by its vigorous habit of growth and large fruit, confirms my belief at this writing that it is the most promfs ing variety y et offered to the public, the fruit beiDg as large as medium sized plums. I have found it most profitable to plant gooseberries in the autumn, thin out and cut back two thirds of the tops. High culture, free pruning annually and mulching pro long and greatly add to their produc tivenets. size and quality by giving them a constant succession of strong shoots. J. W. Adams, Hampden Co , Mass. Complaint is made in many quarters that the catch of timothy, even when a good one, does not hold on the land as it used to do. The truth is that timothy grass is an exhaustive crop, fully as much so as are the grains, especially if the latter are seeded with clover whenever grown. Timothy roots feed chiefly near the surface, and the plant having a narrow leaf gets little from the atmosphere. The only ad vantage that the timothy crop has over wheat with regard to soil fertility is that the timothy sod protects the sur face soil in winter, and it has also a greater root growth when it is plowed under. Don't leave Irish potatoes exposed to the sun, advises a successful truck gardener. THE DAIRY. SELECTING A PORTABLE CREAM ERY. Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer. The selection of a portable creamery frequently gives the intended pur chaser not a little trouble. This is many times made worse by the ex travagant claims of manufacturers as set forth in their printed matter. THE FIRST QUESTION. The first question to be settled by the one intending to purchase is, what con stitutes a good portable creamery. I will assume at the start that the would be purchaser is looking for one in which to practice the cold, deep setting or Swedish method of cream raising. This, as nearly every portable creamery on the market, is designed for that prac tice. PERPLEXING. To one who has never given the mat ter much attention, the question raised may be a hard one to decide. To those who have been reading the circulars of various manufacturers it may be a still harder question; this, unless cer tain bottom principles relating to cream raising by the cold, deep setting or Swedish method are fully under stood. ABSUBD CLAIMS. It seems to be the plan of some man ufacturers of cream-raising apparatus to make foolish claims cf controlling certain imaginary processes in connec tion with the apparatus they make. First, they evolve a theory, or pretend to discover a process. Second, they in vent, or claim to invent, an apparatus. Third, they labor to convince the pub lic that it is only by the use of their apparatus, and this practice of their process, that all the cream can be ob tained.; Hence, it will be observed, that if their claims are correct their process must be used, and it cannot be used without their apparatus. SELLING THEORIES It will readily be seen that if one who is thinking of purchasing a creamery can be! led to believe that a certain process of cream raising is the only correct one, and that it can only be practiced by a certain tipparatu, it will readily be seen, I repeat, that such a person would be quite apt to purchase that kind of apparatus. Such a person does not stop to compare the general construction, material, workmanship, convenience and economics, of that creamery with the same features in other creameries; no, not by any means. For with his belief regarding the certain peculiar theory of cream raising, and on which he has. pinned his faith, all other advantages are slight, comparatively. The fact is that in that case the maker is selling theories. Now, as anyone knows, there is a better profit on theories than on materials improved by labor and com bined for a specific purpose by skill and intelligerca. Therefore, the man who sells theories is the man who makes the money. A manufacturer who hon ors his profession will sell his wares on their merit instead of palming them off in the manner above referred to. F. W. Mcseley. Clinton, Iowa. TO MAKE FINE-FLAVORED BUT TER IN WINTER. Why is it that we encounter more poor butter flavor in winter than in summer? While the natural conditions for producing good fl ivor are not as perfect now as then, yet these adverse conditions can be easily overcome by the exercise of average foresight. As regards the correction of this evil, we should remember that the cream pos sesses the flavor of the milk from which it is derived, and that the butter made from the cream retains the flavor of the latter. Therefore we mu3t go back to the beginning and start the milk quality all right. A bad lacteal flavor may be inherent, or acquired. Inhe rent, when coming from tainted food as musty hay, hay mixed with weeds, moldy or black ensilage; from the breathing of vitiated stable air by the cows; and from physical ailments affecting the integrity of the udder. Acquired, by filth falling into the milk pail from the teats or udder; warm milk aborbing odors from a tainted stable atmosphere ; unclean milk uten sils, and the ute of a buttery that is a communicating appendage of the farm house kitchen. From anyone or more of these numer ous causes a foreign flavor can be im parted to the milk that nothing will eradicate, the treatment being purely preventive. How easy, then, not to have poor butter flavor from such sources 1 By merely exercising the caution and care needful to be main tained in every dairy, the whole danger is ooviaiea. xiavmg considered the means of infection of the raw material let us turn to the finished material, the butter itself. It stands a less chance oi aererioraung m wmr man m sum-1 , r -V but yet it may lose its flavor through a number of channels. As preventives in this line, the butter must not be overworked ; the butter milk must be extracted from it; a re liable and soluble brand of salt, free from foreign mineral matter, must be used ; and the product must be put in clean, aseptic packages. In the majority of cases unclean stable surroundings impregnating the milk, in the cause of damaging winter butter flavor. When you have lost the natural aroma of butter, it is the same as though the diamond had been bereft of its luster its chief attribute of worth is gone. I would make every milker wash his hands before sitting down to a cow, and if necessary sponge off the animal's udder and teats. This latter precau tion, however, will seldom be needed where plenty of dry bedding is used. I would also give the stable a thorough airing daily, and if this was not saffi cient to eradicate odors, I would em ploy a deodorizer, like plaster, on the floor after cleaning. By thesa precau tions you are not trying to gain any thing but what should always be found in butter, namely, natural flavor. Na ture attends to these points pretty well in summer time, when cows have the range of clover scented fields but a wise dairyman can officiate quite well innature's place if he only tries to. Are you doing -it this winter, and thus preserving the most valuable character istic of your butter? Geo. E Newell, in American Agriculturist IPOUJLTJRY YARD EGGS ALL THROUGH WIN i ER. Do you want eggs the coming winter at the season when they will bring the highest price, and when 'it costs most to feed the hens? . Perhaps it is easier to toll you how to manage so that your hens will be a bill of expense co ycu all winter, and will only furnish eggs when the price is lowest. If I were telling how not to care for the hens, I would say, don't bother to build a home for them; it costs money, and hens like to roost in trees any way. And when it grows real cold they will get into the barn and out buildings to roost. Never mind feeding them; they can steal enough from the hogs and horses, and scratch in the manure pile ; and when the snow is deep, they can sit on the roost for a day or two without eating. You need not give them water, for if there doesn't happen to be a thaw for a few days, they can eat snow. Haven't you saen them do it many a time? This is the way my neighbor Bob Jones has managed his chickens for years, and he doesn't have a bit of trouble with them. To be sure he gets no eggs in winter, and even in March last year when his neighbor Tom Smith had, with the same number of hens, been getting from SO to 50 eggs a day, for many weeks, Bob had to buy what few eggs his wife must have to cook with. I have described the way Bob's fowls are cared for, except that I did not tell how his plows, binder and mowing ma chine look, after the hens have roosted on them all winter, and that the top of his buggy often is fertilized, and that you can hear Bob s wear often at night when he gets in late with his team, and finds a row of hens on the partition be tween the stall and manger. It would not look well in print to go into details, so I will leave them to your imagina tion. Tom Smith lately spent an evening with me, and we talked on farm mat ters until bed time, and when he got on poultry he said many wise things of which I took mental note, saying to myself, Til tell that to the Country Gentleman readers." In answer to my question, 4Do you find poultry profit able?" he said: Yes, as much or more than any stock kept on the farm. can feed 100 hecs about as cheaply as one cow. and they will give a much larger profit." How do you manage them," I asked. "I divide them into colonies of 50 to 60 each; I have a warm house ten by twenty four feet for each colony ; these houses are lined with tarred paper, and have plenty of windows at the south. I have a small yard connected with each house, and about the time our first bad weather cornea in November, I assort my hens, clip one wing of each, and shut them up. I put the old hens in one house and the pullets in another, and I ami to sell off each year the old est hens, so as to have only one and two-year olds on the farm. These hens are fed three times a day, just as regu 1 iarly aa my horses, I feed in long troughs nailed up against the sides of the houae, jus!; high enough so that the hens can stand on the floor and eat out of them. It ia easier to keep them clean in this way. "The morning feed ia wheat, or when I can buy that which suits me, wheat screenings, which' I can usually buy enough cheaper than wheat so I think it pays. The noon feed is always a warm one, either potatoes cooked and mashed, or fiaely cut clover hay scalded, and a little ehipatuff mixed through it. I find that six quarts of potatoes, mashed fine, with water enough added to make a thin slop of it, then a quart of middlings added, and enough of bran to stiffen it, make a feed for 150 fowls, or a half bushel of cut clover, with two quarts of mid- dlinffl ma lr An a full fW1 fn tViam ti, night feed is shelledimritaeyhce to a fowl. " In addition to this, I keep ground oyster shells and gravel in each of them all the time, and a dust bath at the end opposite the door, under the sloping floor, which catches the droppings. The main floor of the poultry house is kept covered with leaves, at d every day some of the corn and wheat that we feed is scattered here; this keeps the hens busy scratching, and the exer cisa not only keeps them warm, but makes them lay better." 'What about water?" I asked. 44 We aim to keep water by them all the time when it is not so cold as to freeze it, and always in winter give it to them warm, so it will not freeze up so soon, and in the coldest weather we water three times a day." 4 'What does it cost you to feed your hens in winter?" I asked. 4 'That depends on the price of grain," answered 8mith, 4 'sometimes more and BUUiCIILUCO 1CDO. X UltVt) ItklU 1U Illy J.OUU for the coming winter at lower prices than usual, and expect to winter 125 fo wls, at an average daily cost of less than 20 cents. I bought corn at 25 cents per bushel, screenings at 40 cents per hundred pounds, bran at $12 per ton, and middlings at $13 50. I have plenty unmerchantable potatoes and clover hay, and the cost for these will be but two or three cents a day. I shall feed about 8 pounds of corn a day, and the same of bran and mid dlings, and occasionally I will sibsti-' tute oil meal for middlings, and I shall feed about 15 pounds of screenings a day. I always expect to feed at a loss in November and December, as we do not get eggs enough usually to pay for the feed, but every other month in the year gives a good profit, and a good part of the time it does not take half the eggs to pay for the feed." I think my friend Tom Smith has given us a good lesson in the care of poultry, and I have come so near fol lowing his plan, that I can confirm his statements, both as to profit and cost of poultry keeping, when managed wisely. Waldo F. Browry n Cultivator and Country Gentleman. LETTER FROM ROWAN. Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer. Salisbury, N. C. Enclosed please find money order to pay up my arrearages. I am ashamed to have let the time lapse, but it was owing to circumstances over which I bad no control. I have had the wolf at my door for some time and fear it will not be any better until the labor ing man gets his ejes open, but as Capt. Sam Ashe says, may be "King Grover" will not remain where he ia always. I saw your off er to receive $1 in cancellation of all arrearages to date, but I think the laborer worthy of his hire and cannot take advantage of it. I feel that I have been richly rewarded for the full amount due you, and hav often felt that I was doing you a great injustice to read the paper without paying you for it. I see the Charlotte Observer admits at last that prosperity is still on the wane, but says it ia on account of the recent 8tate elections. Drowning men will catch at straws. Ob I my country. I yet admit that the Observer some times hits the bull's eye. He says no one who voted for Grover has any right to find fault with him. That's so. Ho gays Grover stands now oa silver where he did before he wa3 nominated. I say so too, but many of us who re fused to vote for him for that reason got roundly abssed for it by the bocccs who .are now CErsirLt . Grover. Bo it goes. It will ever be so with politic&n x ours truly, Jno. Ezaed.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 17, 1895, edition 1
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