North Carolina Newspapers

The Progjret tlre Farmer is a good paper far above the aver age and possibly te best advertis ing: medium in N. C." Printers' Ink. Has the largest circulation of any family agricultu ral or political paper published between Rich mond and Atlanta MOGtESSIYE In H a THE INDUSTRIAL MD EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUS PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER' CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. Vol. 13. EALEIGH, N. 0., AUGUST 2, 1898. No. 26 'STTmmm I " i ' i ' " i ! i PUBLISHED WEEKLY -pjlf. date on your label tells you when your ixc-rli'tlnn expires. Receipts for mon-y on ln -t iiptioa will be given in change of date on ;lel. It' ot .oeriy chargtd in two weeks, notify Mont y at cur rik if Fnt by rti- ered letter or money order. 1'hasc don't . ni .t;fj,s. tV i-ure to give both old and icw addresses in ordering change of post flice. iU-i- of Advertising Ua'esten cents per agate ;;e. Liberal discounts for time and space. e waist intelligent correspondents in every , nintv in the Stat'. We want ECTS of value rt-ults accompiisbfd of value, experiences of value, p ainly ami brieflv tod. One solid. .!enioiistrtited fact, is worth a tlioufcand theories. The Editor, are lot rt sponsible for the views C rre-i ondents. The Progressive Farmer is the Official iru-anof the Ncith Carolina Farmers' tftate A i-is.nce. l am standing ncxc just behirui tr rtain, and in full glow of the ccntiinp unset. Behind ma are the shadows or? track, before nie lies the dark valley ind the river. When I ir.ingle with its ;ark waters I want to cast one linger ng look upon a country whose govern rent is of the people, for the people, md by the people," L, L. PoU, uuly ',ih, 1890. EDITORIAL. NOTES. We wish to call attention to the ad. of Catawba College, and also to the ads. of thoso excellent academies", Warrenton High School and Bingham School. Catalogues free. Every farmer and dairyman should read Prof. Emery's article on tho "Ad aptations of the Southern States, and Especially North Carolina, for Dairy Farming," in our dairy columns last week. Apropos of the yellow journal stories, an exchange remarks that "it will be well to take many of the stories sent home about the Cubans with many grains of salt." Yes, but all the salt on this terrestial globe cannot keep some of these truthless yarns from epoiling in a day. Thero are,, several people in this world who do not want the truth. We don't care to do missionary work among these, but we do hope that friends of reform will put The Progressive Far mer into the hands of every voter who does not glory in the fact that his brainworks are run by the machine, and that he cannot think unless the bosses give the order. We do not suppose that any of our readers wish to give any Democratic epeaker the lock jaw, but we have a prescription which seldom fails to make one lock his jaws temporarily. Juat ask him to explain where the $5,000 per month which should have been turned over to the State Treasurer from the Secretary of State's cfFue in the days of the expiring cx pie ring went to? Thus far we do not know that a single subscriber has condemned rur course in the Clark Kdgo discussion. But there are doubtless some who differ with us, and we do not claim to be in fallible. Marcus Aurelius said: "If any man is able to show me that I do not think right, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth by which no man was ever injured." These are our sen timents. Only these whose dcecs are evil obj ct to light, and only tho prejudiced refuse to hear the truth. Therefore we shall be glad to have Dr. Kilgo or any of his friends give the other side of the case in our columns. Murder will out. Here's another proof of the fact. We believe we have thus far failed to note the confirmation cf the theory of American naval inves tigators that the bending inward and upward of the Maine's keel was a proof that the explosion was from the out eide. It will be remembered that un der the terrific fire of our fleet the magazines in the Spanish ships at San tiaga exploded. Investigation proves that tho effect was to blow up the decks while the hulls were not com plciely pulverized nor were tho keels turned up as in the cae of tho Maine. Can it longer be doubted that the Miino was blown up by the Spaniards in revenge tor American friendship for the Cubans? Wa wish to call the attention of our f irmer readers to the announcement of Farmers' Institutes in another column. farmer?, and citizens generally, arc iavited to aaend these institutes. Ladies are given special invitation. Tin speakers are all practical agricul turta and will entertain and instruct uP)aall questions pertaining to agri culture, horticulture, dairy farming. poultry raising dtid other subjects of interest to farmers. Every farmer ic the counties named should make it a point to attend and spend a pleasant and profitable day. Some persons at each appointment should take hold and form a committee of arrangements and see that the meetings arc thoroughly advertised in the local papers and other wise. m There is a division of the opinion as to the valuo of the Cubans ia our pres ent struggle with Spain. Some insist that they are entirely worthless, and our soldiers are paid to dislike them. But perhaps after ail they are fighting as bravely as ignorant men who know little of modern arms could be expected to fight. The charge of cruelty is brought against them, but we should remember that they are but human and to most humans rovenge is sweet. Perhaps if the bodies of ycur father and mother had been found among those of the starved reconcentradoes, you, too, would be a little cru:l in ycur treatment of captured Spaniards. It may be a surprise to some to learn that evidences of tho horrors of Span iah rule in Cuba are still seen daily. It was only last week that we read in the dailies the following pitiful appeal ad dressed by the starving people of Cien fuegos to Rear Admiral Sampson: 'Honorable Sir: The Cubans, old men, women and children, resident in the town cf Cienfuegos and this neigh borhood, are all dying of hunger. The young men are all in the field with the Cuban troops, have not shoes, neither food. All tho provisions in this town are in the hands of the Spaniards. Cu bms cannot obtain a piece cf bread, as it is necessary to send everything to tht fi ld Tno Weyler system is in the way. The situation is terrible. It you, honorable sir, do not come quickly with your equadron and take posses eion of this town we shall be lost. We beg you to precipitate ycur operation. About 5 000 old men, women and chil dren wiil die of hunger in this town Some of these old men have four or five sone fighting for their freedom. If the great people of the United States do not come quickly to our help we are lost. For God's sake come quickly. (Signed) "Some Cubans." It i3 bard for a human being to handle tenderly the men who murdered hia father. Can we expect these eons to e mother entirely their desire for re vengfc? AGRICULTURE. WHAT EXPERIENCE TEACHES. In some digestion tests at our own Raleigh Station, it was found that tim othy hay was less digestible when cot tonseed meal was mixed with it than when fed alone, while cottonseed hulls and corn silage were more dfgeseible when cottonseed meal was mixed with them than when fed without the meal. Why this is so is a conundrum. The hay is both coarse and has an excess of carbohydrates, and should be benefited by mixing with the finely ground and highly nitrogenous cottonseed meal as much as either tho hulls or silage. Bulletin 79 of Kansas Station ia an illustrated pamphlet treating of bovine tuberculosis, or tho disease of consump tion among cattle. We have digeated so many euch bulletins that we pass this one over. Those interested can write the station for a copy at Man hattan, Knn. From bulletin No. 40 of Pennsylvania station, cn "The Sugar Beet in Penn aylvania," wo take the following in teresting extract : 4 'The first question which presents itself to the farmer is whether it will pay him to raise sugar beets for sale to a factory. The experiments here re ported were made on the smell scale and affjrd no reliable data as to the cost of raising a crop. The figures aud estimates as to tho cost of raising beets which are given by large growers in other States are quite variable, ranging all the way from $20 to $70 per acre. A conservative estimate, however, is from $39 to $40 per acre, although the cost will naturally depend upon local conditions and especially upon the ex perience and intelligence cf the grower. The general experience in other States has been that tho second year's crop has been produced much more cheaply than the first year's. "The prioe paid for beets at th9 fac tory depends chiefly upon the market price of sugar and upon the richness of the beets, but also upon local condi tions. Assuming $4 as an approximate average prico for this country, the profits of the grower will depend large ly upon the tonnage of good beets which he is able to produce. Ten tonr per acre seems to be generally regarded as a fair crop, although good land and careful cultivation should produce 12 to 15 tons. According to these figures, the total value of the crop at the factory would range from .40 to $60 per ton. '"To the above estimates is to be added the feeding value of the diffusion residues, or pulps, from the matufac ture of sugar. These constitute apalat able and nutritious food for stock and in all beet eugar growing countries the keeping of live stock is regarded as an important adjunct to the growing cf beets. It is impossible to fix any money yalue upon these residues, but we are probably eafe in as3u:rtiag them a? roughly c quivalent in feeding valuo to half their weight of mangels. It is also estimated by good authorities at frorii one fourth to one fifth the value of tho bests. Tho molasses, too, which is a by-product of the 6Ugar manufacture, has a not inconsiderable f eeding value, and the same is true of tha leaves and crowns cf the beets. Moreover, when these by products are returned to land there is littlo or no draft upon its fer tility, since pure eugar contains neither nitrogen, phosphoric acid nor potash." The beets grown in Pennsylvania were rather small ia e'zs, averaging less than a pound and a half, and more than half the experimenters report yields below ten tons per acre, though nearly one-third reported over fifteen tons per acre. About one third of them anal, zed over 12 per cent, of sugar and 80 per cent, purity. From bulletin 92 of Alabama Station we learn that applications of fresh lima to the sandy upland soils of that State proved injurious unless applied the fall before seeding. When so ap plied its cauetic iffecta were leached out and it proved highly beneficial to radishes, lettuce and especially p?as and tomatoes. Tomotoes blighted bad ly on the unlimed plats, while scarcely any blight was visible On the limed plats. On the other haLd egg plant, which belongs to the same botanical family as the tomato, blighted much I worse on the limed plats than on tho unlimed. Corn, peanuts, tobacco and and Ksffir corn also did better on the limed plats, Abcut twenty barrels per acre seemed to be the" best quantity to apply. After exhaustive experiments in many large orchards the Virginia Sta tion recommends spraying with pure kerosene as the best treatment for San Joee scale. The conditions necessary to success are a bright, dry day, with a dry atmosphere and a strong blast to throw the oil in the finest possible spray, so that it will evaporate before having time to injure the trees. But every portion of the tree should be wet with it. For email trees, if but few in number, a hand atomizer, similar to a syringe, is better than a pump, but for extensive work is too slow. Pure kero ssne kills the eeale better and evapo rates frcm the tree quicker and with less injury than when mixed with water. Winter treatment ia better than when leaves are out. Virginia has a law requiring the experiment station to inspect nurseries and orch ards acd causa destruction of the scale. Bulletin 147 of our North Carolina Station is entitled "A StuSy of Let tuces." Perhaps not all readers of The Progressive Farmer kno-v that the growth of lettuce in cold frames in winter for Northern markets is an im poitant industry in North Carolina Experiments by the station indicate that broad, low houses covered with glass and heated by steam would be more satisfactory and more profitable than the frames covered with oiled canvas. In that case finer heads would be s cured and these should be shipped in handy boxes, instead of barrels, as at present, and would bring a much better prico. In the test of varieties Black Seed Tennis Ball proved the best for all winter markots, and California Cream Butter the best for early spring market. Black Seed Simpson was inferior to above, but better than Grand Ripids, which is tho kind almost universally grown in win ter, both North and 8outh. SOME RECEN1 BULLETINS. The North Dakota Station tested average samples from three carloads of wool and found that in each case more than 60 pounds out of every 100 pounds was lost in ecouring. That is, 100 pounds of the wool weighed less than 40 pounds after being scoured. This same station, in response to many complaints, has been making chemical tests of many samples of vinegar. Cider vinegar contains frcm 3 to 6 per cent, of acid, averaging about 4 per cent. Samples anahzed by the station chemist showed ll per cent, acid and over, and were entirely destitute of the odor ar.d taste of cider vinegar. These had been so!d)to retail merchants at fancy prices as pure cider vinegar, by eastern houses. Cider vinegar made from apples has a de cidedly f regrant odor and is of a dark brown color and has a flavor charac teristically its own. The aeh cf cider vinegar is largely potassium carbon ates and phosphates and gives a strong potassium flame. Artificial vinegars, malt vinegars, etc , contain much less ot solids. Seldom as much as 2 per cent , more frequently not to exceed per cent. The coloring matter is due largely to caramel and is of a different shade from that of pure cider vinegar. Tho vinegar has little odor or flivor except that of the acid from which it ia mado. Press bulletin No. 10 of Nebraska Station contains instructions for plant ing, cultivating and harvesting eugar beets, and also contains a blank for re porting to the station and transmitting sample beets for analysis. Arkansas Station bulletin No. 51 gives general directions for stopping and preventing the spread of con tagious animal diseases, such as hog cholera, charbon, etc. We have given all these in digests of special bulletins on each o! these and other diseaeep. COTTON AS A BY-PRODUCT. J. F. Warlick, a. mountain farmer of Lincoln county, N. C, sketches in,the Practical Farmer a picture of the an nual reduction of acreage fiasco enacted by the Southern cotton grower and recommends in billy localities cotton cultivation as a by product. He ob serves in part: "Cotton is King" perhaps was for merly truthfully said, but we seriously doubt it at 5 and 6 cents per pound. In tho fall, when prices are low, all the farmers declare that they will reduce the acreage tho next year, but when planting time comes, and the papers are full of reducing the acreage, they think that perhaps the other fellow will reduce his, and they will plant more heavily, to take advantage of the prospective short crop, without saying much about it. But there are many in the same notion and a large acreage ia planted everywhere. As our hope for success lies not in planting more acres, but in producing more per acre, cotton with us is raised exclusively as a money crop, and I have grown it with success after small grain and after corn, but have found that the best place for it is after small grain. We should raise all our own supplies and have the cotton as surplus. To raise all cotton and buy corn, meat, fl mr, molasses, etc., will impoverish the soil and its owner. v - HOW TO COMBINE FERTILIZERS The following letter in Farmers' Voice from Gerald McCarthy, so well known in this State, will be of special interest to our North Carolina readers: This is the era of intensive agricul ture. Farmers in all but the remotes regions have ceased to place their main dependence for improving their lands on stable manure. The extensive em ployment of commsreial fertilizer has become a leading factor in the produc tion of money crops. Yet it ia dcubt ful if the yearly increasing quantity of commercial fertilizer used has afforded farmers a parallel increase in net income. The cause of this state of affairs is not difficult to discover. All good ag ricultural soils originally contained an abundant store of humus or vegetable matter in a semi decompc sad condition, which was mechanically mixed with the eoil and held in it. Humus ia to a cultivated soil what a fly wheel is to an engine. A fly wheel eaves waste of power and prevents sudden j ilta which might prove destructive to the ma chinery. When soils have been culti vated for a generation or so and little or no vegetable matter retained, the humua becomes exhausted. Like an engine without a fly wheel, the soil works fitfully, becoming very hot in warm weather and ioj jriously cold in cool weather. It suffers excessively from both drought and wet, and is liable to eudden fluctuations, which are very injurious to growing crops. The introduction acd extensive em ployment of commercial fertilizer have ; hastened the consumption of humus in the soil. While the humus lasts tho eoils re spond well to the fertilizer, if the lat ter is properly compounded, butpconer or later, according to the oiiginal strength of the soil, the humus gives out, the soil loses its governing factor, and the crops fail to yield as much es formerly, even when the dose of fertii izsr is increased. As commercial fertilizer is always expensive, by attempting to grow crops with euch stimulation on worn soils, the farmer is apt to lope money. A great deal of money is also lest by purchasing fertilizing material which, while necessary for eecurirg a crop, can bo made at home and on the eame land at little cost. The most expensive ingredient in all fertilizers is nitrogen, which coats from 15 to 18 cents per pcund. All crops re quire nitre gen; but one fi'th of the air we breathe consists of this substance, and there is no more need to buy it than to buy the light aud heat also re quired by crops. It pays to buy even these for certain high-priced crops, as is the case when fruits, vegetables and flowers are grown in hothouse?, but for etapio market crop3 this would prove a ruinous practice. By utilizing leguminous plants as green manure we can at once supply our Eoila with both humus and nitro gen. Moreover, we can, by selecting the most suitable green manurial crop s, grow these between two successive money crops without missing any crop. The manurial crop can be grown at the season when the land would otherwise remain idle. Green crops do even more than this. Besides adding to the fertility in the eoil, it prevents the washing away of much of the fertility already there. Unless the soil b9 frc zan hard, an idle eoil is a deteriorating one. It must always be borne in mind, however, that while legumines can col lect nitrogen from the atmosphere, they can find the other ingredients of plant food only in the soil. A complete plant food consists of nitrogen, phos pioric acid and potash, to which, for eomo soils, lime must be added. Phos phoric acid exists in soils iu only very small quantities, and is &s a rule the first to become exhausted. But plants consume very much less of this sub stance than they do of potash. Potash is always present in clay soils, but often in an insoluble form. Sandy soils are always deficient in potash as well as phosphosic acid. No cultivated soil has a surplus of nitrogen, except immediately following a leguminous crop that has been turned under. Ni trates are very soluble, and those not fixed in the tissues of growing plants are soon washed out of the soil in drain age water. Soils retain phosphoric acid and potash with more tenacity, especially when there is present a suffl cient supply of humua. In growing legumines to improve the soil it is always profitable to give theee more phosphosic acid and potash than they can in any case consume. The more they consume, the faster they grow, and the greater the quantity of expensive nitrogen they absorb from the atmosphere. When the green crop is turned under, all the fertilizer given during its growth remains for the succeeding money crop. In this way we secure a double use for the fer tilizer. Nitrogenous fertilizers, euch as nitrate of soda and stable manure, should not be used on leguminous crops, except a little to start the growth of the seed, and on fair eoils even this is not needed. The following figures show the amount cf fertilizer contained in one ton of hay made frcm the plants named: Nit'g'n,Phos. Acid, Potash, Plant. Lbs. Lbs Lbs. Red clever 32 6 7.6 44 0 Crimson clover 41 0 8 0 26 2 Cow pea 39 0 10 4 29.4 Soja bean 46 4 13 4 21 6 Winter vetch . .59 2 16 4 60.0 Lucerne 43 8 10 2 33 6 Lupines 40 8 8 8 12 0 Timothy hay. . .25 0 10 6 18 0 By figuring the nitrogen at 15 cents per pound and the phosphoric acid and potash each at 5 cents per pound, any one can easily calculate the fertilizing value of a ton cf air dry forage from each of the above named legumines. In practical farming it is as a rule more profitable to pasture or otherwise feed the growth, returning the manure of the animals fed, rather than to turn under a growing crop. When care fully handled, four fifths of the fertili zer value of a ton of forage cen be re covered in the manure. It is generally very bad policy to eeil legurmncus bay off the farm, as the market price for 6uch ia rot ce a rule more than the fer tilizing value, acd often rruch Ices. On tho other hand, it may often pay to eeli such forage as timothy hey, for which the markets of meet large cities gen erally effer mush more than its real feeding value. City horsemen have a deeply rooted but ncne the less mis taken belief that timothy hay is a strong and very nourishing fcod. As we have before remarked, tte value of a green crcp, or vegetable matter turned under, lies partly in the nitrogen thus added to the eoil, and partly in the humus into which tho vegetable matter soon pa?ees. In light soils the value of the humus ir? gener ally greater than that of the nitrogen. Such, too, is the case in old and much worn soils, whether they be light or heavy. It ia often advised to eell ma nurial crops and buy commercial fer tilizer; but, for the reason j ist given the value of humus this is rarely profitable. Get as much humus as you can into the soii. Then buy as much fertilizer as you find profitable to use. ZL-ITTS STOCK - filsA -4 jr A , PIGS AND WEEDS. A few days ago, while on institute work in Minneeota, the editor of this department visited a pen containing a sow and five pigs. A glance showed that the animals were in good condi tion ; that they were, in fact, in a fair way to demonstrate that the owner was a victim of bad luck(?) in his hog department. There were being fed corn and slops frcm the house, says the Farm, 8tock and Home. Consti pation, poor digestion and other disor ders were indicated by a certain dull, cpiritlesa appearance, a want of thrift, and other conditions. Growing bard by the pen was a mass of pig weed and rag weed. A liberal bunch of the first was gathered acd thrown into the pen. Sow and pigs immediately tumbled over each other to get at it, and ate it raves cuely. Some rag weed was then supplied, and that was rushed for with still greater haste and eaten with greater relish. The last is a bitter weed, but it is a tonic, an appetizer, something that the pigs demand to cor rect the vices of a purely artificial diet, such as they were getting. Na ture had supplied the demand, but a fence kept the pigs from it, and igno rance of its value had kept it from the pigs. It was learned that no salt was given to theee pigs, another bringer of "bad luck," for hogs demand salt as humans do. Tho owner of these pigs received a valuable objsct leeson, and may it not be a pointer to others? Con fined pigs must have soft, green suc culent food, if their owner expects to escape "bad luck." WOOL FOR THE SOUTH, The growth of the cotton manufac turing industry in the South has served to promote tho industrial welfare of that section, as have the great iron and steel Industrie?, but the woolen indus try cannot be expected to gain any foothold without the development of wool growing beyond its present scale. The consumption of woolen goods in the Southern States is increasing every year, and with euch a favorable out look there ia no reaaon why woolen in dustries should not multiply and pros per the same aa they do in the North. The South cannot depend on cotton alone for its future industrial growth and development. The population of the South ia growing every year, yet tho acreage of cotton will be reduced abcut 7 per cent, this year aa compared with 1897, according to i ffiial reports. Southerners will naturally devote thih 7 per cent, of land to other branches of farming. They are too prudent to let it remain idle on the remote proph eoy of a revival of the cotton growing industry. There ia no other branch of farming that guarantees euch large re turns for the capital invested as wool growing. That eheep husbandry on a m-re extensive scale is contemplated CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 J .a ' i VH';.--:;.- - i