Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Nov. 2, 1897, edition 1 / Page 1
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V Tbe Prores jjre Firmer is a tood paper far fooTe the ayer-e.-and possibly Jbe best advertis medium m N. qT. printers Ink. "The Prezrta tive Farmer iaa good paper fxx above the aver-age- -and possibly the best advertis ing medium in li. C." Printers Ink. 4 THE IEDUSTBIAL ASJ) EDUCATIONAL OTEEESTS OF OUB PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. Vol. 12. RALEIGH, If. C, HOVEMBER 2, 1897. No. 39 lOGtiSBIYl NATIONAL FARMERS' ALLI- aw w w UNION. President Mann Page, Brandon, Yico President C. Vincent, Indian- 'retary Treasurer W. P. Bricker, nogan Station. Pa. LECTURERS. . t p Rnamon, Charlotte, N. C. y H. Peirsol, Parkersburg, W. Va. VATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Ma-a PaS0' Brandon, Va.; R. A. anthcrtb, Denver, Col.; John Bre Va ; A. B.' Welch, New York; A. Gardner, Andrew's Settlement, JUPICIARY. g Southworth, Denver, Cola W. Deck, Alabama. , D. Davie, Kentucky. SORTH CABOLISA. FARMERS' STATE ALL! ASTC3. President Jno. Graham, Ridgeway, N'Vic3-Prc3idcnt-W. B. Upchurch, Horrisville, N. C. Secretary-Treasurer J.T. B.Hoover, ateusinesa Agent T. B. Parker. Hilteboro, N. O. ' Lecturer-Dr. V. N. Seawell, Villa- CJtant Lcturer W. B. Brick house, Mackey Ferry, N. O. Chaplain W. S. Mercer, Moyock, C boor-keeper Geo. T. Lano, Greena- bcro, N. C. issistant Door-keeper Jaa. E. Lyon, D lrbarn, N. O. aergeant-ai- Arms A. D. K. Wallace, Bdeigh, N. O. Trustee Business Agency Fund YV. A. Graham, Maehpelah, le. O. IXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OT TEE KORTH CAR )L1NA FARMERS' BTATC AXX1ANG2J. J. W. Denmark, Chairman, Raleigh, ' John Graham, Ridgeway, N. C. W. B. Fleming, Ridgeway, N. C. A. F. Hileman, Concord, N. O. Dr J. B. Alexander, Charlotte, N. C. Tbcmae J. Oldham, Teer, N. C. STATE A'uLIANCB JUDICIARY COMMITTED. Dr. J. E Person, Pikeville, N. C. W. S. Barnes, Raleigh, N. C. T. Ivey, Hillsboro, N. C. ,tih Carolina Reform Press Association. C&ccrJ. L. Ramsey, President; virion Builer, Vice-President; TV. S. Scrnw, Secretary, PAPERS. i-nsroslYa Firmer, State Organ, Raleteb. N. O. 'Wr Hickory, C. Whit&kers, N. O. ar Home, Beaver Dara, N. C. te Pcyuilst, LbFti)? 9,' fte PeciJe'a Paper, Charlotte, . C. e Vestibule, Concord, N. C. Tte Plow- Boy. Wadesboro. N . C. l&relin Watchmun, Salisbury, N. C. jt.9-rm v j vfvv www w v f 2,do &eep tfcfi liat starAing ori r; page ana aaa oincre, yi uv v;? crs eiecrecx. .ny paper j uit ij ?o advocate tfce Oca 3a platform will J a, epped rom tic ur prompuy. kt rnn in run CAP t7Lrtf rxioerj are - tgtt vvf Mr Mr hli:.hrd in their interest. AGRICULTURE. WITH TAR HEEL FARMER R3. Apout Some Items for Them and Some Them Watermelons were sold in Statesville on the 25th. v It is eaid that the farmers of We st ern North Carolina have harvested one of the best crops of tobacco for ipany years. " Tae N. C. Agricultural Societ has elected Col. JchnS. CunniDgham ?rei deat of the Society, vice R. H. Battle resigned. Hon. John Nichch is" still Secretary. Mie Russell, of Union county, has and uses a set of harness made 43 years ago. The Winston Republican suggests that it is probably the oldest set of harness in uae. Oar old friend, Mr. E J. Davis, of Shanghai, is 74 years of age and can Pick 100 pounds of cotton every day. H3 is one of the county's sturdy citi 3na -Shelby Star. Davidson Dispatch : Frank Hedrick cl Silver Hill township, raised 1100 toshela of corn and 220bushels of heat on less than 40 acres of land this ar. Th6 land is of very thin soil. The Cleveland Star says: Jesse Hard of No. 5 township is 84 years of and remarkably strong and active! Be pi.ked 104 pounds of cotton one day last week and wasn't in the leaet ktiued. Tne Ripple says that A. Douglas, of dkinviile, raised a beet this year ft measured 3 feet in length, 15 tocheg in circumference. It weighed 14 pounds and grew 2 feet and 3 inches abe the ground. The Landmark says that a States cotton buyer, who has been buy cotton on that market for many year3, eays a large number of the f arm a of this section are holding their cot fo higher prices, as little has been V sold there. The fact that so many of the farmers can hold their cotton argues, this buyer thinks, that they are in better condition than formerly. Iredell county ha3 been boasting of a corn stalk which measured 9 feet 3 inches from the ground to the ear. The Hustler man is on his mettle and says that Wilkes produced one 10 feet from the ground to the ear, the entire length being 17 feet and 10 inches. Our brother oditor of the Morgan ton Farmers' Friend, is a pretty good fel low. He says that Thompson Gilliam, has a cow which gives butter without churning. 4The good wife simply goes to the morning's milk at sunset and re moves from its surface the butter she needa for tea." Fact, this. Haywood county's apple interests are getting to be something worth talking about. There are about six orchard? now that will average their owners 5,000 per year. A good apple orchard in tbia country is better than an orange grove in Florida. Tee crop never completely faila here. Waynes ville Courier. We learn from the Southern Planter, of Richmond, Va., that Mr. G J. Row land, Jr., of Prince Gaorgo county, Vs., has this year, notwithstanding the re cent drouth, raised one of the finest crops of pumpkins seen for year3. The variety grown was the Virginia Mam moth. Three of the pumpkins weigjfd respectively 46t pounds, 46J pounds, and 41 pounds a total of 134 pounds. Thesa pumpkins are excellent food for hogs and a great weight of food can be raised on an acre of land. Joseph Meehan, writing in Garden ing, saj s : "Let anyone who has acorns or hickory nuts or walnuts on hand, place them at once in slightly moist soil, keeping them in it till the ground is in condition to work in the spring, and the seeds will be in the best pos eible condition. Get a box and mix the seed and cil together, placing. the box in some cool place free from frost. Both oaks and hickories are hard to transplant, so are walnuts. Amateurs who want but a plant or two of a kind, would perhaps find the placing of the nuts where they wish the trees to be, as satisfactory a way as any. Two or three cculd be placed together, all but the etroDgesjLbAjnipved, should GREAT BONANZA. WHEAT FARM It is difficult to present the idea of the bigness of these far ma to the per. son whose preconceived notion cf a farm is a little checker board lying upon a hillside or in a valley. Seven thousand acres present the average bonanza farm. Generally these tracts are not divided. Yet distances across fields are so great that horseback com munication is impracticable. Crews of workmen living at one end of the farm and operating it may not see the crews in other corners from season's end to season's end. And in busy seasons it is found profitable to feed the hands in the fields rather than to allow them to trudge through the hot eun to the dining halls for dinner. The dining halls it will be explained -later are scattered over the farm at con venient points. They are frequently five or six miles apart, and many a noon finds the harvesting crew two miles from its hall. This illustration may give one some sort of a rough con ception of the bigness of these-farms. Here i3 another point of view : Aver aging twenty bushels to the acre as many farms will this year the total number of bushels in a crop on a bo nanza farrn would be 140,000; putting five hundred bushels of that crop in a freight car, and allowing forty feet to the car, the train which would haul the crop from the farm would be two miles long, and if it were to come charging down Fifth Avenue and Aroadway, in New York, the "rear end" brakeman would be craning his neck from the caboose to catch sight of the Vanderbilt mansion while the engineer and fireman were enjoying; themselves bumping the cable c&r down by Union Square. Wm. All xl Wte Q tb ovemer Scribner's. A f armer says : For ten y ear3 I hi ve made it a practice to give every ongr of my growing animals at least one heap ing tables poonful of flour sulphur in the feed twice a week, including horses, cattle, eheep and swine, and during that time I have not , had a diseased or sick animai When fattening cattle, sheep or swine, howev. r, I increase this to three times a week. A little of it occasionally is also good for poultry. When feeding sulphur shelter should be provided for all the stock. They should not bo permitted to get wet. - rnorg4fe!Sn 0 1 one grow." 1Ss 1 WEEKLY DIGEST Of Experiment Station Bulletins. No. 93. (Prepared by J. Linn Ladd, atd condensed for readere i f The Progressive Farmer.) HOW FARMERS MAY EXPERIMENT. In our general digest of fertilizer bulletins last week we emitted No. 123 of the Ithaca (N. Y ) Station, cne of the most important of the lot. It gives directions for experiments to be con d'jcted by each farmer to determine what fertilizing elements hi3 particular soil most needs. This test may prevent his wasting money for elements which hia soil does not need. Every crop is mo&tly mado up of water, carbon, lime, nitrogen, phos phoric acid and potash. If the crop cannot get enough of aay one of thtfce foods it will not thrive, no matter how much of tho others it may have. All know that iC a crop suffers for waat of water it is cut short. A deficiency in supply of any one of the pther elements named will also cut it short. On the other hand, if there is an excess of any one of them it is just aa useless to sup ply more of it as it would be to water a crop during a wet spell, though not as harmful, of course. Except in irrigating countries, the supply o! water to crops is beyond man's control, and they get their car bon in abundance from the air. Most soils contain enough lime. Therefore, of all the food required by growing crops the farmer needs to supply only nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, and when he buys fertilizers these are the things ho pays for. If his soil al ready contained enough of either, it is a waste of money to buy more. It may here be remarked that, except in a few special cases, he should never buy ni trogen as a fertilizer. It costs two or three times as much per pound as either phoephoric acid or potash, and by feeding cotton seed meal, bran, lin seed meal or gluten meal to stock he will get their full worth in meat, milk, wool, butter, etc , and will also recover their rich stores of nitrogen in the ma nure. Or, by growing peas, clover, velch or other podded plants thai gather nitrogen from the air, he may get his nitrogen free of cost. If his soil needs phoephoric acid or potash, let him buy these in the form of acid phosphate and muriate of potash their cheape3t form. rSJptow shall he find this out? One man say a 'Have his soil analyzad by a chemist" But this is of little use. It ia well known that chemical analysis shows that the first foot in depth of almost anv soil contains from 50 to 500 times as much phosphoric acid and potash ai any crop needs, And yet many sueh soils do not yield good crops unless ejiPPed with phosphoric acid and pctasli. Why? Simply because whatfthey contain is so combined with other chemical elements in the soil as to be insoiuble in water, and the roots of plants can use only such food as is dissolved in water. Such things as salt, lime, acid, etc., sometimes benefit soils by rendering their natural stores of plant food soluble. Humus or de caying vegetable matter helps-in the same way, besides rendering a soil warmer, more moist and porous. The only way for the farmsr to find out what fertilizing elements his soil needs is by actual test the way in which we have learned pretty much all we know about agriculture. It is not an easy road to learning, but to a thinking man it is an interesting and pleasant one. Let the plats be wide enough to con tain five or six rows of the crop and long enough to extend across the field ; each one will then take in part of the strips of all kinds of soil, if the soil is not uniform. Let all plats be of the same size, broken alike and on the same day, planted alike and on the same day and with the same crop, and always cultivated alike and on the same day. Then, whatever difference may appear at harvest time may be fairly attributed to difference of fertili zar used. As plants often send their roots across middles to feed on the fer tilizers in the next row, it is well to have each plat wide enough to contain five rows, and ignore the two outside rows, gathering and measuring the three middle rows of each plat for com parison of results. Have nice plats, numbered 1 to 9. On No. 1 apply stable manure; on No. 2 muriate of potash at the rate of 200 pounds per acre; on No. 3 nitrate of soda at the rate of 200 pounds per acre; on No. 4 both muriate of potash and citrate of soda at the same rate, 200 pounds each per acre; on No. 5 no fer tilfz?r; on No. 6 superphosphate at the rate of 400 pounds per acre; on No. 7 superphosphate and muriate of potash at the rate of 400 pounds ol-t he first and 200 pounds of tlie seconder acre; on No. 8 superphosphate, muriate of potash and nitrate of soda at the rate of 400, 200 and 200 pounds per acre, re spectively; On No. 9 superphosphate and nitrate of soda at the rate of 400 pounds of the first and 200 pounds of the second per acre. At harvest time gather the three middle rows of all plats on the same day, measure or weigh them separately, keeping a careful memorandum, and then study this memorandum. It will tell you how each of these three ele mcntsuaed separately, or any two, or all three combined, have affected the crops, as compared with stabls manure and also as compared with the plat that received nothing. If the nitrate of soda has been of much benefit, then j'our soil needs ni trogen and you should grow it or secure it in manure as above indicated. If greater accuracy is desired and the experimenter is deeply intereeted ho may have two or three sets cf nine plats each, as atiove, and average the results of both or all three plats of the same kind and then compare these averages. ; QUANTITY TO THE ACRE. Repeated experiment has proved that the practice of applying large quantities of manure to the acre on a limited acreage, making it necessary to leave much of the land unmanured, does not pay. Not a few farmers never apply less than twenty tons of stable manure to an acre, saying that they prefer to do well what they do, and let the remainder of the land take its chances. Twenty tons of manure on one acre, plowed under for spring crop, makes the soil richer for years no doubt about that but it will not im prove the productive power of a farm nearly so much as the same amount of manure used as top dressing on three acres, provided clover is grown with tVIs supply of plant food. It is poor tarming to keep up a few acres near the barn with the entire supply of stable fertilizer and let thin fields fail to make heavy sods. Manurial crops are the chief dependence on a majority of farms, or should be, and enough farm manure should be used to assist thin soils wherever found, so that all the fields may increase their supply of vegetable matter and be permanently improved, and then any additional eupply can be safely used to enrich the pet field from which one wants a ban ner crop. Granting that there are ex ceptions, it is the rule that manure should be kept near the surface of the soil, should be applied more frequently and less heavily, and should be used to insure a growth of some fertilizing crop. David. WAYSIDE GATHERINGS. Large pieces of old scd form the very bsst winter protective material when obtainable. These heaped about the roses will protect the most tender from severe freezing, and they come out in the spring in splendid condition. It is just as good used about any other hardy plant, says Vick's Magazine. Soot from the kitchen chimney, especially from a wood fire, is invalu able in cultivation of flowers. Rich in ammonia it stimulates and deepens the color of flowers. Used as an insecticide it is equally effective in destroying and removing the pest on account of the creosote contained in it. Soot from hard coal exclusively ia of less value, still it is worth saving. USE BUSINESS METHODS. One great drawback to successful farming is the lack of business methods. If a man will study the characterics of his soil and climate and grow such crops as are best adapted to prevail ing conditions; if he will be methodical and give as much attention to details as is necessary in almost any other line of business, he will succeed, if the elements cf success are within him. There is much in the man and in the way he goea at a thing -The Epitomist. If you will take one cat by himself and pinch his tail he will scratch and bite your hand. But take two cats and put them side by side and pinch both their tails at the same time and they will bite and scratch each other. Plutocracy has learned this trick. So it gets the people arrayed in the two old parties and then it pinches their tails and they fight each other. Like the cats they. .river turn to fight the hand that is pinching them Kaufman Leader. - POTATO CULTURE IN MICHIGAN Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer. in looking over The Progressive Farmer it occurs to my mind that it i may be made a medium of valuable knowledge to its many readers engaged in tilling the soil. While it is largely devoted to politics, reform and Alliance matters, there appears no reason why it may not be an 4 experience meeting" on methods and results. There is a wide variety of methods in practical farming. No cne knows it all. , Each one may learn from others. Surely the methods as to soil, fertilizer, seed, time of planting, tillage, harvest end mar keting cotton, tobacco, truck farming and other crops, is not the same in all parts of the South, nor even in all sec tions of North Carolina. As a starter, I will give a discussion of potato culture in this part of the North, Michigan. It is quite a business in Oklahoma, Lapeer, Genesee and adjoining counties situated in tho center of tho lowr pen insula. A few early potatoes are usually planted in the garden for home use, but the yield of early potatoes is so very small that the farmer cannot compete with those grown farther South. Usually they mature just as the mar ket price is broken by the rush of po tatoea from the Ohio Valley, and ship ments to the cities do not pay. For main crop such standard varie ties as the Bur bank. Empire State, Green Mountain, Rural No. 2, Hebron, &c., are chosen. The ground is fitted for planting about June 1st to 10th. All varieties' of soil are utilized from the gravelly loam of Oakland hills to the muck swamps and pine sands of Lapeer and Gacesee, -though clay is usually avoided as too uncertain in results. Clover sod is good ; corn stubble is often used. The better class of farmers, those who make money and have a plenty of t?ols, turn the furrow with a three-horse plow, follow with roller pole drag leveller, and cutting the soil thoroughly with spring tooth harrow ana" disc cultivator. The ground being well pulverizsd, the ground is marked for planting. Some use a shovel plow to make light trenches, so me use a one hbrse cultivator with the7 one wide flanged center tooth, some have a home made marker, a one horse ool with shafts and three legs that make two shallow trenches at a trip, while a few have regular potato planting machines. A few hand and foot planters are in use one man power. The ground be ing marked in rows about three feet apart, one or more follow with a bag of seed cut two to four eyes to the piece, and drop one piece in a place fifteen to eighteen inches apart in the drill. These are followed by a man and horse with the cultivator, having two outside teeth only, set so as to throw a ridge of soil over the seed. As the man drops the piece of potato he steps on it, thus pushing it into the dirt where the horse doesn't disturb it while walking in the drill furrow. Some farmers run a roller length wise over the rows if the weather is dry, but usually the field is left until the potatoes are well out of the ground. The cultivation is nearly all by horse power, and is quite thorough. If needed, the best farmers go through once, hoeing and pulling the weeds in the drill row. The fight with-bugs be gins early and is carried on with Paris green. Many go through the field andkneck the bugs off into a pan of water with kerosene oil on it. Some take a pail of water" with a spoonful of Paris green stirred in it on the arm and go through dabbing a whisk broom in the solution and shaking it over each hill. Soma use a hand spray pump; the largerpro ducers have a barrel on a cart and run by horse power. The crop being planted late is usually caught by .the frost with the tops still green. After being cut by frost, the potatoes ere left in the earth two to four weeks to ripen, else the skin is easily torn in handling. In harvesting the crop the extensive growers with 25 to 100 acres will use a potato digger, usually. Others use hooks or forks, throwing two1 rows into one. At this season, of year there is danger of frost, and a part of the crew will begin picking up after noon. For this purpose, a horse and stone boat having eight or ten baskets or crates, i3 driven between the rows, the baa kets being filled from both sides. The load is drawn to a pit conveniently located for the day's work. In these pits from 25 to 200 bushels are placed, covered with straw and a thin coat of dirt. Later, after the potatoes have done "sweating" and before winter, they are moved to the cellar; shipped if the price is good, or covered deeoer - for winter. Tho crop is a lottery. Two years ago last spring the price rose to nearly 50 cents per bushel, dropped swiftly day by day to nothing. That was a dry season, but the crop yielded wonder fully. Many held 'over until spring. When the pits were opened and the markets flooded, potatoes couldn't bo given away. Thousands of bushela rotted in the pits. The next season was another immense crop. Yields of 400 bushela. to the acre were not un common. Lots of potatoes were not dug at ail. Last spring the price started in at 6 cents; gradually rose to 12; and, when the Southern floods destroyed the plantings in the South, jumped to 25 cents in a week. I have known the price to start at a shilling, run up to 50 cents and fall to give away, in a couple of month3. Last spring many were discouraged and quit. The State was 33.000 acres short. The season was disastrous to tho crop. The bugs were the worst in years. The frequent showers washed the poison off and many fields were practically rumed. The best yielded about 100 bushels per acre. But" the'' price was good started at 40 to 45 cents and fell to 35 cents. Many hold the crop believing it will be 50 to 75 cents in the spring. v A. Bobean. Davison.Mich. BERMUDA GRASS. Bermuda grass should never be allowed 'to get a hold" upon a farm. When once it does, then is the tug of war. In a recent issue of the Country Gentleman, James Voorhees, of Indi ana, writes: Bermuda grass is my victorious enemy. I first moved on the enemy's workaat Fresno, Cal , where I have a tract of 20 acres adjoining the town. This was 12 years ago, and I have been crowded back, inch by inch, ever since, anxiously looking for 'Blucher" to come up and save the day. The grass was brought on the place by my predecessor for a lawn in front nf t.rin hnnsft And nt. fVint-. Hmn ita no. . T' nicious qualities were unknown, it is simply a humbug as ajawn grass, for it ia of a dirty brown color from No vember to May, and we have no snow to cover it at Fresno. It is also impos sible to make hay out of it, for it is only a mass of roots, so intertwind and in terlaced as to make a thick, solid mat over the ground. In time this mat be comes so firm and hard as to defy the plow, unless four or more horses are attached thereto, and even then the work is slow and exhausting. I chopped out enough of the matting with an ax to make me a very nice, cool cellar, with walls 4 feet in thick ness all around. The blocks of matting were oblong, about 5 by 13 inches, and about 6 inches thick, and were laid in the walls of the cellar without plaster or cement of any kind. This was in 1888, and the cellar is still as good as new. At this time I was verdant enough to suppose such drastic measures would exterminate the grass on the portion from which the blocks were removed, but it only, temporarily retarded its growth. It is not only practically indestructi ble, but its spreads everywhere, mak ing it perhaps the greatest pest ever introduced into the United States. A public highway borders on the lawn, in front of my place, and plows and road scrapers carry along roots of the grass, so that the road is bordered with the stuff, in f pots, for long distances each way.- These spot3, in their turn, send out their shoots and tendrils into the farms adjoining the highway, and thus the mischief is ever on the increase. From my experience, I am satisfied that where air can be excluded from it, it will die, but the tug of war ia to exclude the air. Constant application of manure will exclude the air, but it takes an immense quantity of manure, for the first applications make tho grass grow mere luxuriantly. Somo of the Fresno farmers say it can bo killed eff by constant plowing, day after day and week after week, during our long, dry summers, and perhaps it can, if the children and the children's children will keep up the work. In thia climate, with its summer raina. I am satisfied that plowing would culti vate rather than destroy it. As a feed or pasture also, .the grass ia a delusion. Live stock will eat it sooner than starve, but where they are at liberty to seek other food they only graz? on it for an hour or two for a change. It ia not to be mentioned in the same breath with alfalfa, that prince of grasses, yet it will kill off alfalfa and sweep the soil clean of all vegetation except itself. If it did not spread with such facility, the pest would really be useful in a schoolyard, for no amount of tramping affects it, and it also grows well on alkali land where no other vegetation will thrive. As iu cannot be confined, however, to where it ia wanted, it ia a very mixed blessing anyway. You will conclude I am not very much in love with thia gras3, and I hope the Country Gentleman will fight against ita invasion from the West. Jakes Voosnra. Steuben Co., Ind. J
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Nov. 2, 1897, edition 1
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