North Carolina Newspapers

Has the Largest ClrcuIatoQ cd 18 the Oldest, Larg- est. and on,T a11 Home-Print Farm Paper in that Rich Farming and Truckicg section Between Kich mond, Va, and c.trannan. ua. Has the largest circulation of anj family agricnltn ral or political paper published between R i c h mond and Atlanta 7 feKVX fern THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY, 7ol. 14. RALEIGH, N. C, MAY 23, 1899. No. 15 Hr A tFIIRL y 1 PUBLISHED WEE KLY "Thilte on your label tells you when your nw-li'tion expires. Receipts for money on ! n wrirtion will be given In change of date on if not properly changed in two weeks. notify U3 . "TONTISUANCES. If a subscriber wishes K-. M-'yofthe pater discontinued at the -r.tioil t f kis subscription, notice to that effect vhnnld be sent. Otherwise it is assumed that a Stance of the subscription desired, and S arrearages must be paid when paper is ordered stopped. Money at our risk If sent by registered letter or ooney order. Flwe don't tend stamps. rut ure to give both old and new addresses In ordering change of postoffice, pia of Advertising Rates: ten cents per agate ineT "Liberal discounts for time and space. TM item is marked to remind you that you a4u d carefully examine this t ample copy and r.l us 1 for a year's subscription. VN ill also Hid ra 'on trial 6 months for 50 cents, or 3 months for 25 cents. Or we will send your ter free for one year if jouwill tend us So in tew subscriptions, or free six months for J3 in "ew subscriptions, at these rates. We want intelligent correspondents in every -ennty in the State. We want tacts pf value -S-ults accomplished of value, experiences of vvlue Plainly and briefly told. One solid, demonstrated fact, is worth a thousand theo ries. . Tub Progressive Farmer is the Official Organ of the North Carolina Farmers' State Alliance. I am standing now just behind the rtaint and in full glow of the coming unset. Behind me are the shadows on ;?e track, before me lief the dark valley nd the river. When I mingle with its lark waters I want to cast one linger na look upon a country whose govern ment is of the people, for people ind by the people, L. L. Polk, July XH 1890. PRACTICAL FARM NOTES. Written for The Progressive Farmer by the Editors, and Praf Guy E. Mitchell Massachusetts has appropriated this year over 1200.000 for righting the gypsy moth. And still the government neglects the eimple and inexpensive eteps necessary to exclude any new pests which are liable to eecure a foot bold at any time through the impor t&tiona of foreign plants or trees. Vacq we consider the high prices Tftich good mutton and beef command in our Rileigh market and other mar kets "right here at home," we are at a loss to understand why more of our farcers do not abandon cotton and to bac33 for etock raisicg. L3t us have better stock and more etcck. R3ad again the two articles in our live stock department by Mr. R:chards and Mr. Bellwood last week and think the matter over. It will pay you. 4 i t I t It will be remembered we recently inquired about the Wilmington Pack ing Company and the North Carolina Live Stock Associations. One associa tion still lives and proposes to hold a meeting at Concord the latter part of Jane. This is the North Carolina State Dairy men's Association. Prof. Frank E. Enery is its Secretary-Treasurer. The North Carolina Swine Breeders' Association may meet at the same time and place if enough of those terestel in good swine who are mem bers find themeelvers together there. R?ally fine stock i3 scarce but the gentlemen J. & W. S. Lnng, Gra ham, N. C , have laid part of a founda :ion to supply some in future by the purchase of a two year old registered dhorthorn bull Currituck, from tbe Agricultural Experiment Station. The price is a large one for this part of the d:ate, and for a two year old bull. But this animal is of the milking strain of siorthorns and some fine grade cows v?ith large square udders bearing large and well placed teats may be expected in the herd to which this bull ia sent. Practical foresters in the United 2tate3 are ecarce. In fact about the only ones are the lumbermen, and their forest training is all is one line. In e forester of the Department of Ag riculture, Mr. Gifford Pinchott, is ar ranging to take a forestry class with him into the fore3ts of the far West 'it the purpesa of studying forest preservation. Their exper.83 will be Piii by the government and they will te utilized by him as assistants, at the time time recdving practical instruc tion in lines of work for which there sure to be a demand in thi3 country 3 the queetion of practical forestry cccKe more and more to the front and the needs of forest preservation is r--'"'iz:d. The plow trust has arrived on the no. Representatives of mere than fi score of the leading plow manufac f iring concerns cf the United States tact in Chicago two weeks ago andvir tually completed the organization of. the combination into which it is pro poeed ultimately to take all manufac turers of agricultural implements. The capitalization of the trust is placed as over G5 000,000. The greatest secrecy was maintained regarding the pro ceedings, but it is understood that C. H. Deere was elected President of the combination. Now, Mr. Farmer, what are you go ing to do about it? Mere grumbling, fretting, fuming will do no good. Do you propose to stand and deliver, or will you jjin your brother farmers in a movement to bury the plow truat with its brother, Jute Bagging? The following manufacturers of plows are said to be in the trust: Moline Plow Company. Diere & Co. Peru Plow and Wheel Company. S ittley Manufacturing Company. Pekin Plow Company. Rock Island Plow Company. Fuller & Johnson Manufacturing Company. J. I. Case Plow Works. Bucher & Gibba Plow Company. Sc. Joseph Manufacturing Company. Syracuse Chilled Plow Company. Gale Manufacturing Company. Morrison Manufacturing Company. Grand Detour Plow Company. David Bradley Manufacturing Com pany. Kingman Plow Company. Parlin & Orlendorff Company. The Moline plow works and Dsere & Co. are credited with manufacturing nearly half of all the plows used in the world. W. L Velie, President of the Moline Plow Company, and C. H Djere, President of the Deere & Co. plow works, were the leading spirits in the work of the organiz ition. An attempt was made, it is said, to secure the Oliver Chilled Plow Com pany, but James Oliver, the President, has issued a statement to the effect that if there is to ba a trust tbe Olivers will not be in it. The Ss. Joseph Manufac turing Company, of Mishawaka, Ind , may also remain independent. There's no danger of over-production in the cattle line. About a year ago Tne Progressive Farmer gave figures showing that on January 1st, 1892. there were 9,000,000 more cattle than on January 1st, 1S98. A circular recently issued by the Secretary of Agriculture shows the decrease in cattle on January 1st, 1&99. since Jinuary lit, 1898, to be 1.120,743 head. In addition to this the receipts of beef cattle at the various markets of the first twenty eight days in Janu ary, compared with a corresponding period last year shows a decrease of 6S 400, classified as follows: Cities 1898 18.19 Kansas City 143,000 127.500 Chicago 198,903 173.000 8t. Louis 77.1C0 52,900 Omaha 40,300 37,700 Frcm these figures, it is apparent that the beef cattle supply is not equal to the demand. Besides an increased demand for beef is expected from our new territorial possession? and from Europe. Tne latest figures we have been able to get show that the number of cattle in Norsh O.ro'.ina was: 1695 653,528 1896 635 621 1897 631 530 1S98 G08 72 Decrease in four yeare 44 656 Or 6i per cent. Mr. Sawyer's letter reminds us of the Illinois plan to protect shippers, to which we call the attention of our readers. The legislature of that State passed a bill "an act to regulate the shipping, consignment and sale of produce, fruits, vegetables, butter, eggs, poultry or other products or property, and to license and regulate commission merchants and to create a board of inspectors and to prescribe its power and duties " The bill provides that such commission houses shall pay an annual license fee of $25, the license to be granted by a board of inspectors, "composed of one member from each of the following organizations: Illinois State Horticultural Society, Illinois Stite Dairymen's Association, Illinois State Retail Dealers1 Association, Ch'cigo Butter and Egg Board and Chicago branch of National League of Commission Merchants." One feature which will appeal strongly to country shippers is the feature providing for their protection. Section 10 of the measure provides as follows "When said board shall have received report of any authorized inspector Lpdn any complaint and shall have satisfied a majority of such board that the per son, firm or corporation has dealt dis honestly with said complainant, they shall take such action regarding such offense as can be prosecuted in the courts by said inspectors, or shall, in case of fligrant abuse of position as receiver of commissioned goods, apply to the courts to revoke license of such person, firm or corporation for any term not to exceed one year." Every now and then some word bobs up about tea farms in South Carolina and the question is asked whether tea can ba raised profitably in this coun try. Secretary Wilson has believed for some time that we should grow some of cur own tea in the United States and he proposes to convince the people of the South that they can keep in the country, and themselves get a good share of the $10,000,000 sent abroad for this article annually. The Secretary has just returned from a visit to the tea farm of Dr. Shepard, at Summerville, 8. C , where are in cul tivation about fifty acres of tea. Last year thes3 yielded about 3,500 pounds of superior blsck tea, which sells read ily, it is stated, at $1 a pound. The average cost of tea brought from Asia is about 14 cents a pound and it may thus seem impossible for us to compete with the cheap labor of the Orient Mr. Wilson states that he would not at tempt to grow teas in competition with these pcor grades, but only fine teas. 8ome teas are of such high flavor that they sell for as much a3 $5 a pound, but these teas are never seen in the United States, as they lose their aroma in transit. While the negro labor of the South is not of course as cheap as Eastern labor the Secretary believes that Yankee ingenuity will invent special machinery to offset the differ ence. Reports received from the various experiment stations indicate that the flat pea, a comparatively new legumi nous plant, is not finding the flavor which was predicted for it. Although a plant rich in nitrogen, it does not especially commend itself as a forage plant as it appears to be somewhat dis tasteful to most stock. Testimony re garding it is quite conflicting; it is evi dently not an unqualified success.and it would be well for farmers contemplat ing its trial to plant experimentally rather than extensively. The Califor nia Station reports that it maintains a heavy growth with very little moist ure, but that while hogs and sheep eat it green cattle and horses avoid it green but eat the hay. Oar North Carolina Station says "The flat pea we place next 90 sachaline as the most loudly trumpeted swindle perpetrated upon tbe long suffering public in re cent years.'' The Alabama Station states that it withstands light frosts and grows throughout the winter, is liked by horses and cows and is as good a soil renovator as cow peas, The Massachusetts and the Nebraska sta tions condemn it. The Michigan Sta tion reports that it grew fairly well but that sheep confined on the pasture and that cows fed in stable lost weight aod diminished in production of milk and butter fat when fed either green or ensilaged flit pea fodder as a part of tbe ration. AGBICULTURE. FARMING HINTS. Jorrespondence of the Progressive Farmer. Greensboro. N. C, May 16, '99. Farming without capital is the com plaint. The best capital on the farm is the farmer himself. Money is no comparison. Horses, mules, cows and n0ga rio comparison to a farmer in the full acceptation of the term. If a man on a good farm cannot make a success, the real cause may be the very thing to which his mind has never given a thought. Wisdom is the proper use of knowledge. To the shame of many people called farmers be it said they have no real knowledge of the science of farming, and so they go on much like the horse that pulls the plow by force of habit. The farmer should be up to the demands of the locality in which he is placed. A variety of crops is of vast importance to the farmer. All cotton, all tobacco, all ccrn, all wheat or all oats is not best. Let the children see the acre in onionp, the acre in Irish potatoes, the acre of sweet potatoes, all thegrtsses and peas in quantities. The first business of the true farmer is to see that hia wife has do lack of good vege tables for twelve months in the year and peace at home and good will to hia neighbors. The most beautiful place on this earth is the well tilled farm with all its attachments the flowers .by the walks and waysides. Beautify your home if you wish the boys to love the farm. There must be some inspiration at home. When you have a general variety of crops and orchard growing you will get good re turns from some of them. The seasons will be apt to be suitable to some of them. And now, with all that is eaid, be sure to give your family much read ing matter on all subjects that they work at, let them have an article to read on every crop or vegetable, and be sure to take The Progressive Farmer and see that your neighbors take it. To my obsarvation that paper has done more from its first issue to get farmers to read and be well posted than any other paper. R. R. Moore. A WORD OF WARNING. Con eepondence of Tte Progressive Farmer. Florence, N. C, May 7, 1899 Brother Truckers and Farmers: As the season is drawing near for the farmers to commence shipping their potatoes and other produce to the Northern markets, and knowing as I do that many of our farmers in past years have been cheated out of the money that their potatoes and other produce has sold for, by shipping it to so called commission merchants who have no place of business, I write a word of warning. Last year one of that kind of com mission merchants was represented in this county (Pamlico) to my certain knowledge he had no place of business. I visited the city and place that he claimed to be last December, and found that he had no place of business. I think that the farmers of this county lost Ust year $3,000 by sending their potatoes to unreliable men to sell for them. There is a man in Boston, Mass., ro claims to be a commission mer chant who has no place of business. He has a cellar rented, a room about 12 feet fquare. I went down in it last December and I was informed by a reliable person that this so called com mission merchant had judgments hang ing over him and the officers could not find any property be longing to him to attach. And that man had two agents in this county representing him last year and will probably have as many or more to represent him this year and some of our farmers will probably ship to him this year to their sorrow. Watch. W. R. Sawyer. DEEP VS. SHALLOW PLOWING. A number of letters on this import ant subject recently appeared in Tbe Practical Farmer. Bumming up the matter contained in them and the opin ions expressed, Prof. W. F. Massey eaid : "Our friend who went from the Old North State to Ohio and tried to teach the natives, allowed one rash experi ment to settle the matter of deep plow ing for him. If, instead of turning all the black surface down and covering it with the unaerated clay, he had simply plowed as his neighbors did and had run a subsoil plow in the fur row made by the shallow turning plow, the result would in all probability have been very different. While wheat and oats like a well compacted soil it by no means follows that the deep plow ing for the preceding crop is not juet what they need. Where oats or wheat follow a crop of corn on land that was deeply prepared for the corn crop and has been shallow ly cultivated all sum mer we have a regular summer fallow, which gets tbe wheat land into eh best possible condition, and only s-ar face preparation is needed. But where a clover sod or pea stubble is turned for wheat, the plowing should be as thorough as for any other crop, but should be done as early as possible, so that the land can have time to settle and get into tho compact condition the crop demands. It is a deep, firm seed bed the wheat wants and not an un aerated and unbroken soil. Where land has been well plowed at mid sum mer for the sowing of the cow pea crop, it is totally needless and generally in jurious to the success of the wheat to replow in the fall. It is far better to merely disc and leave the decaying pea roots on the surface. It is strange how little our farmers yet know in re gard to the practice of subsoiling. We are all the time meeting those who con found subsoiling with deep turning, whereas the subsoiling does not turn anything upp, but eimply loosens the clay below the reach of the breaking plow. One who rashly turns the un used subsoil all at or.ee on top can hardly expect good results at once, but rather to the contrary. Any increased depth of turning over the soil ehould be gradual, but there is no need for any such caution in the use of the sub soiler. Put it in as deep as you can, provided the soil is in such a condition that subsoiling will be of any advan tage, for there are plenty of soils in which there would be a positive disad vantage even in subsoiling. A soggy, craw fishy subsoil would only be made worse by any attempt to rim a eub soiler through it. Hence the first requisite before subsoiling is to be sure that the drainage is all right, for if it is not- you had ts well save the labor of subsoiling, as no amount of stirring helps a watereoaked subsoil. Then so far as deep plowing in the sense of turning over the soil is concerned, there are many soils in which it is not necessary, and may be harmful. There are deep, sandy soils which are all the better for having their lower part un disturbed, and there are clays that are absolutely harmful if mixed with the surfase soil. But in the blood red sub soils of the Southern Piedmont region the plow cannot be driven too deep. We have here as a rule on cur uplands a thin and rather sandy soil at the sur face, and right under this thin layer of sand and broken rock there is tbe greasiest of red clay, that will etand year after year almost perpendicular in a rai'road cut. This thin sandy sur face has been the part scratched for generations. When the floods of rain come, this soil gets at once filled with water, and as the hills are fcteep here abouts, it soon starts for the river and takes the soil along, and the hard clay right below gives the water a nice easy passage eff, and directly there is what the farmers call a. "red gall," that is a broad stretch from which the whole of the sandy surface has been carried eff bodily. Year after year the frosts of winter mellow the surface of the red gall and the rains. wash it down to the hard pan again, and the hill gets from a red gall to a deep gully. There are thousands of acres of such gullied and wholly useless land in the South, and all started down hill by reason of a mule and a little plow. With a big plow driven down into that clay drawn by three good mules, and another pair to a subsoiler following in the same furrow, we could work these lands without so much need for the big ter races to stop the water. We would have a soil of better texture on the surface, for the present sandy eur face would be all the better for the ad mixture of the clay. I can never insist too often on the fact that the red clay subsoils of our Southern Atlantic up lands are the best soil we have. But there are plenty of soils where it would be folly to turn the clay up, There ar9 such lands all alocg our Southern coast that are called white oak soils, a white, flit stiff soil underlaid with whitey blue clay, and generally need ing underdrainaga worse than aij- thing else. Such subsoils are apt to contain matters absolutely poisonous to plant life. Hence we must stady the nature of our soil. If it can be helped by deep plowing then plow deep. If subsoiling is wiat it needs, and the majority of our uplands do need it, then do not mix up subsoiling with deep plowing, for you can grow better crops on lightly turned land that has been deeply subsoiled than you can of deeply turned land not eub THX CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO A Practical Article by an Experienced Tobacco Grower in Greene Co , N. C. I prefer to put in tobacco on lands that lay out last year, but good tobac co is made in the East even after cot ton. I break my land twiee first in December or early in January ; after wards in March. I use a compost of stable manure and cotton seed ; 25 or 30 bushels of the f ormer and 12 to 15 bushels of the latter, and mix these in alternate layers about the 1st cf Feb ruary. I run my rows three and a half feet apart, sow compost in drill, and on this put 600 pounds of guano; then make ridge by turning two fur rows together. I think 600 pounds to be about all that the plant will take up, even if it takes up that much. An ex cees of thi3 amoaat causes the plant to grow late (especially if wet), and to bacco that grows late is apt to grow curdly and heavy, and ycu can't put colors on it in curing barn. I set my tobacco three feet in the drill. This gives good room for it to spread. I mark the distance by hav ing a careful person to go ahead of droppers and chop eff ridge at this distance, and then pat place with back of hoe this to keep and retain moist ure in ridge. After plants have taken root and made a start to grow (say a week cr ten days,) I give them a good, thorough working with the hoe, chop ping around the plants, and chopping the ridge down between plants. After a week or ten days I take a cotton plow with small front and short sweeps, and give it a good siding close up to the plants and moderately deep. Then I split out the middle left when listing up land for planting, and don't plow deep any more, and seldom hoe after the first time, except to get out any bunches of grass that may be about the plants. I then repeat the plowing about every ten days, throwing out middle every time with wide sweeps. This puts the 'tobacco on a ridge. I never plow more than three times often only twice, depending on the growth the plant makes in the time. Before giving the last plowing I prime eff the lower or plant bed leaves, put them in barn and cure, (many times they pay for the fertilizers used;) then with large fronts and long sweeps side up with plow, throwing all the dirt you can around the plants, covering up the wounds made by the priming. This done your tobacco has begun to show buttons. Now comes topping, when judgment is to be exercised. This should be done by the best man available (I do this myself.) I don't know that topping is so important when you prime as when you cut, still to get best results I think judgment and discretion is to be used. I top to an average of ten to twelve leaves, and make 800 to 1,000 pounds per acre. Some top fourteen to sixteen leaves, and get . from 1,000 to 1,200 pounds. They do not get so much colory tobacco, however, when they top high. As to worms, they make their first appearance the last of May or Arse of June, or about full moon in June. Then plants put out, say, the first week in May will be about twelve to fifteen inches high. We usually bo gin to set about 25 ;a of April, and try to finish by the 6 ;h of May any way by the 10th. After the latter date it does not do so well either in field or curing barn, and besides you will get tbe August showers of rains, which are troublesome and do great damage. Tobacco put out by or before 10th of May misses these showers, because it is cured and in pack house. I use noth ing to keep off or destroy worms but Guinea chickens. I prefer them to turkeys because turkeys are difficult to raise. I follow after Guineas and destroy all eggs and kill such worms as they do not get. With early plant ing and these chickens I do not con sider worms amount to much. Now comes priming, as soon as your lugs show they are ready for the cur ing form. I first cut my tobacco, be lieving, as was told by buyers, it was better tob:c30 and would bring me more money. I did not find it so. Comparing my sales with those who primed I found they got more money than I did, and it was because they had more yellow tobacco than I got by the cutting process. I then took to priming, and soon saw that I was right ; that almost all my tobacco was colory tobacco, and that my averages were better. I still think, however, something is lost in weight by priming, but the color will more than make up for difference in weight. My crop last year was late ; did not get it set until about 15th of May; yet it averaged me eleven cents net. I was not fortunate in striking the market at any time when it was its best. I have never been fortunate in getting fancy prices for my crops, and have never made a higher average than fifteen cents that was four or five years back. Yellow tobacco did not do so well last year as inferior grades, and I find inferior grades are generally heavier. After priming off leaves they are taken to the barn, or some place shel tered from the sun, where the looping is done on the sticks. For this pur pose I use No. 8 smoking yarn and put from two to four leaves together, ac cording to size, and thirty to thirty five bundles to each stick. These are placed in the barn from eight to ten inches apart, when fire is built in fur naces and heat run up to 90, 95 or 100 CONTINUED ON PAGI 8.