Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Dec. 1, 1896, 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
r The Progres tlve Farmer is a z0od paper far ove the aver-SJre--and possibly t: e best advertis ing medium in N. C ' Plinters' Ink. "The Progres sive Farmer is a good paper far above the average- -and possibly the best advertis ing mecium in N. C." Printers' Ink. THE E JSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. - "-s V.l. 11. RALEIGH, N. 0., DECEMBER 1, 1896. No. 43 MJuLi jtluljjjiEbDl V Ji AiMiLjcjJli ; . .''ATiONAL. FARMS US1 LLI iilCF AND INDUSTRIAL UN i ON. .-.vidcnt Mann Pago, Brandon, ' -.-e-Preiniient II. O. Snaveiy, Lob Pa i stary -Treasurer It. A. S:-uth-. ; Denver, Col. EXECUTIVE lOA!il. L. Loucks, Huron. 8. D. ; W. P. l:rr, Cogau Station, Pa ; J. F. Wii .v, rCanas; W. L. Peeke. Ga. JUDICIARY. ;. A. Southworth, Denver, Cole, V7. Bec.fi, Alabama. I-'. Davie, Kos lucky. ;V:.T CAROLINA SAUCES?' AIX- President Dr. Cyrus Thompson. Rlehlauds, . C. ice-President Jno. Grahtirn.Ricto -yi.v, ?7. C. 8cretary-Ti oj-surer v . S. Bamojj. ITIilsboro, N. C. Lecturer--J. T. 15. He-over, Kiinuny, N. C. Steward Dr. V. N. Seawell, Villa no", ii. C. Chaplain Rev. P. II. Massey, Dur ham, N. C. :oor-keeper Geo. T. Lane, Greens ro, N. C. A siC-tant Door keeper Jas. E. Lyon, Durham, N. C. ocrg'.ant-at-Arms A. D. K. Wallace, Rutherfordtcn, N. C. State Business Agent T. Ivey, lli la boro, N. C. Trustee J5usines3 Agency Fund W. A. Graham, ilachpelah, N. C. SZlZCUnVE COTJT.!ITTr:i: OF THTT HOiJTTI JASOuiNA 5 ARMEHS STATS ALLIANCE. A. F. Hileman, Ooriccrd, N. C. ; N. C. English, Trinity, N. C. ; James M. Mewborne, Kins on, N. C. 5 TATS ALLIANCE JUDICIARY C02t3HTTET2. John Brady, Gatesville, N. C. ; Dr. J.F. Harrell, Whitcville, N. C; T.J. Candler. Acton. N. C v 5tlh Carolina Reform Presi Association. Officers J. L. Ramsey, President; firion Butler , Vice-President ; W. S. amcj, Secretary, PAPEilS. iSfr3lve Fwm&r, State Organ, RAletgh, N. O. Caucasian, RaleUrh, N. C. kercury, Hickory, N. C. JtlJr, WTiltakers, N. C. ' -r Home, Beaver Dam, N. C. I "iie Populist, L.imberton, N. C. T-ia Ptfor-le's Paper, Charlotte. N. C. vejfit c, "-.-icorr.; N. ... Flow-'.joy. V adesloro, N. C Carolina Watchman. Sa.ifebury, N. C. iTacrt o ie above-named papers are. ij.&ztei to keep the list staiiding on -3 f.rst page and add other?., jirovidcd are duly elected, Any paper fail- to advocate the Ocala platform will f. dropped from the list promptly. Our , :)ple can now see tuliai papers are iiihed in their interest. AGRICULTURE. I r-n't cut down fny more f crest land. Improve the lands already in cultiva Do not waste the long v-inter even- in that which yields neither pleas ure not profit. V'o think our farmers bought too 1 rs;e a quantity of commercial fertili 2 ra last spring. A wheelbarrow on the farm is a t.--a?ure when needed, and is force v.TxCa equal almost to another hired Tno remedy is in giving more care to . 1 the details of proiuction and work : : for belter markets in the smaller : -vvns and citits. Mr.ny good local market? are entiro : " overlooked in the mad rush of ship nts to the larger cities. Near local . .'kets are often best, study them II. 01 all classes of American citizens . o farmers should bo the most united. Villi identically the same interests ' here ehouid be no divisions while help .:.ir to solve great questions. The proper distribution of small fruits will not be complete until special refrigerator car3 are placed on all lines from which eales can be made at any point, the eame as meats at the pres ent time. Growers should understand that it 'jstp just a3 much to pick, pack, trans ; rt end sell poor fruit a3 good; good r :it in a fair market is sure to pay v'r ii. while poor fruit in any market is a'rj7,t;t certain to return a loss. here is no business pursued by man ' r a livelihood which requires, in or der to bo successful, more thought, tudy and a more scientific education than that of farming in its various de partments, yet it receives less, in the rreat majority of cases. The "pin money" the women of Penn sylvania receive for their butter and eggs actually amounts to more than the combined products of the mines and oil wells of that State. If the yield from chicken farms, dairy and cheese factories be added, the excess will be eix and a half million dollars. CO fTON GROWING IN THE SOUTH Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer. Wa hear a great deal being Paid about concert of actio-j among farm-re for the purpose of decreasing the area planted in cotton this year, in order j that a similar cr; p may not be put on thfnarkct of the world. But a little re ilction will ehoMT tiie uttev impc;33ibii ity of ell .acting tho desired purpesa in ! tIJ ITIi IT Til. m r nitfuMf i- w - . ti-h, and if there was a prospect of a general agreement, there are thousands who would at once imagine that now was the timo to plant heavily to take advautage of the prospective- r:se, and the whole thing would be dffeate. There is no need for any cone: rt of rc tioD, for the men who have" been uing thrtoorfcur a- rt s of land to grow b:de of cotton cacnot grow is m thie way any longer tnd live. Cotton ih a sole cr.jp is done forever, just as wbeu: a a sole crop 13 in the North. The man who mikes anything frcmcctton hero after musr be a farmer, and not a mere planter, gambling on the cha;.C3 of so much fetttHz.r giving him so much cotton. He must learn ho.v to accu rhulat fertility in hts soil, while get ting increasing crops from it, and mur learn the fact that the only way to rest land is to keep it at work between sale crops growing pea3 and crimson clover t feed stock for raising manure for the corn and cotton, eo that tho old-tirco practice of dribling a little fertilizer in the furrow, for immediate tifect, can be forever abandoned, and a generous broadening of tho manure for the bent lit of the soil take its place. Oi course tho charjge cannot bo made ali at once, but it behooves all farmers whose interests are in the cotton crop, and with whom as a matter of neces sity the cotton crop must be the money crop, to begin to take measures to make it really a money crop, the surplus crop, but not the sole dependence for pajing all the expenses of the farm. The fact that land can be brought up to a high state of fertility by a proper rotation of crops, and tho use of the ehesp?r form3 of mineral fertilizers, phosphoric acid ana potash, without the purchase of tho expensive nitrogen has been abundantly proved, where the leguminous crops, like peas and clover, have been grown between the sale crops. Now is the time to begin to get our lands into euch a proper ro taticn. The Southern field or cow pea will do more for the lands of the South ern coast plain than any plant yet dis covered, as by its growth tho farmer is enabled to get free from the air the nitrogen which is so costly when pur chased in a commercial fertilize. Cot ton nec ds for its growth a well balanced fertilizer in which potash has a promi nenu place, with a proper percentage of the other elements of plant food to enablo the plant to use the potash eco nomically. Oa land where no peas or other leguminous crop has beengrown it will be necessary to use a complete fertilizer, but if we have previously grown a crop of p?as or clover on the land by tho aid of mineral fertilizers, there will be no need to buy the ccstly nitrogen for the cotton crop. But it will not do to assume that because clover will help the land in tho matter of nitrogen, that it will keep the land permanently fertile. The peas them selves are greedy consumers of potash and phosphoric acid, and these being applied to them, they will get thn rest. Therefore if we want to start our land in the proper rotation for the growth of the cotton crop, it is essen tial that we start with the pea crop, aud supply it with the essentials of its growth. Let us start them next spring and eosv the peas broadcast, not less than a bushel per acre, and apply to them 300 pounds of acid phosphate and fifty pounds of muriate of potash, or 200 pounds of kainit per acre" This will give us a good growth of peas, tho best use we can make of these peas will be to turn them into hay or ensilage for feeding cattle. Then in September run a cutaway harrow over the s nubble and sow crimson clovor at the rate of fifteen pounds per acre. This will grow during the winter, and can be plowed under in the spring for corn, and the same dose of fertilizer given it. Among the corn plant peas, and as soon as the corn is off plow all under and sow the land in winter oats with peas for hay again, and plow the stub ble for cotton the next season, fertiliz ing again with the same cheap fertili zers, and so w crimson clover all through the cotton at the ' last working, to be cut for hay in the spring and the land put in corn again. You will soon find that if you keep stock enough to use up the forage you will grow that on ion g you will have home made manure enough to cover your corn field over broadcast, and finally you will ueedo- 1 artificial fertiliser exe?p the drepsiDg j to promote the growth of tho renov-u ing crop of peas. Tiie ictatim is planned for the purpesa of aeeamuKt itjg fertility for the cotton croo, and nr. the same time grow crops that will pay expenses; and give a profii besides J can point now to men on tho sandy fields of tho Soutii who are praeticri;.' a similar plan, aod who, while growing over a b&te of cotton per aero, arc mtfr ing 60 to 75 ousbels of oas per a ore 10 to 50 busnol of corn, keep veil b fi'ock and have em' ike-hour's fuU e bacon, sro -vn and cured as cheaply :f the Wc-s ern farci?r can grow it. TU' cotton, vva.iU;vcr the price, w c prone. N. C Experiment. Station. It is generally a mis.kc for uk. farmer's boy to loavo the farm, and in quite as many instances it is alsn t:. mistake for ihe o.d m n to loavo end move to town. I: i a mistake for tin boy to think he kao73 as much as hi father. The latter may not be itu? more intelligent of the two, but he as least has the bent fit of a great deal of experience that tho bey has not ac quired. . THE OTHKR COTTON PRODUCERS Toe continent of Europe takes three fourths of the cotton exported from India and is beginning to complain about the quality. Tne British Consul General at Antwerp reports that Bel gium took an annual average of 179,000 bales of India cotton for the five years from 1S90 to 1891, but in 1895 took only 97,000 bales. He reported complaints from tiie continent outside of Belgium that the quality is deteriorating and that the cotton is marketed in bad con dition. The Belgian import? of cotton from the United States in 1835 com pared favorably with those of previous years. The Egyptian crop never can be increased verj much on account of the narrow limits of the Nile Valley , Russian cotton is not a serious factor, and gives no indication that it will be; Indian corton is at its beet distinctly in ferior to ours, and if it is now deterior ating the situation may be regarded with complacency by the planters cf our Southern States. The Indian pro duction cf cotton has shown a down ward tendency during the last few years, so that the decreased export is not accounted for by the increase of local manufacturing. New York Jour nal of Commerce. MAKING COUNTRY ROADS. A report on road making from the Ontario Department of Agriculture contains the following good points: "Perfect drainage, first, of the foucda tion of tho roadbed; socondly, of the road surface, are the points in road making on which too much stress can not be laid. Surface drainage is accomplished by open drains on each side of the grade, having sufficient capacity to drain not only the roadbed, but the land adjoining. With open drair s and with tile drains make and maintain a free outlet to tho nearest water course. A drain with an outlet is useless. In constructing a good road a dry foundatidn is tho matter of first importance. The graded por tion of tho road should be wide enough to accommodate the travel upon it, and not greater, the slope being uni form, not heaped in the center. The crown should be well above the over flow of storm water, and ehouid have a grade sufficient to shed water readily to tho open ditches on either side. Do not round it up so as to make the grade steep and dangerous, under the im pression that better draincge will thereby be secured. Nor should it bo so low as to allow water to stand upon it in depressions. Under ordinary cir cum3tanct s one inch and a half to the foot is a proper grade; that is, a road bed twenty six feet wide should be from thirteen to twenty inches higher at the center than at the side." In any city or village many turnips can be sold to private families by near-by farmers if they will take the pains to call on people at their homes. It may seem slow work, but a wagon load goes eff very quickly, especially if the farmer has besides the white varieties for early use some of the yel low turnips, that will keep good until spring. There is often late in the season a market for the coarse rutabagas, which are then the only turnips that are in good condition to eat. OiL-SOAKED COBS FOR KINDLING Much of the danger of using kerosene oil for kindling fires wouid be avoided if corn C3bs were handy to be dipped into the oil and used for kindling. Tee cobs will hold more oil than will wood, and if dry sticks are piled ovr the soaked cobs, they will quickly make o bh-z?, which is always needed on cold mornings to lift the volume of cold air that 13 always founo in pipes and chim neys after the fire gees down, Is is not best to dip more than one cr two cobs into the oil. If ail the kindling, especially that on top, is wet with oil, i-hf: fire will some times quickly hurt i it the oil, and then, without lifting he cold air, a denso volume of carbonic acid gas will settle do wn into the stove, muiing the starting of a firo worse tntia it was in the beginning. THE FAKCEL POST. Toe French farmer can send his pro duce by mad in packages weighing 7 pounds t;r les to any part of that country fur 12c , while in Germany the rate is only 6c. for packages under 11 1U.-!. and lc. for every additional lb. Eat; hah farmers are urging their post cilice department to enlarge the par cels pesr,, and reduce rates so that they can m il their stuff direct to the con sumr. The farmers also demand the introduction of the cash on delivery system, just s goods are now ehipped by exprees in this country, to be paid for on receipt. Tho English railways have made a handeome success cf their plan, introduced last ye ir, of collecting small packages of produce at each sta tion and delivering direct to the store or consumer, collecting the money and remitting it to the farmer, all for a moderate charge. Ail three of these reforms are much needed in the United State, and we have no doubt will be secured in time. Farm and Home. FARM NOTES. Wheat and potatoes are the two ! products that can be grown and mar keted without feeding upon the farm, and they can bo made to form a part of the system of rotation, but the wheat straw should be carefully saved and used for bedding so far as can be done to an advantage. For this reason better health and thrift can bo maintained by allowing hogs, growing hogs especially, the range of a good pasturo rather than to keep closely confined. While if proper care is taken a good variety can be supplied even when confined on major ity of farms. This increases the work materially and they mis3 the exercise they secure when they can have a pas ture. While clover makes a better pasture or green food for p'g, yet with plenty of grass and a light ration of grain or slop a rapid growth can be secured at comparatively a low cost, and this is an important item feeding pigs. With good pasturage there is little necessity for changing the dry ration, aa they will be able to secure all the vm-iety they need. N. J. Shepard, in the Forum. FALL PLOWING. We have in former papers from time to tim3 called attention to the import ance of fall plowing on our heavy clay lands or on those with an under strata of stiff clay subsoil. We have also pointed out the importance of supply ing vegetable material to these soils, in order to gain the full benefit of such fall plowing. But parhaps it will not be amies to refresh our minds as to the powerful influence which humus or de caying vegetable matter exercises on all characters of soils ; also its office in perfecting, as it were, the work which proper fall plowing begins. In supply ing land with humus from any source it should not be overlooked that in giv ing it this plant food we at the same time encourage chemical combinations with the locked up elements already in the land. Oa all clay soil?, more par ticularly, there are mineral deposits of plant food, but they aro in such form that growing plants cannot appropriate them. They are not soluble in water alone, and it becomes necessary that we supply some more powerful agent to accomplish the work of changing and dissolving them. The carbonic acid which is constantly being gener ated by decaying vegetable matter, is known to be an effective solvent of mineral substances, and becomes at once the factor to transform these otherwise unavailable deposits into such soluble elements that the plants can draw upon them for sustenance and development. Humus therefore not only feeds t :e plant directly, but 13 the active agenc by which we secure J additional plant feed supplies from surrounding ccndi tiers of tne son. Humus also has the direct mecaanical effect of loosening si:fi ciay eoixs and enabling them to r.borb gsscs and to absorb and hold a larger ts-mcunt of moisture frcm rains and from the at mosphere. The sufLfit land, if well supplied with hurou-3, will rarely crust cr bake even in the most prosracted drouth. On sandy land humus he.s the opposite 1 ffVofc of holding rr-gt-ther the too loose particles, and cf prevent icg the e s japs of moisture A porous : soil filled with humus is also an emi n-ently moisture-absorbing as well as moisture holding soil Southern Cuiti vator. Whenever phosphate is town ith grain, a part of the fertilizer is always appropriated by the clover seed sov?n with it. Clover is a lime plant, and i also nrrdj the phosphoric acid tbat is so hel pf :il to the wheat. The phosphate is especially valuable when applied to clover that is to produce a seed crop. Potash is alo needed to make clover seed well, and should be applied in some form. THE RECENT RISE IN WHEAT. There my be a little extraordinary foreign demand for cur wheat which exercises a little stimulating effect upon the Americftu wheat market. But when we rt fl set that the foreign wheat harvest don't occur until next February, and then notice the capers our markets and newspapers have cut recently, it looks very much as if the whole thing is gotten up to prove that the price of wheat and silver don't range together, sajs the Peninsula Trucker. If "it has been brought about, we need no further evidence to prove that the money power has the nation by the throat and can force tbe people and tho government to do its every bidding, even to employing soldiers and native Hessians to assassinate peaceful citi 'zens, providing the r.xeeutive head be in sy no pithy witn the move. There is far more danger of giving house plants too much rather than too little water in winter. During the short days and long nights, with very little sunlight on the soil, is hard to keep it at a temperature where the plants can grow vigorously. All the surplus water added lowers the tc mperature until it reaches a point where the plants barely exist without making any growth. If tho soil has much vegetable matter, humic acid will be developed at a low temperature and this will poison the plant roots. WHEAT AND PRICES. Commenting on the outlook for wheat prices, Bradstreot's says: "There need be no fear that the price of wheat is likely to react and to re main at the lower leveis which pre vailed for so many monthy prior to recent advance of about twenty two cents per bushel. "That there will be enough wheat to go around goes without saying, and it is entirely possible that the alleged shortage in Russia has been magnified and tho prospect for a decreased yield in Argentina overdrawn. In fact, the London Miller estimates the total ro quireaaents of wheat importing coun tries at 22,000,000 bushels less than total export supplies of wheat in ex porting countries a pretty narrow margin, though on the right side. "Bat when the most has been told with respect to the outlook for ample supplies of wheat, the fact remains that after four or five years cf excees ive output the yield fell away in 1895, and has declined again in 1896, this time more sharply; that supplies in importing countries have been allowed to run down, and, most important of all, that importing countries have been first to discover the outlook for re duced supplies and for higher prices themselves. The late 'boom' did not start in the United States, but in Eagland. The London Economist concludes that wheat is likely to be higher rather than lower, and that there is a real deficit in the world's wheat crop. For the first time, per haps, since 1879, America now seems to hold the key to the situation, for every bushel of wheat in the United States available for export will be wanted abroad." Teacher What is a straight line? Pupil The picture of its own road, which each company prints in the rail road map. Boston Transcript. PQULTBY YABD SOME H K 14 STORIES. At tho rec one meeting in Chicago of shippers of poultry and eggs and but ter for Lhe purpose cf organising a j National Shippr-rH Association, pJeaa- antries were mixt d with business. Bo- ! "-.fi-.Oll tJj-r-vCij tVi.ir all'nt tli-iw rrr.r friand, the hen, and of her sagacity and usefulness. Also of her brother, the rooster. Tao anecdotes served to show that tho humble bird of com merce, if allowed to live her full aver age cf five to seven years, would make her rnark. Soe in endowed with intelligence and will elo wonderful things, irom laying ISO eggs in a year, once in a while laying two in a cay, to j foretelling tne weather a day in ad j vance. A3 a eor.g bird she is not a suc ! ces and no one could remember acaeo of a hen learning to ting. But Sam Prague, 0? Keokuk, told cf a rooster ! that couli vocal zo with considerable success. The bird was a Plymouth Iloek, owned by E i St raw bridge, an Iowa farmer. Sam went over to En's pli,C3 one day to buy some poultry, and, go ing in at the front gate, heard weird strains of music behind the barn. Ho walked back to the source of harmony and as he rounded the corner of the barn saw Eli, sitting on a barrel and playing a fiddle Perched on a near by post was Dick, the roos'.er, crowing the wc-rda of "Marguerite1' with start ling plainness. Sam remained quiet and had the joy of hearing a fowl ren dition of the ' Lay on the Lust Min strel." Tears came to hie eyes. '"Eii," he murmured, 'Til buy that rooster. I love music." 4 Sam," returned Eli, impressively, "Money can't get him. Anyway, he will not sing for anybody's accompani ment but mine." Western Rural. EGG AND SHELL FOOD. It is well known that by a proper system of feecing we can supply every element of food that enters into the composition of an earg, saye a writrr in Northwestern Agriculturist. In con sidering this sul j ct of feeding heES, two thing must be remembered: First, the kind of food required, and second, the peculiar nature of the bird's stom ach and digestive functions. The food must necessarily contain every ele ment required to sustain the fowl in good health and to provide material for the production of eggs. The prin cipal requirement of a hen a year old is carbonaceous matter for the susten ance of the animal heat, and nitrogen ous substance for the support of tho muscular system. These are provided sufficiently in grains, and if a hen was not expected to lay eggs on exclusive grain diet, furnished in moderate quan tity, would supply all her neods. But eggs are made up of various substances in a concentrated form. They contain a large proportion of albumen and con siderable fat and - sulphur, while the shells are nearly all carbonate of lime. The feathers contain much sulphur, and these need also be provided for, eo that to secure a liberal production of eggs all these substances must be fur nished in the food, and in such a form that they can be easily digested, or they are worse than useless, as they must be injurious to health. Any food that is not digestible taxes the excre tory organs to get rid of it, and this undue call upon them disturbs the bal ance of the system and produces dis ease. The necessary requirements of an animal should be furnished in food substances and should not be given in crude form. Because a hen requires lime and tulphur it is not right that limestone, or stone lime, or crude sul phur should be given. The stone is not digestible, and the sulphur is laxa tive in ita effect, and disturbs tbe bowels. Fuod rich in these substances should bo given in at least sufficient quantity to supply the demands of tho hen for at least one egg per two days. None of the common grains supply these elements in sufficient quantity, but some others to be produced quite easily are rich in them. Rape seed, which is easily grown, contains eight pounds of sulphur in one thousand pounds, and mustard seed has ten pounds of sulphur in the thousand. Hemp seed contains eleven pounds of lime in one thousand, and rape and mustard seed five to seven pounds, re spectively. Lucerne leaves, dry con tain twenty eight pounds of lime to the thousand, and white clover nine teen and one fourth pounds. Some of these grains are as cheap as wheat and are much more valuable for this use. Farmers' Voice.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 1, 1896, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75