Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Nov. 17, 1896, edition 1 / Page 1
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7 JfeOGKESSIYl IRjtlER, . 'Farmer is a "The Progres sive Farmer is a good paper far above the average- -and possibly the best advertis ing medium in N. C." Printers' Ink. tf ss' advertis ffi! medium in N. gS Printers' Ink. . . .v : THE INDirIj ND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUE PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF SV ATE POLICY RALEIGH, N. C, NOVEMBER 17, 1896. No. 41 rT7vnONAL FARMERS' ALLI ? ASCa AND INDUSTRIAL UNION. ident Mann Page, Brandon, J-, r?- "FT. G. Snavelv. Leb- i ov" - - EXECUTIVE BOARD. g Loucks, Huron, 8. D. ; W. P. X:4r Coaran Station, Pa. ; J. F. Wii an3; W. L. Peeke, Ga. JUDICIARY. a 4.. Southworth, Denver, Colo, f? vv . Heck, Alabama. & D. Davie, Kentucky. -'i CASOLINA. FARMERS' STATS ALLX ANCE. Pr:-?iient Dr. Cyrus Thompson, H-.hlands, C. f vie President Jno. G raham,Ridge rsr. j CvVrotcVry-Troasurcr W. 3. Barnes, lecturer J. T. B. Hoover, Eim City, ' G Ward Dr. V. N. Seawell, Villa- V, N. C. Chaplain Rev. P. H. Massey, Dur N. C. Door-keeper Geo. T. Lane, Greens o N. C? j distant Door-keeper J&3. E. Lyon, jrhani. N. C. rreant-at-Armg A. D. K. Wallace, kherfor.Uon, N. C. T Sato Business Agent x. ivey, xxm :ro, N. C. T-n!hA.- "Rnpiness Aerency iiinu w. i Graham, Machpelan, N. C. CiCUTIVS COMMITTEE OF THE 5T0RTII CA2CUSA FARMERS STATS ALUA.VoL. a t? TTilprnfin. Concord, N. C. : N. I English, Trinity, N. C. ; James M. 57 borne, Kms on, . kill? ALLLANCZ JUDICIARY COMMITTSZ. I Tn Rrarlv- G&tesville. N. C. : Dr. SF Karrell, Whiteville, K. C; T. J. andicr. Acton, is. u. srtis Carolina Reform Press Association. j Ta. Ramsey. President: ySon Butler, Vice-President ; W. S. jama. Secretary, PAPERS. rr?vve Farmer, State Orgn, Raleigh, N. C. r?;. v Whltakers, N. C. fi;"uVMp Beaver Daiu, N. C. -a Bvivl'tt Liuiaberton, N. C. Charlotte, N. C. Concord, N. C. Wadesboro, N. C. Saaiobury, N. C. ? pL-M-Ie's Paper. T'e Vestibule, Tie Flow-'rjoy. Iirollta. Watchman. tttutttei to keep tie list gtanciing on Vi t?nt vump. find add others, rrrovided y are duly elected. Any parser fail m teadiiotvite the Ocala nlatform will li irovocd from the lint promptly, uur W can now zee what papers are Mhci in their interest. AGRICULTURE. V,- .077 teat tne cieciion la over, jua 3aC near eo mucn aoout we rise m Ihe pricr; of wheat. In some of the leading tomato grow :z districts of Indiana the price has pen five cent3 per bushel this fall. The Mark Hanna syndicate didn't :xpe:tto carry any of the cotton State?, Id tfary ppent their cah, energy and t:i'p:;;a in the grain Spates. Tl roots of a mature apple extend taviieand deep. In applying fer Zz'-ts, spread them wide and deep, eo w.z'i vrili reach the entire root ays rvs I; k -p the boys on the farm make )if-j aud the farm home attractive : the pi;la. If the girls don'c want to prrr farmers, the boys will seek some T !y fi?e yeara ago a Virginian H o . .rt ionnn nnrea nf land ci--h ho planted in walnuts. Hi3 in is cow $15,000 per annum from ,h of walnut timber. I: ba3 been found that a sprinkling t-:;3 in the brine when bacon and n are put in pickle, adds greatly to p fl ..vox of both, and enables thf m to kept an indefinite period. Guherall tools and implements ur cover and clean them thoroughly. irirf: the winter they should be over :uicd, and all defects be made good 3 a coat of paint be given them. A single seed of the Asiatic pemperion Wanted on the grounds of the Berlin .iu-rd Society propagated a vino hich grew as large as a man's body p niae weeks and finally grew to a eta I length of 900 feet and ripened - er 800 000 eeeds. la looking out for young breeding five, the farmer is too apt to overlook eow that has borne one or two good (piers of pig3i arid ia now worth more 3 a breeder than at any former time (' ner life. So long as the cow is her growing she cannot do full just'ee burnishing the framework of the Rowing litter which she carries. Hence pere are always one or more runts in Jtera from immature sows. The pigs r0la an old bow will be larger framed more vigorous in every way. CLINGING TO OLD BITS. O A stream of tendency is hard to establish, and old customs die slowly amongst farmers if, indeed, they ever do entirely die. Relics of habits which are supposed to have disappeared are to be ound here and there just below the surface or in some out of the way place, and if anywhere in this coun try it is in rural districts that this sort of tbiEg holds tru3. If there is one characteristic more obvious than others in tbe typical British farmer, it is tenacity of habit and of purpose. In this he is sublime 1 And herein may be nought and fouud the reason why old customs die slowly, and why it is that there ia some d ffiralty in finding much fault with them. And, after all, this very tenacity of purpose is one of the finest principles which the mind is capable of exercising in times of dim culty and depression, such as these through which wc aro passing now. The "staying power" of our farmers is phenomenally great, ae everybody will admit who is in a position to form or opinion on the subject, and therefore i occurs that they cling to old customs with all the tenacity of people whose vocabulary does not contain the word capitulate. Take, for instance, the in dustries of cheese making and butter making. Hero we find marked and important departments of work iu which eld customs die slowly. In stances are not at all difficult to find whero individual dairy farmers have adopted modern ideal of reform, whilst the bulk have made no chang?. The creem separator has been a revelation to dairy ers; and many of the young ones a few of the older ones too have not hesitated to secure to themselves whatever advantages this beneficent instrument in the dairy was calculated to confer. In course of time, no doubt, the separator will become universal, and the old customs which preceded it will only be found as relics here and there. But the use of the separator in private or individual dairies, great im provement, as it undoubtedly is ever the old timo skimming dish, dees not fill in the whole programme of reform in the domain of butter making, so far, at all events as the rank and fiie of but ter making dairy ers are concerned. There are plenty of people who still cling to the idea of home dairying, and strongly advocate it, in reference to cheese ss well as to butter, and, so far as the tip top private dairies aro con cerned, we may freely confess to a cor responding pieference just, indeed, as we would prefer the grand home brewed ale that was occasionally met with in olden time3, to any other kind we have ever since tasted. Bat it must be ad mitttd in the case of home made butter, as in that of home brewed beer, that first cless examples of the latter were and of the former are, merely repre sentative of small minorities, and can not for a moment bs admitted to an important numerical position. All the same, however, wo shall all bo reluct ant to witnesi tho extinction of all private dairying that is to say, such portion of it as may be considered tip top. Bat a great transformation in dairy ing practices is now well under way, and may be eaid to have already ac completed very considerable results. In other countries, notably in Deamark and Germany, it has made greater prog resa than with us, and, indeed, has been forwarded all the time since the reform of dairying began in real earnest and on comprehensive lines. The whole sum and substance of this modern stream of tendency may be said to ba inclined in the formula of "associated dairying;" and although the reforms. which are part and parcel of the ten dency are not by any means necessar ily incompatible with private or indi vidual dairying, they still find their most effective expression in collective efforts. This lass, indeed, is the dairy revelation of the period in which wo live, and nothing like unto it has ever before transpired, or was ever before feasible. We can well afford to give all countenance to the highest examples of private dairying, though at the same time we cannot abate any part of our claim that associated dairying is the true po!icy for almost all others in which cheese or butter, one or both, are made. But these "others" in any case, a large proportion of them in this country cling to the old customs with all the tenacity that is characteristic of the race, and S3 it occurs that asso ciated dairying has not made, and is not making, such rapid and general and uninterrupted progress as it ought to do, or ought to have done. Tho great expansion which has taken place in the country milk trade, and is still taking place, has had no little to do with the delay that has occurred in the progress of associated dairying, and things in general are, to soma extent, still in a state of transition. But it is tolerably evident that the stream is bo coming deeper and stronger, and that, in the end, the making of butter and cheese will, for the mo3t part, bo con ducted on collective lines. This, in deed, ia the last great development, and perhaps may be the final one, though as to this it would be gratuitous to ex press, or even form an opinion. It ia an essentially natural process, that o? clinging to an old habit, even when it is obviously out of date; and many men there are amongst us, espo cially these well stricken in years, and reasonably supposed to have taught volition by the lapse of time, who are quasi incapable of discerning that it io out of date. That we make batter and cheese, which en an average of quality, are inferior to what wo made forty years ago, may, or may not be true (I for one do not think it is, but of course the problem is incapable of solution) ; but, even if it were so, this is not the only or chief reason why associated dairying is suited to tho period. The mode of commerce, and tho taste of our great urban populations, both of which require uniformity and regular ity in quality and character in the cheese and butter they buy, and espe cially in the butter, supply a still more cogent reason. That our dairyers should accommodate their practices to the taste of their customers would seem to be a proposition requiring no emphasis in the way of argument; and it is plain enough to those who have eyes to see that, in regard to the great majority of dairyers, it is idle to look for any such adequate accommodation as a re suit of individual efforts. The alterna tive, however, is there for them in this last new development, and, as it ap pears to me, the sooner they gravitate to it the better it will be for every body concerned. J. P. Sieldon, in Agricul tural Gszite. "The ranks of euccesa in business and the professions,'" said Mr. Depew in a letter published last week, are not recruited from the sons of the rich, but almost entirely from tho field of work ers." In every city and village of this great la&d is some boy or girl who will make good this prophecy. In it ycu? A CHEAP FARM PAINT. Some of our exchanges have resur rected an old recipe for a cheap farm paint with which we had long been familiar, but which does not seem to be as widely known as tho merits of the paint dessrve. It consists of but two ingredients, neither of which is ex pensive, the one being skim-milk and tho other a good article of hydraulic cement. The cement is placed in a bucket and sweet skim milk ij grad ually ad ed, stirring constantly, until the mixture is of about the consistency of good cream. The stirring must be very thoroughly done in order that the mixture may flow readily from the brush, but if too thin it will run when applied to the building and looked streaked. The proportions should be based upon about a gallon of the milk, as this will make a convenient quantity to mix when one person is to apply it If too much ia prepared, the cement will set and harden before it is U3ed To this quantity of milk add about a quart of the cement. Probably a little more than this will be required, the operator using judgment to have it thin enough to fl j w from the brush and yet not thin enough to run after it has been applied. A flit brush about four inches wide is a good implement with which to lay the paint on. It is to be used just as oil paint is used and can be applied to woodwork, old or new, and to brick or stone. When dry the color is a light creamy brown, or might be called a yellowish stone color. This paint has a good body, gives a smooth finish and works well. The operator can try it first upon an outhouse or fence to see how it pleases him and to learn in an experimental way how to prepare and apply it. The draft horse is the best for the farmer for several reasons. He works more satisfactorily and at less expense and worry ; he sells more readily and at better prices than any other; it costs less to raise and break him and get him ready for market because of his docility; he will pay his keep after two years old, and is fully broken wnen matured. AEOUT SOME FARM TOOLS. Corresr ndence of the Progressive Farmer. The cellent article on tho use and afcue of farm tools, in last week"s i Progressive Farmer, forcibly reminds mo of some things I have seen. That many of our people aro shamefully negligent in taking care of what tools they have on the farm, will be admitted by everj cloce observer. I remember seeing a brand new mower, worth perhaps a hundred dol lars, left under a small tree in the cen tre of a field, where last in use. Pass iug along that road occasionally, I noticed that it was allowed to remain thore, taking all sorts of weather, for twelve months. When the mowing season came around again I suppose that the thrifty (?) farmer wondered where his machine was, and why it did not seem to work &s well as before, if he succeeded in getting it to go at all Let us hope that most of our people are not as careless as the one mentioned, but many of them are almost as bad in somo ways. Indeed, it has been the result of many years' observation by the wr;,cr that almost all of cur North Carolina farmers have no sort of fixed place or ey stem of caring for their tools, when not in use. As a rule, the tools aro left here and there, about the premise, almost anywhere, but more likely near the spot where last uced. Oar average small farmer is usually very poorly supplied with to Js of all sorts. How some of them manage to get along is a mystery. On ono occa sion, when visiting at a neighboiing farm house, this was forcibly impressed on me by a little incident. The farmer seemed fairly well to do and worked four hcrse3 or mules. His wife appealed to me, asking me to tell her what was tbe matter with her sewing ma chine. Having a mechanical turn of miad, I examined it and said I could cosily put it in order, and for this purpose caUed for a wrecch or some simple tool. She was delighted with tho prospect of getting her machine to sew again and urged her "oid man" to scour the place for what. -ola he hd. After a thorough search he reported that everything in the way of tools on the plantation, be bides the plows and wagons, was an axa and a pair of sheep shears. These he brought in, but I could not repair the eewing machine with them and it had to be taken to to ??n to be fixed. For some y ears it was my fortune to keep the books and accounts of a neigh boring blacksmith and wheelwright who did all the repairs for that neigh borhood. It was no unusual thing for a farmer to break a single tree in the midst of his busiest plowing season, and then he would stop that plow and send a boy on horse back to the shop, where ho would La e to wait until another one was made and get the irons trans ferred from the broken ono. In this way he incurred tho expense of from 25 to 50 cents at the shop, besides the loss of time in the work of both the horse and boy, for at least half a day and often the whole day. Other trifling breakdowns usually were repaired in this exponsive manner. Ahandymsn with a few tools, and a white oak fence rail can often save a dollar, to say nothing of time saved. With an unoccupied shed, a bench and a few of the moat inexpensive tools, the farmer nrghi uso rainy days to do ail sorts of repairs and make such things as single trees, plow beams, handles and the like, to be ready when needed. Many a good machine goes to rapid destruction for the lack of a "stitch in time," so to speak. Too many of our people have no de cent sort of equipment in the way of tools for repairs. Some of them will walk a mile or more to do a few min utes' grinding on a neighbor's grind stone, with the probability that the stone will be out of order when he gets there, I knew a man who let down a set of draw-bars, on an average of twice a day, for twenty years, before he made up bis mind to hang a gate there. This sort of thing is not business, neither is it common sense. For an ordinary farmer the follow ing tools should always be on hand and kept where they may be had at a min utes' notice: A handsaw, hatchet, drawing knife, brace and four bits, screw driver, monkey-wrench, jack plane, square, clawhammer, three chisels, cross cut saw, two augers, cold chisel, and a small assortment of bolts, screws and nails with some copper rivets to mend harness. A good grind stone completes the outfit. This list of tools may be bought at any good hardware store for twelve dollars and will last many years. Begin now and fix up a place to do such work. Have a strong box or chest with lock and key, to keep the tools in. Make the rule of tho farm to return each and every tool to its proper place, whether plow, wagon, or hand saw, after using it and it will pay ycu, both in time and money .saved. T. C. H. m m m Old fences and hedges are a constant menace to the orchard. They are the breeding places of insects and of fungi. A hedgo is a good ornament when rightly taken care of, but when it is in near proximity to the orchard it may cost many times more than its value as an object of beauty. THE NORTH CAROLINA FAIR. Eds. Count y Gentleman: I have attended the State Fair at Rleifih con tinuously since 1869-28 years. In some respects the one closing this week is the most successful I havo seen. De spite the hard times with our faim:rs (vho this year have had to contend with both low prices and short crops) the attendance has hardly ever been larger, and the proportion of the farm ing claes seemed to me to be unusually large. In an account of a former Fair, I had to deplore that Agricola did not spend a little more time among the stock pens and a little less where the "Coo chee Ceo chee" girls fl vant their abbreviated apparel to the sky. I might not unjustly repeat tho same words in regard to his action at the Fair. But Agricola would doubtless rejoin that he was in Rome and did as he saw the Romans do. Tne display cf poultry was immense. The aristocracy, if not the royalty of chicken, duck, goose, turkey, pigeon and guinea kind were well and numer ously represented. Ncrth Carolina has always been at the front as far as the chicken was concerned. Formerly she wore the somewhat dubious honor of rearing mains of fighting cocks against which the proudest champions of other Siates contended in vain. But the passing of the fighting cock was welleidenced atR ileigh this week, where the once omnipotent game took very properly a very humble place. I hear that many good sile3 were made of poultry, among them a peerless Brah ma pullet was sold to George Vander bilt, the A8htville millionaire, for $50. The exhibit of cattle and swine, while not the best that I have seen on the same grounds, was good. Nearly all leading breeders were well represented. The racing, they said, was good. But I have ever held that racing is some thing with which the farmer in general has nothing to do ; and this is one of the few things ia which I find no diffi culty in living fully up to my prin ciplas. Like the Omental who, when pressed to attend the Derby races, re plied that he could not see the use of going to so much trouble to prove that cf which he was perfectly well aware that one horse could run faster than another it is to me a matter of &u preme indifference which of a gang of practically useless nags can tear around a circle the q iickest. Iam told that racing is a necessary step in the develop ment of good roadster blood. Owing to my ignorance, perhaps, 1 cannot 1 ;ok at it in that light. I would rather own a driving horse the progenj of a line of substantial, well trained road Bters than one whose spider-like sires and dams, back to the equine Adam had done nothing but smash records The exhibit of agricultural products was excellent, and effectively shown The exhibit of Col. Carr's Ojoneechee Farm was unique. Not to mention a mammoth ear of corn five feet long made on this farm, the utilation of a rotating Ferris wheel, whose glass cars were filled with samples of the num berless products of Oconeechee, lent a distinct feature to the whole depart ment. Mr. Carr, industrially speak ing, was for a long tims almost entitled to repeat the famous phrase of Louis X'V., "Uetat e'est mot," I am the State. And he has thrown into agri culture the same progress and ingenu ity that made him a king in the smok ing tobacco world. O W. Blacknall, Top dressing of wheat, oats and grass land with farmyard manure should be done whenever the land is dry enough to cart on. The value of a mulch of farmyard manure to crop during win ter is immense. Even though the ma nure may not be rich, it still serves a valuable purpose, and if rich in plant food, it is so much the more valuable. EXPERIENCE WITH HOGS. The hog is naturally a vegetarian, and this propensity should be taken advantage of in building his frame, enough of grain or mill feed being fed to keep him in a thrifty condition while growing, and then finish him off on grain. A hog reared in this way may not at all times please the eye so well as one heavily grain fed from start to finfsh, but nine timos out of ten he will put more net dollars and cents into tho poeketbook. Last year was a year of frosts, worms, droughts and drawbacks. June of last year was a blue June, says W. S. Stevenson in National Stockman and Farmer. Toat June I had frosted meadows and pastures, numerous s?7ine, no feed and next to no money. I had the blues. I soon found my meadows would not be worth cutting. Tnere was not a good bit of clover in them,eo I turned the hogs in. In casting about for a feed to supplement tho grass I settled on o. p oil meal It C03t me about $20 per ton, and I looked on its fertilizing elements as an item of value. I made slop of the oil meal, and those swine throve right along on that oil meal and grass diet. On account of the scarcity of rough feed I did not like to cut off corn and throw to the hogs, and did not com mence to finish them eff for market as early as U3ual. Taen came the rush of cholera hogs on the market. I felt I was stuck again. When wo cut off our corn we found for 75 to 100 wagon loads of pumpkins. I fed the hogs "pumpkins" with somo corn until in November, then put them in warm quarters and fed them on oil meal, mid dlings and corn. In January I shipped 40 head of thorn to Eist Liberty and received the top of the market, $1.50 per cwt., for 37 head, the lot netting me $1 15 per cwt. I struck one of tho best markets of last winter. By far the most profitable part of theee hogs was what was made on grass, oil meal and pumpkins. This year, in cost of production of pork we will come nearest being able to compete with the West, where they have "corn to burn" cf any yer in my, experience, Grass has been plentiful, soft and juicy, just right for the hogs to crop. We have an immense crop of fruit of all kind, with little or no market for it, which would have gone to waste if it had not besn for the hogs. The wood s contain an enormous amount of acorns. Apples and acorns combined make choice hog feed and hogs are fattening nicely without any grain. But if necessary we have a splendid crop cf corn to top off with. Tho year when we sell our hogs cheaply wo can console ourselves that we have grown them cheaply. To a certain extent, with a little fore eight, thij cheap pork production might be duplicated every year. Wo should plant suitable crop3 for the hogs to harvest. Rye can be safely sown far later than wheat. Most year3 much of the corn can bo huskol in time to haul the fodder off and put tho ground in rye. In tho spring the rye will fur nish pasture until clover ia ready to turn into. If clover is sown early with the ryo it will be big enough to furnish the hogs with a bite by the time the rye is ready to "hog" down. The rye stra r will mulch tho clover, the hogs will fertil;'z3, and tho shattered rye will grow again, and a second crop of ryo and clover can be raised without any additional labor; and at the same timo the land will be greatly improved. A crop of mammoth sweet corn cornea in good after the rye i3 done as hog feed. My neighbor tells me that ho drilled in sorghum seed with a grain drill at the rate of about a bushel to the acre. The crop has proved a complete suc cess, and anyone who has tried sorghum knows that it makes good hog feed. Land rough and almost worthless for other purposes can be made quito profitable by raising on it sweet apples for hog feed. There are many ways by which the production of pork can be cheapened, and it ia worth dollars to us to find it out and improve our opportunities. Botanists have divided all plants into twenty four classes and 121 orders; and they have discovered 3,000 genera, 59, 000 species, and varieties of species without number. With regard to the roots, plants are bulbous, as in onions and tulips; tuberous, as in turnips or do tat oe 3 : and fibrous, as in errasses. ' u If you insist upon having your rights, you will never be popular. Atchison Globe.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 17, 1896, edition 1
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