Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Oct. 10, 1899, edition 1 / Page 1
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Tl SAMPLE COPY' The date opposite your I vie on this label means aX'Zj whatever. Bead TO POSTMASTER: If this sample copy is not delivered to person named please hand to some intelligent farmer. this i'ue a, J v claim for. Bf""."... if con 7 genu . - It. t -if mil 9 a? s, rs THE IEDUSTBIAL MD EDUCATIONAL IOTEEESTS OF OUB PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDEEATIONS OP STATE POLICY. fol. 14. RALEIGH, N. 0., OCTOBER 10, 1899. Ho. 35 ; 1 ' ?f, PUBLISHED V KLY nT-iCOXTINU ANCES. If a subscriber wishes Viviy'of the paper discontinued at the ex-K.-ffj ,u f his subscription, notice to that effect 'vll be sent. Otherwise it is assumed that a 6 t inuance of the subscription ia desired, and M arrearages mU8t be paid when paper ia nrdereutopped. 'rrrTour risk If sent by regisl ered letter r ooney c rder. Please dont send stamps, gn'-e to give both old and new addresses In ordering change of postofnce. "TTof Advertising Rates: ten cents per agate Liberal discounts for time and space. """tk7 Item 13 marked to remind you that you vVT d carefully examine this trample copy and !i u jl for a year's subscription. Will also raier on trial 6 months for 50 cents, or inth for 25 cents. Or we will eend your .ir f ree for one year if jou will send us $5 in w uicriptlons, or free six months for $3 in -ew bscriptions, at these rates. "TrTuit intelligent correspondents In every ' ,v i the State. We want tacts of value. IT-' accomplished cf value, experiences of --lainly and briefly told. One solid, "raobt rated tact, is worth a thousand theories- rXHiP.-ooRES3ivB Farmer is the Official Crcan of the North Carolina Farmers' State PRACTICAL FARM NOTES. Written for The Progressive Farmer by ; iht Editors and Guy E. Mitchell. Kaep "P the fight against the round cotton bale. Don't bo deceived by the articles appearing in eo many newspaper?, but remember that the American Cotton Company ia payiDg literally (or its advertisements appear ins in so many newspapers aa editorial natter. And The Progressive Farmer has procf cf this charge. In gone recent Virginia Station ex periments conducted in feeding hogs aa exclusive silage ration tho results were unfavorable as the animate loss n weight and general appearance, but ia f arther tests ia which the silage con stituted only a part of the ration, the animals consuming from 28 to 35 pounds c! siiage ad H to 21 pounds of coin on the c:b prvreck, were kept in good condition through a severe winter on thi? ration. Bj u?ing tho Bilage in this manner a s wing of nearly ono third in c:al of feed was tflcted. Apr:po3 of Pailippiae trade, Consul Giaeral Moseley writes from Singa pore, an adjacent port, that the atten ticn cf ojr large pack rs of bacon, his 3, and lard should ba directed to theh u'i prices of tho product of tho hoz ir, th u. market. Bacon retails at ijc nts diver a pound ; ham from 55 t: e n'.s a pound; and lard at 45 'Sj !:,r ,13 I have been kformcd," s.ys ilr Mjseley, "there is no Ameri ca Li r, ham, or lard for sale here. Sic-ip re ii a depot for a large terri t:ry, - i I beli2vo a good demand for the pr o:'ue:aof the American hog could be cr- it -d here, if proper efforts were Such a result would be cf fro;: ui.fi: to American stock raisers. Ir ;;a 0 :io S'.ation comparison of the r '.v.ive merits of commercial fertilizer c m pared with homo mixtures made frcrr, slaughter housj tankage, acid 3: e and muriate of potash, ic '. ound that spring crops showed bu: li .tl difference from the two kinds c! f rtil z:r3, but wheat and clover ehowei a marked preference for the homo mixture. Apparently the chemical treatment, by which it is claimed that the nitro gen cf the factory fertilizers ia made core available, resulted in making i so readily soluble that it waa washed out of the soil before the wheat and clover could make use of it. Crimson clover ia. eaya Mr. A. T. Williams, of the Department of Agri culture, an excellent crop for soiling. i3 ready for use some time before red clover and at a time when there are few other forage crops at hand. It ia Particularly valuable-far this purpose, on dairy farma. In experiments made a the New Jersey Station, noerly one ad cnc-half tons per acre of digestible d, valued at 25 were secured. A tan cf crimson clover in proper condi t!3 for soiling contains about 325 Psunda of dry matter, of which about pounid of crude fat, 50 of crude pro-t-in and iso of carbohydrates are di gC3tible. K pe is sometimes sown with lfce clover when a eoiliag crop ia di red uwl the resulting forage ia excel lect- For siloge thia ia one of the best of the clovers. The yield of forage ia ia eaaily handled, and it makea a 5er quality of ensilage than most her legume8 commonly grown for 1113 purpose. The eilage ia especially Suable for feeding dairy stock. The Indiana Experiment eenda cut thia summary of the results obtained in their corn growing experiments thus far: 1. Planting corn early in May gives best results on the Indiana Experiment Station farm as a rule. 2. The greatest average yields of both ears and stalks have been obtained when the stalks stood twelve to four teen inches apart. 3 Thick planting has reduced the siza of the ears and the per cent, of grain, 4. Thick planting haa in dry seasona produced the heaviesS yield of stalks and the lightest yield of ears. 5. The yields of corn from cultiva tion, one, two and three inches deep, have been about equal. 6. Cultivation four inchea deep haa considerably reduced the yield of corn. 7 Heavy applications of manure and fertivilizera have not proved profitable in continuous corn culturo 8. In continuoua corn culture the effect of a heavy application of fresh horee manure haa not been exhausted in fifteen years. 9. Cultural implements differing much in construction and action upon the soil, have produced nearly the same yields of corn. 10. Of the syveral cultural imple ments under trial, preference ia given to the spring tooth cultivator for soils similar to that of the station farm. The bc3t method of raising calves on ekim milk is a matter of interest to every farmer. In some teste made at the Iowa Station it waa found that the best and most economical gains were made on corn meal and skim milk Linseed meal also gave lower and more expensive gains and was in every way le33 satisfactory than either oatmeal or corn meal and flaxseed. It may be that the results of these experiments are contrary to prevailing opinion con cerning the relative value cf theee feeds, but it ia not unnatural or in any way unreasonable that the carbona ceous grains should ba more suitable for feeding with skim milk than a highly nitrogenoua product like lin seed meal. Skim milk is nitrogenous itself. Some xperiments were made in Holland to tes5 tho effect of increas ing the fat in skim milk for calves or adding starch. Eiough whole milk was added to ekim milk to mako the desired amount of fat. When starea was fed it was cooked to a paste in the ekim milk. Absui 91 per cent, of the starch was 6 igested, the co t fli jient of digestibility being a3 high as in the case of the adult animal. The addition of starch to the ration diminished the digestibility of protein somewhat. It was, howe7er, on tho whole considered aatfs'actory. When it is possible to supply skim milk (containing protein) and the supplemental carbonaceous material in an inexpensive form, tho profitable feeding of caivea is assured. In tho experiments cited above car bohydrates (either in form of starch or cereal grainO wero succes3fully com bined with skim milk and in this way the animal wa3 supplied with an abun dance of protein and energy and mude good growth. Dairying is a branch of farming which ia being neglected by North Carolina farmers Ic ia a paying branch, but one in which there is a nearer ap proach to manufacturing than almoat any other, and which call8 for strict business management, and thia must here be coupled with some practical knowledge of science aa related to botany not only of the fl wering plants, but of that branch of botany known as bacteriology. The proper handling of milk to make butter or cheese ia a cul ture of bacteria of the right family and species of produce the desired quality of butter or cheese. It will be in vain that the utmost paina are ex pended if cleanlinefs and low tem peratures are not maintainted. Thia ia not because of cleanliness in itself, or of the low temperature. Cleanliness, boiling water, or steam, on clean uten ails, and the bright sun both kill the bacteria and their eporea or feeds, which are left attached to every speck of curd or cream in seams and on the surface of rough or imperfectly cleaned veesels. The low temperature ao hard to reach for seven or eight montha of the year which experience learned to be best of dairy operations and which science has more recently demonstrated to be needed to check the development of eome families of plants ana leave othera which can thrive at the lower temperature to take possession of the dairy utensila and their contents. These are the families which give the familiar flwora of butter milk, butter and cheese. In case of cheese many more kinds of plants are concerned than in butter making and these need a much longer period of low temperature which can be controlled than ia needed for butter making. Without means for thij con trol or a natural climate suited to nearly maintain the low temperatures, cheese cannot be successfully con ducted without the establishment of rooms and apparatus to secure steady temperatures at the desired degrees for such time aa may be needed. All tho necessary conditions can now be produced and maintained continuously at the present time if business enough can be done to warrant the outlay. Obviously this cannot be aff jrded on any ordinary dairy farm. It must be done on a comparatively largo scale in order to be successful. A farm to use a cooling plant must be large enough to feed and milk 100 to 200 cowa or it would cost tdo great to compete with those in the North which have more suitable climatic conditions in summer but who are under a severe winter climate. The high temperatures of tho North Carolina summer climate can be over come succeaafulJy by combining the products of a number cf farms, thu8 reducing the cost per unit and enabling producers to compete sucsessfully with the produeta brought from less favored territory for this kind of farming. Formerly it was thought enly cer tain sections could produce the best dairy articles aa these could produce certain grasses which could not be pro duced else where, and these gave flavors, etc. All thia has been overcome. Dairying has spread to all kind of climates as men have advanced in means of controlling the climate of the dairy and curing rooms until the most favored place for dairying may be said to b3 now where animal comfort can be maintained the year round at least cost combined with the greatest pro duction or cheapest production of food for cows. The cost of cooling in North Carolina combined with cheapness of llorage or low cost of producing it with two crops per year from cheap land may well be set against the same on ditiona in tho North bus reversed cost of warming combined with coat of food with only one crop of forage per year on high-priaed land. A few farmers near our email c'ties are appreciating this business. If more were to do so and prepare toco operate they would soon cease to discuss four or Ave cent, cotton at the village store and to And profitable employment for much time which counts for little on a cotton farm. This is not again3t cot ten zne cf the richest and beut crops produced but may be construed as an unfavorable contrast with the system of depending on one crop alone for a farm income, If twenty farmers near almo3tany cotton cr tobacco-growing town of North Carolina were to cooperate in doing n dairy business with from ten to twenty cows each, they might at fi s . be short of cotton and feel awk ward about feeding so much stock, but within five years it is safe to say they would be able to produce their average number of bales per acre on half to two thirds of the land now used and at no cost for chemical manure or only a small application of potash and phos phoric acid. Thia may be demonstrated and no doubt can be proven by some other practical farmers who have been trying a dairy on a cotton or tobacco farm. Tho Western North Carolina farmers have in some places ideal conditions for dairying, and can store ice, or make it aa they choose, thua having the dairy climate at control for almoat the abso lute minimum cost while they have the Northern climate for grasses in perfec tion. The advantages of North Cirolina farmers for the development of this branch of farming are numerous and important. It ia also in harmony with the apparent natural development of the Southweat and a still lower reduc tion of the price of cotton unless there ia a more general move toward diver sity of crops by the farmers of the South. Thoae who are fortunate enough to see and change especially on the farms where cotton raising ia up-hill business, will be greatly tho gainers for having made the move to diversify or change from cotton or tobacco to dairy and live stock. We hope to have thia matter dia cuesed in the columns of The Progress ive Farmer. F. E E. FARMERS' QUESTION BOX. This ia to be a permanent department of The Progressive Farmer, one which we hope to make of much service to our subscribers and worth alone the subscription price of the paper. If you desire any information regarding crops, tools, stock of any kind, best methods of cultivating crops, new cropa, dis easea of crops or of stock, or any other farming matter, send on your inquiry to The Progressive Farmer and it will be freely answered by competent and experienced authority. CABBAGE CULTURE. Editobs Progre sive Farmer: Please tell us the best varieties of cab bag, best fertilizers and methods of culture. L. A. Thornburg, Gaston county, N. C. For fall sowing would advise using Jersey Wakefield or Fiat Dutch, for winter sowing would advise using Jer eey Wakefield. For spring sowing, Henderson's Early Summer or Flat Dutch. For summer sowing, Fiat Dutchiand Late Drumhead. F.r fall and spring sowing would advise the use of a cold frame with glass protection. Fjr winter a hot house would be better if convenient In transferring from hot house to ground it ia beat to re set in cold frame and harden or temper. Then transfer to open ground. For fall and spring sowing of seed the plants should be tempered before transferring to open air. The best fertil zsr to be used would be horse cr cow manure well decom posed, the latter preferred. Broadcast on land at the rate of ten tons per acre. Turn under with a two horse plow, harrow thoroughly. Lay off in rows three feet apart and apply commercial fertilizer in the drill at the rate of 500 to 1,000 pounds per acre. Fertilizer should contain 3 per cent, of nitrogen, 8 per cent, of phosphor is and 3 to 4 ?er cent, potash. Mix thoroughly in the drill as the roots are liable to be burned by the fertilizer. Set out the plants three feet in the drill, wrapping the stem of each plant with a strip of paper to prevent cut worma from cutting them down If terrapin bugs are liable to come the rows had bast be four feet apart and mustard or turnips drilled in the mid dles. The terrapin bug prefers mus tard cr turnips to the cabbage or col lards and will spend most of his time there. And then if you wish to spray you can kill them on the mustard and not interfere with the cabbage plants. When plant3 are well started there is no necessity for deep culture. Cul vate the surface ofteD. If cabbage lice or cabbage worms in f est the plants the plants they will have to be taken off by hand, as spraying them would do but little good and might prove harmful. However, the worms could be sprayed with poi3on when the plants have their first leaves "Bug death" ia said to be an effectual remedy carrying with it no danger from poisoning to the human system. Very respectfully, B Ieby, Agriculturist for N. C. Exp'fc Station CULTIVATION OF ASPARAGUS. Editors Progressive Farmer: Seeing that you have established a "Farmers' Qiestion Box" for the con venience of your readers, will you please give me some information re gerding the culture of asparagus? A. 0., Wake county, N C. Asparagus is one of the most health ful plants grown, and siould be culti vated by every farmer, gardener and soil tiller, for home use and the mar ket. It possesses many medicinal vir tues, cornea to the table in spring when vegetables are scarce, and ia very profitable, when properly handled. There are probably 100 species of thia plant, all coming originally from Europe, where it grown extensively and has been relished aa a food product for several centuries. Growers are becoming more numerous every year, aa the plant ia in demand on all mar kets, selling at an average of 10 centa a bunch, throughout the weeks of its usefulness. The crop usually ranges about 2,000 bunches an acre, thua giv ing the grower $200 and sometimes more for the product. The plant may be started from seed or roots, but in either case ta&es two to three years to mature sufficiently to make the beds profitable. If seed la sown in a bed where brush has been burned, early in the spring, the roots may be taken up and transplanted the following spring and wilt begin to yield the third year from seed sowing. The best and probably cheapest plan is to set two-year old roots, which will yield some the first season, and return good results the second year. These roots can be purchased from nursery men at about 4 per 1 000, and 2.500 roots will be sufficient to plant an acre. The soil should be well drained, of a lose sandy nature, and fairly fertilized before planting. If it contains much clay, the surface will bake, or if wet from subsurface water, the roots will not gro w to perfection. The bed should have plenty of sunshine and be free of weeds. Deep plowing is necessary for planting, as the beds will remain for many years, and demand abundant soil food. Some oil time planters dig deep trenches and fill partly with well rotted manure before putting in the roots, but the present method has more to recommend it, aa it takes less labor and the fertilizing elementa are put on the top aa required. When the ground haa been put in condition furrows can be marked with a shovel plow, making them three feet apart. Set the roota in the furrowa, thirty inchea apart, leaving the crowns three to six inches below the surface, and fill level with loose soil. The first year the stalks should not be disturbed until late in the fall, after seeding, when they should be mown and left on the ground for winter mulch. Some growers cover the beds with coarse barnyard manure and rake it off in the spring. A top dressing should be given in March, using soma good fertilizer containing aa a rule 8 per cent, phos phoric acid, 5 par C3nt. potash and 5 per cent, nitrogen. The Department of Agriculture has numerous reports from various sections recommending fertilizers containing these elements, using all the way from 500 to 2,000 pounds per acre. The plants are ready to cut as soon aa the crowns show above ground. Saarp knivea should be used for thia purpc se. When cut, a double handful of stalks will make a bunch. This should be washed and tied with strings near each end. The butt ends are then cut off by a knife and made smooth for marketing. In early spring the asparagus sells at from 10 cents to 20 cents a pound, and one of the bunches usually weighs 3 pounds. After the season of market is over the young shoots may be canned, by packing in jars with some salt, and kept for the entire year. Some Eiropean growers make good money in drying their surplus crop. The green stalks are placed on scaffolds in the sun for two cr three days, or strung on striegs and bung up to dry. After becoming brit tle they are put away for winter use. B boiling or soaking in hot water the etalks come out to their original eiz3, are bunched and sold for Christmas. Joel Shomaker FARM AFFAIRS7 S0M2 POINTS ON KEEPING SWEET POTATOES. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. Tae importance of the sweet potato crop ia often underestimated Some farmers do not make this crop an im portant one because when storing for winter use they so often lose thsm from rotting in banks or houses where stored. If potatoes rot it ia because of neglect, or a want of knowledge aa to their bsst keeping q ialities, Oae thing not known by all farmers, is that potatoes grown from vines keep far better than those grown from sprou ts. Knowing thia f t c from years of experience, I do not put up potatoes grown from sprouts expecting to keep them later than the first of January. I either sell or feed them away by that time. In putting up potatoes to keep, I dig after a killing frost and do not sort out or pick out large from small ones, but cart them in from the field and put in a long row all together just aa dug, preferring to keep them as much aa possible on the bunches aa they grew; thia enables me to make the pile higher and thus cause the water to shed off better. I make the pile four or five feet high, and about six feet at the base and long enough to hold the crop of these I expect to keep late, cover at once with pine straw about one foot thick all over, then if warm, wait till a cool spe'l to put on dirt. When a cool spell comes I bank up about eight inches thick in dirt nearly to the top of bank, leaving an air hole in the top. Then I shelter the top or often nail two wide boards together at right angles, making a wide gutter, which I put over my banks, thua shedding the rain and snow off the top. When I desire to use thes3 potatoes, I begin at one end of the bank, take out enough for a week or two at a time ; there ia then more leisure to sort out the large ones from the small ones. I feed the small ones to hogs or milch cow, as they make better milk than any other roota I can get, and can be raised aa cheaply aa any othera in our section. I have raised and housed a crop of sweet potatoes under favorable circumstances at a cost of only six cents a bushel, and I think the crop can be raised in our county on an average for ten cents a bushel. Since I have been growing from the vine for keeping, and putting up as described above (about ten years) I have not lost from rot more than five per cent, of any crop. Last winter the mercury waa down to six degrees in that hardest free z 3 and snow and the covering as describsd wag sufficient to keep them right. I think many more potatoes are lost from being too hot, or being banked up while it is warm, than are lost from getting too cold. When land suits sweet potatoes, and is fertilized right for them, it is not difficult to get 200 bushels per acre, and often more than thia haa been gathered. If potatoes are put up just for hogs, they may be piled up in convenient piles and covered at once with dirt alone, covered all over and left there till needed to be fed. When put up thia way they do not sweeten, but keep j ist as well here in our county as if carefully put up in straw. I had rather have vines set in July than earlier if for late winter use. Daniel Lane. Craven Co., N. O. TAKE SOLID COMFORT ON THE FARtl. The following article from Wallace's Farmer, of Djs Moines, Iowa, ia ju8t aa applicable to conditions here in the South aa in the S;ato in which that paper is printed. R?ad and you will see for yourself that it is full of sound logic and good philosophy: Tnere ia no man on earth better en titled to solid comfort than the man who owns hi3 own farm and works it himself. There ia no man who can have more of the substantial comforts of life thaD this same farmer. There are some things he cannot have, but they are all things he can do without. He cannot always have good roads, nor concerts, nor swell parties, nor prize fights, nor 6 o'clock dinners, where the ladies wear silk dresses with trails two yards long and the men claw hammer coats, low-cut vests, and expansive shirt bosoms. He can have, however, fresh milk, fresh eggs, fresh vegetables, fried chicken, unadulterated food, fresh air, and sleep for which the mil lionaire would pay $1,000 a night. He can have his boys and girla at home every night, can be in close touch with their lives every day, and can teach them habits of industry as no other man can. The farm is the place to raise the right kind of boys and the right kind of girls, able to adapt them selves, with proper training, to any situation in life. We are sorry to say that farmers do not always avail themselves of their privileges, aa the preachers say. They do not always make their homes aa in viting aa they should be and could be with a little additional expense. There ia an excuse for scant accommodations in the house when the farm ia not paid for, but unfortunately this condition of things exiata long after the excuse for it haa passed away. There ia no better inveatment than solid comfort in the home. The farmer ia not a crea ture fore-ordained to raise corn to grow more hogs to buy more land to raise more corn to grow more hogs, in endless repetition. Ha haa but one life to live in thia world, and he should aim to get as muh solid comfort out of it aa possible; a comfortable bed, a pleasant home, conveniences for the wife, music for the children, evergreens and flowers, whatever tends to make life more comfortable or desirable. We do not wonder why some boys leave the farm as soon aa they can, and why some girla marry at the first op portunity for securing what promises to be a more comfortable life. A bare CONTINUED ON PAG 2 8
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Oct. 10, 1899, edition 1
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