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Has the Largest Circulation acd is the Oldest, Larg est, and only all p.otae-tint Farm paper in that Rich Farming and Trucking section Between Rich mond, Va , and Savannah, Ga. Has the largest circulation of any family agricultu ral or political paper published between R i c h mond and Atlanta YE THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. -c f ol. 14. RALEIGH, N. 0., APRIL 25, 1899. No. 11 1 UeJ PUBLISHED TheiiAtf on your latl tells ,.uwhen your .rWrii'tion expires. Receipts for money on ;Corirtioa will be. given In ctange of date on libel. If not properly changed In two weeks, notify us- "diCOXTI NUANCES. If a subscriber wishes h' cory of the pni er discontinued at the ex n'ti n f Ms subscription, notice to that effect -"oaid be sent. Otherwise it is assumed that a roatinr.ar.ee of the subscriptiou isdesiitd, and ill arrearages must be paid when paper is ordered st- pped. Money at our risk if sent by registered letter or money order. Pleattc don't send gtamjw. Pe sure to give both old and new addresses In ordering change of postofilce. Fasif of Advertising Rates: ten cents per agate Use. Liberal discounts for time and space. Tr 1- item i? marked to remind ju that you svo'i d CKi efuily examine ibis temple copy and rlj 1 for a j ear's subscription. Will also nd pa' er on trial 6 months for 50 cents, or 3 mo-th for 2 cents Or we will send your rs- er fiee for one year if j on will tend us $ in i'ew- 'ibM riptiens. or free t-ix months for ?3 in JfW subscriptions, at these rates. We want intelligent correspondents in every county in the State. We want tacts of value. rults accouiplisned of value, experiences of vsue, plainly and briefly toid. One solid, demonstrated tact, is worth a thousand theo ries. The Progressive Farmer is the Official Organ of the North Carolina Farmers' State Alliance. t i-'i landing now just behind the Han. a?id in full glow of the coming '4te?t. Behind me are the shadows on t'-ac-'i. before me lies ihe dark valley ' nd" I h e ri ver. Wh en I mingle with Us 'iirh vaters I want to cast one linger U'jr,'; '-on a country whose govern '" t he ivr.nlp. far the veovle. 7.d t; PRACTICAL FARM NOTES. Written for The Progressive Farmer by the Editors and Haa. Guy E. Mitchell Pam?'si3$ are easily raised and make good feed for stock. Do not forget to plant acme with your corn this year. A.U dclinqient subscribers are ear nestly requeued to send us at least part payment of sulscripticn before Jane 1st Don't forget thia. It's only a little sum to you, but tte many little sums da? u amount to a rather large aitr. S nl in your part at once. We need i:. The farmer who is too stingy to buy good firm tool and machinery is more foolish than economical. The politician who rmfees speeches on the political is3ae3 of a hundred years a?o and re fuas3 to study the questions of to day and :he farmor who tries to farm with the tools of a century ago, are in the saire category. Now that you are starting a crrp, do not forget or neglect your garden. Treat it fairly, and it will eave ycu many dollars that would in its absence be spent for supplies from the village etore B?eides, you cannot keep good heal;h unless you eat plenty of fruit and veetabiea. But do not expect your overburdened wife to do all the work the garden demands. In another column we give a letter from Mr. E. B. Barrett on "Purifying 8cur Soils." Mr. Barrett, however, makes a mi? take when he advises farm ra who have unproductive rich soils to "apply Iimo every jear" for number of years in succession. The dp?: agriculturists agree that lime should not bo applied so often. For a better understanding cf thi3 question, read "Nu ritive and Stimulant Man arrs"' in The Progressive Farmer of April 1S;q. The timo for planting the beginning cf the crop is almost here. See that your boy has a copy of Prof. Bailey's "Principles of Agriculture" before the aeaaon begins. It will teach him some thing of the soience of farming and greatly increase his interest in favra work. Perhaps you are not able to eend him to an agricultural college, but you can at least get him a copy of thi3 book and if he is "made of the ri3ht s.ufl" he will study it and more than repay you for its cost. We will send a copy postpaid to any address uPoo receipt of price, f 1 25. Here's a valuable bit of advice which we clip for the benefit of horse owners. It ia from the Texas Stock and Farm Journal and deserves a place in every farmer's scrap bock: Ihf : sensible farmer will not be fright ecod b7 what seems to be a big stallion f' e if the stallion i3 himself all right. He may be unable to pay it or it may very inconvenient for him to pay it, J'it if by any reasonable sacrifice aomewhero in his plans for the season te can pay it the investment will be one of the very beet ho can make. It cannot be too often repeated, nor too strongly emphes z?d, that it will not pay to raise scrubs, and if the owner of a mare worth keeping on the farm cannot breed her to a really good horse, one belonging to someone of the classes in demand, he would save money and trouble by letting her go unbred through the season. We are very anxious to make The Progressive Farmer of special benefit to every farmer who reads it. We are also anxicus to hear from our numer ous farmer readers on farming sub jacjts. Have you made mistakes in farminK? Tell our readers of them in order that they may avoid making them. Have you been successful? Te.l our readers by what means sue cees was attained. Dd you want in formation regarding any farm crop, any kind of stock, fruit, or grass or diseases of these? If eo, write us at onca. We want ycu to realize that The Progressive Farmer is the farm er's own paper, and we want you to use it, write for it and work for it. We went to help you and want you to help us. Mr Herbert J Webber, a vegetable pathologist of the Department of Agri culture who has been working on some interesting txpoiments ia the nature cf producing a hardy orange, has just gone South to undertake the second stage of his operations. While the comrne cial crango is a tropical fruit, the Japanese have long had a hardy ornamental orange (Citrus trifoliata), which, however, bears worthless fruit. Mr. Webber has been crossing the two oranges with the idea of producing a hybrid which will possess the fine fruit ing qualities of the oraDge as well as the tardiness of the trifoliate. It is a well known fact that hybrids are likely to combine the best traits of the two parentsand Mr. Webber has succeeded in growing ecm3 2,000 plants which distinctly show the traits cf both the orange and the trifoliate. O! course only actual tests of the frcst resisting quslities cf these seedlings can deter mine their value and Mr. Webber is now in Northern Florida and Georgia budding his seedlings upon trifoliate trees in those sections where frost regularly occurs. He expresses the utmost confidence in having produced orange wood which will bear good oranges and at the same time be to some extent at least-, frost resistent, although an ideal hardy orange may not have been attained at this first crossing. Last winter's freez9 in Flor ida, causing the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fruit shows the great possibilities of such work. In a recent Cornell bulletin, "An nual Flowers," by Prof. L H. Bailey, author of "Principles of Agriculture," many methods of beautifying rural homes and sshools are referred to. Talking to the boy who has baen given a garden spot for hia very own, Prof. Bailpy says: Let me tell you how to water the plants. I wonder if you have a water ing pot? If you have, put it where you cannot find it wo ara going to water this garden ith a rake. We want ycu to learn, in this little garden, the first great lesson in farming how to save the water in the soil. If you learn that much next Eummer, you will know more than many old farm ers do. You know that the soil is moist in the spring when you plat t the seed a. Where does thia moisture go to? It dries up goea cfl into the air. If we could cover the soil with something we should prevent the moisture from dry ing up. Let us cover it with a layer of loose, dry earth. We ehall make covering by raking the bed every few days; once every week, any way, and oftener than that if the top soil be cornea hard and crusty, aa it does after a rain. Instead of pouring water on the bed, therefore, we ehall keep the moisture in the bed. If, however, the soil becomes so dry in spite of you that the plants do cot thrive, then water the bed. Do not eprinkle it, but water it. Wet it clear through at evening. Then in the morning, or when the sur face begins to dry, begin the raking again to keep the water from getting away. Sprinkling the planta eviry day or two is one cf the surest ways to spoil them." In a recent investigation in New York State as to the social and eca nomic conditions in the rural districts in was found, aa is the case in most eections of the country, that there has bsen of late a great deterioration in farm values and a large and steady trend of farmers and farmers' children toward the citiea. Thia is for a variety of reasons lack of school advantage?, d flisulty in obtaining good help on the farm, bad roads and lack of money making opportunities. A condition of affairs prevailed, however, in one local ity cf the State that eeema pre emi nently significant. This singular con trast with other sections of the 8tate was found in the vicinity of Ithaca at which is.located the Government Agri cultural Experiment Station and the agricultural college. There wa3 an air of prosperity about the farms not found in other sections. The farmers were full of hepe and their children ex pressed the determination to remain in the country and follow agricultural life. Irq'iiry brought forth the opin ion of the farmers that the station is a direct help to them and that the entire conditions there are different from those in the bulk of the State. Not only this, but it was found that the indirect influence cf this institution was greater even than the direct. One farmer a hundred mi es from Ithaca who had taken a course of agricultural training at the college, was carrying the benefits of hie saientifis knowledge into his community. His neighbors, 3eeing how superior his methods over theirp, are quick to profit by it. This led to an investigation &s to whether the same condition prevails in the vicinity of other agricultural colleges and government stations; the inquiry proved that they are all bearing excel lent fruit. Farmers come long dis tances to eee and learn about the prin ciples than underlie scientjfic agricul ture. They also stimulate correspond ence as to the best methods of culti vation of particular crop?, of getting rid of farm pests, etc , etc. GtRICXJLTXJKET BROOtt CORN. Some Suggestions From Eur. Patrick, Finebluff, N. O , April 20, 1899. Con es pondence of The Progreefcive Farmer. I am sonding you through our Sea board Air Line agent at your station, a home made broom, that was made out of broom corn grown as an experi ment on the Saaboard Air Line Experi ment Farms. The straw, you will notice, is somewhat brittle, because we allowed the seed to ripen before the straw waa cut. We did thia so aa to save the seeds to distribute among farms The proper way to cure the straw is to bend the stalk about eighteen inches from the head acme daya before the seed become matured. Then the s tra w cures a green color and ia very tough and wiry. Another way to cure it, is to cut the head from the stalk before it is fully matured and dry or cure it in the shade. We are also sending you a num. ber of packages of broom corn seed. which you can give to those you think would take an interest in experiment ing. The broom factories along our line the past season have had to pay about one hundred dollars a ton for the straw. At thia price, or even at sixty dollars a ton, it paya to grow the broom corn. We have had the rough brooms made just to ehow, that it is impossible for a farmer 'jo experiment with the broom corn and utilizs what he makes, as the brooms are serviceable around the homes of our farmers, and it will save in the run of a year, fifty cents on each farm, if they use brooms made at home; and on an average there are probably four thousand families to each county, and thia would be a saving of two thousand dollars a county. Be sides, it could encourage the establish ment of small manufacturing indus tries in the country. We send too much money away from our South land. In fact from the cradle to the grave we are patronizing outsiders. The cradle to rock tho baby, is nade in Michigan, and the epada to dig the grave of the grand papa is made in Pennsylvania. Our prayer books in New York and our ehoes in Massachu setts; our watches and clocks to indi cate the time of day to go to work, is made in Connecticut, the agricultural implements in the Western and North ern States. We cannot start big fac tories at once, but small industries can be started that will grow into factories as our people learn. We have been urging our people to start canning fac tories and put up vegetablea and fruit for market, and the outcome has been that more than three hundred small canning outfits have been brcught and put into operation by the farmers of the Saaboard Air Line. With kindest regards, I am, Very truly yours, John T. Patrick, Chief Industrial Agent. PURIFYING SOUR SOILS. The value of lime ia purifying sour soils is such as to make its general use very necessary. Lime ia not a fertili zer in the strict senee o? the world, but in connection with manure it is often absolutely essential to the fertilizing of the soil. Land gets sour from one cause or another, and some soils get "manure sick." It is possible to so feed the soil that it gets indigestion, and the more that is piled on the lees it seems to produce. I have seen soils S3 rich that they could not produce more than very small crcp3. They were manure eick and sour. It is at this stage that lime cornea in to correct matters. A top dressing of lime on such a soil will do more good than a thousand dollars' worth of com mercial fertilizers. It ia possible to raise abundant cropa for several years in eueceeeion on such soils by simply giving them a top dressing of lime every year. It is owing to this that some farmers have gathered tho im pression that lime is a good fertilizer. The action of tho lime was not to fur msh auy plant food but simply to cor rcct the acidity of the scii so that the abundance of fertility could ba taken up by the cropg. L;me is gcod sometimes to kill cer tain germs which multiply in the soil. Thus the bacteria which causes club foot ia cabbagos will be killed if the land is dressed in tho spring with lime. It has beneficial effects in other way a too, It tends to loosen an disintegrate tho texture of the soil so that the drain age is better snd the mechanical condi tion of the soil is improved eo the roots of the plants can extend downward for water and food. Lime is of value on the manure pile at times. Mixed in with the manure it will tend to sweeten it, and it will etf ier the soil in conjunction with the fertilizers to perform its work here. Where heavy drees 'ng of manure has caused the potato scab in these tubers, it ia wi8e either to dress the land with lime or to mx lime with the manure just before applying it. A. B. Barrett IMPROVING FARM LANDS. The Northern farmer takes the greater part of two yeara to get out of clover what the farmer in the cotton belt can get from the cowpea in two months. There has been a great deal written about growing clover in the South, and there are doubtless certain sections in the upper South where the conditions of soil and climate make clover a valuable crop. But all over the cotton belt there is no crop which men attempt to grow that haa been a greater failure than clover, and we have long wondered why the Southern cotton farmera ever wish to grow it. Coming South of Virginia and into the cotton country proper, the cowpea flourishes aa it does nowhere else under the sun. With this crop the Southern farmer can grow more and better hay, when properly cured, in two months than the Northern farmer can get out of clover in a year or more. He can accumulate aa much fertility in the shape of nitrogen from the air by the aid of the cowpea in that abort sum mer time aa the Northern farmer can get through the use of clover in a year or more. And he can get all thia work done for his soil after he has gotten a crop of grain from the same land, and can then prepare the soil for another grain crop the same season. Why then should our farmers want to grow clover at all? It takes men a long time to learn that the crops of one section are not always the beat cropa for a diffarent one, and that if we wish the highest auccesa, we mu3t atudy our climate and soil. There ia hardly an acre of the red clay uplanda of North Carolina that under a good system of farming that will not come to make 50 bushela of corn and as much of oata per acre, with cowpea hay in the greatest abun dance, and yet the average corn crop of the State i3 about 8 bushels per acre. We met a gentleman some years ago on the train near Spartan burg, S. C. He said that he came there from the North a few years after the war. and began to farm for wheat, corn and clover. H3 said that his neighbora told him wheat could not be grown successfully there, and bis first crop looked like it, for he grew but fcix bushels. But ho went on with his regular rotation, but abandoned clover and put in peas, because he said he could work faster with peas, and the year I saw him he said that his wheat crop waa 35 bushels per acre, and he believed that he would ii a few years get 50 bushels. When the grain crops in a rotation get to anything liko these figures, these crops cease to be looked on merely as "supplies" and assume a character as sale crops and profitable ones. Let us study the wonderful capacity of our Southland and make her blossom as a rose by real and good farming W. F. Mssjy, in Christian Advocate, THE FARMER AND THE TRUST. In a letter to the editor from Thos. Keady, Secretary of the Illinois State Grange, that keen observer of the tendency of things says: "We have long boasted about the home owning and independent farmer being the conssivative bulwark of the republic, and should be on the alert for a continuance of conditions so full of the promise of peace and safety, for tho trust makers are abroad in the land and are consolidating their colossal millions of money to control our Ameri can industries. What if these greedy grabbers should mcrk agriculture for their prey, absorb the farms and turn the farmers into wage workers, with a woeful burden of strike?, lockouts, blacklisting and subservience to money king bosses? Is there anything more than a fancied danger in that direction, and do the farmers think it worth while to bother their brains with con sidering tte outlook and the outcome of trusts?" Some of our readers may smile at the thought that the great agricultural interests of this land of the free could ever be absorbed by the great con spiracy of wealth which is now mak ing it more and more difficult for the individual business man everywhere to continue in trade. We are not alarmed at any immediate prospect in this direction, but we do not conceive it to be an absurdity to say that such a re suit ia possible. The commercial side of agriculture is steadily developing ; the farmer is becoming more and more involved in the comple xities ofcommer cial life. For instance, the farmer who skimmed hia cream and made it into butter a few yeara ago now ia a factor in the commercial enterprises which supply the world with its butter and cheese. In one Illinois city a condensed milk company haa refused to accept any milk from a certain breed of cows, compelling many farmers to sell their herda and buy other breeda at a great loss, although the ultimate results may be well. We cite this instance to show the power of organ fzited enterprises to force their pecular rules upon othera. The sugar trust already is conspir ing to render the hopes of the farmera in the direction of beet sugar impos sible of realization, and now controls most of the factories west of the Mis souri, save those belonging to the Spreckles. It was aa easy to do that aa to form a soap trust. Billions of money are lying idle in the banks of the country. If the conspirators againas the people should find it to their ad vantage to control wheat production in this country, there ia no doubt they could do so within a yeara. They know how to put oa the screws in jast the way to bring about desired results, and the billions would be theirs for the asking. Already whole counties in Illinoia are owned by alien landlords, of whom the trust is a natural ally. We speak only of the possibilities of the case. Bat this we may say : If the farmers of the country desire to make such results absolutely impos sible they must get together and stand aa a rock against the further encroach ments of this system so long aa it ia conducted for the benefit of the few and against the welfare of the com mon people. They must do more than get together. They must join hands with honest producers everywhere and stand with them in a common in terest. Just so far aa the trust teaches the lessons of co operation, it ia good. But to day it ia in evil hands; greed, desire for power, dominate it every where. The people should take the principle of the trust and make it their own, having for their great purpose the good of everyone, equal and exact justice for all. This ia one of the re sults The Farmers' Voice hopes to see flow from the new farmers' movement just now being inaugurated in thia State. Farmers' Voice. THE RELATIVE AGRICULTURAL RAft K OF DIFFE RENT STATES The estimate of the Department of Agriculture of January 1, 1899, of the crops of the year 1898, furnishes seme interesting reading, says Wallace's Farmer. Iowa leads r.!l other States in corn by nearly 55,C0O,C0O bushela, Illinois being eecoad, and the value of its corn is about $8,000,000 more than the State just mentioned. In wheat, Minnesota takes the lead with 78,000 000 bushe'a, followed by Kansas with 64 000,000 bushels, and North Dakota wi;h 55,000,000 bushels. Minnesota leads all ether States in value to the amount of about $10,- 000 000. In oats, Iowa leads Illinois, the sec ond State, by 45,000 000 bushel?, and her production is almost equal to any other two States put together. In rye, Pennsylvania takes the lead with 4 447 0C0 bushels. New York is a close second with 4,014 000 bushels and Wisconsin third with 3,444,000 bushels. In barley, Minnesota takea the lead with 9 160 COO bushels; Iowa a close second with 9,133,0(0 bushels. The Weatera States are not in it when it comes to buckwheat, Pennpyl vania leading with 4 185 000 bushela, and New York a close second with 4, 068 bushels, each one of them exceed ing the entire yield of ail the State8 except the other. In Irish potatoes, Ne?7 York takea the lead with 24,000,000 bushels, Iowa following with 16.000,000, Wisconsin next with 15,000,000, and Michigan with 14 000,000 bushels. In the production of hay, Iowa again leads with 7,908,000 torn?; New York second with 6 410,000 tons. In live stock, Texas leads in the cum ber of horses with 1,137,000, Illinoia second with 1,003.000, and Iowa third with 981,000. In mules, Texas leads with 266,000, Miaaouri following with 183,000. In milk cowa, New York leads with 1 458 000, Iowa second vith 1 250,000, and Illinois third with 1 0(0,000. In "other cattle," Texas leada with 4 533 000, Iowa second with 2.163 000, ana Kansas third with 2 075.000. In aheep, Montana leads with 3 377, C00, New Mexico second with 3 128.000, and Ohio third with 2 730 000 The agricultural States are cot in it when it cornea to pheep. In hogs, Iowa leada with 3 408.0C0, Missouri second with 2,949,000, and Texas third (a matter of some surprise to us) with 2.684 000 It may be newa to our readers that Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi have each more than half as many hogs aa the State of Iowa, and North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansaa, and Tennessee each consid erably more than a third. While there has been a decrease in the num ber of hoga in the United States, there is a gradual increase in the number re ported from the South. COWPEAS FOR SWINE AND CAT TLE. When cowpeas are planted for green manure, it is an excellent practice to turn hoga into the field about the time that the first peaa ire ripening, say a a recent bulletin. Young pigs thrive amezingly on the succulent foliage and well filled pods, and the quality of the pork raised on such a healthful and nutritious diet ia very fine. Thia ia a profitable method of fattening hoga or of preparing them for topping off with corn or sorghum for market. An acre of ripening cowpeaa will pasture from fifteen to twenty hogs for several weeks and the gain in fertility from the droppings of the animals during that period will more than counterbal ance the fertilizing value of the forage eaten. The rapid increase in weight will thus represent so much clear profit, and the farmer ia richer by half a ton or more of prime pork for every acre planted. Chickens and turkeys also eat the ripe peaa and do well upon them. Cattle and horses are some times pastured on them, but the safer and more economical way of feeding the green cowpea vines to r.uch stock ii to cut or pull and feed partially wilted. There will be less waste and destruction from trampling, and if each animal ia given only so much aa it can eat clean, the greatest economy aa well as greatest profit will result. Furthermore, cattle and sheep are liable to bloat if allowed to eat too ravenously of cowpea vinea or any other rich and succulent forage, and by using it aa a soiling crop the dan: ger may be more readily controlled and the loss prevented. Thej report haa been eent out from some of the Northern experiment stations, where this forage plant is not ordinarily cul tivated, that cattle will not eat the green vinea except after having been starved to it, and then only sparingly. We have seen Weatern horses and ponies that would not touch red clover or a grain ration cf oats ; and Eastern stock that would not eat alfalfa hay. But these few adveree cases do cot prove that red clover, alfalfa, and oats are not good forage. With the cowpea the ca3e ia similar. It is very rarely that any Southern planter reports that thia forage ia refused by any kind of stock.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 25, 1899, edition 1
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