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3fe 1 1 THE INDUSTRIAL AM) EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUE PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER COHSIDERATIOKS OP STATE POLICY. Vol. 14f EALEIGH, I?. C.f JANUARY 16, 1900 Ho. 48 -n S zn t i I i 1 PUBLISHED WEEKLYl T,rUte on y label tells you when your Receipts for money on iven In change or date on changed in two weeks. ,0tocrlptln exp iflbecrtrtion win. ibel. If not pro; notify us. v ' fMocnvTlNUAi 8. If a subscriber wishes ww roDT of the pai CSliscontinued at the ex irkm 'f Kls subscription, notice to that effect ffild be sent. Otherwise it Is assumed that a Tirmnanceof the subscription is desired, and U arrearages must be paid when paper is ordered stopped. vnnev at our risfe if sent by regigier-t letter or n i Re eure to plve Doin oia ana new aaaresews m ordering change of poetofflce. Ria of Advertising Rates: ten cents per agate line Liberal discounts for time and space. rma item I marked to remind you that you , a Varpiuuy examine i his sample copy and th0A a 1 for a ear's subscription. Will also nrr on trial 8 months for 50 cents, or SnnFhs for 2 cents Or we will send vour 3 t Ke 'or one year if 5 ou will send us 5 in SSw subscriptions, or free six months for $3 in subscriptions, at these rates. v warn Intelligent correspondents in every rointy m the State. We want facts of value conni i! i llghea 0f value, experiences of SSe Wtafy and briefly told One wild, demonstrated r act. is worth a thousand theo ries. Thb Phoorkssivb Farmkr is the Official Organ of the North Carolina Farmers' State Alliance. FARM AFFAIRS. DRAINAG. Its Importance ia Making Fertility Avail able Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer. The question of drainage is one to which the farmers of the South will have to address themselves, if they hope to compete with their Northern brethren in raising big crops. The Sjuth is subject to very wet spells at certain seasons of the year, when the soil becomes saturated with water and rc mains so for weeks at a time. During one of these seasons, such as we passed through in the eummer of 1893. all our work and fertiliz3i seems to hava been wasted. Eicept on a few particularly well drained epots, things began to turn yellow, and plant growth was almost at a standstill. Taen, after one ot these spella, the soil is in a deplorable condition; it has run together badly, and bicoma tough and hard before it i3 dry enough to plow, and it is next to impossible, where crop? are growing, to get it into good cordition again 8o much for the upland. In the bottoms, most of which are drained only at very wide intervals by a few ehallor; open ditches, stock will mire up o'ten to the knees. Hr?, weads and grass eoon take posseeeion and the farmer says the wet weather ruined his crop. The annual loss throughout our 8outhern country for the want of proper drain age, is appalling, and yet this first, and fundamental principle of success ful agriculture is apparently the last to be thought of. Before preparing for the crop of 1900 it behooves our Southern farmera to think about this matter, and not only think about it, but go to work this winter while they have plenty of time, and underdrain the worst places first. A3 a rule it does not pay to under drain our red clay upland. Where euh drains have been put in, they very eeidom, if ever, run. It has been tri:d at the Gaorgia Experiment Sta tion without any beneficial results, and wo have several such drains on our place, and ehall not put in any more, iheee lands are naturally well drained if the hard pan which lies six or eiht inches below the surface, is well broken. Oq these lands deep plowing and Fubsoiling is all that is necessary, and the water will take care of itself. The saturated and poor con dition described above is caused by this hard pan, and if you will notice, this condition does not occur on new ground. The old land has been plowed fr years only about four to six inches deep, and the continuous tramping of th.9 stock in the bottom of these fur row?, has forced the hard pan through which the water will not per colate freely. Tha result is, the top eoil t chips too wet, this excludes the air, fckntl .atton 6topgt an4 with itj the roA ih of the crop. This i3 exem phfiod by the wfcQk and sickly growth whica form,, upon land which is con tinuoaalj wt.t, although the land may be naturaiiy ;re ricb whiIe the plants which thrive beet ia these loeali tics, have their rt system almost en t relyoa the surface; wiih tha exc?p Hon of perhaps a few water plants. By t us wo aoe that the roots of plants aun have air a3 well as the foliage, and anything which excludes this air, iH stop the pUnt's growth." Let us C2crlrnenc9 at the b3ginning then, and Bee that the conditions of our soil are right be! ore we plant. We cannot afl rd to throw away work and fertili zsrs on a crop which may fail for want of this one essential crop point. We cannot afford to run risks. I recently rode through a neighbor's bottoms where the corn crop was a failure on the richest land he had, be cauee it was too wet. All the land had been prepared and fertilised alike in tie spring, but where he should have had his best com, he had the poorest What a los 1 And it could have been prevented so easily by a little under draining last winter when he had the time, and could have done it well enough. How many years the crop has been a failure on that piece of land, I do not know, but a great many, I ehouli j ldge, for the land has been in cultivation a long time and every wet season adds to the debit side of the ledger against those acres Now is the time to do this work, and keep at it until you are ready to start your plows next spring. No invest ment that I know of will begin to pay as well as money and work put into under-drains in the right placds, and when the work is well done, it will oring with it a steady revenue each year, to say nothing of the pleasure and satisfaction of knowing that you ire doing your b: at. Now, friends, remember that in every successful undertaking, it is necessary to begin at the bottom ; and in agriculture this often means at the bottom of the ditch. F. J. Mkrria-m. Battle Hill, Ga. WINTER KILLING OF INSECTS. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. It is refreshing to learn from sclen title sources that other thing3 be side fruit trees, winter wheat and other farm products suffer from cold, open winters. It appears pretty clear now that many noxious insects are killed by the intense cold, and in some sections they are nearly ex'crminated. Suddfn changes of temperature are specially destructive to these insects, and an open, severe winter i3 generally followed by a fewer number of noxious insects, while a winter of a uniform temperature and with plenty of sno w on the ground is succeeded by a good crop of early bugs and insecre, It will do noticed that the sirne kind of win ters kills the insects that generally in jure the fruit trees and crops. Conse quently we can male s:me calculations as to when we need to be the most en ergetic in spraying. The insects that are specially in j ired by the severe witter weather are the white peach scale, the harlequin cabbage bug, the grub, thrip and eimi lar irsects. In fact, very few of our ir jurious insects can withstand the ex treme changes of freezing and thawing which characterize some of our win ters. All of these insects can befrcz3n up in blocks of ice acd they will come out again as lively as when they went into hibernation q carters. But freeze and thaw them fjr several days or weeks in UC3esi3n, and they qu ckly succumb. Insects which winter in the ground are thus subject to destruction by the intermittent crld and warm weather of winter, but the noxious and friendly insects are alike killed in this way. If we could devise some means of saving the latter we would find a real benefit in our winter weather; but unfortun ately this seems impossible. A? there suit the friendly insects are of;en killed off in such numbers that ecme o! the noxious which are bred in protected plao.'S appear in larger forces than ever because their natural enemies are fewer in numbers. Tnere is quise a problem to learn how to control the in as: ts in winter as well as in eummer. It has been suggested that by spread ing some food for the insects in a certain field late in autumn they can be attracted to a restricted area, and by keeping this place free from the protection of snow most of them might be killed off. But this plan has more of the experiment in it than actual facta After it has been one e demon stra eu scientifically that alternate thawing and freezing kill the insects in may not ba so long before some means may bo discovered to make this knowl dge o? practical value. Heretofore wo thought the insects were absolutely proof against cold weather in any form. Now we know differently, and that is one great step in advance. James 8. Doty. New York. SHALL THB SOUTHERN PARUBR DIVERSIFY; AND IF SO, TO WHAT EXTENT ? Mr. G. H. Burgess, of Mississippi, who has contributed a number of ex cellent agricultural articles to The Pro greseive Farmer, writes the Practical Farmer on the above subject. He says : We are heartily sick acd tired of hearing so much of that visionary be ing, the all-cotton farmer. Who is he, any ho w f We have traveled exte nsive ly over the cotton belt; have been en gaged in raising the fl3ecy staple for upward of a quarter of a century, and yet we have never eeen him. If there is such a bein as all, he is undoubtedly a negro ;one who dor sn't know any thing else except how to raise cotton, and precious iittle of that. Hs doesn't read farm papers, hence their advisers kind ly sympathy is lo3t, and tiieir advice wasted cn the desert air. We make a specialty of cotton; have dot e so for upward of a quarter cen tury, and expect to the remainder of our days. At the same time we are an ultra divereificationist. No man in the South has studied any harder to find a crop that could be made to super eeda cotton as a money crop We haven't found it, and neither will any one e se. The man who quits cotton, a crop he thinks he knows all about, to engage in the raising of truck, a business that he really knows nothing about, or melons, or strawberries, or peais, cr peaches.has got a hard row to hoe. Ha has swapped the devil for a witch, and i! he don't mind, will find that he has thereby thrown all his fat ia the fire There is lots of good money to be made by horticulturist", truck farm ers, nation raisers, etc , but unfortun-( ately, it is more often the case than any other way that this hard earned money goes to enrich, not the producer, not the man who tils and s veats and becomes prematurely old while hump ing his back up to the hot sun while setting out plaits, after scouring the univrrso in trying to secure tha ery best of good seed, and paying out all the money he can rake and scrape for fertilizers. No, it is no! he who gets the money at all. Who then is it that gets tho money? Is ia the transporta tion C3tnpanie3 that get it mora often than anyone else. It is the case in Florida, in Georgia, in Mississippi, and in Texas. In each State the kind acd obliging railroad cfficials are ready at any and all times to gobble up the hard earned money of the producer. This truck business is good on the rail road, but hard on the producer. As a sample, we quote from a late issue of the Texas Farm and Ranch : "Lt us be honest and look at the truck and melon growers' side. Hire is a statement of three cars: Oae car shipped to Chicago lacked several dol lars of paying tha freight. One car shipped to Cripple Creek, Colorado brought on the market 1237 91, asplen did price. Of this amounu the rail roads extracted a freight $236 36 ; c im mission J ee, $23 99 ; total expense, $260. 25, leaving a shortage of $20 34 which tae shippers had to pay. A carload of truck shipped from Texas to Chicago brought $247 50. The freight bill wa $240 and commission $7 50 " As a result of thij short sighted un businesslike and suicidal policy of the railroads, killing the goose that laid the golden egg, quito a considerable portion of the Florida melon crop was transmorgrified into pork by beiDg fed to hogs. We are acquainted with one gentle man in this bis to who sunk $6,000 last year in raising truck. There is but little hope of becoming suddenly rich in raising cotton at pres ent prices, but results such as those re corded above never have yet, in the entire history of this country, been re corded of cotton, and we are satisfied never will. In bringing about such a ccmple e revolution, then, na q litting cotton in order to raise some other crop a3 a money crop, one should by all means make haste elowly. Take Davy Crockett's advice, "Be sure you're right, then go ahead." There is one plan of diversifying that could be put in practice by each and every Southern farmer with absolute safety, and with every acs iranca of ultimate success; a plan that; cannot possibly f ail of bein? both profitable and satisfactory. This plan consists in 60 arranging matters that the farm shall be as nearly as practicable self sustaining. In other words, that we should make a living, and a good liv I I I SI ing at that, not eff of cottOD, let the price be what it may, but utterly and entirely independent of cotton. First make the living eff of the products of the farm, then raise all the cotton you can, always being sure that it is cotton and not provisions that is the surplus crop. There is ancf always will be a brisk and constant demand for beef, butter, poultry, - egg?, etc., and usually at prices that will enable the wide -awake producer, who takes the trouble to understand his business, to realize a profit thereon. Although sudden changes from cotton to tobacco, or truck, or indeed, any other sudden change in the way of cash or money crops, oftentimes entail a decided and disastrous loss, there is no possible chance of loss in gradually enlarging our pastures, in raising more hay, more small grain, as wheat, barley, oats and rye, sowing more land down to cow peas, putting cut more fruit tree3, and taking better care of our orchards, enlarging our vegetable gar dens and raising vegetables in greater variety and greater abundance. Then, when we have done all this, increasing cur eupply of live stock of all kinds, i. ntil we have enough on hand to con sume the increased amount of forage, then would we be able to increase, in stead of continually decreasing, the fertility of our soils. Then would our farms be rendered really and truly self-sustaining; then would the acre age devoted to provision crops be so in creaied, and the acreage devoted to cotton so decreased, as to insure re munerative prices for all the cotton that could possibly be produced on this decreased acreage. Then would the cotton raiser be rendered largely inde pendent of the indolent, and often tmes impudent, class of labor with which he is at present accused Then would that humiliating and enslaving habit of depending cn the merchant for the veriest necessities of life, as meat, bread, etc., become a thing of ve past, and instead of having these things to buy, he would have taem to sell. This is the kind of diversification the South needs, and needs badly. A eyetem of diversification that shall render them largely independent of, fir-t, the thrifty, kind and extremely obliging merchant; oecond, the indo l6Lt, ehiftlesB labor, the transportation companies and the fertilizer manufac turers; in short.it would work hard ship or injustice to none, while it would render the Seuthern farmer the mcst independent being on the top side of God's green earth. In this not wonh striving for? SEED BUYING. A few weeks ago we published an article from Farmers' Voice telling of the methods by which Prof. F. J. Msr riam, of Battle Hill, G., and hi asso ciate make from $5 000 to $10 000 per year on general truck farming and gardening. We had just published an interesting letter from Prof. Merriam and stated that our readers might ex poet to hear from him again through our columns. Acsordingly we have this week from his pen an excellent letter on the important subject ot drainage. We find in a recent issue of the Sou h9rn Cultivator some of Prof. Mer rian's suggestions regarding seed buy ing and give them herewith. A man so successful on gardening and truck ing is necessarily good authority on seed buying. He says: With the advent of the New Year there appears upon our table the seed catalogue profuse in illustrations of mammoth vegetables and beautiful flowers. Indeed the catalogues of the large seed houses of to day are works of art, and we welcome their coming with pit asure, and examine their con tents with increasing interest. With every succeeding year" these catalogues t 11 us of new varieties of our standard vegetables, originated with infinite labor and placed before the public at great expense. These bo called novel tua are necessarily high priced, and while tha bulk of our crop must be planted of the older sorts, it is always interesting to try a few of these new varieties in comparison with the old and tried kind. It is wisest when placing ycur order to eeleat those varieties which have been tried and proved successful in your locality, certain varieties of to matoes, for instance, succeeding much belter in some localities than others. 8tiU with a great many of our vege tables, locality has little to do. With Irish potatoes, the r ewer kinds will be found as a rule, the most prolific, the seed having more vitality, for it has been shown that all varieties of Irish potatoes are apt to deteriorate as they grow older. In fact, all seeds need constant breeding up, to ensure the best development, and this ia what the large seed houses are doing for us. An eye must be alto kept on the demands of your market, and those varieties selected which have proved favorites with the trade. Nearly all of the large and well known seed houses are reliable. If they are not, they would not be large and well known. And, unless yculive near a city where you can procure their seeds from agents, it will pay you to crder direct from the big firms Indeed it often pays to do this any way, for then you are eure of getting what you want and getting it fresh. JSow don't put eff ordering your seed until the last moment, and then expect to have them when they are needed; but give yourself plenty cf time by ordering early, and have ycur seed on hand in advance. Then, when the season is just right, you will be ready to plant. You know that it ia difficult to catch the land dry enough to work in the very early spring, end if you have not already procure c y our seed, it is liable to rain again before you can get them, when your planting will be delayed possibly several weeks, making you late with your crop. This matter is mcst important to the suc cess of the earliest vegetables, and we have already ordered a large portion of our seeds. tlOJbiTICTJLTUKE GOOD ARTICLES AND WIDER MARKETS. Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer. The question of increasing the profits of fruit growing must always interest farmers, and at this season of the year it is a good time to lay plans for the next campaign. Most of us are just ordinary fruit growers who follow the old ways of others without trying to make any particular reform. On the whole the man who always sticks to old, tried principles is safe, but he does not make the most of his talents alJ ways My father and grandfather raised fruits before me for a living, but I cannot make the money they did by following their business methocs The reason seem3 to be that the times have changed, and the new conditions de mand new plans and ways. Specializing an industry frequently brings better results than anything else ; for years I have tried to si ecialix3 the work of raising fruits. My special ties are simple enough, and some would hardly dignify my efforts as such. But I have some well defined plans which I am working out and everything moves toward their completion. My first specialty is that of raising fine fruits It must be a good article, or I do not ship it to market. Whether the crcp is of pears, peaches, apples, plums or berries, it must be above the average in quality to suit me. I am working to ard this end all the time, acd I be lieve it is in that line that we must ex pect to find thereatest profits. Hot ter articles each year is what I strive for, but I do not always succeed. The next point of specializing that I wish to refer to is a wider market. Many people speak of widening their markets, but do they understand that ;hey have got to have the right goods to enter wider markets with? A lot of ordinary fruits raised in one corner of the country could not eeek wider markets where transportation rates are large, but if they were exception ally fine fruits they might go to the most distant markets and command a premium. You cannot widen your markets unless you have superior ar ticles to sell. Fires rsise a good articl?, then, if prices warrant it, ship them a thousand miles away. I have sent fruits this distance and obtained ex cellent returns on them. Usually, however, markets nearer home will absorb all the fine products that can be raised. It is quite a rare occurrence for any large city market to be glutted with very fine products. It is the in ferior and second rate articles that pull don th9 price3. Raise only the best, and you can always find purchasers. That has been my belief, and.my expe rience with fruits bears it out in every detail. Jamzs 8. Smith. In a note to the editor of The Farm ers' Voice, Charles E Himmel, the well known horticulturist of Bishop, 111., remarks what is worthy to be con sidered by ail orchardists. He says: "More orchards fail through being at in unsuitable eoil than from any other cause. The trees should always be set where the eoil is supplied with sufficient store of plant food." ' SAN JOSE SCALE IN GEORGIA. Thirty thousand fruit trees, corn, nrising the entire orchards of D. O. & G M. Bacon, in Mitchell county, Ga., were buined Monday by order cf 8tate Eatomolcgist 8cott, owing to the rav ages of the San Jose scale. In the immediate neighborhood os Da Witt, Ga., in the cc unties of Irwin, Berrien, Worth end Mitchell, are more than 300 000 fruit bearing peach trees, acd ia' justice to tho owners of neigh boring orchards, as well as to perform a service cf the State, the trees will be destroyed. Tee wcrk cf destroying the orchards will require several weeks' time, WESTERN CAROLINA APPLES. It ia well to severely criticise the careless often reckless manner in which apples ure gathered and mar keted in this rfgicn, but more should be said ia regard to the shameful neg lect of the trees in too many'instances. In fact it is the exception when they are really properly cared for. Too many are scarred, hacked to pieces, instead of being carefully and intelli gently trimmed, and left to battle un aided with injurious insects and fun gous diseases that are increasing so rapidly that the time is soon coming when only those who give faithful, in telligent and unremitting care to their trees will secure choice fruit. What with the numbers of worth less seedlings that are allowed to con tinue bearing their inferior fruit in stead of being grafted into good varie ties, the hasty and injudicious selec tion of varieties often made when growing or buying trees to plant, and the neglect of the trcco after being planted, a great deal of the fruit is in ferior or worthless before it is gath ered. During his recent vi3it to this region to secure apples to exhibit at Paris next year I let Secretary Bruner have five barrels of the fifteen to be fur nished by the State. Gao. E Boggs. in Charlotte Obsprver. FARMERS' QPESTIOnr CURING MEAT; PICKLING PORK. Editobs Progressive Farmer: Please answer the following ques tions through the columns of your paper: 1. What is the best method of cur ing pork! 1. What is the best method for pick ling pork for summer use ? H. F. O. Cumberland Co., N. O. (Answer by Corresponding Editor Etnory, M. S ) 1, We do not know that the method we have used is the best though it has given very toothsome ham3. We cur tailed the curing so no not likiDg the strong smoky flavor so well, but for summer use it would be well to con tinue the em vko two to three weeks. Kill pigs in the early part of a cool wave. Cool the meat by hanging at least 21 hours, but do not allow any part of it to freeze. Then cut up as desired and salt down in bulk. Thor ough cleanliness should be observed at eve y step. Uee from one ' to four ounces of powdered saltpetre dusting it over the flssh sides. Some have a rule to use one fourth pound for each hundred pounds of pork. We have used less, but have never tried to pre pare hams for long keeping. Bub silt freely over all the cut surfaces and pile on a bench or clean plank floor with good drainage. In three days rc-pile and sa t over, allow the meat to re main about one day for each pound in each ham or shoulder. We have short- ened this some. Then break bulk, wipe off excess of salt and cover the cut surfaces thoroughly with pepper. Thh is beat dene by making a rather stiff mixture of pepper in molasses. This ward.s off insect attacks. Hang in smoke hou?e and smoke two t9 three weeks, observing to increase the smoke every day. If omissions occur lengthen the time. Hickory chips or trimmings, corn cobs, or oak are the beat smoke fuel. When smoked in close hams, shoulders, sides and break fast scrips in close fitting muslin cr OOJJTETUED ON PAG3 8.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 16, 1900, edition 1
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