North Carolina Newspapers

The Prcgrea tc Farmer ii rood paper far fcove the aver se and possibly tie best adrertis !cz medium in N. c Printers' Ink. 4The Progres sive Farmer is good paper-faur above the average- -andrpSssibly the best advertis ing meciuxn in N. C." Printers' Ink. THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY, ?ol. 12. RALEIGH, If. 0., AUGUST 24, 1897. Ho. 29 ' - ft diLi g NATIONAL FARMER3 ALLI ANCE AND INDUSTRIAL UNION. t resident Mann Page, Brandon, 'vice President 0. Vincent, Indian- -,-lis, Ind. 'fsci-etary Treasurer W. P. Bricker, ;X:a.an Station. Pa. LECTURERS. P. Sossamon, Charlotte, N. O. tamlin V. Poore, Bird Island, Minn, v H. Peirsol, Parkersburg, W. Va. fATIONAL EXEOUnTE COMMITTEE. ''ann Page, Brandon, Va. ; R. A. ,th worth, Denver. Col. ; John Bre ! W. Va. ; A. B. Welch, New York; a, iL. Gardner, Andrew's Settlement, JUDICIARY. Southworth, Denver, Colo. W. Beck, Alabama. . D. Davie, Kentucky. S2 CAECLKfA yARMERS' STATU ALLI ANCE. resident - Dr. Cyrus Thompson, hlanda, . O. , ice-President Jno. Graham,Ridgo retary -Treasurer W . 6. Barnes, " "Isboro, N. O. m ecturor J. T. B. Hoover, Elm City, "'-teward Dr. V. N. Seawell, Villa ,.vr, N. C. lain Rev. P. H. Massey, Dur- Vokeeper Geo. T. Lane, Greena- N. C. T w .sidtact Door-keeper Jas. E. Lyon, "rrhain, N. C. ergeant-at-Arms A. D. K. Wallace, i iherfordton, N. O. - -tote Business Agent T. Ivey, Hills 'SZIQ, N. C. . - rustco Business Agency Fund W. i. ffrahao, Machpelah, N. O. ,xxunva commtttee o the kortb UBOLINA FARMERS1 STATE ALLIANCE. l F. Hileman, Concord, N. C. ; w. English, Trinity, N. 0.; James M. Iwborne, Kins on, N. O. T3 ALLIANOa JUDICIARY COMMITTEE. ohn Brady, Gatesvflle, N. C.; Dr. . ITarrell, Whiteville, N. C; T. J. idler. Actcn. N. O. . tb Carolina Reform Preii Association. rkm Builer, Vice-Presuient ; W. & me, Secretary, PAPERS. , wire Farmer, State Orzan. Rllf. C. nksian Raleigh, r. L . rZ? Hickory, N. C. . ler, WUtakers, N. C. Hone. BTea,?eJ Dyx 9r Fo-nilst, Lnmbertoa, r. People's Paper, Charlotte, N. C. Vestibule, Concord, N. C. . Plow-Boy. Wadesboro, N. C. x uina Watchman, Saliabury, N. U . ach cf the above-named papers are ietizi to keep the list standing on pit page and add others, provided -j. y ate duly elected. Any paper fail- to advocate the Ocala platform will ; npr,td from the list promptly. Our v -. 'can now se what papers are tithed in their interest. &RIGXJX,TTJRE oat be in too much of a hurry to -; th'2 cows on th9 grass. If they are ' ued out too eoon they eat the grass n so close that it eetnn to get dia im iny farms it will be found a .phuto plant a patch of sweet corn f-.ciall for feeding to tho cows dur the Titter pari of summer and early lull. iinily tho man hai tho beat herd raises his calves. He knows the I 1 A 1 HI t taey are at noma mey win -h;i beet when taken good care of, . ciiUy do good cows eufier n j u - in strange herds. be in a hurry to get the cows :: the pasture at night, don't go af ;1 : . with a dog, unless it is a well iti -i:epherd dog that knows his ct and knows tho cows, and the Mku jv? him. " cco:"di;i3n of the cream when it id bio tho churn has much to do with ! ty of the butter. Just as the " m Logins to get thick is the be t litbn to make the best qualify of er s ith the last churning. o no' rxpect too much of a genrsl M e unimal; generally if milk pro ton is wanted it will bo secured at izreie- of so much beef q ialiflca-3- v;hat the cow excels in one ' ic'Ji-A.- she will lose in another, hardly excel both for beef and - W driry. 'vJO SOUTH, YOUNGJMAN." v cf iha most sensible schemes yet P to the Texas coast country -.ra, artisans and others who &a roason are diasatified at the & ar.it Eist." Go south or South :ef iL3 to have superseded the fa Ldvice, ' Go West, youngjnan." !c,n oiks eimply need the change Pt,ortunities effered by a new to get -on their feet. They 4 a chance to help themselves, and lkat their chance will be better in w region. Farm and Home. THE VALUE OF LITTLE THINGS. Repeated reference has been made in these columns to tho new uses to which tho corn stalk was being puf, and the gain which must accrue to the farmer in consequence, but the value placed by thinking men upon the scientific demonstration that corn stalks may b3 used for bo many manu facturing purposes has received new evidence recently of a most substantial nature. One Eastern money lender has notified his representative at Omaha that whereas a few months ago he would place no loans on Ne braska farms, he considered that the demonstrations referred to had added from $6 to $10 to every acre of corn land, and that he would be glad to loan on Nebraska farm mortgages to the limit cf at least $1,000,000 a year in consequence. Not ihe least important lesson to ba learned from this incident is the fact that it is the little things that are im portant in agriculture as in every other line cf business. The bonarza farmer, in times of high prices for hi? wheat or corn, is apt to treat with indifference tho coantless avenues for profit open to him on the ecore that they arc too small to given attention. But the shrewd money lender in Philadelphia sees in the utilization of tho corn stalk, heretofore left to rot upon thousands of Western farms, a safe basis for loan ing millions of money ? And one of the encouraging facts mentioned in the dispatch which forms the text for these observations is that the farmers are not borrowing, but are adopting what John Randolph, of Roanoke declared to be the real philos opher's stone the 'pay as you go" rule. Tae effer of loans Nebraska farmers are quoted as saying: 44 We have stopped borrowing money and propose to run on the cash basis in future." Which means that prosperity and content will be theirs, and fear of the mortgage fiend will be forever set at rest." Farmers' Voice. FARMING WITH DYNAMITE. Parsons (Kan.) Eclipse: A man at Mulvane, Kansas, has been making seme agricultural experiments tcith dynamite. He says: "It was discov ered that four ounces sunk two feet and four inches deep, loosened the ground all around to tho distance of from twelve to fourteen feet. It made the ground so loose that a common spade could be easily pushed down the entire length of tho spade and handle. The test was made on upland, where the soil is as hard as any to be found in Kansas. A quarter of a pouod of dynamito fired at a depth of thirty inches will loosen four Equare reds so that moisture will soak out all around and wet the subsoil. A shot of that kind C3st3 a little less than eight cents, forty shots will put an acre of ground in good condition to hold all the moist ure that falls on it. Forty shots at eight cents each will cost 1 3 20. An aero of upland with the subsoil broken thirty inches deep will yield on an average more than twice as much as an ad joiaing acre plowed in the ordi nary way. It will pay to fire a shot right whore ycu want to plant a tree. IMPROVING LAND. A new comer into the State from In diana who has bought a 350 acre farm in the Tidewater section, and who is out of debt and has money in hand, wants to know how to improve his place. He says: 'I wish to farm this land, not butcher and not rob it. I want to sow twenty five acres of red clover, and ten to fifteen acres of win ter oats and some rye this fall. I want to keep the kind of crops on my land that will constantly improve it, and to use enough of the proper kind of fer tilizer necessary to grow fertilizing crops." We are glad to have so clear headed a now comer amongst us. He evident ly intends to try to start right. Doing so, he will succeed. At the outset,, we would caution him not to try to do too much at once. His land, like nearly all the land in the particular section cf Tidewater where he is located, is no doubt much run down. It wants vege table matter or humus into it. The way to get this is to grow it as far as possible and supplement with farm yard manure. We would adviso him to apply 300 pounds of acid phosphate and 200 pounds of kainit to the acre to all land which he may seed in German clover," and we would suggest that in stead of sowing German clover alone, he sow ten pounds of German clover and three fourths of a bushel of rye to the acre. He will bo much more cer tain to secure a crop the first year in this way. This crop he can cut-off and make into hay and thus secure some feed for his stock, or turn down, if he can afford to do so. Follow this with cow peas, to be cut off or turned down in the fall early. Then seed to German clover again, and he will have laid the foundation for a fertile piece of land. We would not advise seeding either reel clover or grass this fall, un less upon land in much better condition than the average of land in his section. The probabilities are against red clover or grass being a success until the land has been improved. Sow winter oats and rye and use cotton seed meal, acid phosphate and kainit as a fertilizer say 300 pounds cotton seed meal, 200 pounds acid phosphate, and 150 pounds of kainit to tho acre. Land intended for corn next year should be plowed in the fall a3 early as possible, and be seeded with rye to prevent washing and to supply vegetable matter to the soil. Southern Planter. GRASS PASTURES. A word of caution is perhaps always in order when the q iestion of sowing grass BGed. clover or alfalfa is the theme for discussion. The great point to be gained here is in the preparation of the seed bed. An intelligent prepa ration cf the seed bed means that the farmer has been doing some thinking upon the sub j x;t. For a long number of years farmers believed that the tame grasses and clovers were not adapted to Western soils eimply because they did not know how to prepare the soil for receiving the seed. Now that this trick has been learned there is no good reason why every farm should net have its tame pasture. Indeed it h e come to play a most important part in the crop rotation of the farm. To be sure of a full stand, and this is a most important matter, it is necessary to make a well fined seed bed that the particles of soil may be brought into close and actual contact with the seed. Where there is neglect to do this prop erly a large proportion of tho seed sown never gets through the soil to ihe light if it germinates at all. When the bed 13 compact the seed all germinates promptly and comes through the eur face soil with sufficient vigor to fight a winning battle with all weed comers. It lis more than idle to go carelf ssly about the matter of sowing grass, clover or alfalfa seed. Nebraska Farmer. TRICKSTERS AT AGRICULTURAL FAIRS. Wherever largo numbers of people gather, a class of persons is usually found who make a living by deceiving the public. They have schemes and tricks innumerable that appear to be easy and simple; but in reality they are quite difficult and in some cases impossible to successfully perform They have wheels and machines that are doctored to turn as the proprietor may wish to make them. They have cocoanut headed negro dodgers to arouse the brutality in men and boys. They have tented shows which are dis gusting in cQaraenes3 and vulgarity. Among the throngs at agricultural fairs these leeches are out of place They contribute nothing helpful or good. They do not add to the attrac tion of the fair. They d ) not bring de sirabie patrons. They do not swell the gate receipts. They are not patronized by intelli gent patrons of the fair. They are not wanted by honest farmers. They ar6 shunned with fear by thoughtful pa rents. Because of their presence, even the fair is not patronized by many of our best citizens' families. The harm accomplished by thes self invited fakirs would doubtless sur prise us, ware it possible to gather and trace back to their door all the results of their work. They distract the thought, they divert the attention, they destroy the interest in the real work of the fair. The competitive ex hibition?, the meritorious displays, the awarding of pr:'z:s are all robbed of the undivided interest that belongs to them, and which the proprietors have labored day and night to develop. Tho morals of the country suffer seriously, we believe, from actions and words that, without warning, are sprung upon inquisitive audiences in the tent shows. We are glad to see that a strong effort is being put forth this season to keep these objectionable features out of the grounds, and the attitude of managers is encouraging E. B , ia Massachusetts Plowman. THE VINES OF NORTH CAROLINA When the first Raleigh expedition anchored eff Roanoke Island the cap tain and crew were charmed with the perfumes wafted by the winds from its shores, and when they landed and found that it came from the native grapes that fairly burdened the vinea, and that were as delicious to their palates as the fragrance was to their nostrils, the report of the same was en tered on the ship's log as one of the most interesting and important of all the discoveries these first British voy agers made, notes a writer in The Southern States. Since then, besides the Scuppernong, the Isabella'and the Catawba that were found . in North Carolina have been favorites in the United States, the first as a family table grape, the second for that and as a wine producer, and while many new varieties ol American and foreign origin have in later years become bet ter known and more popular in the markets, yet these have lost none of their excellences, and flourish as they did in the years that followed their in troduction to the public and their very general cultivation. N. Y. Times. m WORK OF THE EARTH WORM. It was the patient investigations of Charles D it win which resulted in the discovery of the importance of earth rorms as producers and maintainers of living layers of vegetable mold ; he established the fact and raised it to the rank of a scientific discovery, says an exchange. Darwin showed that earth worms act upon the soil in three ways. In the first plac3 they open up and loosen the ground for the roots to penetrate, more perfect aeration of the soil being thus obtained. The acids they secrete also act chemically upon the layer of rocks beneath in a way that assists the dis integration of the latter. In the second place, they crush in their . gizzards email fragments of stone and liberate their component elements. In she third place they drag down into their bur rows - countless numbers cf leave?, which they eat, and carry up the refuse to the surface. It is computed that no fewer than 53,000 worms inhabit an acre of garden soil. These worms pass through their bodies ten tons of mate rial in a year, and throw it up as mold at the rate of one inch in depth every five years. The greater part of this mold is composed cf a refuse of vege table matter, and is teeming w'ith myriads of bacteria. Even after allow ing for other co operating causes, earth worm3 are responsible for the forma ticn and renewal of thi3 layer of vege table mold Farmers' Voice. MAKING HEADWAY SLOWLY. The Southern States' Magazine, Bal timore, and the Manufacturers Record, both under the same management, en joy quite a little monopoly in defend V the American Cotton Company. However, the fact remains that it has all the appearances of a trust, and the Piesidcnt of the American Cotton Com pany is Secretary Treasurer of the Sugar Trust, the biggest trust in the world outside of the money trust. The last issue of the Southern States' Maga zine ha3 the following in defense of the Company, but it doesn't hide the cloven foot at all : When announcement was made of the formation o! the American Cotton Company, interested in the improve ment in handling cotton known as the round bale system, the editor of The Progressive Farmer immediately sent up his warning flag. In spite of the wide publicity which has since been given to the company's purposes and its methods of operation, the flag seems to be still floating, and to offer a reason for it the editor seems to have conjured up some sort of an intangible bogy. He is apparently not satisfied with waving his flg in the columns of The Progressive Farmer, for in the last bulletin of the North Carolina Ag ricultural Department, and also in the contemporaneous issue of The Pro gressive Farmer is identically the same editorial dealing again with the American Cotton Company. After al luding to the ' quiet and seemingly deep laid plans of the American Cotton Company, a vast combination claiming ownership ot a new process for ginning, baling and marketing cotton," which is rather odd, in view of several months' widespread publicity, and after an nouncing that there is no objection to the company's going 'on with the manufacture of the machinery" and selling "it in the usual way, allowing superiority, if it is indeed superior, to win public favor," the editorial says: "But the persons interested should see that the company keeps within proper bounds, and steps ought to be at once taken to discover just how much or how little danger there is to be appre hended from the combination." The recent statement of the President of the company, that its purpose is to operate the new machines upon a co operative basi3 ought to allay any fears about "oeemingly deep laid plans," but in that connection it might also be well to read the statement made by Mr. Jerome Hill, the general agent of the company. Referring in the Natchez (Vliss.) Democrat to the en dorsement of leading citizens of Jack son, Tenn , o! the workings of the first cylindrical bale press erected east of the Mississippi river. Mr. Hill wrote: "It is simply an organization who own many valuable patents, obtained after much expense and costly experi ment for the economical handling and baling of cotton. The company pro poses to introduce this press in the South in a manner to give themselves a fair reward for enterprise and heavy investments that will be more than re turned to the producers by great eco nomical savings and increased value of their cotton crops. We are making no war or fight upon anyone. We take the compresses to the cotton field, in stead of as now the cotton field to the compresses. We make every station or inland town where one of these com presses is erected a compress town, that gives them a right to request and expect of the transportation companies the same liberal treatment that is now meted to the central compress station. Our system obviates bagging and ties. It stops any useless and extravagant system of sampling and re sampling, of weighing and re weighing. It does the work of both the old box press at home and the press in the cities. It is an un qualified success, as it saves in every way in the handlinguf cotton from the field to the loom. I ask of the good people of my native State (Mississippi) a thorough investigation ot this new ey stem, that I know is now revolution izing the cotton industry of our coun trya necessary reform long needed. I have spent the major portion of my life as a cotton producer, a cotton fac tor, and have been interested for years in the compressing of cotton under the old . system, and at this time have in "operation three of these round bale presses, and I assure your readers that they are doing all that has ever been claimed for them in economical sav ings. blOJElTICXJLTXJBE CULTIVATING ORCHARDS The fact that cultivating crops of all kinds is of material assistance to them is well known to every tiller of the soil. How greatly it benefi s them is not fully real z d by all, says Joseph Mehan in the Practical Farmer. The farmer's boy, in many cases, takes to the hoe harrow as a something belonging to the summer routine, without giving much thought as to the reason for it. It must be partly from this lack of thinking that so many inquiries come to this department in regard to the utility of cultivating orchard?, other wise it would occur to those who ask that growth is governed by the same laws, be it connected with a crop of corn or anorchard of apple trees. The one who continually cultivates bis far m crops will obtain baiter results than he who does not. Many years ago I was interested enough in the matter to beer the loss from an experiment in this line. I say loss, for I was sure it would be a loss, but I wanted the proof. There were several rows of potatoes running the length of the vegetable garden. Two of these rows were left uncultivated the whole season, the other rows were hoe harrowed and hand hoed several times throughout the season. Early in the summer, judging by the tops and general apparance of the plants, it was easy to foretell the result. There was not nearly the thrifty look to the unhoed ones that the others displayed. I have forgotten the exact amount of tubers obtained, but I will never forget what a poor showing the uncultivated ones made, and what a valuable lesson it was to me. The farm crop does the best that receives constant attention, the soil being loos ened up constantly. It is just the same with trees. Tne successful nurseryman is the one who sets the hoe harrows working early in the season and stops only when growth is perfected in the late summer, Coming to orchard trees, there is nothing different required in their treatment. As soon as planted, keep the cultivator going, at least as far as the roots extend. Young trees have not much spread of branches or roots for some years. A tolerably safe rule is to assume that the roots extend as far a3 the branches, and cultivation should cover this ground. Until trees are so large that it may be inferred the whole ground is covered by them, there is no reason why the intervening spaces should not be utilized for other crops. A space down the centre of a line of trees may as well have some crop in it as not, but in every case where a crop is taken from the ground, see to it that what it takes out as food is returned to it in the shape of manure. Without advocating it, it ia likely that a full farm crop should be taken from a young orchard for a few years, if the crop was provided with its own food. The trees must not be robbed. Instead, they would be better fed every year by the applying of the mulching of manure in the fall. While urging the necEe&ity of cultivation and manuring, there is, I think, a time when this may stop. When a tree reaches a good bear ing size, I have not found that constant cultivation was of any use to it. In stead of stirring up the soil continually, it is better to let it be in grass. Let it be a pasture field where the grass will be kept low all the time, and the trees will thrive well enough. Fruit trees are often on lawns where grass is mowed continually, and they do very well without cultivation, making a fair growth, though not a fast one. Trees well manured and cultivated have more vitality than those not so treated. Go to a nursery and buy fifty trees that have been in uncultivated ground for several years, get fifty more that have been cultivated for the same period, and make a note of results. The cultivated lot will do ever so much the better. WHAT ONE PO TATO DID. A man in Tolland, Conn., found a very small potato in one of his pockets when ho came in from his work. " "Here," said he, laughingly to .a boy twelve years old who lived with bim, "plant that and you shall have all ycu can raise from it till you are of age." The bright little boy cut the potato into as many pieces as there were "eyes" in it and planted it. In the autumn he dug and laid by the increase of it, and planted that in the following spring. Next year he planted the larger crop gathered the previous au tumn. The potatoes-grew healthily and did well, and his fourth year's har vest amounted to four hundred bush els. The farmer asked to be released from his bargain, for he saw the boy's planting would cover all his land. And yet it is quite common to de spise "the day of small things." Northwestern Christian Advocate. GLEANINGS FOR GARDENERS. Sometimes one will find in the tcrn to field a vine of exceptional good qual ity, either in the amount of yield, the vigor of the vines or in the eizo and form of the fruit. We would like to have a field of vines like that, but we know that the chances of perpetuating by saving the fruit of that vine for seed would be but small. Tomatoes from seed will be very nearly like the parent fruit when the plant is isolated from all others, or when all near it are of the same type, but with others of another sort near by there would be but a small part of the product that would retain ail the characteristics of the parent plant. Most gardeners know that the toma to can be propagated from slips, but not many know that tho slip will take root almost as easily and surely as a geranium or coleus cutting. Yet this is true, and a few slips from a choico vine can be rooted and carried through the winter in the house, and before spring dozens of plants can be secured, stout, stocky plante, if not given too much heat or too rich a soil, each of which will be wcrth much more than the ordinary seedling plant. Theso plants pet in abed by themselve3,away from other varieties, would probably produce seed that would result in plants nearly all like the original plant. It would require but the requisite num ber of two inch or three-inch pots, and a little care and labor. The possible gain is this: While a peck to the vine of ripened fruit ia a fair yield in a large field, individual vines often yield more than a bushel each. The qualities of early ripening, smooth and firm fruit, can be fixed as Well as the prolific yield, and perhaps easier... It is worth trying. American Cultivator.