Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Aug. 3, 1897, edition 1 / Page 1
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Tbe Prcffrea tlrc Farmer ia a rood paper tar JboTC the arer ze and possibly tS e bet adTertls IcjT media21 in N. Printers Ink. "The Progpe sire Farmer is a good paper far above the average- -and possibly the best advertis ing medium in II, C" Printers Ink. 0 THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUEc PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. Vol. 12. y RALEIGH,; IT. C, AUGUST 3, 1897. Ho. 26 1 M3EISSIYE HiBIEl SB NATIONAL FARUERS ALLI ANCE AND INDUSTRIAL UNION. president Mann Page, Brandon, Vice President O. Vincent, Indian poli3, Ind. Secretary Treasurer W. P. Bricker, slogan Station, Pa. LECTURERS. J. P. Sossamon, Charlotte, N. C. Hamlin V. Poore, Bird Island, Minn. F. H. Peirsol, Parkersburg, W. Va. NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Mann Page, Brandon, Va ; R. A. outh worth, Denver, Col.; John Bre--iz, W. Va. ; A. B. Welch, New York; 7, A. Gardner, Andrew's Settlement, ; a. JUDICIARY. a A. Southworth, Denver, Colo, 3 W. Beck, Alabama. 2. D. Davie, Kentucky. ngfli CAROLINA FARMERS' STATS ALLI ANCE. President Dr. Cyrus Thompson, ' VPreeident Jno. Graham, Ridge ltary-Treasurer W. S. Barnes, :iS?er-J. T. B. Hoover, Elm City, Vard-Dr. V. N. Beawell, Villa iw N C. Cbapiain Rev. P. H. Massoy, Dur .jn, N. C. Door deeper Geo. T. Lane, Greens o N. C. issistant Door-keeper Jas. E. Lyon, " crgeant-at-Arms A. D. K. Wallace, itherfordton, N. C. state Business Agent T. Ivey, mus Jo N C ' IvL Business Agency Fund W. Graham, Machpelan, N. C. --rCUnVE OOMMTTTEE OT THE NORTH 1ECLINA FARMERS' STATS ALLIANCE. K F. Hileman, Concord, N. C. ; N. English, Trinity, N. C. ; James M. wborne. Kins .on, N. C. . .TS ALLlAKCa JUDICIARY COMMITTED. r0hn Brady, Gatesville, N. C. ; Dr. ;. P. Harrell, Whitoville, N. C; T. J. :ndler, Acton. N. O. rth Carolina R&form Press Association. V?cersJ. L. Ramsey, President; rion Butter, vtce-rrtxvjhcjn, rr. rnss, Secretary, PAPERS. jrssilYe Fwner, SUte Orsn, Raleigh, N. O. ceian, Raleigh, 1. c. cu-T Hickory, N. C. Serf Whit&kers, N. C. Home. Beaver Dam, N. C. Populist, Lnmberton, N. C. People's Paper. Charlotte, JS. C. Vestibule, , Concord, N. C. Plow-Soy. Wadesboro, N. C. )Uaa Watchman. Salisbury, ii . C. ach cf the above-named papers are . Kited to keep the list standing on i rtlatfi t' IV lV4CWIrV VfW V -j - roppzd from the list promptly. Our t: )U can now see what papers are uhzd in thexr xnterest. .GRICULTURE. is farmer who is makirg his land ?r every year i3 laying up the best : account possible. RDbbing tbo for present profits is never prac I by good farmers, rep will injure themselves eating jnly when a careless shepherd has ived them of it too long. Keep the ;?hero they can help themselves, .hey will take only so much as is red to satisfy their actual needs r winter feed ycu should cut tho j-ist ti3 the seed begins to form thai the food properties in the go into the seed, Tbia rule holds to a greater or less extent to all tut is especially applicable in us? of timothy grae3. i lirge, coarse varieties of carrots Uted for stock feeding are not 0 tiou3 as is the shorthorn, which a modt o! its bulk near the surface ghily above it. As the shorthorn " t cm grow more thickly in the h h nearly as productive as the 2r sitting variety s, and it ia alao ea;i!y harvested. Five to six red bushels of the shorthorn car bj grovn per acre. This is a 13 crop at the usual price of this -Lbmci and Farm, a comtnuaication in the Rural Y.ricr J. J. H. Gregory empha t-e importance of soil and climate 3-3o ae?7 varieties. He thinks ba experiment stations in report -suha Ttiould give information as PiUiculara. He also adds: As tni: do first rate on one kind 1 f v.l to give satisfaction on an-- a -i if irent character, doubtless r itss of this great number ai iiiaod varieties would have th-.-:inv:-lve3 to bo acquisions oa 8a. Would not, therefore, the u-io i of a system of interchange eiang-j between stations where Haes of a wise economv. and 1 w result to the advantage of the ' r-rti page ana aaa oznsre, puwcu . i are duly elected. Any paper fail lh r.jilrt rlnt.f arm will WEEKLY DIGEST Of Experiment Station Bulletins. No 81. SOME SPECIAL FRUIT BULLETINS. Bulletin 37, of Pennsylvania Station, treats of the peach industry in that State. The bulletin states that the modern peach industry of Pennsyl vania is but &5 years old and is mainly confined to three districts, aggregating 11.000 acres, or about two million trees. The Juniata district contains 3,500 acres, of which 3.000 acres are in Juni ata ccunty, the rest being in Mffln, Perry, and Snyder counties. The South Mountain district lies al most wholly within Franklin county and contains 2,500 acres. This belt ex tends some forty miles into Maryland, and will soon be all planted in peaches, ultimately containing 10,000 acres. The third belt is scattered over York, Lancaster, Berks, Lehigh, Northamp ton, Schuylkill, Monroe, Montgomery, and Chester counties. Various other counties are planting young peach orchards experimentally. Most of the commercial orchards em brace from 500 to 1,000 trees, though there is one orchard of 10,000 trees in Franklin county. It is noticed that those who cultivate thoroughly, spray systematically, and destroy diseased trees promptly, report the business profitable. Those who neglect their orchards say there is no money in the business. The failures of this class preserve the markets for the wide awake fellows. Trie average price for first class fruit is about $1 per crate, netting f 75 to $1 50 per acre. The greatest drawbacks to the peach industry in Pennsylvania are winter killing of the fruit budti and blasting of the blossoms by spring frosts. It has been found that trees on hill and mountain tops are less liable to these disasters than those in valleys. Such injuries are more likely to occur after a dry tummer or fall, and are less likely to happen to trees that have thoroughly matured the previous eoa Bon's growth before winter sets in. Chestnut soils a slaty, sandy, grav elly loam are best for peaches, and where such soils are found on moun tain tops or elopes, they are planted to peaches, even though they be 6 to 12 miles from a railroad, though the nearer one gets to a ebippicg point the better. The trees are generally planted a rod apart each way, but on strc ng soils 20 feet would be better. Of late there is much advocacy of wider distance be tween rows and closer planting in the row, always running the roves north and south, and having no two trees of the same variety stajjd next to each other in the row, a mixture of pollen of different varieties making a healthier fruit, just as infusing new blood into a flock or herd of animals making a more rcbust offspring. All varieties in the row should bloom at about the same time. This is a good practice for all fruits, and i3 considered especially neeereary with p'ums. Tree3 should be gotten from the nearest nursery that off era good healthy trees of the desired varieties at a reason able price, and each tree should be closely inspected through a magnify ing glass for evidences of scale, borers, black aphis, root gall, root knot, etc., before it i3 planted. Among the most profitable varieties are the White Heaths, both free and cling, Sal way, Bilyeu'a October, Levy's Late, Mountain Rose, the Crawforda the Old Mixons, Stump, Reeves, Smock, Globe and Elberta. Oa soils already fertile, use nitrogen sparingly, and in all cases apply it early in the season, if at all, and use potash and phosphoric acid liberally every year. Always thin the fruit, both by pruning away bud bearing tips and afterwards by hand picking the young fruit when the s:z9 of an aver age sized marble. The greatest care and ssgacity are required in gathering, sorting, packing, and marketing peaches. The package most generally uaid is the seven eights bushel crate divided in the middle; but those who have tried the Florida ten pound basket find that tijey find most ready sale. Many people will buy when they can simply pay their money for a email package all ready to pick up ard carry home, who would not buy a larger quantity nor stop to have a smaller quantity packed. These bas kets have no handles and pack six to the crate. The bulletin discusses the yellows, root gall, brown rot, and other diseases and the remedies .therefor, as well as borers, curculio, and other insect ene mies of the peach and the besi treat ment for these. Bulletin 131, of Ithaca, N. Y., Sta tion, ia entitled 'Notes Upon lums." It opens with the statement that except in Western New York and on the Pa cific slope, plum culture in the United States is yet in the experimental stage, and there is less literature upon the plum, than on any of our other import ant fruits. " ; The bulletin classifies plums into 10 types, namely: 1st, the Domestica, or Europeans, embracing Green Gage, Lombard, Bradshaw, Yellow Sgg, the Damsons, etc. 2 J, Myrobalan, or Cherry Plum, native to Southern Ejrope and adjacent parts of Asia, em bracing Golden Cherry, and probably Mariana and DeCardene, acd mostly used as stocks upon which to bud other varieties. 31, Japanese types, man; varietic s of which are bscoming popu iar in the Southern States, and a few throughout the country. 4th, the Apri cot, or Simon type, native to China but little gro wn in this country except in California. 5ch, American, or wild plum common in all the United, States east of the Rocky Mountains. 6ch Wild Goose type, which are hybrids, embracing Wild Goose, Way land, Moreman, Miner, and Golden Beauty. 7cb, Chickasaw type, native !to the Southern States, and embracing New man, Lone Star, Caddo Chief, etc. 8th, the Sand plum, of Kansas, and Re braska, a bush like species little known to cultivation. 9tb, ths Bsach plum, native to the Atlantic coast from Vir ginia to New Brunswick, but one vari ety (Baseett's American) ia cultivated for its fruit, though others are culti vated as ornamentals. 10 th, the Pacific Coast plum, native to Oregon and Cali fornia, also chiefly known in cultiva tion by a single variety the Sisson plum. i This bulletin is confined to the first type mentioned, the Domestica, or European plums, which are the chief kinds grown from Lake Michigan eastward and north of the Oaicj river They are treated under four c'isses Damaons, Green Gages, Large Yellow, and Large Red, or purple plum. These are less hardy than any other type except the Japaneee, but they are so superior in e:z3 and quality that they will contirue to be more largely grown in New York than any others, till a now collection of hj brids is raised up to surpass them. As a market fruit, the plum is of secondary importance, classing after apples, pears, and peaches, and even after cherries and berries. While it thrives on a variety of soils, it prefers a clay loam. As a stock, the Myro balan is most largely u&ed in the North ern States. In the 8outh, the peach and the Mariana are preferred as stocks upon which to bud plums. A few such varieties as Rtine Claude, German Prune, and Copper grow so crooked, that it is best to graft them into the tops of ecme straighter growing kind, rather than to bud them. Plant plums when two years old from the bud, in north and south rows, 12 feet apart in rowe 20 feet apart, put ting no two trees of the same variety next to each other in the row. The only pruning necessary is to keep the top in shape, cut out dead branches, and keep down black knot. Give good tillage, spray for black knot, also using the knife, and both jar and 6 pray for curculio. For fruit rot, both thin and spray. Fully half of this bulletin :"s devoted to a description of varieties of the European type of plums, richly illus trated by cuts of the fruits, stones, 6tc. Those recommended are Field, Lom bard, Bradshaw, Coe'a Golden Drop, Hudson River Purple Egg, Italian Prune, Empire, Grand Duke, Arch Duke, Monarch, Raine Claude, Copper, French Damson, and Farleigh. Of the Japanese, Red June, Abundance, Bur bank, and Chase are recommended, Red June promising to be the best of ail early plumu for New York. Bulletin 37, of Florida Station, treats of experiments in growing pine apples; and while this industry is confined to the extreme southern portions of Flor ida and Texas, it possesses wide spread interest, especially for amateurs, many of whem have a few potted pines under glass. The soil used for pine apples at the Florida station is very poor, being 95 per cent, eand underlaid by a hard pan at a depth of 18 to 30 inches. For fer tilizing this soil, the best results have been obtained by mixing 1,000 pounds of blood and bone, 6C0 pounds ground tobacco stems, 200 pounds nitrate of sod?, and 200 pounds sulphate of pot ash, and applying 1,000 pounds of the mixture per acre, every two months. The soil must be prepared like a gar den bed, and the plants must be set 20x30 inches, leaving a walk every ten feet, and fertilizer must be shoveled in under the plants from these walks, bo none will fall into the buds or axils of the leaves. Set the largest plants obtainable. Plants for setting are suck ers from old plants. For mealy bug and chaff scale, the only insect enemies thus far developed, spray with strong solution of tobacco, or sprinkle with tobacco dust, which is a good fertilizer. For blight, or tangle root, prune eff the lower leaves, and if the trouble remains, take up the plant, trim tops and roots, and reset. Long leaf is caused by deep setting or poor drainage, and is easily avoided. Never uss sulphur on pine apple plants; it rots them. The varieties are valued in the fol lowing order, the best being named first: Smooth Gayenne, Abbaka, Gold en Queen, Enville City, Porto Rico, Black Jamaica, Prickley Cayenne, Red Spanish, Sugar Loaf. Black Jamaica is the best keeper. The most successful plantations in Florida are partially shaded from sun and frost by setting posts 18 inches in ground and 6 feet 6 inches high above ground, 15 feet apart all over the field, and connect' the tops by stringers 2x6x16 feet, and laying over these strips 1x3x16, leaving 3 inches between the strips. This costs $300 to $500 per acre, but an income of $3-0 to $500 per acre per year may be safely counted on from land thus prepared, and as long as young plants bring such prices as they now command, even $2,000 to $3, 000 per acre may be realized. The new plants produced now, each year, bring much more than the fruit. The average cost of land, cleared of stumps and roots, and ready for the plants is about $60 per acre, the cost of fertil'zsr and labor per year, $100 per acre; cost of plants for an acre nine thousand at $150 per thousand $1350; cost of shed, $500. This shows a total cost of $2,000 per acre, if set in the best plants, and this may be made back in two years. The more common plants set at $8 to $25 per thousand. Wild land sells at $1 50 to $20 per acre. The first cost of land is mainly in clearing, grubbng, ditching, and plowing. Pine land, wiih j ellow sub soil is considered best. FOEAGE CROPS. Bulletin 135, of Ithaca, N. Y, Sta tion, treats cf forage crops. For some time the correspondence of the station has shown the keenest interest in the relative merits of various forage crops, particularly for soiling, for feeding green. Those which have green greatest satisfaction at the station are, 1st, corn; 2i, a mixture of oats and peas; 2 3, oats; 4th, a mixture of oats and barley ; 5sh, rye; 6th, barlev ; 7eb, hun garian of the millets. Corn for soiling, should bo planted in succession, and none should be cut till nearing maturity, as it increases in nutritive value very greatly as it ap proaches maturity. If a mixture of oats and peas is grown, plow the peas in, then harrow the ground, drill in the oats and roll. Use one bushel peas and a bushel and a half of oats per acre. The relative value per acre of the feed grown at the elation was as fol lows: Oats and peas, $63 11; oats alone, $57 99; oats and barley, $43 39; barley alone, $31 99. Sorghum, teosinte, and Sacaline are not adapted to New York. For millet, prepare the land thor oughly, being particular to crush clods of ciay soils, and in feeding green mil let, begin gradually and guard against bloat. Crimson clover proved very valuable for late fall pasture and as a cover crop to be turned under in spring It made a much heavier fall growth than either red clover or mammoth clover, aDd analyses and weighing on November 2d. showed that while crimson clover had gathered 156 pounds nitrogen per acre, red clover had gathered but 103 pounds and mammoth 146. THE COW P2A AS A FERTILIZER. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. Toere is hardly any plant about which there exists such a diversity of opinion as to its value as a fertilizer for improving poor lands. Some have gone so far as to contend that if the vines were cut off, and removed from the land and the roots allowed to re main on the soil, it would improve the fertility of the land as much as if all the vines and leaves which contain four fifths of the fertilizing elements of the whole plant were turned under. After a twenty years' study, and an nual experiments with the common pea as a fertilizer, I am more than ever convinced of its superior value, as be ing the quickest and most economical plant to use. The pea'plant is a great lover of nitro gen and carbon, both of which it gathers from the atmosphere in large quantities, and the more of the foilage left the better for land. But if turned under without the application of some sort of acid with it, it loses vast quan tities of the nitrogen which has been converted into ammonia during the process of decay. I have used land plaster sowed broadcast over the plants and leaves when wet and then turned them under, with splendid results. As the plants underwent decay in the soil the sulphuric acid in the land plaster united with the escaping ammonia, converting into a fixed salt, or sulphate of ammonia, but not being satisfied with the application of the gypsum be cause it supplied no phosphoric acid, I began to use acid phosphate sowed 200 to 250 pounds to the acre, broadcast, on the leaves and vines just as was done with the land plaster. The result is, that I had a heavy coat of manure in this method, and corn and cotton both now growing on land treated last fall in this way looks as if they had 25 wagon loads of stable manure to the acre. I tried sowing the Unknown pea in the drill and when the plants wore fully matured, sowed the acid phosphate on them, ran a plow on one side, barring them out, then coming with the wing and wrapping the vine?, leaves, and acid pi o ?phate all up in the bed, let the bed alone until last spring, when this land was re bedded for corn ; the result is tall, green, splen did corn, notwithstanding a long drought, which at one time promised to ruin it all. So I have adopted a new method of fertilizing my land, seeing that it is out of the question to get manure enough to enrich the soil. When cats and wheat are reaped off, we open furrows three and one half feet apart and sow the Wonderful peas in the drill, culti vate once with a plowing, and just be fore frost is expected, sow the acid phosphate right on the leaves and vines, bar the rows eff, and with turning plow following, turn the vines down in the furrow, bedding on them. In the following spring re-bed it and I have a bed made as rich in ammonia and phos phate of lime as if I had filled the drill with common manure. I am not making acid phosphate nor potash salts to sell, nor am I an agent for any of these chemicals. I make the corn and cotton. Ths reason the pea has shown so little benefit ol light land where turned under is because the land is too open to hold the ammonia, and it being very volatile, and having a great e ffioity for water, it escapes in moisture evaporated. The addition of the acid phosphate is of two fold bene fit, for it furnishes phosphate of lime, and the sulphuric acid in it unites with the ammonia forming a sulphate which is taken frcm the soil in only two wayp, viz: leaching out, cropping out by growing plants. Let him who doubts it, try the use of a good acid phosphate one time in the way described above, and he will find the cow pea or the Wonderful pea his great manure heap. I have turned under the growing crop of vines when they would first signs of blooming, applying nothing with them, and the following season season was unable to trace the work so little good did the young vines do. It will be found yet that the most economical way to use the commercial fertilixers is to use them to produce a heavy crop of pea vines to turn under with acid phosphate the season before using the land for a main crop, unless it is for wheat or winter oats. By using the pea and acid phosphate in this way the fertility of the soil may be doubled every year and a crop of oats reaped at the same time. D. C. 2fEACHAM. Raleigh, N. C, July 25, 1897. - A good grove is a "thing of beauty and a joy forever," or something very much like that. Time spent in improv ing their appearance, or in starting new ones, is not lost. "Take no thought for the morrow' does not mean that we must not plan for the future. There is too much do ing of that which is convenient, with out a thought as to whether it is the thing moat needed to D9 done. HQBTICULTUEE PEACH-GROWERS TEN COU- , rJAHDUEHTS. One of the largest Eastern peach growers effars the following for tho guidance of peach growers: 1. High, dry, sandy or eand-loam, soil. 2. Careful selection of varieties most hardy in fruit bud. 3. Vigorous, healthy seedling stocks; budding from bearing trees of un doubted purity and health. 4. Trees given entire possession of the land from the start. 5. Thorough culture from the open ing of spring till the first or middle of August. 6. Liberal annual manuring, broad cast with commercial manures rich in potash and phosphoric acid, lacking in nitrogen. 7. Low heading and close annual pruning for the first five years. 8 Keep out borers with some suit able wash, and dig out all others. 9. Search for some traces of yellows every weefc of the growing season, and at first sign pull up and burn every in fected tree. 10. Thin tho fruit so that there shall never be what is termed a full crop. And adds; "On these ten command ments hangs most of the law and all the profits." PICKING AND MARKETING FRUIT To secure fruit for market at the proper stage of ripeness, and the least possible waste of time as well as fruit, is a matter of much importance to a fruit groVer. Eich grower has, or at least ought to have, a system by which he may expedite the work, and it ia a question to many whether their sys tem is the best or not. The method I use is sightly different from any I have ever seen, and there may be seme use ful suggestions in it to tome. I find the most trying part oT the fruit harvest is to properly manage a lot of boys and girls while they are gathering the fruit; to see that the ripe fruit is all gathered and not mussed in picking; that there is no deception practiced in filling the boxes, which I am sorry to say often happens, and to tally and check the quarts picked by each person. To begin with, I have each row of berries numbered, and also each crate ; then when a row and crate is assigned to a picker, each is entered into the check book opposite that picker's name. When inspecting the vines where the pickers have passed over, "should any carelessness be noticed, a glance at the ; check book will show to whom it is dud ; and likewise when inspecting the crates of berries, for as fast as a picker fills a crate, an empty one is assigned him and the filled one examined. If the berries should be crushed, boxes not filled or any other fault, it is only a moment's notice to discover the cul prit. The failings, or errors, if such they may be called, are charged against the guilty person, and by thi3 record I am able to cull out the undesirable pickers, should they persist in their misdemean ors when subsequently cautioned. I manage as much as possible to en gage my pickers for the whole season, and so I give tickets at the end of each picking, to be cashed at the end of the fruiting season, or at the end of the week if demanded. By paying a small premium at the end of the season to those who remain through the "poor pickings," which often occur at the last, I am able to retain the most of my good pickers. A record is kept in the check book of the number of quarts picked by each person, so there can be no mistake made when settling with them B. A Wood, in Farm and Fireside. A professional showman who has eaten a lamp chimney nearly every day for 17 yesr, ate a Barlow knife (in which the tariff duties were incorrect) recently and shiffLd off this mortal coil. He died in Kansas City last month, and a small hardware store, consisting of glassware, crcckery,wire, nails of all kinds were found in him We don't know whether or not he in tended keeping them until Congress put a high tariff on these articles, but if thi3 modern Jonah had generously swallowed a few of our Congressmen and members of our last legislature, we would willingly have contributed to build a monument to him. The old gent is dead now, and he'll never again have such an opportunity to win last ing fame.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 3, 1897, edition 1
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