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THE INDFSTjpAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF .OUR PEOPIE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER, CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. Vol. 15. Raleigh, N. O., August 14, 1900. Ho. 27 Apiculture. HOW TO E THE CORN CROP AGAIN DISCUSSED. A Virginia Farmer Tells'Wliat the Scientists and Farmers of the Old Dominion Have Learned Regarding It. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. Several very valuable papers have already appeared in The Progressive Farmer on this interesting subject, but as it takes "line upon lino and precept upon precept" to get our people to adopt new and improved methods, it may not be out of place to tell what our Virginia people have learned. ( Some years ago the Virginia Sta tion issued a bulletin giving an ac count of the great success of a corn husker and fodder cutter used by the Station. This brought so many in quiries that the Station found it necessary to issue another and more exhaustive bulletin, No 73, fully treating of the whole subject of har vesting and preserving the fodder of the corn crop. Chemical analyses and feeding tests at several stations have proved that only about half the nutritive value of the corn plant is stored in the ear, the other half residing in the husk, stalk and blades. The corn crop being by far the most important of all American feeding crops, the proper saving of half its value is a problem of vast importance. Some varieties of corn mature much earlier than others, hence it is not possible to name a date for be ginning the harvest of the plant ; but the best time is when the ears are sufficiently hardened and the tips of the bottom blades begin to turn yellow. Then the work should be done quickly, the horse power ma chines, that have become so plenti ful and cheap, being recommended for this work. In the warm damp iortions of the Gulf States fodder cannot be cut and shocked in the field ; it will mould and decay. In such places the blades are stripped from the standing stalks, which lets the sun in to the ground, which soon becomes covered with a fine growth of crab grass hay that is worth moire than the corn fodder would be. But in all other portions of the United States the whole corn plant should be harvested by cutting near the ground and preserving in silo or shocking in the field, thence to be hauled to the barn and husked and stored away as soon as conven ient after it has sufficiently cured. The Virginia Station finds it best t y make shocks twelve hills square, putting 144 hills of two stalks each, or 2sS stalks in a shock. To prevent molding it is best to cut the middle six rows and place in shocks, and then wait a few days for this to cure K'fore cutting and adding the other .-ix rows, three on each side. In drier climates shocks may be sixteen hills square. As soon as the stalks as well as the blades have dried out, haul to the burn, husk out and store away. It is a common practice with most farmers to husk the corn in the field and reshock the fodder, to be hauled out and used as required "throughout the fall and winter. The bulletin says : By this means losses occur in several ways, the portions last used have been exposed to the winter's nows and winds, and when placed before the animals much of it would V trampled into the soft ground, an 1 yet more spoiled by the excre ii i--lit of the cattle being fed, while th.- stalks would be a nuisance for ia nths to come. Another method, aivi me we have used once, is to "t.u k the fodder as soon as husked, b- careful to place the butts at all ' U the weather. If covered with h or h;iy or straw this answers very V.. only open to objections of feed ! -'. a mentioned above. In many ": the Northern States stover is ; ; ! i-t a and ted in the barns, but may ' so handled better there than here, n- "in is more dwarf in its habits, : '-old climate causing a rapid -! Tli. hut a smuller plant. In the s r-h we should find much difficulty 'aiidling it in barns if housed as : ' vl from the field, hence the l,v implements for reducing the in size of pieces of stalk. The ordinary silage cutter has been utilized by some for this purpose, but the short pieces of hard stalk are apt to injure the animal's mouth to such an ex tent as to make its use unprofitable. For some years so-called shredders have been used with success, they differing from the cutter in that they first crush the stalk as it passes through the rolls, and then tear or shred it into small pieces by the ac tion of spikes, saws, or teeth ; but not knives that give a shear cut. For some years we have been using an implement of this sort, only besides shredding the stover the corn is husked by the same operation, its work having been discussed in bulle tin No. S3. Since this bulletin was published in 1893 we have been using the same machine, husking- all our corn from thirty-five to seventy acres and housing the stover in barns so far as room allowed, and the balance was placed in stacks or ricks near, the buildings. We wero warned that, the stover would njt keep either in the barn or in stac, some backing their assertions with the statement that they had "tried it." "So far as our experience goes, we can say that not once have we had the slightest trouble in this respect, in keeping perfectly in both barn and stack." Fodder taken from the stack March 31 was just as green and bright as when put into the stack on November 20, and was free of mold or odor. Its only protection had been a topping of straw. The shredded fodder is often baled and thus placed upon the market or stored in small space in barn or shed. Thus it is seen that shredded fod der possesses many advantages. It is more easily handled, more cheaply stored, more perfectly preserved, more completely consumed, and the waste makes good bedding and a fine absorbient of liquid manure. J. L. Ladd. NOTES FROM HALIFAX. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. I think your paper has got to be one of the very best agricultural papers in the country. As soon as I can get time I want to get you some subscribers. Crops around here are looking well since rain. Old corn was injured, but has somewhat re vived, while young corn is looking fine and with seasons will make a good crox). Tobacco was badly in jured and the body of plant will not be much good, though young tobacco may do fairly well. Peanuts and field peas are fine. W. M. Martin. Halifax, Co., N. C. CORN HARVESTING. The use of corn harvesters here is fast becoming universal and those who own them consider them almost as indispensable as the grain binder. The machines are successful and do all they pretend to do, reducing the cost of caring for the crop, besides getting it done in season and mak ing the task a picric compared to the old laborious hand-cutting. Having the corn bound in bundles is a won derful advantage. It stands up bet ter in the shock and in drawing is handled with a fork almost as easily as bundles of small grain. If the corn is to be husked from shock, a light, portable platform is placed be side the shock, a bundle laid on it and the ears husked out without re moving the band, thus saving the labor of re-tying, writes S. C. Arnold, of Minnesota in the Breeders' Ga zette. Much of the shock corn here is run through the feed cutter without husking, some farmers using an at tachment which separates the pieces of ears and shelled corn from the fodder. The combined husker and shredder travels around the cduntry n the fall like a threshing outfit, husking the corn and putting the shredder fodder in the mow. This machine is employed by those who have no cutting machinery of their own. Last year the hay crop of the State of New York was worth $37,000,000 in round numbers, about eight times as much as in any Southern State. PURPOSES OF THE N. C. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. Mr. T. K. Bruner, Secretarybriefly states the objects of the North Caro lina Department of Agriculture as follows: v The inspection and analyzation of commercial fertilizers to prevent fraud in their manufacture and see ing that farmers get what they pay for. j Co-operating with the Soil Division' of the United States Department of Agriculture in determing the char acter of North Carolina soils and mapping the results for the use of our people. Conducting test farms where the kind and quality of fertilizers best suited to all field crops are deter mined ; the results to be published for the benefit of the farmers. The study of contagious diseases of live stock and suggestions for the eradication and prevention of the same, and in extending the State and Federal quarantine lines so as to ex empt as much territory as possible, to the great enhancement of the value of stock in the regions ex empted. The study of all insect pests affect ing fruit and other crops ; the iden tification of all kinds of plants and the testing of farm and garden seeds. The chemical and microscopic ex amination of all food stuffs the execution of the pure food law. The identification of all ores min erals and drinking waters, where the latter is suspected of infection of any kind, for the people who live in side North Carolina. The holding of farmers' institutes, where such are wanted, and the peo ple invite co-operation in holding them. Promoting the best interests of all agriculture, stock and poultry breed ing through the bulletin, and by means of private correspondence. KEEPING ROOT CROPS THROUGH THE WINTER. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. As the season for putting up par snips, carrots, beets and turnips for winter use is coming on, it is well to plan in time. The best way to keep the above roots is to hill them without any shelter, and as the cold increases in crease the earth over them deep enough for no freeze to reach them in January. This has been my plan for years, not putting more than ten bushels to the hill or bank. Let no standing water be allowed near the hill. They keep well for me put up in this manner. My neighbor, to make a complete success, had his beets put in barrels in dry sand in cellar and lost all with dry rot. "We break off all the leaves or tops to prevent heat by being too com pact. Parsnips and carrots will keep where grown without being taken up, if a good ridge is thrown to them. Large turnips and beets are rarely ever kept safely during a very cold winter on the land where grown. For good spring salad, sow late crop of what is known as winter turnip. All the above roots should be prepared for winter before they are hurt by freezes. Most people had to learn to be fond of tomatoes ; so with many other vegetables. When well served by a good cook, properly seasoned, we all can take a small portion at a time until more is wanted. Begin with but little when we have a healthy relish. Am well . pleased with The Pro gressive Farmer. It seems to grow better and more interesting. You have some strong, sensible writers, and but for one thing it would be a shame for my articles to go in your paper that is, some readers are young and need the plain, simple statements in homely language. Your paper should go into ten thou sand homes. It would be money well spent to any farmer. R. R. Moore. Guilford Co., N. C. You are sending out the best paper that is published in the State, and it should be in the homes of every farmer. W. B. Fleming, Warren Co., N. C. NOTES FROM THE WHEAT EXPERIMENTS The wheat experiments conducted by the Department of Agriculture of the Tennessee Ejcperiment Station during the past winter have been very successful. The crop is now all harvested and threshed and the re sults are being worked up, as it is the purpose of the Department to issue a bulletin on this subject with in the course of a few weeks so that it will be in the hands of the farm ers before seeding time. In this re port the relative merit of something over forty varieties of wheat will be discussed. All those desiring this publication can secure the same free of charge, by addressing the under signed, One of the most interesting of the experiments considered was the dates of seeding. The question of fighting the ravages of the Hessian fly is of momentous interest to the farmers of this State. Our wheat was sown on land in which peas were plowed under and it grew vigorously all through the season. Our experi ments indicate that sowing from the first to the tenth of October gives the best results. We found that by sowing two or three weeks later than this the wheat did not secure- suffi cient growth to withstand the effects of the late fall and early winter freezes and was killed out. The fertilizer experiments are also interesting. In these tests twenty five different mixtures of fertilizers were used with barnyard manure heading the list. The question of seed selection and its influence on the yield of wheat is of vital importance and this line of work will be carried on very exten sively another year. We are of the opinion that most people do not use enough seed, and for the purpose of proving whether there is anything in this idea or not, we sowed wheat at the rate of from one bushel to two bushels per acre. The indications are in favor of the two bushel seed- ing. An interesting feature of the work undertaken the past year was an inter-tillage experiment to determine whether it would pay to sow the wheat in wide rows and cultivate with the weeder to save moisture through the fall season when it is often dry, or whethor to sow in nar rows and cultivate, as compared with no cultivation. The result's of all these experi ments will be summarized in our wheat bulletin and should make in teresting reading. Andrew M. Souls, Agriculturist Tennessee Exp't Stat'n PAY CASH CREDIT A DETRIMENT. The motto, "Pay as you go," is a good one to follow and has been the means of bringing prosperity to many. Buying on credit tends to lead people into extravagance. Many often buy things they do not need and, in justice to themselves and their merchant, really cannot afford, just because they can buy "on time." When the debt becomes due they are often unable to pay it as much so as when they made it. This fre quently causes trouble between debtor and creditor. Many mer chants will sell goods more cheaply to a customer who pays cash than they will to one who buys on time. They can well afford to do so. Credit has made slaves of thousands of our citizens. I have witnessed so many evil results from the system (or rather lack of system) of buying on credit that I intend to make as few store accounts as possible. G. M. Mullin, Tazewell Co., Va. In 1899 there were . shipped from 114 counties in Missouri 106,988,710 pounds of poultry and 34,875,040 dozen eggs, valued in all at $12,091, 048.54 During June the Chicago oleo fac tories turned out 2,724,446 pounds oleo, compared with 2,285,313 pounds a year ago. The number of licenses issued to retail the product was 20 against 13 a year earlier. No filled cheese was sent out from the first Illinois district during the month, while a year ago the output was 318, 000 pounds. Live Stock. WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA FOR SHEEP. Writing in The American Sheep Breeder, of Chicago, for August, C. W. Barney tells of a trip through West Virginia and Western North Carolina. Of the latter region he truthfully says: We went along to Western North Caolina, the home of Henry Stewart, well known to your readers. This mountain country is a beautiful re gion, with a lovely climate, very healthy, filled with trout streams, brooks and clear oold springs, and should be a great sheep country. Land along there can be procured for $1 an acre, or can be leased at a moderate interest on its value. The usual method of keeping sheep is to run them in flocks, each on its range under the care of a herder, who cul tivates a small farm on which fodder for occasional use in the winter may be grown. The flocks each have their special salting places to which they come regularly, or wil come home to get a little grain, corn most ly, scattered in troughs for them. Something of the Western plan of herding suits the location, then sheep may be kept for the least expense of any place in the world. But some winter feeding is necessary even in these delightful mountains. The markets are close by. Land and labor are cheap. No more trouble with dogs than anywhere else, in deed, there is none to any serious extent, some Northern management and push only, are wanted to make this region a great sheep country. CONSIDERATION OF THE COW IN SUM MER. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. By all means the dairy cow de mands srood shade in hot weather just as much as she does good food. Where trees do not afford this nat urally in the pasture field, provide sheds for them. These sheds need not be much more than poles with tops on them, with protection on one side. In hot weather the animals will resort to these sheds and rest there in the middle of the day. It is a good practice, to distribute enough hay or light fodder under the sheds for the midday meal for the cows to eat up without filling them too much. Do not srive them this food until nearly noon, or they will desert the pasture field for it as soon as the sun begins to get warm. They need the exercise in the morning in the open fields. But when the sun gets very hot it is not good for man or animal to be out in it without some protec tion. Yet in many cases the dairy cows on which we depend for a liv- inar are forced to stand or lie in the broiling sun simply because no shel ter is provided for them. This necessity of shade in the pas ture field might induce some farmers to consider the question of planting shade trees along the hedges of fields There is no better practice, and in the end no more, profitable work. advocate selection of such trees that will yield a profit either in their fruit or timber. I have' found nut trees to be the most profitable. They are slow growers, but when they are few years old they begin to furnish a fair amount of shade for the cows, which lie down under them every day in summer. When the nuts are ripe the crop is harvested with a fair surety of some profit. It will not nav to raise choice fruit trees A. V along the hedges, but apple trees that produce cider apples will generally prove satisfactory. Cherry trees are also good if the fruit3 canbe pro tected from the birds by mosquito netting. If trees are planted for their timber, new plantings must be put out every two or three years be tween the first trees, and then when the first crop of timber trees is cut down the others will furnish suffi cient shade and be ready for another reason's cutting. Timber tree3 planted around the pasture fields furnish good windbreaks, and they will sometimes save a crop from damage by frost. The dairy cows need protection in summer from the heavy rain storms as well as from the sun's rays, and a shed will accomplish this double purpose. " -Well-bred cattle caught in a drenching summer rain, with a temperature falling ten to twenty degrees, will often catch severe, colds that will materially diminish their general health and milk flow. It is a matter of eoonomy as well as good sense to provide the animals with comfortable conditions thesis hot days. C. S. Walters. : The August Southern Planter says : We again say, "Do not pull fodder." Let the corn alone until the grains are glazed, and then cut the crop down at the rtjot, and set up in good sized shocks to cure. In this way the whole crop can be saved, instead of Wasting a large part of that which has cost money and labor to produce. Fodder-pulling is wasteful of time, of grain, and of feed. HOGS FOR LIMITED CAPITAL. How a Yeung Farmer Succeeded With Them When There is Progress There is Smeeess. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. After all the talk about the latest methods of fanning, and tho neces sity of keeping up to date, there are many young farmers who would like to do all this, but they lack the neces sary capital to begin with, I have been particularly struck with this in hog raising. When a young man starts in he has only a small amount of capital, and he has to-struggle along the best he can.. Itds absurd to tell him that he should adopt all the latest improvements and breeds and conduct a first-class farm for raising hogs. He does not have the capital to begin with, and ho must do things that he knows are not the most approved. The way that some of these young farmers struggle along and gradually build up a good business and add to their incomes and capital would make mighty in teresting reading for tho more sloth ful if it could be written out. Think of starting out with half a dozen pigs, a few acres and a mortgaged home, and within ten years be tho happy possessor of one hundred acres, two hundred head of hogs and cattle and a pleasant home with no deht on it I That is what one young man of my acquaintance accomplished, and to day he says that he made his success in hogs. He realized that he had to econo mize in every way possible, and, while reading all that "was printed about high-grade stock and scientific methods of feeding he knew that he could not go and imitate it. Ho did not have the money to buy tho stock with, or to get the feed. But he had good health, a few hogs .and a chance. Bo he proceeded to raise grass, corn, milk and hogs. From these four products of tho farm he made a living and saved up some thing each year except the first. That was the hardest time of all because the land was run down and poor, and the grass did not grow well. He sepded it over the next year, raised more clover and timothy than had, ever been raised there before, per mitted the hogs to feed on it only to a limited extent, fearing lest they would destroy the young grass roots. In two seasons he had converted the poor grass pastures into good grass fields where his hogs could feed. After getting the grass field into fine condition he secured some adjacent land on lease for corn. Ho plowed and fertilized this until ho had in creased his debt, and then ho raised such a crop of corn that he felt jus tified in increasing tho number of his hogs. With grass and corn flour ishing he was prepared to add cows to his stock, and with good skim milk to wean the young pigs ho soon found no difficulty in increasing his herd. He did all the work himself, and never thought of hiring a man even in the busiest season until the fourth year of his farming. Then he had so far succeeded and demon strated to himself that ho was on the right track, that he hired a man dur ing the rush season . Two years later he married, and ever sinco ho has steadily added year by year to his capital and income. His theory of success is based upon hard and in- - telligent work applied to tho raisin fT of grass, corn, milk and hogs V, J Ail EH RrjDGWAY. )
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Aug. 14, 1900, edition 1
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