Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / March 26, 1901, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
-- - J y, V THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. ol. 16. Raleigh, N. C, March 26, 1901. No 7 Agriculture. SORT II CAROLINA'S VIEW OF ORGANI- ZATION FOR COTTON GROWERS. Faer Read Before the Southern Cotton Growers' Pro active Association by Secre tary Jno. P. Allison, of Concord, N. C. v; jnii1 time since, while riding in the smoking compartment of a fast train, several gentlemen of different prof es-i''-ns sat with mo. When the cvnuu.'t.'r culled fur the tickets the first gentleman said he was a lawyer wh. pleaded for all, therefore he mu-t ride free, whereupon ho pro duced a pass (being a railroad at torney) ; the second said he was a nev.p.iK'r man who published for ail. therefore he must travel free; then he presented a pass and was allowed to go ; the next was a physi cian who said he cured all, and should travel without pay. He likewise displayed a pass (a railroad surgeon) ; the next was a manufacturer, who 8aid he made goods for all, and he, too, had a pass as a big shipper over the railroad. A soldier was sitting near, who said ho fought for all and was entitled to his ride, and forth with produced a pass from the United States. Tiien a minister of the gos pel, win) said he prayed for all, hut that only entitled him to a cheap rate ticket. The knight of the ticket punch then turned to mo and asked who I was. I had to say a farmer. "Well, you pay for all," said he. Whereupon I gave him my ticket, purchased at the station where I boarded the train. Such an object lesson put mo to thinking how to get even with the rest of the world. To deprive them of their privileges was not the riudit thing to do. What then? To gain for myself the same? But the con ductor said I must make something to pay with. How to do that, is the .biectof the following suggestions Many schemes have been suggested and different plans tried, some of them good if carried out, but that was the trouble. Almost every pro fession has its organization, and when called upon to protect their in terests llock together as one man and accomplish their demands. Jut recently the manufacturers of our State, fearing trouble in their busi ness, assembled in large numbers on very sdiort notice upon the call of .ne num. The result of that meet ing was satisfactory to them. Look at the action of the yarn inn. The organized and made de li.ands, but at first it was all resolu r: ns. They were met by the com :: .Nion merchants and told that it k more than resolutions to ac . mplish any tiling, and they must ubijiit to their dictation in prices so . 3ir as the t pinners used their (the :: ivh.iiits") money. That put them their metal, and now they are : Tid.ining their capital to protect .. :r own products. They have just ' .r . ri out papers of incorporation .';. i- the beginning. I glory in '. :r undertaking, and wish them .r. lant .-uccess. I call attention ' t facts only to show what :.:.- are doing. N-.w we must adopt means for rjymr into effect tho object of . i:-.-.'fiati on. The one great ob- t have a remunerative price tr ii Kiia cottonseed through . " i tiitiie cotton belt, and main :t. I .-u'emitted a plan over a r , ut a meeting of farmers in : . :. X. C They indorsed its : ' il ii- itures and sent me as a : . iTi- o, the d-iYerc-nt meetings in that .-ueh an organization - ' : - nuiriit he effi cted, and this ' -i.b-.!;i: :ed for mure con-Mdera-Vi-at ph.n is to form this or m li t.; a joint stock com- :..ter the ;:h;n of some large :au n- i:t.v in existence, with .1 Mr.:.. ;, nt t cany any sur t 1: th.it might come upon the '. 1 1 1 1 s.i. niit some statis- -!;!; to :ow v.iiat that surplu- ;. i hiuhf.st visible sup Am. : i.-an .ottoii that has ever .v;: s ;u r and numbers 5,C00,Ou0 ;.li a, Ju'iuury 1, lb'JU, when i J :-r ;..': . red the largest crop " ' ; ro ti.r, .I. Now you must know 'n u -t ,.U surplus. If you vi:l 1 'ok at the cotton movement o lxy to day you will see a large part of it is at railroad stations for shipment, on board cars, on docks and onboard vessels for which drafts have alrerdy been given, and the money available at once. When the visible supply showed 5,000,000 bales, less than 2,000,000 of it was in the principal markets and ports of the United States, and much of that was the property of manufacturers, but suppose this system would stop com petition and force us to carry more than now, it could not increase it much, as many of tho mills only buy as they need it, and the transit cot ton continue a large factor in the stocks. Rinks will be glad to cash our drafts and loan money on stored cot ton, especially if we have a large capital of our own. The organiza tion will need, besides the present officers, a treasurer, a statistician, graders, samplers, weighers, ship pers, etc. These are matters of de tail and willhe deteru ined hereafter. The greatest problem is raising the money, but this can bo dono if sub scriptions are taken in every county of the cotton district and shares made 10 each. This would bo the small planters' opportunity to unite in a strong combination to protect their interests. By paying ten cents for middling cotton and allowing that for every bale that takes a share of stuck would pay for the stock and leave about as much as most plant ers are now getting for their cotton. This would reach more planters than we are a ware of. I want tho small tarmei s interested in this movement, for they need this protection more than any others. .Men of means can take care of themselves. I do not mean they are not wanted, for they are. We want their money and good judgment botu, but 1 make an especial appeal to tho small farm ers because they think their mites are so small they can do nothing, and often feel slighted in all business affairs. When all of these mites are gathered up it will surprise even the statistician, and when the corporation is formed they will have a voice in the price of their own products and a safe invest ment besides, and will enable them to school their children and get some of the comforts of life. I do not believe in pessimistic ideas, nor in croaking btcau.-e our business is not as prosperous as others, nor in trying to check the progress of the other lawful industries, but let ns profit by their example and adopt all honorable methods used by them to advance the prices of our products. High prices for cotton does not in jure other industries, but is a bless ing to all. Two short crops in succession has caused better prices, but have not yet compensated tho planter for the loss, if the receipts are an indica tion of the amount raised. It is said they are holding it, yet tho mer chants report good collections. How is this unless the cotton is being marketed? The fact of the planters paying up is no evidence of having received remunerative prices, but shows the privations they undergo. Not many people live poor from choice, but from necessity. Some are forced to deny themselves from lack of credit, others from an honest desire to meet their obligations, knowing they cannot pay largo ac counts with tho usual prices for cot ton Wo are urged to build more fac tories, to create a better demand. I do not oppose tht, tho mills ought to be in the South. The climate and raw material are both here, but will this enham o the value of cotton to any appreciable extent? Tho spin ners have already combined to in crease the price of yarns. I have not yet seen where they say anything of paying more fi-r cotton. I say they have aright to ask a profit for their products. No business can prosper without a profit, and they have a right to combine to maintain prices, and now I say we havo the same right and should do so. Is this too largo an undertaking for tho cot ton planters, when they are reputed to have one of the most important industries in the world? Look at what is going on around us every day, the Pullman Car Company has increased its capital as much as is re quired for us, tho New York Central increased nearly as much, and already had more than we require. Corpora tions organized recently in one month alone, with ten times as much cap ital as wo ask, and all of them com bined are not of half the importance of the cotton crop. A better system of credit is sug gested by some, longer time, etc. That reminds me of a reply a friend of mine gave to a commercial agency when he was asked to make a state ment of his effects to give him bet ter credit. He said his credit was too good now, what ho wanted was not credit, but something to pay with. That is exactly tho planters' position. They want better prices for their products to keep out of debt. Some ask for laws to protect them. That is like tho old darkey, who said as long as ho prayed to the Lord to bring him turkey he did not eat tur key, but when ho prayed for the Lord to snd him for the turkey he got it. Now let us stopj putting our trust in other people working out our troubles and go to work ourselves, on a basis, as all other great organi zations are formed, then will we havo the respect of our fellowmen and be a happy and prosperous peo ple. TEST YOUR SEED CORN. Now that corn planting time is near at hand, we commend to our readers the following extracts from an article by Mr. I. N. Cowdry, re cently published in the Country Gen tleman : 1 always test my seed before plant ing, waiting till a few days before time to plant, so as to have the con ditions as nearly alike as may be. I level a small place on the ground, put 100 grains of corn on it, cover it with a cloth, put a couple of inches of earth over the cloth, then pour on water enough to dampen. In four or live days I raise tho cloth, and the corn can bo easily examined. After being in the crates last winter, the test showed that 99 kernels of the 100 had good healthy sprouts. The other kernel had been injured in some way or it would havo grown. I set the planter to drop three or four grains, and had a good stand all over the field, except whero it was drowned out afterwards. Some years ago there was trouble all over the country with corn. Our test showed that only 45 per cent. would grow. The planters were set to drop 8 or 9 grains to the hill. The result was very unsatisfactory. Some hills had just enough, some too many, some noo enough, and some not any. Ever since that time I have been very careful and look after tho seed myself. The same will hold good in saving seed of any kind ; too much care cannot bo given. Good seed is one of tho foundations of a good crop. NITRATE OF SODA. i It is nitrate that makes growth of plants. It must be in the form of a nitrate before plants can use it. Ni trogen get- into this form in the soil in hot weather. That is the reason corn and oats cannot make rapid growth at first. They do not get the food they need. But if the oats wait much they get too much heat later, when they do not need it. In a cold, dry spring a little nitrogen in tho form of a nitrate does a lot of good it provides the needed element in a form immediately available. In such a spring it would pay many farmers to use a light dressing of nitrate of soda on oats and on mead ows. It should be applied at the prl not at the time of I seeding, because it is too soluble and may be leached away before there are roots to take it up. This is a suggestion for experiments on a suiad scale, when cold, dry weather : is stopping all growth. David, in Farm and Fireside. If you receive more than one copy of The Progressive Farmer, hand to a neighbor and ask for his subscription. MIX YOUR OWN FERTILIZERS. Secretary Parker Gives Progressive Farmer Readers the Benefit of His Experience With the Guano Problem. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. This being the season of the year when our farmers use most fertili zen, I will add my experience to those already published in recent issues of The Progressive Farmer. There is probably no one thing that tho farmers of the State spend more money for than fertilizers, and probably not many things which we use that we actually know less about. About the only way that we get information about them is from newspaper articles, bulletins from the Agricultural Department, and books written on the subject, which as a rule are not. read by the masses of the farmers. For the intelligent use of fertilizers, and especially for mixing the materials at home, we need to know something of their composition, action on crops, soil, etc., something that the best of farmers know too little about. Authorities agree that, for best re suits, there should be more than ono source of the different elements en tering into the mixture, but, as a rule, farmers have to be content with the simplest mixtures and use the materials most easily obtained, which is acid phosphate, usually 13 percent, or 14 per i ent. goods, cot ton seed meal and kainit, w th pos sibly the addition of nitrate of soda and muriate of potash. Let us remember that "per cent." in fertilizers bear the same relation to 100 pounds of fertilizers, that "per cent." in money transactions do to a dollar. That is : 13 ier cent. vphosj)horic acid contains 13 pounds of phosphoric acid to the 100 pounds, and so on. Table I given herewith will bo of service in mixing ingredi ents. o o o o o o o o o o By the use of this table we will have but little trouble in mixing a fertilizer analyzing about what we would liko to have it. Suppose that we want a mixture analyzing 2 per cent, ammonia, 8 per cent, phosphjric acid, 2 percent, potash. A half ton, 1,000 pounds, of this mixture would contain 20 pound ammonia, 80 pounds phosphoric acid, and 20 pounds potash. To get 20 pounds ammonia out of cotton seed meal, we would want as many hun dred pounds of meal as 8 is con tained in 20235 pouuds. The 235 pounds meal will contain, in additiou to the ammonia, nearly 6 pounds of phosphoric acid, and about pounds of potash. In the above mix ture we want 80 pounds phosphoric acid, but the meal furnishes G pounds of it, so we need to get only 74 pounds it from the acid phosphate. To get this we will need as many hundred pounds of 13 per cent, acid phosphate as 13 is contained in 74 570 pounds. We will also want 20 pounds of potash, but as the meal furnishes 3 pounds of potash, we need to get only 10 pound3 from kainit, or muriate of potash, which would require 33 pounds of muriate, or 137 pounds of kainit. 5 1 irr to o -i :o p rr rr : : S ' ' Z-. Z-m X I. X M X w w w s. mm V- O I ' 1 f i- f- ow - s o a: : EL o w o : g 5 : p- 3 g : : r p4 . . . . o o o o o 5 S. 2. p p" IP W 5 W r1 t-1 MS?" h o o X' p P o w t o ? 5 p g O M. a CO rc . MJ Table II shown herewith will as sist in making it clear : Better leave the filler out and con sider that you have 1,000 pounds of the mixture and use it as that much. By observing the above tables, and suggestions, a farmer can make any kind of mixture that he needs for his crops and often at quite a saving. The things necessary are, a tight floor, a pair of scales, a sieve 6 feet long and 2 feet wide, which is easily made by getting two yards of wire cloth, with inch meshes and tacking to a frame of 2x3 scantling and set at an angle of 45 degrees. The fine particles will pass through the sieve and the lumps roll down so that they can be crushed. Mix thoroughly and it will be ready for use. My experience has been more with the light soils of the eastern part of the State than in the clay soil of Orange county, though I practice doing my own mixing here. For a corn or cotton fertilizer, I have found that a mixture of equal parts, by weight, of acid phosphate, cotton seed meal and kainit has given me good results. As an experiment I shall try the following mixture for corn this year : 600 pounds cotton seed meal, 400 pounds acid phosphate, 200 pounds kainit, using about 200 or 250 pounds of the mixture to the acre. For truck or quick-growing crops I get part of the ammonia from nitrate of soda, and if the mixture has a high percentage of potash, I like to have part of that from muri ate of potash. I have just made the following mixture for vegetables, berries, &c, from which I expect to get good re suits and at quite a saving in cost over the ready mixed goods : Acid phosphate 14 1,000 lbs. Cottonseed meal 600 ' Nitrate of soda 300 " Kainit 600 ' 1 Muriate of potash 100 " This makes a mixture that will analyze about as f ollows : Ammonia 4 per cent., phosphoric acid 6 per cent., potash 5 per cent. The nitrate of soda acting quickly will hurry the plants at first, and the cotton seed meal will act later. In this connection, I wi9h to suggest that every farmer who does not get the "Bulletin" send to Commissioner S. L. Patterson, Raleigh, and ask that it be sent him. This publication- is free to the farmers of the State for the asking, and Mr. Patter son will be glad to send them to all who ask for them. They contain in formation invaluable to every farmer who uses fertilizers. T. B. Parker. Orange Co., N. C. FERTILIZERS FOR BRIGHT TOBACCO. A question of interest to all to bacco growers at this time was that asked by Mr. R. H. Ricks, of Rocky Mount, N. C, at the meeting of Commissioners of Agriculture in Raleigh last summer : "What is the best fertilizer to produce the best type of bright tobacco?" To this inquiry Dr. B. W Kilgore, State Chemist, replied as follows : "I am a little afraid to take that up right here. We have expressed ourselves in regard to this question in the January Bulletin of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. Several formulas are given there We prefer a fertilizer that contains more potash and in the form of sul phate than is usually found in to bacco fertilizers. We also prefer, in the case of nitrogen, that some of it should be in the form of nitrate of soda, which acts very rapidly. Then we want something in trie shape of cotton seed meal or dried blood, which acts more slowly, to feed the tobicco when the nitrate is ex hausted ; it does not make any differ ence about the source of the phos phoric acid, provided it is a good available material ; as to quantities, that is a different question. For to bacco, I recommended a mixture of nitrate of soda, cotton seed meal, or dried blood, acid phosphate, and sul phate of potash, which will contain tain about 6 per cent, available phos phoric acid, 6 per cent, pctash and 4 per cent, nitrogen." HARRY FARMER'S TALKS. XIX. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. Cats are kept for the purpose of destroying rats and mice. If they are fed all the meat they want they will not attempt to destroy any rats. Feed cats bread and nothing else and they will hunt for their own meat. The government seeds are being sent out. We get a great many every year and have found in tho past 10 or 12 years only 2 or 3 varie ties that had any merit. We re ceive! some sugar corn that proved to be an excellent variety. It would be a good plan to distribute new plants and seeds according to tha original idea adopted by the United States Government. The seeds, eto., should be sent to the experiment stations throughout the entire United States and let them distribute to such farmers as apply ""for the seed. If a farmer does not care enough to write for new seeds he will not take any extra care of a lot of seeds that he never heard of before. If the government required a report from seeds distributed, like the experi ment station in our own State did of farmers who applied for crimson clover seeds a few yeara ago, some benefit might be derived. Sending cabbage or other seeds to a farmer in Florida or some other Southern State in March or April when the season for sowing is past and for gotten is another way which the free seeds benefit(?) our Southern farmers. The Legislature has now adjourned or has ceased to make laws. How much benefit has it been to the farmers? There ia one thing that the State should not do, and that is to raise money crops like ootton and peanuts to compete in the open mar kets with tho crops of farmers. If it is necessary, hire the convicts to large farmers and let them pay the State a certain price for their work and let the money go into the funds to support the State prison. The best work for oonvicts to do, by which no one would be injured bat all benefited, is work on public roads. The State needs thousands of miles of good roads which will benefit every citizen in it. That would come nearer benefiting everybody than any other plan. It is wrong to make the country boy do three years public duty which his city cousin is exempt from. A boy shoutd not be compelled to work public roads be fore he is 21 years of age. Harry Farmer. Columbus Co., N. C. FERTILIZER FOR FRUITS. A fertilizer mixture that will gen erally prove satisfactory for fruits is one containing about 3 per cent, nitrogen, 7 per cent, phosphoric acid and 8 or 9 per cent, potash applied at the rate of to 1 ton per acre, ac cording to the growth of the crop and previous fertilization. This would be best made by nitrate of soda 150 to 300 pounds, South Caro lina rock or acid phosphate 500 to 1,000 pounds, sulphate of potash 150 to 300 pounds. In place of the pot ash 1 to 2 pounds of goodwood ashes might bo used with good results for a single application once in 4 to 6 years, and especially on rather light land. It is doubtful if equally good results would be obtained if ashes were used every year on the same land. If less quickly soluble mate rials like fine bone, fish, tankage or stable manure are used for the sup ply of nitrogen, they should be ap plied in the fall or winter that they may be abundantly available in the early part of the growing season. Prof. S. T. Maynard, Massachusetts Experiment Station. Please explain why it is that farm ers attach so much importance to the breeds they handle of horses, cattle, hogs, sheep and poultry, and so little to the breeds of crops they grow? Improvement in plants is controlled by the same laws, and these la ws are as easily observed in one case as the other, and both are similarly profitable. Farm and Ranch. Another strike in the Pennsylvania coal region is expected. A
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 26, 1901, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75