Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Oct. 4, 1898, edition 1 / Page 1
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Tfce Prejirei tlr Farmer is a g;od paper far above the arer and possibly the best advertis ics medium in N. a" Printers' Ink. Has the largest circulation of any family agricoltn ral or political paper published between Rich mond and Atlanta OTI MI0GIESSI1 l. r THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OP OUB PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. . "" 7ol. 13. EALEIGH, N. C, OCTOBER 4, 1898. Ho. 35 PUBLIS D WEEKLY The date on y&urtabel tells you when your subscription expires. Receipts for money on subscription will be given in change of date on label. If not poptsny changed In two weeks, notify us. Money at our risk if tent by regi1 ered letter or money order. Please don't send stamps. Be sure to Rive both old and new addresses In ordering change of postoflice. I IBasif of Advertising Rates: ten cents per agate une. Liberal discounts for time and space. We want intelligent correspondents in every county in the State. We want facts of value reeults accomplished of value, experiences of value, plainly and brieflv to.d. One solid, demonstrated tact, is worth a tnousand theo ries. The Editon are I ot responsible for the views of Correspondents. The PKOORESsrvK Farmer is the Official Organ of the Noith Carolina Farmers State Alliance. 11 1 am standing now just behind the urtain, and in full glow of the coming wnset. Behind me are the shadows on ite track, before me lies the dark valley ind the river. When I mingle with its iark waters I want to cast one linger ing look upon a country whose govern ment is of the people, for the people, ind by the people, L. L. Polk, July Uht 1890. Xcm i c u lttj reT A LIVE HUSTLING ALLIANCE. Let Members of Other Subs. Patern After Justice Sub Correspondence of the Progressive Fanner. Justice, N. O. I have been requested by the broth ren of my Alliance to write a short sketch of Jastico Alliance, No. 1 063 of which I am a member. This Alii ance was organized tee 16 th of August, 18SS, and has been in working condi tion ever since that time. We helped to down the jute bagging trust; helped to make up. the Agency fund, and we helped to build the shoe factory, and now our brethren are wearing shoes made by that factory. We are well pleased with quality and prices of the shoes. We hava had the same troubles to contend with that caused bo many of our Alliances to go don, but we have marnbers in our Alliance who do not think that a farmer must be a Populist to qualify him for membership into the Order. We are farmers and farm laborers, and we make our agricultural interest paramount to all others. We have a query for discussion at each meeting. The query for our last meet ing was: "Which is best, deep or shal low seeding for wheat?' The query for our next meeting is: "How much bed should be cultivated to the nor; e" We have for this year a premium up for the person making the mcs . corn oa one acre of land. Wo have ten con testants and each one of them con tributes one bushel of corn to the per eon getting the largest amount pr acre, and each contestant is also re quired to keep notes of how he ma nured, planted, and cultivated the same, then the notes to be given to the Secretary to be read out to the Alii ance. Another feature of our work has been that of charity. We have done a great deal of charitable work among our members. Altogether our Alii ance is in fine trim. A msjorLy of the members are enthused with the Alii ance work. We hava had several ad ditions recently with others on file to come in. Great success to you and The Pbo GitEssrvE Farmer. Fraternally, W. H. 8tallings, Sec'y. CORN STOVER. The com plant i3 very valuable, worth almost as much as the ear. The corn plants absolutely wasted in this country annually might be represented by a row of eleven figures, with a dol lar mark on the left. The silo is the ideal place to save all in the best pos sible condition, but. comparatively speaking, there era very few silos, and the great majority of farmers have to make the bes; cf it without the eilo. CUTTING. The corn ehould not be allowed t) ges too ripe before cutting, and partic ularly it should not be frosted. When the grains are fairly solid and jutt about out of the doughy condition, cut tin ehould bo pushed rapidly. The corn should be set upright on the i' round, not too thickly together, as fan us cut, and secured by tying, so it canuct fall or blow over. The com ehould be cut c'oao to the ground, as the feeding value of the part below the er is worth more than twice that above the ear, and high stubble on the field i3 a nuisance in . two the corn has dried and cured very nicely and assumed a rich bronze color. When husked it should be handled with care, so as not to loso so many leaves, and then tied in large buudles or sheaves and again placed in an up right position in large shocks. Never allow it to lie down, as in that position it will deteriorate very rapidly by fer mentation, moulding, leaching, etc. STORING. To have the stover in the finest and beat feeding condition, it should be stored in the barn or under shelter ea scon as, cured and dried in the shock,. In storing, the sheaves should ba placed in an upright position, and there will bo mould. If there is no room to store it in shelter, the next best method ia to put it in a waterproof stack ; but hardly one in fifty farmers can succeed in building a waterproof stack, so that rather than have it rot in a pile, I ad vise to set it up in large shocks very solidly and carefully and tie the tops well together with stroDg fodder yarn, and the waste will be only on the out side sheaves, while all the others will come out in a good, sweet condition. You say, why all this fuss about corn fodder? Well, a ton of corn stover, well cured and well cared for and prop erly fed, is worth as much or a little more than a ton of timothy hay when eaten by your dairy cows. And, who ever saw a farmer cut timothy about half way to the top and let it lie around in the field until winter, when needed, then haul it home and throw it on the manure pile for the cows to run over and trample? The wasting of corn stover soems to be an acquired bad habit of the American people. Let us reform. Times are too hard, we can no longer afford it. L. W. L'ghty, East Berlin, Pa., in Epitomist, POTATOES GROWN IN RIDGSS. It is from force of example and habit rather than from closely studying the subject that the great mpjority of farmers plant potatoes in hills. Wher ever the crop is largely grown for mar ket, putting the potatoes in drills and ridging the soil over them is found to be more economical way, and also to produce the largest crop. The advan tage of the hill method is that it enables the farmer to cultivate the rows both ways. But if he uses his opportunities to ridge the potatoes when covering them, and afterward harrows drwn the ridges, all the good effect of the cross cultivation will be secured and more cheaply. The potato crop will be larger, and if care is taken not to put in too much seed, there will be a larger proportion of potatoes of marketable e::z 9. Moat of the new varieties of potatoes bunch themselves in the hill, and with mot of them there is too much vacant space batween hills three feet apart each way, which is the usual distance for potatoes in hills. At a distance of 15 to 18 inches in the rows, there will be a continuous mat of potatoes, while if the rows are two feet ten inches apart the potato tops will very nearly meet between them. With a potato coverer, drawing the earth from be tween the rows to the potatce?, one cui tivation should be made after the pota toes are up. This should within 24 hours be harrowed down, going across the rows with a heavy drag, which will leave the ground nearly level again, and will greatly increase the vigor of the potatoes. This cover and harrowing must only be done when the soil is dry. If rains come so that the soil would stick to the potato leaves, it is best to do without this second cover ing. By keeping the cultivator at work all the time and running close to the pota toes while the plants are small, wee is can be kept down among drilled pota toes aa weil as they usually are when the potatoes are in hills, Toere will be some weeds come up amcng the pota toes in either case. We have always found some hand work needed to re move these in either case. But it ehould bo done while the plants are small, and t o remove those that escaped being covered by the soil thrown up by the cuhivator among the potatoes in the rows. Not rajre than two good eyes should bo put in a place when potatoes are planted in drills. If we could be en tirely sure of the seed one eye in a place will produce as good a crop as any, with very few small potatoes. In hills where the whole potato is often planted the proportion of small pota toes in the crop is too largo to make the crop profitable. HOW CAPT. SSLF CURES PEA VINBS SOUfvD AND BRIGHT WITHOUT LOSING LEAVES The value of peavine hay is recog nized everywhere, but the difficulty heretofore encountered in curing it has somewhat limited the production. One of the finest farmers in the State ia Capt. I R Self, of this county, who has demonstrated the fact that peavine hay can be harvested and cured with less trouble than any other. His sue cess in curing it has become known and he is constantly in receipt of inquiries as to his method. For the benefit of his brother farmers Capt. Self on Mon day kindly gave The Journal his cxpe riences in curing peavine hay. Two years ego he tried the method as an experiment. He mowed the vines in the morning and let them lie until the afternoon of the next day, when, it no rain had fallen, ha raked the hay into cocks. The nsxt morning as soon as tne dew had dried off, he hauled the cocks to his barn lot and packed the vines into rail pens ten feet equare, having a heavy man to tramp them in, putting seven two horse loads to a per. Oa the third morning after the vines had been packed into the pens, smoke was seen issuing from every crevice, and the vines were found so hot one could scarcely bear his hand on them. The smoke, or steam, continued to issue from the pens until the fifth morning after they were packed, then it ceased altogether. Capt. Self naturally concluded that his experiment was a failure. But when he opened the peis in the winter he found the hay beautifully cured. It was nice, bright, sweet and absolutely free from mustiness and not a leaf fell from the vine. Last year he used the same method with the same result. Capt. Self says the vines should be so tightly packed around the edges as to exclude the air and the vines should be weighted down and the pens well cov ered. His plan is to lay rails across the top of the pen and top this eff with straw. The crop of peas tHis year is the largest ever known in this section and we hope our readers will be bent filed by Capt. Self 8 experience. m m- BEAUTIFYING COUNTRY HOMES In a recent issue the North Ameri can Horticulturist says: We are all more or less iLfiuenced by environments, and the more pleas ant the surroundings the more sweet and altogether lovely will be the every day actions of the aver jge mortal. Of all the places that should be made beautiful there is none more import ant than the country home. We speak more especially here of the out door arrangement of the home place. There are many various ideas brought out from time to time as to how best to adorn the farmer's home, and there are, perhap?, not two people who would favor exactly the same arrangement. But there are some general ideas which all may well follow, and among them we believe the following are well suited to nearly all : The lawn of course requires the great est amount of attention so far as orna mentation of the home is concerned. Don't plant many large growing trees on your lawn, unles3 its extent will ad mit them; and lei; what you do plant be of the most rare and best ; try to anticipate the taste of a generation that will be fifty years in advance of the present; and don't plant in rows, group, as per grand old nature, with here and there a beautiful specimen, each with a history ; say, wife and I planted these on our twentieth wed ding day, and Jack, now far away, planted this when he was a little boy, and Lillie, now in heaven, planted this, and so on through a now separated family, living links in the chain of love that bind all fast together. Let your evergreens form a background, or mask, or prominent and striking specimens, for harmony or contrast of form, foliage or color. Arrange your flowering shrubbery for the bpst effects of position and bloom in their several eeasons. Plant largely of perennials for seasonable and lasting bloom. Don't attempt flower beds of difficult figures; nor yet the exaggering and oddities of certain types of foliage beds or pat terns. Bulbs and plenty of annuals in their seasons will be satisfactory. Fill every nook and corner with climbers, or sun or shade loving flowering or foliage plant?, to hide and screen other wise unsightly places, and by so doing turn them into bowers of beauty. Let the drives and walks be only euch as are absolutely needed ; and let them go as direct as possible, with perfect curves, or straight lines, as will ap pear most natural. Don't cut up your lawns with drives or walks and with as few flower beds as possible to com plete the plan, and let these be chiefly on the margin or near the house. Let the best work be done near the house, and so arranged as to secure a home like privacy and seclusion. Let the whole idea be to make the home beautiful. Some one has said that this should be the feeling: "This is my home, and in euch time as can be spared, and by such means as can be afforded, I am going to make it a place around which my best thoughts shall cluster with pleasure for a life time, and to be for my children the dearest spot on earth for them to look back to with effection, when I am gone, and they are in the thick of life's struggles and cares." You may depend upon it that the scenes of early life, for pain or pleasure, will be photographed oa the memory, even as to day we turn back to the scenes of our childhood, and live again in the little old fashioned ivy-covered cottage, where grew the monthly rose, the fragrant honey ruckle, thefuschias, pelargoniums, balsams, and the many other old time, but none the less beau tiful, flowers of various hues. A SUPPLY OF LADDERS. One of the most important things in harvesting fruit is to have a good sup ply of ladders. Tne modern methods of pruning trees do not require the long and inconvenient ladders that were formerly used by leaning them against the tree and picking the fruit from the outside. This always had the effect of destroying many small limbs and stripping the bark from larger ones where the ladder rested. Light, self supporting ladders' that can be set under trees, so that the picker need not climb through them, are what are needed. The saving in fruit by Lpicking from these self supporting lad ? . ... ders win repay tneir cost any year when the fruit crop is abundant. NOTES IN SEASON. Ccrn cutting should go forward rap idly now until finished. . A killing frost may come at any time and thus shorten time for saving first class fod der. A frost does not ir j are the fod der much until followed by rain after which it is very poor feed. If one be gins in season there is no need of any being left to spoil before cutting; and it should be the aim to never allow any to epoil. Forty five per cent, of the nutriment of the corn plant is in the fodder; do not let it go to waste. Care ful feeders say they would just as socn lose the ear as the stalk, and it pays to give ear" to such successful ones when they talk. Get all corn in shock by the 10 th. From the 10 th to the 15 th get the ground in condition for wheat, and then sow. If weather is favorable we can begin husking the last of the month, and get the fodder off the wheat in time to sow many of the rows where the 8 hock s etand. Where tops are dead, potatoes ehould be dug, and stored in a dark, cool place. If you are selling any, it will pay to sort them. The best time to do this ia when picking them up. Have two baskets in one put the market able ones, and in the other the small and unsalable ones. Better not delay filling the wood house much longer, especially if the wood is to be cut. If already dead and seasoned, it will burn better if split a short time before burning. Take time to read the Epitomist and profit thereby. A. N. Springer, Tip ton, Ind., in Epitomist. PRODUCTS OF WILD LAND. Aside from its crop of trees with which uncultivated land is mostly cov ered, it also produces nus, berries and other fruits which are always in their season to be found in city markets. The whortleberry and its near relative, the huckleberry, are always grown wild, as they need just the dampness and shade that they find in forests and low, wiid land. But the wild black berries and raspberries still constitute a considerable portion of the fruit sold in city markets. Ia most cases thi3 self grown fruit i3 regarded i s the prep erty of whosver wishes to gather it. The huckleberry patches are, however, often reserved by owners of the land, and those wishing the fruit must pay for it, or. as ia usually dene, dividing it after it is picked. BUCKWHEAT TO CLEAN LAND. The buckwheat crop has a better rep utation than it deserves for clearing the land on which it grows from seed Few of the annual weeds can ripen their seeds where it i3 grown, as the buckwheat takes less time between seeding and cutting than any other grain. We do not believe what we often see in farm papers about buck wheat making so rank a growth that it will suppress even so pestilent a weed as the Canada thistle. The truth ssems to be that sometimes when a very large growth of Canada thistle is plowed under deep the rotting of the stalks and roots destroys so many of the lat ter that there are few thistles to come up. But what there are will grow, and will soon re establish the thistle patch in more vigorous growth than ever. It would be better if this was the case if no buckwheat was sown. Then the second growth might be cultivated, so aa to destroy them even before they ap pear above the surface. That will give such a check to thistles that few will be left to grow next year. After a strong growth of buckwheat was off we have seen thistles growing nearly as thickly as they could etand. All the credit buckwheat gets for killing thistles comes from plowing at a time when the plowing itself kills them. SECOND GROWTH CLOVER. Almost always the second crop of clover is pinched by drought, and this is probably best for the production of a good crop of seed. This year, how ever, the rains, since the first crop was cut, have been generally abundant, securing a larger growth of rowen hay, but a smaller seeding. It is possible that because of these rains the second growth clover mav not be quit 3 up to its usual standard in quality, aa the rain makes usually a watery growth of all vegetation. But clover growing after midsummer dries cut rainfall very rapidly, and as there is always more plant food in the soil after mid summer, it is likely that the second growth clover will be nearly or q lite as good as usual, besides being a larger crop. Second growth clover ia always the choicest hay for sheep, lambs or calves. THE SOIL OVER UNDERDRAINF. Always in digging an underdrain the lowest subsoil, often cold, hard and without vegetable mould, is more or less mfxed with that dug near the sur face, and which is usually richer. In filing the ditch this mixture continues, so that the soil that was dug from the bottom of the ditch may often be in the last spadeful thrown in. Yet we never knew this tefmake any difference. Al ways crops of any kind show a better growth directly over the drain than they do on either side, even during the first season's growth. After a year or two the good effect of the drain ex tends to land on either side, as the soil freezes deeper when surplus water is removed from it, and the roots of plants can go deeper for moisture or plant foe d. EDUCATION FOR FARMERS. So the young man of to day has a different field from the one in which his father labored fifty years ago. He finds in agriculture a place to be found a comfortable home, a position where he can lead an independent existence, and there has come the time when he is called upon to fill the highest offices in the gift of the people. Do not be mistaken as to how he may accomplish I this. For all too long have been prac ticed .wretched business methods cnthe farm, no planning or thinking has been observed. But the conditions are such now that he must have these methods or go to the wall. No better place can be found than a good agricultural col lege, where the young man can fit himself for his future. Briefly considering this matter of agricultural education, let me mention two kinds of men who are sending their sons to echool: First, the no n who eay s : "My son knows as'much as I do now and I am not going to give him an education to follow the plow." Now the son of this man will do one of two things he will either break away frcm the farm and go to the city or else be will be ail his life what hi3 father called him, "a clod hopper," and nothing more. The other man is the one who goes to the other extreme and says, 'My son is going to have the best education money can give. I never had a chance myself, but I am goirg to mako him a gentleman." As a re sult the boy is not allowed to work with his father, but is kept at Echool all the time. Ho soon comes to look wiih disdain on his father's profession; his father and he have nothing in com mon and they gradually drift apart. Now these men were without educa tion. We are gradually building up an educated class of men who see the advantage of having their eons pursue the right kind of studies and who make them take an interest in the farm by giving them some part of it to take care of. Give the boy a couple of sheep and watch them increase to a well bred flock. Although it might be easier to give this boy the money out right which he may get from the sale of his sheep, yet you can never give him the education he has thus derived by the expenditure of any 'amount of money. I desire to eay in conclusion that hundreds cf cur beet young men are going back to the farm. This means that those already on the farm must get up with the times or elee get out. And for this young man on the farm, educated and well trained, wo may confidently look forward to a bright future, one which will reflect credit upon himself and in which he may be called to play an important part. A. D. 8hamel, in Farmer's Voice. aOKTIOULTUEE VEGETABLES AS MEDICINE. While nearly all vegetables are more or less healthful ecme of them possess special remedial properties, and if we would take our medicine in this form instead of harsh drugs, it wcu'd be bet ter for cur stomach and our pocket book. Asparagus and carrots act directly upon the kidneys, stimulating them to action. Tomatoes contain an acid that makes them of great value in liver troubles, and people with torpid livers should eat them freely. Spinach and beets contain iron, spinach especially in large quantities, and they enrich the blood. Sweet ccrn is a good blood purifier, cleansing it from bad humors, and has bien recommended fcr cancerous : flec tions. Celery is of great value ia nervous diseases a3 it quiets and strengthens the nerves. Onions are good as an all round rem edy, and one of the most wholesome vegetables or e can eat. Rhubarb is good for the blood, ani being an aperient ie jast what we Deed in the spring to cool and clease the system. Ex. THE AMERICAN COFFEE BERRY. I have tried the coffee made from the roasted soy (or e' j ) bean of the variety recently advertised as "Ameri can ccffae berry," eay a T. Qrenier, in Farm and Fireside. I do not object to the flavor and, although I used to be very fond of . the genuine coffee and always knew the difference between good and poor coffee, at present I would rather use the substitute than the real article, for the reason that I always sooner or later feel the ill c ff ects of the real coffee when I use this at all freely, while the ccffae made from the eoy bean cannot possibly do any harm to the user, and must be stimulating just the same because it contains true nourishment. The use of strong teas ani coffees is a confirmed habit with most people, and a bad one at that, and perhaps no lees eerious in its results than indulgence in spirituous l'quors and in the use of tobacco. Of course, we must drink. What is needed in a hot drink is water with some pleasing flavor. Properly made soy bean oc ffe, with plenty of sugar, has the appear ance and something of the flavor of the real coffee, and is quite pleasing to my taste. If I can prevail on my kitchen managers, I propose to have it on my table right along, in place of the real coffoe. THE STRAWBERRY IftDUSTRY. We learn that the immense crop of 265,615 crates of strawberries was mar keted thi3 year by members of the Eastern Carolina Truck and Fruit Growers' Association. The average net return was about eight cent3 a quart, the net result being IG79.974. Mr. H. T. Bduman, the shipping master of the association, in making his report of these facts, said : Thi3 season business has demon strated beyond the shadow of a doubt that we have a colossal industry to CONTINUED ON PAGE 8.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 4, 1898, edition 1
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