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THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OP STATE POLICY. it Si Vol. 16. Raleigh, N. C, July 9, 1901. No. 22 Agriculture. SEWS OF THE FARMING T 0 D. Oar Washington Correspondent What Progress is Being Made in the Various Sections of the Country. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. Few people have any idea of the manifold USES TO WHICH CORN CAN BE PUT. To such as are interested in the subject, a trip through the plant division of the Agricultural Depart ment will be a revelation. Possibly the most surprising exhibit is a bar of what appears to bo rubber pos sessing all the qualities of that ar ticle. Nevertheless it was made of corn, and it is said the makers of this commodity are successfully com peting with the natural product. Samples of varnish made from corn are on exhibition. Oils made from this grain, which are used as substi tutes for olive and peanut oils, are also there. The color of the corn oil is identical with the olive oil, and it so closely resembles the imported product it would trouble an expert to tell the difference between them. This oil now has a large sale. There are a large number of samples of celulose, used to prevent the sinking of ships. Paper made from corn, grape fruit, corn flour, which is as white as wheat flour, and which is produced by thousands of tons, as well as glucose, used for so many purposes, are also found in this ex hibit. In fact the list of products of corn is so long it would require con siderable space to enumerate them. Yet, according to the officers of the Department, corn has by no means reached its top notch, and experi ments are now being conducted with u view of doubling, if possible, its production per acre. These experi ments are being made by Herbert J. Webster, under the supervision of Prof. Galloway, Chief of the Plant Division, and consist of cross-breeding, from which wonderful results are expected, demonstrating to the farmers the great importance of selecting only the" best stock for planting. By the cross-breeding pro cess the nitrogen contents of the corn will be increased, and the care in selecting stock for planting will be instrumental in bringing about a tremendous yield. Already 10,000 ?pecimens of hybrids have been .-rown, and some of these are promis ing, although it will be nearly two years before practical demonstra tions can be given, and not until that time will the Department be in a position to furnish samples. The Department is, however, prepared to uive some wholesome advice to the lurmers with regard to producing an increased yield next year. In a gen eral way this advice is to select proper seed for planting, which have yielding qualities. The way to make ::;se selections is to go through the rn field during the fall and choose :l:o best stalks, not merely those that :. ve the largest ear, but those with most ears and those most cora iidable in other respects. Most : irmer? now merely select the largest .rs from their cribs when the time ' r planting corner. Among the j hybrids are 200 new and dis ' t varieties. Nothing like them L ever been produced, and Secre- ' Wilson is expecting great re Tests will be made to de t :: .inn which of the hybrids w;ll ;ce the best crops, when samples e -ent throughout the country xht- farmers e for themselves " the Department has accom : - i ' r their b; nelit. ::-.le the Department of Agricul- - ha- r-.-n trvir.g i: ' K k,M.fAK'.Nl" WHKAT iyr; cultivation in the United certain Italians have been d m demonstrating that we rae grades enpable for use j.r.rpe. Con?ul liayden i :a Cu.-tei!a!iiare specimens .r m made from American. j-t-tLer with a letter from : :n which ho says: "I v. ith the result oi my ex-:a- ii; producing ieaearoiii :u ;-ruuii wheat. Up to this i a:. ure no Italian mauufac- 'i macaroni thought it was it necessary to ihk- :e.leVlllg use a mixture of either Italian and Russian wheat, or of wheat from the Orient and Tunis. I now put in your possession the accomplished fact, which will serve to open -up in Italy a wide market for American wheat. America imports macaroni from Italy, mostly from this district. The wheat used, samples of which are here inclosed, is known as 'unfal catod wheat, ' and was purchased by mo in New York City." It is sug gested that if the United States would admit free of duty, or at least, at a lower tax than the present tariff, macaroni made from Ameri can wheat, a market for our wheat would be opened in compe tition with that of Russia and the East. A. B. Marriott. Washington, D. C. THE GRASSES AND CLOVES. A Guilford Trucker Gives His Experience With Them Watch Home Markets. Oorresjxudence of The Progressive Farmer. It is well to know the natural pro ductions of the lands to bo culti vated. North Carolina has a great variety of soil and climate. What we of the uplands of the State can grow to perfection may not be a pay ing crop in the East. We once thought that only bottom lands could be properly called meadow land, but ! have never seen hills too high for I the fine grasess where the soils and j clay were of the rjropor consistency. We have some grasses that have as ' sorted their claims for which I have I utter contempt : one is the Bermuda, i the other the Johnson grass. Both ! may be splendid for grazing or to j stop washes. The roots are hard to ! displace. All sections and localities more or less are fine for the clay pea, when ' planted at the proper season, espe ; cially not too early. Then follow with the clover. It takes rich land ' to grow clover and timothy. I sow both on the same land at the samo time and a bushel of oats to the acre. The oats and clover are mowed off in ! May or the early days of June, so the i clover and grass can take root. The I clover may be mowed again in early i fall so two crops are gathered the i same year. The orchard grass is ; treated the same way, herds' or red top and good crops of clover for two years ; after this the grasses take possession. If there bo poor spots, ! manure may be added at any time. Have experimented with these crops : for about forty years and have had ! no reason to complain with the crop. 1 At first they gave much anxiety, but of late not so much. Every man has his notions about curing. One thing I had to learn : never let clover mold ; had it to lay on the ground over one ; week and then stock ate it clean and did well as any. When North Caro lina turns to hay and stock, she will become a thrifty State and the boys will stay on the farms where all the work is done by machinery. I am not surprised at any intelligent boy leaving the tobacco worm and sucker and cotton bolls. Give him plenty of machinery and stock at home and there is something to stay for. In the earlier days of North Caro lina beef was bought and sold at : three or four cents and the price of fine beef has not gone up and down like cotton. To our shame much of ; the beef comes to us at fifteen cents per pound. Llome supplies is what ' we should turn to if we would prop erly respect ourselves. R. R Moork. Guilford Co., N. C. : Mr. J. A. McAllister, of this town, says that he has solved the forage problem for the farmers of this com munity. He sowed one half acre in oats and Canada field ueas last No vember. He cut ii a few days ago and it- yielded o,000 pound of forage. A the weather looked somewhat like rain he hauled it in partially green, but allowing 2,000 pounds for imperfect curing, which would bean excessive allowance, and he has 1.500 pound- of good forage i'rm lnui an acre. Cattle and horses eat it as well, if not bjtter, than any other forage. Mr. McAllister would be glad to turnirh any information to any one interested in raiting forage. Lumborton Cor. Charlotte Ob- i server. ADAPTING CHOPS TO SOIL. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. When a man owns a farm of very sandy land he makes a mistake to at tempt to raise crops which do best on heavy fertile soils, for in so doing he is handicapped from the start and will undoubtedly fail to realize his expectations. In farming the very first step is to try to adapt the crops to the soil. In this we merely follow nature's example. There are crops which will do well on nearly every kind of soil found in the country. Only a few barren soils refuse to pro duce any kind of crops. If there is a proper amount of moisture even the poorest sandy soil can be made to yield some paying crop. Our corn requires rich, heavy soil, and so do most of our other heavy crops, and such cereals should be raised only on that kind of land. It requires only a little study and ex periment to find out pretty definitely what crops best succedon your farm. Farms that have "been declared run down and too sandy to yield any crop profitably have been made pay ing investments by producing crops of strawberries, asparagus and onions. All that was required was the right sort of man to discover the crop adapted to the soil. The question of enriching the soil should not of course be neglected even though a certain crop has been found to thrive on it. This is too often a short-sighted mistake which sooner or later manifests itself in an unpleasant way. If it is a sandy soil there is something in it that supplies the strawberries, asparagus or other crop with nourishment. What is it that the rdants find in the soil to make them grow? This can be found out by ascertaining the special needs of the particular crop. If it is nitro gen, potash, or phosphates a sys tematic feeding of the soil and crops with this particular form of fertili zer should be made. In this way the soil will not be robbed. A great many sandy and loose, porous soils permit nearly all fertility to leach through, and if this leak were stopped in some way there would be better results obtained with the crops. Such soils may require commercial fertilizers in which the mineral elements pre dominate, but at the same time they need coarse plant food or barn yard manure in order to improve the me chanical conditions of the soil. Some times a liberal scattering of forest leaves over the land, and plowing under in the fall, will do more good than anything else. These leaves will close up many of the holes, and at the same time add some plant food to the soil. Coarse straw and barn yard liter perform the same service. C. T. White. HARRY FARMER'S TALKS. j XXXIII. I Correspondence of The Progressive Karmer. ! The cotton crop in Columbus coun ty is in bad shape, and this spring large fields were plowed up and I planted in corn. The excessive rains i and the scarcity of hoe hands have been the cause. Have we not reached ; the limit of production? There will ' have to be changes made in the cul , tivation of the crop or else the pro- duction will decrease. There is one j plan by which grass can be kept un ; der ; that is by pasturing geese in ; the cotton patch. This will destroy the grass so that the land will be al ! most entirely free from it the next i year. As good as the season has been for grass, we have a small patch which is considered very "grassy" with about three geese to the acre and the cotton is as clean of grass as anv one could wih. An average year two geese to the acre is sulh cient. Goslings will eat more griss than old geese. As a farmer said to ' tiie writer some time ago, a goose will eat grass in proportion to the amount of corn fed the more corn the more gra-s eaten. A fence from 2 to 2TX feet high is sufficient to con fine them. They require some shade and a plenty of drinking water not " a place to bathe in as people formerly thought, but enough to drink. The following are the grasses which the writer has noticed them eating : Crab grass, red stem, cane or Ber muda, nut grass, and several kinds that we do not know the name of. Geese will not eat weeds except ing young cockle burs. If cotton is plowed regularly one goose to the acre is sufficient to eat the grass left among the cotton in an average sea son. Now is a good time to castrate pigs which are expected to be fattened early in the fall. Our plan is never to let the males get more than two or three months old. Alwaya do such work early in the morning. We do not lose one-half of one per cent. Nearly all that die from the opera tion are performed on in the after noon. In operating cut just as low down as possible so that the blood, matter, etc., can drip out the wounds will heal more rapidly. It is necessary to wait until the sows get a little older. The cause of trouble with them is : first, in sewing not catching the thin skin on the in side ; second, sewing the entrails (we have seen several die from this cause) ; third, sewing too tight : you should simply draw the edges to gether. Nature has provided the animal creation with something like glue which causes the sides of a cut to stick together if they come in con tact. Always use flax thread as it will rot much quicker than cotton. A great many farmers loose a great deal of meat by not attending to such work early. Our pigs always grow faster after the operation. We do not want any particular time of the moon, but prefer a damp to dry weather, as hogs do better when they can have a plenty of water to wallow in. If you would have success with your hogs, commence feeding at once. While the weather is warm it will not cost anything to keep the animals warm and all the feed can be used to make meat, but if you wait until cold weather to fatten animals, it may require almost double the feed to do the same work. Harry Farmer. Columbus Co., N. C. Washington Progress : The pota to season has about closed and good prices have been realized. The crop was short, but the farmers have made money from it. The little town of Aurora shipped this year about 23,000 barrels of potatoes and the acreage was short and the crop was not an average one. At least $45,000 has been distributed in that section by this crop. South Creek and other nearby points made large shipments. RAPE A NATURAL SHEEP FOOD. Where turnips will grow, rape will thrive ; it will come up in 48 hours, and to kill weeds harrow well after it is up two weeks ; after that it will kill weeds itself. In fact, it will clear a piece of land of witch grass. Sow in July for late feed. After the sheep are used to it, a wether will eat 20 pounds per day. There is no feed equal to rape, and it can be grown at one-half the expense of any other. It will produce in rich land 30 tons to the acre and will grow so high that a Jersey cow could not be seen in the field. Sow 4 pounds to the acre at first, then 1 pound after that. Plant in drills if the land is wet and broadcast if dry. Last fall I saw two rape plants on exhibition at the fair, which weighed 40 pounds each. G. M. Gowell. Your correspondent had an inter esting interview to-day with Botan ist Hyams, wTho until three weeks ago was one of the faculty of the State Agricultural and Mechanical College. Mr. Hyams says the, peo ple in central and eastern North Carolina pay hardly any attention to the gathering of medicinal herbs, roots and barks. He says the bark of the roots of the cotton plant is worth &25 to the acre ; in other words as much as the cotton, and that the Statesville people who deal in this ure unable to supply the demand by a million pounds. He says there is not a dye-stuff plant in this State. About all the peppermint grown in the United States comes from about a third of the State of Michigan. It can be easily and profitably grown here. Col. Olds. Live Stock and Dairy. SHEEP IN THE SOUTH. III. Science and Practice A Little Story Wool and Mutton or Fleece and Flesh? Sheep for Wool The Merino, and Its Grades Stall Feeding the Surplus Sheep Manure A Buzzing Fact Blooded Stock Rams Four Cardinal Points. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. It is one thing to have sheep hus bandry scientifically pictured out to the human intelligence with its vicissitudes, its losses and profits clearly shown up to the common un derstanding ; while it is quite another matter to take hold of a flock and live with them daily, following them through wet weather and dry, warm and cold, balmy breeze and blizzard, through fortune and misfortune, high markets, and low ones, to the final goal of crowned success in prac tice: The theorist, or rather scientist, points out the ways of the sheep busi ness ; while the practitioner too often blunders along and some times sneers at the scientist saying, uhis book theory plans won't work out." There is one thing that both simple and learned should well understand and know : that the science of sheep hus bandry, as well as the science of all things else, has a perfect law that will thoroughly operate its own per fections, regardless of all conditions. Conditions will adjust themselves to scientific law when it is fully under stood. Tho practical shepherd should know the law as it relates to all parts of his business and adjust the condi tions of his business to suit ; in do ing so success will surely follow. Furthermore, there never was suc cess attained in sheep breeding and wool growing without theories and plans being first in the head before being practically carried out with the hand. To illustrate, let me relate a little story. When the writer first moved his high bred flock from WTest Vir ginia to Missouri, one of Missouri's eminent statesmen in looking over the sheep said : "Many of our farm ers here in Missouri keep sheep and. they get fat in summer. To be sure they get poor in winter, but in the spring when their wool gets loose, they chase them through the thorns and briers which pull the fleece off. That's the way they shear them and the children follow after and gather wool from the bushes. They say it is a profitable business, and no doubt, but with your scientific breeding and improved methods of keeping, your business will be a success ; so we wel come you to the State." Within six years alter that time it was proved wTith that flock that intelligently bred sheep, fed on Missouri grown grass and grain, could successfully compete with any other sheep in the United States or in France. What has been done in Virginia and Missouri, may as readily be ac complished in North Carolina and other portions of the South. The two great purposes in sheep husbandry are wool and mutton or their fleece and their flesh. I will first write f the business mainly for wool growing and afterwards for meat production. I make this dis tinction so as to be plain and minute as possible, and not because some breeds are exclusively intended for one or the other of these purposes. There is no well-known breed in the United States but that may be profit ably kept for either purpose, and yet no breed but that the purpose of its lesser usefulness makes it more profitable when added to its greater one. As a wool-producing animal, espe cially for large flocks, the Merino, with its grades easily stands at the head of the list. If wool is to be the prime object of the farmer or planter it would be well to start with a good stock or blood selected from one or another of the American Merino types of sheep. If frem any reason tie pure or very high grades cannot be had, then good common ewes of any breed or the woods breed may be had and y using large well formed, heavy-fleeced Merino rams, a good flock is soon bred up. If the ewes lack size and good form, which they usually do, they might well bo crossed first for two successive years with thorough bred Shropshire rams, or better for three years, and from, these three crops of ewe lambs select a flock of ewes and put off the old flock. For this purpose Dorsett rams may be used, but in either case let the ram be heavy fleeced, squarely built, well developed body, having undoubted constitution and a good pedigree. Use the same stock for all the ewes each year so that all the young ewes of the coming flock may be uniform in characteristics which, is a very important point in future usefulness. Persistently continue to breed these improved ewes and their offspring to large heavy-fleeced Me rino. The result will be an ideal flook of grade sheep for wool, the weathers and old sheep of which can be fattened and sold for mutton if not otherwise . Breeding pure bloods and crossing for wool and mutton will have attention in a future chap ter. The number of sheep to be kept de pends on the size of the farm and the other kinds of industry followed on it. Take for example a quarter section of land, 160 acres, where cot ton growing constitutes about one half the business, while grain and other things constitute the other half. Fifty head of ewes would be a fair number to start with, and each fall sales should be made so as to cut the flock down to that number of breeding ewes each winter. The best plan by which to dispose of the weathers and surplus as soon as the farmer can prepare for it is to rather closely confine and stall feed all the surplus off to the mutton market every winter. It is very profitable to do so. In the spring they can be sold to be delivered with the wool off, which brings cash also. Thus the farmer provides a market at home for all his cotton seed, grain and roughness, and a great profit is that derived from their manure, for the manure from a stall-fed lot of sheep, especially where cotton seed meal is largely fed, is a fertilizer of very great value when properly saved and composted. More about this when we reach a chapter on sheep manure as a fertilizer. The profits from one ewe well fed and cared for will equal that from two poorly fed and cared for. Keep this fact buzzing in your mind like a bee in your hat, all the time that you keep sheep for profits. A flock of ewes as above referred to would likely cost $4 or $5 more per head, or they should be bred up until they are worth and would sell for that price with wool on at the beginning of winter. In this I do not mean "culls" and old ones, but the fifty head selected each fall to form the basis of the next year's flock. However, suppose a start is made with very common ewes at $2 ahead. A large heavy-fieeced, pure blood Merino ram may be had at not over $25, expressage under 500 miles in cluded, and at less if a good blooded Merino flock is near by. A Shrop shire, Dorsett of Southdown could be had at about similar price, but $10 extra for a ram of superior form, weight of fleece and size is money well spent. In good flesh he should not weigh less than 200 pounds if a Shropshire, 250 pounds and shear, "in the grease," not less than 1& pounds ; if a Merino 25 pounds. The writer wishes to emphasize the matter of breeding, continuous ly, superior bloeded rams even on the mo3t common flock cf ewes. It always pays to do so. It is always a loss of profits not to do so. At above prices I do not refer to rams of superior excellence in high points, that are so caref uUy consid ered by scientifio breeders who are working along on the front line of progressive improvement at great expense of time, genius and money, nor are such needed for the com monality of flocks. But such breed ers always have a large per cent, of such rams as above referred to, that are to be had at reasonable prices. Even in common wool flocks, at least four essential points stiould be CONTINUED ON PAGE 8. - (
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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July 9, 1901, edition 1
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