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THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OP STATE POLICY.
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Vol. 16.
Raleigh, N. C, June 25, 1901.
No, 20
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Agriculture.
THE BEET CROP STOCK FARMS NEEDED.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
The beet crop is one of much value
and can be grown very cheaply.
Sand or clay land w len made rich
grow them to perfection here. And
is there a better feed for sheep and
cows in winter? They are not hard
to keep in winter ; they need no
shelter. Do not put them in bulk,
but put on plenty of dirt so they will
not freeze.
We have line lands in North Caro
lina for growing our own supplies,
and yet we are buying hay and beef
from the North and West. Young
man, start you a stock farm, begin
ning at the ground with clover,
alfalfa, orchard and timothy grasses.
Then come on with your calves,
cows and sheep. But one of the
mistakes is that what you want, you
want noir. The vast growth of fac
tories and towns and cities in ocr
State is calling for table supplies at
home. When our tables are well
supplied with home products, then
the poor children can study books
in the free schools. The grasses and
stock build up and enrich ; cotton
and tobacco prepare the land to
wash away and leave the poor hills
in gullies. He is a builder that saves
his land from the washes.
R. R. Moore.
Guilford Co., N. C.
FARMERS' CHEAP FERTILIZERS.
An Illinois Farmer Thinks the Cow Pea Is
Unequalled.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
Clover has long stood at the head
of the list of cheap fertilizers for
farmers, but its cheapness is some
times a disputed point. I have seen
vases whore clover was anything but
a cheap fertilizer. When you get a
poor stand of clover it is not cheap,
but expensive, far more so than if
one bought commercial fertilizers
outright. Clover has its purpose in
the farm economy, and if properly
ued it does well. But not too much
value should be set by it. If the
land is right for clover, and one can
get a good stand, it is a cheap fertili
zer, and every farmer should make
it a point to use it. But the cheap-nt-ss
is one of relative importance,
and it cannot bo said to be the best
r,nl cheapest fertilizer even in the
majority of cases.
Personally, I think cow peas, where
they can bo raised, i3 a cheaper fer
ti.er, likely to give the best all-round
satisfaction. We all talked about
The value of clover for this purpose
before we knew much about cow
peas. Now our ideas and methods
are being revolutionized. We are
raising more cow peas and less clover
proportionately. And yet every now
and then you will hear some farmer
say that cow peas are not raised in
the North by intelligent farmers. I
heard it the other day from an other
wise good farmer. No, he was not
otherwise a good farmer though ap
parently successful. In the same
reath he said he never raised en
silage, and didn't think it was much
itter for the stock than so much
-tale molasses. Now, the opinion of
-uch a man is hardly worth quoting,
except to show that some are so
roughly opposed to any innova-
n that they will shut their eyes to
" jry thing modern.
' ur Southern people have the
i-vantage of us, bat cow peas are
' - 1 more and more every season
'-' ' o North, and they are rapidly
t. Ming the farmer's cheap fertili
zer. They are crowding out clover
n This respect, and they will even
tually make our farming far more
profitable. Cow peas furnish nearly
tv.ice as much forage for livestock
s clover, and when harvested they
-ve the field in better condition for
ther crop3. Moreover cow peas
- ill grow on land which is unsuitable
clover, and where many grain
crops only sparingly grow. Stock
hso cow peas, and will some times
t-st them in preference to the best
clover hay, and I think they -will
show up as good results from any
point of view as a continuous food.
W. E. E.
Wayne Co., 111.
"NEWS OF THE FARMING WORLD.
Our Washington Correspondent Tells What
Progress is Being Made in the Various
Sections in the Country.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
The Fish Commission sees no
reason why a farmer should not raise
his own fish as well as his own chick
ens or pork, and believes that the
cultivation of fish for. market in the
interior will soon become a fixed and
profitable industry.
FISH FARMING IS POSSIBLE
wherever there is a pond or a stream,
and the Government Fish Commis
sion will furnish a good supply to
start with. Fish ponds can be
created in villages and even cities
wherever there is running water,
and the Commissioner believes it to
be practicable for every housewife
to raise her own fish. It does not
require a large area, although a fish
must have a certain number of cubic
feet of water, just as a human being
must have a sufficient amount of air
for sustenance, but this is easily
regulated. He claims that it is no
more difficult to raise fish than it is
to raise melons or strawberries, and
that the farmer must use only the
same care and attention that he ap
plies to wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco,
chicken or pork.
The construction of a fresh water
fish pond involves only a little dig
ging, the erection of wire screens to
prevent the fish from escaping and a
supply of vegetable and animal life
to furnish the fish with food. It is
scarcely practicable to furnish fish
with ortificial food, and plant life is
much more desirable. After the
pond has been made and stocked
with the right varieties of fish it
will require about the same amount
of care and attention as a strawberry
patch or an onion bed. It is, of
course, much better o utilize a run
ning stream wherever possible, and
this can be done by arranging wire
nets with fine meshes to prevent the
fish from escaping. In the cold,
clear waters of the North trout,
bass, perch and other varieties will
thrive, and the Fish Commissioner
at Washington is always glad to
stock private fish ponds and furnish
instructions for farming them. Suc
cess has been attained at many places
in the country.
Most farmers will be surprised to
learn that in spite of our enormous
export of wheat, we are compelled to
import hundreds of thousands of
bushels of it
FOR USE IN MAKING MACARONI.
For this wheat we pay a higher
price than we get for our wheat
abroad. Wo mix it with our own
wheat, thus producing an inferior
quality of macaroni and also import
15,000,000 pounds of what is useful
food. Professor M. A. Carleton, the
wheat expert of the Department of
Agriculture, says that macaroni
wheat can be grown with great profit
in many of the Western States,
especially Texas and other South
western States. It is one of the besf
drought resisting wheats known,
and can be grown in localities where
the rainfall does not exceed ten
inches annually. For this reason it
should prove especially valuable in
Texas. Experiments already made
there have been very encouraging.
With the object of encouraging the
growth of the wheat, the Depart
ment of Agriculture has instructed
its agricultural explorer, Prof. D. G.
Fairchild, who is now travelling in
urn
Algeria, to procure several hundred
bushels of the Algerian macaroni
wheat, which will be shipped to the
Department and distributed in the
arid and semi-arid regions of the
West. A. B. Marriott.
Washington, D. C.
TO NON-SUBSCRIBERS.
If the person to whom this copy of
The Progressive Farmer is sent is not
a subscriber, this number is sent as a
sample, as an invitation to subscribe.
The small sum of two cents per week
will make it a regular visitor to
your home three months, 25 cents ;
six months, 50 cents ; one year, $1.
And any Carolina or Tennessee far
mer subscribing now who feels at
expiration of subscrption that he has
not received full value, may have his
money baok for the asking.
WHY THE CORN PLANT DEGENERATES.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
Almost every farmer reader of
this journal, has often heard neigh
boring farmers say that their wheat,
or oats, or corn, as the case may
have been, was 'running out."
The term "running out" is com
monly used in connection with a
variety which is losing its product
iveness. The average farmer knows
that his corn is "running out" when
its yield and quality are annually de
clining. But he knows not the cause
thereof.
Our improved breeds of corn, of
which there are actually only a few
which have been bred up during the
past 30 years, (notwithstanding the
host of so-called wonderful novelties
annually introduced,) have been ar
tificially created, and adapted to
man's neecs and fancies, and are
artificially maintained by careful
breeders. When the seed of a new
dominant or cosmopolitan highly
bred variety of corn first goes from
its breeder with fixity of type, and
harmonic, flexible, and prepotent or
ganization, it easily for a time, 5 or
0 years perhaps, buoyantly adapts
itself to various soils and climates.
Most especially is this the case if
the seed has been transported from
the locality of the plant's greatest
perfection. Not so with many of
the so-called wonderful corn novel
ties which evidently have sprung
from old degenerate sorts, which are
annually introduced. Owing to these
serious defects they cannot be rated
as cosmopolitan varieties. And when
transported to various soils and
climates, their constitutions receive
so great a shock by the operation of
local endemic conditions, that they
in a year or two, break up into a
multitude of degenerate types ; in
other words, "run out."
When a wellbred corn first goes
from its breeder with a strongly
prepotent, vigorous, flexible organ
ization, it for a time easily combats
and overcomes the various adverse
endemic influences which assail it.
But after two or three years of dis
continued breeding, which is gener
ally its fate in the hands of the aver
age farmer, its organization becomes
weaker and it readily succumbs tc
the degrading influences of inter
crossing (through the agency of
bees, insects, birds, and winds) with
the degenerate varieties which
usually abound in the vicinity of
the home of its adaptation. As its
organism continues to grow weaker,
it becomes susceptible to the attacks
of parasitic fungoid diseases, and to
the uncongenial action of adverse
chemical soil constituents. These
and other causes (causes of ten com
bined with lack of care in what may
be termed breeding,) hurry it with
great rapidity on the down grade to
inferiority, where it becomes ex
tinct, because unprofitable to culti
vate. There is also another cause of the
deterioration of our cultivated
plants : all living vegetation natur
ally feeds on the constituents of the
air, soil, and water ; and on the
scarcity or abundance of congenial
elements in any given locality de
pends the organic vigor of the plant.
It has often been and is still being
demonstrated that when a variety of
plant has been developed to a high
degree of perfection, by continued
good breeding, it will rapidly "back
slide," unless it continues to pro
gress under the same good breeding
pressure which has developed it.
This is in accordance wirh an inflex
ible law of nature, that nothing can
stand still. It must either advance
or deteriorate. Any variety of corn
which may be grown for several
years in any particular locality, be
comes so fitted to local endemic con
ditions that progressive variations
cease to occur. It has then fallen
into a state of laziness and its non
progressive adjustments can only be
broken up by removing it to differ
ent soils and climates, where pro
gressive variations begin anew.
Chas. Darwin, the great naturalist,
demonstrated to the world that
highly bred, dominant varieties of
cereals, whose organic relations are
harmonious, prepotent, and flexible,
become still more victorious when
judicious changes of seed are made
to various soils and climes, and al
ways beat the natives. In fact,
changes in the conditions of life
give greatly increased yields to all
organic beings. The writer believes
that the laws of plant breeding and
seed changing will be much better
understood within the next 25 years,
and that this will result in a surpris
ing increase in the average yield of
all of our farm and garden crops.
J. C. Suffern.
Piatt Co., 111.
IMPROVING THE POOR FIELDS.
Correspondence of The Proeressive Fanner.
Every season attempts shoula be
made to improve some portion of the
farm so that the soil will show the
highest standard of productivity.
There are crops which must be raised
on every farm which leave the soil
much poorer in fertility when they
are harvested. Systems of rotation
may tend to counteract this evil,
and keep the general average of the
fertility good, but in spite Jof this
there will be a gradual decline un
less special efforts are directed to
ward the improvement of the soil.
This can best be done by seleoting
certain fields or a field each year,
and making a point to raise the
standard of the fertility of that sec
tion. By thus changing off one goes
over the whole farm in the course of
a few years and makes the soil all of
a high standard.
Now a rotation of crops in which
clover comes for its share may not
necessarily keep the soil in a high
state of efficiency. This can be seen
in soils that have become clover sick,
and show every sign of degeneracy
simply because the soil is clogged
with undigested plant or green ma-nui--
Now, it is impossible for the
soil to improve when such a condi
tion prevails The soil is fed to over
flowing, but it requires something
that will help it to digest what it
contains.
To do this the land needs regular
treatment once in a few years, much
as a physician would treat a patient.
He examines a sick man's pulse,
looks at hia tongue, studies his com
plexion and tries to find some organ
out of order. Then he applies the
remedy accordingly. Once every
few years we can examine a section
of the farm in the same way. What
is the matter with the soil? Has it
been fed plant food in the shape of
green manure too steadily and con
tinuously V Then it may require the
phosphates, lime and other mineral
elements to counteract this condi
tion. It may be it has been stimu
lated too continuously with mineral
fertilizers, and it is in need of green
food. Again it may be sour, and re
quires rectifying with lime or salt.
There are a dozen and one conditions
that the soil may be in which can be
remedied only by a careful study.
The farmer with a fair intelligence
of farming can do this. It does not
require expert knowledge, nor tech
nical skill, but simple, ordinary com
mon sense, and then the disposition
to remedy the trouble.
James S. Wilson.
NORTH CAROLINA FARMING.
Maxton Scottish Chief: It is esti
mated by the farmers of this sec
iton, that the cotton crop has been
cut short at least 25 per cent by the
heavy rains and continued wet
weather.
Fayette ville Observer : During the
month of May the Southern Express
Company shipped from Fayetteville
5,712 bushels of peas.
Tarbo:o Southerner : Some enter
prising paper has put the number of
bales of cotton in North Carolina
still in first hands between four and
five thousand bales. If correct,
about half of this is in this county.
Summing up the strawberry sea
son, the Mt. Olive Advertiser says :
"There has never been more than
two consecutive days of good straw
berry weather this season, but in
spite of hail and rain our growers
have shipped almost as many crates
as last year ; the prices have, as a
rule, been satisfactory.' '
Live Stock and Dairy,
SHEEP IN THE SOUTH.
I.
A Few Words of History American Meri
nos Importations From Spain The Writ
er's Experience Mutton Breeds Importa
tions From Great Britain The St. Louis
World's Exhibition.
Correspondence of The Progrressi ve Farmer.
Looking backward through history
to the beginning of recorded time,
we find that keeping sheep was one
of the principal and most honorable
industrial occupations of mankind.
"Abel was a keeper of sheep." So
was Abraham, Job and David. The
Egyptians, the Persians and the Bo
mans kept sheep. The lamb has
been used as an emblem of harmless
ness, meekness and purity. Keep
ing sheep has been a prominent in
dustry of the modern nations ; most
notably, Spain, Germany, France
and Great Britain. When Spain was
in the height of her glory, her flocks
of excellent Merino sheep were large
ly owned by the nobility and the
crown, and the industry was care
fully protected and promoted by the
government. So was it in Saxony
and in France.
It was from Spain that South
America and Mexico received the
start of their most numerous flocks.
It was in 1801-2 and subsequent years
that the United States received im
ports of Merino sheep from the no ble
flocks of Spain, the blood of which
until more recently constituted by
far the larger part of the sheep of
the United States. Later on consid
erable importations from Saxony,
and still later from France, were in
troduced into American flocks. These
latter were respectively known as
Saxon and French Merinos, being
originally Spanish Merinos. How
ever, some of the original Spanish
Merinos were kept pure by their
breeders, and wonderfully improved,
both in form of carcass and in weight
of fleece. So marked and well estab
lished was this improvement, that
in the past fifty years, in the United
States, and over the world, this
stock of sheep has been known as
the
AMERICAN MERINO.
The greatest achievement ever ac
quired in the world in an equal
length of time, as to growth of fleece
in quantity and quality, has been at
tained with these American Merinos.
Single sheep have been authorita
tively known to have produced over
nine pounds of fine wool, of twelve
months' growth, scoured clean ready
for the cards. These same fleeces
would weigh twenty to thirty, and
even over forty pounds to the fleece,
" weighed in the grease and dirt,"
as it came from the sheep's back.
From small boyhood when he was
just able to carry a lamb, about 1855,
on for thirty years thereafter, the
writer of this cared for lambs and
sheep of his father's large flock of
sheep, mainly in Brooke county, Vir
ginia, and for his own. However,
for twenty years of that time he was
a breeder in West Virginia and Mis
souri, of the pure blood American
Merinos, selected and purchased by
him in 1865, from the celebrated
Hammond flock of Vermont. He
is yet in possession of diplomas
and medals from State Fairs and
from the Centennial Exposition at
Philadelphia in 1876, for superior
Merino sheep, and the same for wool
from his Merino flock, exhibited at
the Paris Exposition Universelle, in
1878. During these years he became
familiar with all sheep history ; with
the science of breeding and improve
ment of sheep, and with their man
agement in small flocks in the East
ern States, and with large flocks in
Missouri, in the grazing regions of
Texas, on the Western plains and on
the mountains, in all of which busi
ness, the development of his own
flock and of those under his care
were very successful in every way
with his practical management.
In all the world's sheep history
down to the last of the nineteenth
century there can be no brighter nor
more illustriously successful page,
written for the same length of time,
than that which shall truthfully de
scribe the great development of the
American Merino, especially as a
wool-producing animal. While this
is true, the writer often queried in
his mind, whether or not, and has to
a degree demonstrated in practice
that there is an improvement pos
sible for the Merino, in which it can
be made to attain most successful
mutton qualities, while not losing its
superiority as a fine wool sheep. The
successful improvement by many
breeders of these sheep in recent
years seems to be solving this prob
lem. It surely is practicable. How
ever, such improved sheep should
not and cannot usurp the essential
place of the mutton and lustrous
coarse wool breeds. Nevertheless,
it is not true that fine wool cannot
be grown on a large squarely built
muscular sheep, any more than that
it is not true that coarse wool can
not be grown on a little meanly
formed sheep.
IN GREAT BRITAIN,
during the last three hundred ye"ars,
sheep have been kept and improved
to produce meat or mutton, as the
first prime object, and secondly, but
not less successfully, for the produc
tion of long lustrous combing wool,
not the finest in quality ; hence, the
greatly developed improvement of
this sheep for these purposes by th
English, Scotch and Irish people.
The divergence of the present sheep
of that nation from the original type
of several hundred years ago is fully
as marked and striking as that of
the Merinos from their original type.
To the breeders of Great Britain be
long the praise for the greater part
of these improvements for mutton
and for coarse combing wool; al
though their American cousins, both
in the United States and in Canada,
are now producing animals for the
same purposes from their stock, and
carrying onward and upward the im
provements with unabated zeal and
unparalleled success.
During the last century, and espe
cially in the last half of it, importa
tions of these mutton sheep by the
Americans from the English and
Scotch flocks have been frequent.
The selections were often made from
the most perfect types of their best
flocks, both for mutton and for long
lustrous combing wool. The im
provements of the stock of these im
portations have kept pace in every
way with those made by any of the
flocks of Europe. In fact, it is
claimed that if there were to be a
competition of sheep from all parts
of the world, that those from the
United States would lead in the
awards of merit and likely carry off
more first prizes than would those
from any other nation.
The sheep breeders and wool grow
ers of the United States are not satis
fied to ocoupy a second or third
place from the front in the science
and art of their occupation. "Excel
sior" is their motto and they are per
sistent in securing a place in the
world's line with the foremost in
progress, if not in advance of it. It
remains to be seen whether .the man
agers of the St. Louis World's Ex
hibition for 1903 shall succeed in
bringing together such an exhibit
from the flocks of the most success-
ful breeders of sheep in all nations.
If they do, it will be an exhibit that
has never yet been fully attained.
Samuel Archer.
McDowell Co., N. C.
THE CONFORMATION OF THE DAIRY
COW.
BY PROF. ANDREW M. SOULE.
An address delivered before the Rural Science
Club of the University of Tennessee.-
It does not take a great deal of
equipment to develop the subject of
stock-judging, and yet special train
ing along this line is highly import
ant to every agricultural student. In
college work, where you take a regu
lar agricultural course, we commence
with the score-card. On each card
we note systematically the charac
teristics of several individuals until
we become thoroughly familiar with
the location, shape and form sought
in the respective points of the dairy
animal's anatomy.
After yon have passed the "em
bryonic" stage of the soore-card you
come to the stage of "expert judg
ing," where you will have probably
CONTINUED OH PAGE 8.