y
THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY.
Vol. 16.
Raleigh, N. 0., February 12, 1901.
No 1
Agricultui
SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF FERTILIZER
EXPERIMENTS DURING 1900.
c ,.r, .p.mleneeof The Progressive Farmer.
At the Tennessee Experiment Sta
t: ii Inst year experiments were
j,,., ,. in order to determine the kinds
o; plant food whether phosphoric
n.id, potash, or nitrogen and the
-orabinations most needed by differ
ent soils : others were planned to be
of m-re general application. To
this latter class belong in particular
the cow pea experiments and the
(vmparisions between cotton seed
meal and nitrate of soda as sources
of nitrogen for potatoes
A bulletin jut issued by Chemist
Charles A. Mooers says:
"The results are such that the fol
low-ins conclusions seem warranted :
First, that these is need of an im
proved grain and fertilizer drill
which will put the fertilizer either
beneath the seed or to one side of
the eed so that in either case the
fertilizer and the seed will be sepa
rated by a layer of soil ; second, that
of the nitrogenous fertilizer mix
tures sold on the market only those
which contain slow acting sources of
nitrogen, such as low-grade tankage
. r ! ne, can be safely drilled in con
trtot with the seed of the small grains
and then only in limited amounts;
third, that potash salts and the
,p:k-ker acting and more desirable
urces of nitrogen, such as cotton
svd meal, blood and nitrate of soda,
and in general, large amounts of any
fertilizer cannot safely be used in
e-ntuct with the seed."
A careful study of the experiments
shows the following facts re
garding the crops named :
POTATOES.
1. The most profitable returns
e;.me from a complete fertilizer con
fining high percentages of all three
xmcuxr, "itr gen, phosphoric arid,
an d potash.
2. As a source of nitrogen, cotton
Mv i meal gave in every instance
re profitable returns than nitrate
oi fda.
Nitrite of soda mixed with cot
! ,ii seed meal was not profitable
1. Potatoes fertilized with nitro--n.
phosphoric acid, and potash
averaged 2.74 per cent, higher in
tarch than the unfertilized and one
, . r rent, higher than those fertilized
w.th nitrogen and phosphoric acid
h- ut potash.
". Potatoes grown on the Cumber
. -in d Plateau averaged 0.79 per cent,
r in starch than those grown
the Tennessee Valley.
CORN.
' The yield of corn grown on
; r h ttom land where a rotation
c: c r:t. oats, clover, and grass had
:. ; rv:ticed was not profitably in
-..- ; by any kind of fertilizer.
-'. The yield of corn on land which
wu more than average produc
tiv. -n but which had been cropped
n -rn and small grains consecu
tively f.r many years was profit
ably increased by heavy applic'a
t: in of acid phosphate and nitrate
' da.
The need of phosphoric acid was
'.n nstrated more clearly than that
u:iy other element.
'.. The grain from plants fertilized
".'h nitrogen averaged higher in
-i T.renous substance (protein) than
:h -vt from plants fertilized only with
ih mineral elements, phosphoric
'! potash.
COW PEAS.
; n exceedingly poor soil nitro
was not found f any advantage
- ;ara the yield of either peas or
h v was concerned, but gave a
' irked increase in the yield of the
r i1. rruss which grew among tho
; .v vines.
Phosphoric acid used alone pro
i ; e,l a larger yield of the peas
ruit , than when potash was used
"i'h it.
Phosphoric acid and potash pro
iu -d u larger Jyield of hay than the
;.h' eiphoric iicid alone.
4. Potash usedalone was not profit
a.tle.
P AN UTS.
Nitrogen when added to phos
phoric acid and potash did not in
crease the yield but lowered the
grade of the nut by producing a
thicker hull.
GERMINATION OF SEED.
1. Fertilizers have a decidedly un
favorable effect on the germination
of seed so that they can seldom be
safely used in direct contact with
the seed.
2. The present method of drilling
the fertilizer with the wheat is
highly unsatisfactory by inventing
the safe use of even moderate
amounts of high grade fertilizers,
which contain cotton seed meal,
blood, tankage, nitrate of soda or
potash salts.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.
1. Every farmer should make fer
tilizer experiments to determine the
special requirements of his soil.
2. Every farmer should make his
own fertilizer mixtures to suit his
soil and crop. A. W. S.
Knox Co., Tenn.
-- -
CORN AS GRASS FOR STOCK.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
Where it is impossible to raise a
good crop of grass for hay, or where
the soil and seasons make the croj
uncertain, it is far better to raise
corn instead of grass. Corn should
be raised both for the silo and as dry
fodder to take the place of the grass.
On land where good timothy will not
grow, large crops of corn can be
raised, and in nearly every instance
it is cheaper. It is not cheaper to
plant an acre of corn for the silo and
dry fodder, but the yield is so much
more to the acre that the difference
in the end is in favor of the corn.
Not enough corn fodder and corn for
the silo is raised by stockmen. They
still put too much faith in the range
pasture, in grass that is only poor in
nutriment, and in hay that contains
little real nourishment, and costs a
good deal to raise. Two good bundles
of corn fodder should be sufficient to
keep a cow or steer a day in winter
without bran or grain. Cows giving
milk would get sufficient from the
sa"e diet if a little bran or oil meal
was added each day. If a little en
silage could be given to make the
food more succulent and juicy, a
cheap and satisfactory ration would
be had for the whole winter.
Corn planted as grass and hay
should yield enormously per acre.
On many farms from one thousand
to fifteen hundred bundles are raised
to the acre. From five to six tons of
dried corn fodder can be averaged to
the acre, nearly double the yield in
bulk of hay. If cut at the proper
time, when the ears are about' glazed,
the dried corn fodder contains nearly
all the nutriment of the stalk, leaves
and grain. Ther? is little loss in it.
The stalks at this age are full of
food that will not be lost in the
operation of curing.
The best way to raise the corn js
to drill it in rows three to three and
a half feet apart, a little less than
three-quarters of a bushel to the
acre. It can be drilled in rapidly
with a drill, and the planting can be
done quickly and at little expense.
When it is up well it is harrowed to
destroy the weeds, and if some of the
plants are destroyed the damage will
not be great. If the land is good the
drilling will make the corn come up
too thick, and the harrowing will do
no harm to tear up a few plants and
make more room for the others.
Weeding should be kept up as long
as possible, then when the corn has
reached the proper state it should be
cut quickly and cured carefully. In
this way one can raise about twice
as much fodder for the stock as he
could in depending upon hay. Corn
is today the most economical food
that stocknien can raise, both in the
East and West. It is better, how
ever, to raise it both for the silo and
for dry fodder. Then if all other
crops fail the stock can be wintered
at little expense.
A. B. Barrett.
While the United States continues
to import, as it has done during the
past ten years, an annual average of
nearly 1)0,000,000 pounds of wool,
there is yet ample room for the sheep
grower ; and with the increasing de
mand for mutton for food, a good
flock should at least be found on
every hilly farm.
HARRY FARMER'S TALKS.
XIII.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
This is the time of year when
a great many farmers take the boys
from school. This does the boy a
great injury or injustice. That last
month of school may be worth more
to him than all the past term. Harry
Farmer has had his troubles along
this line in his school days and with
his own children. The temptation is
great, but, brother farmer, let him
go to the end of the term if you can.
You will have to sacrifice something
to do it, but for the sake of that
boy's future let him remain to the
last day. Some of the readers of
The Progressive Farmer may think
Harry Farmer is a crank on educa
tion and is working too hard for the
education of the children of the
farmer, but he only has to say that
all the machinery in the world is
moved by cranks, from the grind
stone or coffee mill up to the largest
factory, and if he can be the means
of turning some of our farmers from
the old beaten paths which have kept
them -.behind other callings in life,
he will feel that he is richly re
warded. For the best results when manur
ing oats with barn yard manure,
spread it on top of the land thinly
after the oats have been sown. I,
with thousands of others, have
plowed it under thinking that was
the best place to put it, but after
trying spreading it on the surface a
few times has convinced me that that
is the place for it. Did you ever
notice the effect of manure dropped
on grass, what a great change takes
places? It will have the same effect
on oats.
Here is another item from the ex
perience of one of the colonists near
Chadbourn. N. C. He broke his land
deeply with a two-horse plow and
then planted his corn and cotton flat,
that is without any bed or ridge, and
cultivated it with a light cultivator
or harrow. The result was a crop
from 50 to 100 per cent, more than
on land worked in the old way. This
plan worked all right for several
years. With the exception of one
very wet season, the result has been
the same. He says it is best not to
turn up too much of the "yellow"
dirt,
I think the farmers who oppose
the cigarette law for fear it will de
crease the consumption of tobacco
have not informed themselves and it
may be possible that some of the
manufacturers tell them it is against
the farmer's interest. The truth of
the matter is that there is no very
great quantity used this way. For
the sake of their own children they
should do all they can to stop this
pernicious habit. Any observing
person will notice that the country
boy is using the cigarette just like
his city cousin.
Do you weigh your hogs to see
how much meat you have made and
to see what breed and at what age it
is best to kill? We like to know just
what we are doing. The scales have
told us some wonderful tales on our
pigs, and consequently some of our
stock will be kept no longer. When
the pigs from one sow will weigh 15
or 20 pounds and sometimes more
than those of another sow with the
same treatment, we will surely hold
on to the one that gives us the more
profit and discard the other.
Harry Farmer.
Columbus Co., N. C.
I have been engaged for 10 years
in buying eggs and shipping them to
market, and in almost every lot there
have been more or less dirty and
stained eggs. The only way of clean
ing such eggs that I have found to
give satisfaction, was to wet a fine
sponge, squeeze it as dry as possible,
and use it to wash or rub off the dirt.
As for stained eggs, they are unfit
for market, and no honest person
will sell them for that purpose, no
matter how much they may have
been cleaned with acids. H. B.
Howard, East Braintree, Vt.
Sheep render a larger return than
almost any other farm animal for
the amount of money invested.
AS THE STUDENT SEES IT.
TLs Short Course in Agriculture in Tennessee
as Viewed by a Farmer Taking It.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
The short course in agriculture at
the University of Tennessee is a sur
prise to every student. The articles
in newspapers, even the bulletins
from the University, valuable as
they are, have given no adequate
idea of the thoroughness, the fine
equipment, the practical value of the
course to the farmer, the stock
grower, or the market gardener. It
is a surprise in other ways, as it
gives to the man without scientific
training an idea of the stupendous
number of things that the farmer
should and must know if he works
intelligently. The short course is
eminently practical. While we have
lectures on soil physics, on botany,
on horticulture, feeding and farm
management, every lecture is made
to apply directly to the farmer's
everyday work. For instance, in
chemistry we are shown the results
of analyses of the soil and what can
be determined by such analyses ; we
are informed as to the elements and
deficiencies of the soil and the exact j
part that fertilizers play, just why
and how they should be applied.
This particular branch of the work j
is immensely valuable. The current
conceptions of all these matters are
found to be entirely erroneous, and
the amazing thing is that an agricul
tural education has never been
thought worth while.
In the dairy the student learns
first to run a boiler and engine, in
formation which he is more than
likely to need at sometime in the
future. Then he is put in charge of
a churn and taught how to make
butter, the temperature of milk and
cream, the amount of salt, etc.,
needed ; or possibly, he is assigned to
a separator and taught the process
by which cream is separated from
th..uiilk. He is then assigned to the
milk tester, which tests accurately
the amount of butter fat in milk,
and by an easy calculation the amount
of actual butter the milk contains.
He is also taught the process of
cheese making. For all this work,
the men are required to wear white
duck suits and to do the work with
care and cleanliness. Preceding the
work in the dairy, Prof. Soule deliv
ers an explanatory talk upon the
processes and principles of milk pro
duction by which the whole compli
cated process is made exceedingly
simx)lo. He inspires such interest
among the students by his enthusi
asm and animated talks that the
men enter upon the work with zest
and find it interesting. The dairy
equipment is said to be the best in
the South, and the dairy hall itself
as complete as anything of the kind
in the country.
The other phases of the work, how
ever, are not less thorough. Prof.
Soule 's valuable lectures, illustrated
and enforced in various practical
ways, on feeds and feeding and
breeds and breeding, touch and eluci
date subjects of vast importance to
the farmer.
Prof. Keffer is admirably equipped
for the work of teaching horticul
ture, which has to do with gardens,
fruits, etc. Already he has shown
the best methods of pruning by
making the men take pruners under
his direction and prune grape vines
at the Univers'ty farm. Jjater on
we will have grafting and the prun
ing of fruit trees.
Altogether, the work of the shors
course surpasses all expectations in
the fact of its being more thorough,
more practical, far more interesting
and valuable than any one has real
ized who knows nothing of the im
mense field which it covers and the
amount of work attempted, the im
portance of it and the enthusiasm
and energy with which those who
have it in charge are pushing it to a
successful issue.
Jas. W. Young.
University of Tennessee, Knox Co.,
Tenn.
Ewes with early lambs need foods
that will produce milk and keep up
the growth of tissue. The best are
bran, turnips, clover hay, beets, oats
and silage.
TILLINGH AST' S TALKS.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
Your farm is your bank. The
proper way to increase your capital
is to add to the fertility of your soil
so as to increase its productive pow
ers. The better the soil the greater
interest it will pay. And don't ex
pect to keep checking out without
making equivalent, or greater, de
posits, or nature will protest.
The chief supply of drink to grow
ing plants is moisture brought up
from below by capillary action, and
therein consists the necessity of pul
verizing the soil thoroughly before
planting, and continuous surface cul
tivation afterward. Weeds are
sometimes counted as a blessing be
cause their presence compels the
farmer to continue really necessary
cultivation which he might other
wise feel justified in omitting to the
detriment of the crop.
The profit in growing any crop is
th net sum remaining after all the
expenses of producing it have been
paid. It costs about so much per
acre for plowing, harrowing, culti
vating, harvesting, whatever the
yield, so the man who succeeds in
producing 100 bushels of corn per
acre surely does it at a less cost per
bushel than he who only gets 50 bush
els. And just think what an amount of
cultivation and fertilization that
second 50 bushels will pay for. The
top bushel is always the most profit
able. Producing fine tomatoes is quite
an art and one that it pays the grower
to master if he expects to get much
money out of the crep. Prof. Massey
say that he formerly entertained the
opinion, still held by some, that
heavy applications of nitrogenous
manures made the vines too rank
and the fruit more crooked ; but per
sistent efforts in improving the char
acter of the fruit and the modes of
culture have convinced him that
with a good strain of seed no amount
of manuring will make it any more
irregular, while a poor strain will be
irregular in any event, and that a
rank growth of vine, induced by
heavy manuring, simply indicates
the need of more room for the plant,
and a heavier crop of big tomatoes,
and that heavy manuring in the hill
is the best way to insure a vigorous
growth of vine and a corresponding
vigor and perfection in the fruit. I
have also learned that small fruits
grow from seeds of small fruits, and
vice versa ; that trimming and train
ing the plant to a single stem lead to
a smaller production of blossoms,
less pollen, and a smaller crop ; that
the largest crops are always on the
plants which are allowed to take
their full natural development and
grow at their own sweet will on the
ground ; that healthy tomatoes lying
on the ground are no more liable to
rot than those trained off it. No
fruit is more rapidly improved by
careful selection, and none more
rapidly deteriorated by carelessness
than the tomato. Like Indian corn,
the tomato is best when the seed is
produced in the same latitude and
climate where the crop is to be
grown, and it Feldom does its best
the first season when taken far
north or south of its native locality.
The improvement of the tomato
should therefore carried on in the
locality where the crop is to be
raised.
Isaac F. Tillinghast.
Wyoming Co., Pa.
My idea of using a feed grinder is
that the grain is then more complete
ly assimilated than if it is given un
ground and that the energy ex
pended is very much less. Where
farm animals are placed on full
feed, occasionally their teeth and
gums get sore and they do not do
well. I find that in fattening cattle
the animals will not eat any greater
bulk of meal than of shelled corn,
yet the gain pound for pound is
larger. I am very heartily in favor j
of grinding the cobs with the corn,
as this gives the feed greater bulk
and aids in digestion. I always use
plenty of hay and alfalfa, as it con
tains about as much protein as bran.
I usually grind corn or Kaffir given
to our work horses in summer.
William Ramsey, Kansas.
ELECTRICITY AS AN AID TO AGRICUL
TURE.
In a recent issue of Success, dis
cussing "The Future of Electricity,"
Thomas A. Edison, the inventor
said :
"How can it be applied to farming
machinery? Very readily and ad
vantageously. This is a field in
which it can be made to work won
ders, in the next fifty years. The
farmer needs to have his oppressive
work made more of a pleasure, for
he is, indeed, an all-important factor
in the world's great sphere of use
fulness, and his absence from that
sphere would be more marked than
all the wonders that electricity has
created. The electrical plow, the
electrical thrasher, and electrica
dairy implements are not things tha
only fill the fancy of a dream,
earnestly believe that the next fifty
years will find them recorded in the
realm of fact.
"Already electricity has made a
notable advance in the mining in
dustry, and its application in the
separation of metals from ores show s
that in this respect it has not been
misapplied. Indeed, it has done
some marvelous work.
"So it may be with farming im
plements, and with other machinery.
As a manifestation of energy it will
stand supreme. As science unfolds
its phenomena, it shows it more and
more to be the great motive power
of nature. Perhaps, in years to
come, it will be shown that all the
planets are controlled and kept in
their orbits by electricity."
Discussing this statement in the
January Success, Secretary of Agri
culture Wilson says :
"The prediction of Mr. Edison that
electricity will come to the rescue of
the farmer, during the next fifty
years, is likely to prove true but
not in the way of heavy machinery.
It will' come about, in my opinion f
through the use of electricity in
transportation, mining and manu
facturing. It is just a trifle im
probable that anything will ever be
invented to take the place, for in
stance, of a team of horses for farm
work. Automobiles run smoothly
on a level road, but not in mud.
"But electric railways are going
out into the country, radiating from
every town and city in America.
Every one of these benefits the
farmer. City people move out, build
houses, beautify grounds, and come
into healthful contact with Mother
Nature. The farmer, not to be be
hind, brightens up his own place a
bit, uses the trolley himself, enlarges
his horizon, and his market.
"So, too, works every other inven
tion of the electrician of Edison's
class. Every electrical ore crusher
put in operation means more work,,
more villages, more men to feed.
Every improvement in electrical
power means more factories.
"The farmer is not slow to see
these advantages. The American
farmer is a business man, keen and
alert to grasp situations. Go where
you will, you find him better in
formed than his city neighbor on
prices current, trade developments,,
and supply and demand. He may
not know the details of the coming
out party of Miss Sugarloaf , or the
latest bit of club scandal ; but he
subscribes for papers and magazines
that help him to get solid and timely
information, and he generally profits
by what he reads. Unlike the poor
creature whom the great Frenoh
painter and our own distinguished
poet depictad, on canvas and in verse
the American farmer is a gentleman.
quite capable of taking care of him
self and of showing to the woTld that
he is not in the Millet, but in the
Edisonian class."
The most profitable dairy cow is
the one that helps you to make the
most butter in the winter. Butter
sells quicker then, brings more, and
leaves a better margin of profit.
Better farmers and better farming
is what our county needs. A farmer
who can grow twenty-five to thirty
bushels of corn to the acre, ten to
thirty bushels of wheat, and one to
two thousand pounds of tobacco need,
not fear trusts and combines. C. J
Yarbrough, Caswell Co., N. C.
o