Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Sept. 17, 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
f J 5 f J f THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OP OUR EEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. Vol 16. Raleigh, N. C, September 17, 1901. No. 32 - It t 1 3 ft&V I ' I Jn.. I mi,. I tm l-"9e " -.cr w t u y - n m ! Agriculture. ,vE ADVANTAGES OF EXPERIMENT W0B& Ult XU.JU X&AiO.. yrespondence of The Progressive Farmer. Every farmer should have a true tnowledge of the needs of every piece of land on his farm. Indeed, every successful farmer will have fcis knowledge to a greater or less extent. It is a11 verJ wel1 to study the requirements of a crop and as certain what fertilizer it will need to 4o its best. But if you negleot to study your soil as well you are till forking at a disadvantage and can not produce your crops in the most economical manner. Almost all large fertilizer concerns jinufactnre special fertilizers. 1iere are cotton fertilizers, potato cowers, wheat growers, and vege- feNe an tohaoco fertilizers. These foods are prepared to meet a number cf requirements. They must meet the needs of the crop as nearly as possible, both from the standpoint of analysis and from that dictated by gjperience. They must suit all soils is nearly as can be done, and they mst not be too expensive. Most of these goods are what is called well balanced fertilizers, that is, they certain three principal elements of pliat food, ammonia, phosphorio acid and potash, in the right propor tion to supply the needs of the re spective crops for which they were prepared and the general run of land. Yon can readily see that it would be impossible for these concerns to prepare a fertilizer that would suit &IJ the diti'erent qualities and condi- "toTig of soil, as these vary more greyly even than the crops them selves. Izd so it is that in using these fer tilizers we may be paying for and applying material which our soil already contains. Or, our soil may be so lacking in some one element of plant food that the amount of this element contained in the fertilizer fails to balance the plant food in the soil eren though it may be well bal anced in the fertilizer itself. The resdt is that the crop produced will tot be as large as the land is capable cf making with a fertilizer which would properly balance the plant food already contained in the land. It will be understood that when we !DeaV nf r1 n n t f nrvl m hoi n v? hftlanofid. I. j-.w-.wv- 0 , fM3 mean that the three principal elements, ammonia, phosphorio acid Kid potash, are present in the soil or fertilizer in the right proportion to K?ply the needs of the crop we wish to grow. If any one of these ele -ts is present in excess a part of Vy-iaiust necessarily remain idle and :s effect will be to produce an un k<hy and unsymmetrical growth. ability of a crop to appropriate feat f '.,! is limited by that element isica is in smallest supply. If am-i-aia and DhosDhoric acid are plen- i in the soil either naturally or S3 ther there through a fertilizer d pots h is lacking, then the crop 3be limited in a great measure to .v-at little potash there is present is 1 vLlttVI.-, .- j mi 4- r-oic producing. xuus, pais -. phosphorio acid and ammonia remain unused. So also it is &thf-e other elements, anyone &eni being lacking the crop is td t that extent. Oa ne-rly every farm there is a leat vuriety of soil and the success- 44 rnier is the one who studies Hcqu -dnts himself with the needs everv iiec8 of land in his Dosses- Th s is where the value of a I e eXH'rimental work comes in. nst rr tn tho fipiM with our - C1 ) l?ti0E They cannot be ans wered tely in office or laboratory. A Jcai i(?ld tegt of the Afferent U y 1 different fertilizers con- 1 l plant food is tne oniy r; o a -:,rn how to fertilize our L 11 us our crops. Here only M e ol-tuin snob -nraotioal infor- a$ Will onoKIa na r TT OA tTlASA v-ith profit and economy. auc its analysis or composi- ' tilat raay be applied to all jfcd crops indiscriminately, will 8o v?ith the successful and in- ..... telligent farmer. He will find out what his soil requires, and when he buys his fertilizer he will see that the elements of plant food are pres ent in the right proportions to bal ance the plant food in his soil for the crop he intends to grow. A few experiments with the differ ent elements of plant food will cost but little. Acid phosphate or ground bone will furnish you with phos phorio acid. Cotton seed meal, drieu blood, tankage, and nitrate of soda, will supply ammonia, and muriate of potash and kainit will give you pot ash. Try these materials separately and together in different combina tions until you find what your soil requires in a fertilizer. In using these different materials remember that the 'per cent.' is the number of pounds of any given element of plant food whioh they oontain per hundred pounds, and in applying them figure on the pounds of actual ammonia, phosphorio acid and potash you use, and not on the total bulk. To compute the analysis when compounding a fertilizer, multiply the number of pounds of "carrier" or body in whioh these elements are contained, by the per centage of plant food it contains and divide the result by the total number of pounds of fertilizer you are preparing after the materials are mixed together. The result will be the per cent, of this element of plant food in your fertilizer. For instance, in prepar ing a ton of fertilizer we should use one thousand pounds of 14 per cent, acid. phosphate, 800 pounds of 8 per cent, cotton seed meal, and 200 pounds of muriate of potash. We multiply the 1,000 pounds of acid phosphate by the 14 per cent, of plant food it contains, the result is 14,000. We divide this by 2,000 and the result is 7, or 7 per cent, of phos phorio acid in our ton of fertilizer. In the same manner we find that the meal gives us a fraction over 3 per cent, of ammonia, and the muriate of potash gives us 5 per cent, of pot ash. By a little study of the above method one can easily learn to figure the analysis of any fertilizer you may wish to compound. When mix ing be sure to see that it is done thoroughly. The mass should be shoveled over from one pile to an other three or four times until the whole is of an even color. F. J. Merriam. Fulton Co., Qa. KEEPING BOYS OUT OF SCHOOL. One of the greatest mistakes that many farmers make is in keeping the boys out of school in the fall to help do up the fall work. My friend, if your boy does not start when school begins, the chances are that he will start behind his classmates and re main behind the entire term. And under this condition it cannot be ex pected that he will learn nearly as well as if he had started at the be ginning of the term. What I have said may, and often does, apply to the girls as well as the boys. Hav ing had experience In this matter I know what it is to be kept out of school two or three months before starting. Brother farmer, if you are making a mistake in this direc tion this fall, I trust you will con sider the matter well another fall and make a special effort to get the boys and girls started at the begin ning of the term. Do give them as good an education as possible so that they may more fully and ably per form the duties of after life. In most of the States men can be hired in the fall for $10 to $20 per month and it will pay to hire, if need be, in order to get your boy and girl started on the road to fortune in time. Glade Yeager, Sprankle Mills, Pa. Celery blight or rust may be kept under complete control by spraying either with ammoniacal carbonate of copper or with Bordeaux mixture. The spraying ehould be begun while the plants are still in the seed bed, and should be continued at intervals of from one to two weeks after, the plants are transplanted until the cool weather drevents the 'further development of the fungus. Prof O, O. Townsend, Md.,State Pathologist. HABRY FARMER'S TALES. XLIII. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. Many farmers sell their cotton in the seed. This some times is best. We have known big money made this way. We made a contraot with a cotton buyer once when the mar ket was uncertain ,to deliver 10,000 pounds of seed cotton at 2yp cents per pound. We agreed to divide the loss if it exceeded X cen P61" pound for seed cotton, provided he (the merchant) would share the profits with us. Result: we got $235 for the 10,000 pounds seed cotton. Cot ton went down as usual and we gained by the transaction. The buyer held the cotton and made his money baok. We always keep part of our seed. If the price is high, we sell all we can spare ; if very low, we buy some for fertilizer. It is best to sell as early as you can. The holding of ootton by farmers nearly always results in loss. We want our ootton picked as fast as it opens, at least once in ten days if the weather is good. Not every farmer can do this. Cotton is much better if picked soon after opening. We let the piokers go in early in the morning, if they wish, and piok while the dew is on the cotton, but always with the understanding that a few pounds must be deducted. Cotton can be gathered faster while it is damp, and if it is thrown in a pile to sweat, the lint will improve. It is supposed that the lint absorbs some oil from the seed. Gathering cotton seems to be one kind qf work for which machinery has failed. In the southern and eastern part of the State bunch beans, cabbage and peas and many other garden crops can be planted to furnish the table through the fall and winter with nice vegetables. This kind of work is too often negleoted by our farmers. A good garden will pay a larger profit for the labor and fertili zer used than any other part of the farm. Mary Jane showed us some tomatoes she planted some time ago from cuttings. If the weather is not too dry we will have tomatoes until nearly Christmas. Our crop last year was a failure, but year before last we had all we wanted. Tomav toes will grow as well from cuttings as sweet potatoes. Where there are nice hot houses or pits to keep flow era in, it will be easy to have all the tomatoes you want until spring by using cuttings and starting the plants before very cold weather " comes. Tomatoes that are grown can be kept for months by wrapping them just as lemons are found in the stores in summer. It will be best to expose the tomatoes a few days to heat and light to make them ripen. Harry Farmer. Columbus Co., N. C. TO KEEP WEEVILS OTJT OF CORN AND PEAS. ' An Important Problem, and Mr. Barbrey Has a Simple Plan That Has so Far Proved Very Successful. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. Two years ago I adopted a plan for keeping weevls and other bugs from my corn and field peas that is so suo ce8fful, and hence so satisfactory, that I want all farmers to know it. And as all farmers are presumed to be readers of The Progressive Far mer, I take it as the proper medium through which to give it. It is this : A fow days before you are ready to put your corn in barn, clean out the barn thoroughly, and put a few shovelfuls of dirt in the center of the floor about two feet wide ani .deep enough to prevent the floor from burning; then make a place in the center to hold a shovel ful of live ooals from green, hard wood ; plaoe in the coals, throw on a handful of pulverized sulphur, walk out and close the door. If the stables are attached to the barn, take stock out, and when the burning is over, haul up your corn and throw into the barn about a foot deep and sprinkle bi-carbonate of soda com mon cooking soda over the corn and on sides of the wall ; put in another layer and repeat the sprinkling and continue until the barn is full. Soda can be bought at 5 cents per pound, and5 pounds will do for about 30 barrels of corn. I put my large corn up with shuck. Prior to the use of the soda it was difficult to get seed corn as early as last days of March, and after June it was hardly fit for bread.' I now have in my barn old oorn enough to feed stock and for bread until 15th of October, and the corn is as nice and as free from bugs of all kinds as it was in Juirfr. This has been the case every time I used the soda. I olean out my peas and air them a f e days and leave chaff in thern till I'm ready to plant. When they are dry enough I put in boxes in my barn, and sprinkle among them soda, and some times sulphur, first fumi gating the boxes as I do my barn. The 15th of August I took from an eight bushel box the last half bushel and not a bug could be found. I put a few early peas in a bag and neg leoted to put in soda and sulphur and they were so badly eaten as to be unfit for planting. The soda will sift off in shuoking the corn and you will hardly discover that it has been used. Wm. A. Barbrey. Sampson Co., N. C. WHY NOT STOP THIS LEAK? We reoently had a leak in our waterworks. We were very anxious to have it repaired, because it would likely inorease our monthly water bill. Traveling as we have reoently, over two thousand miles, among the farmers of the South, we have been greatly impressed with the leaks in farm methods, and cannot help won dering why our farmers do not stop them. They certainly greatly in orease the bill of expenses, or what is muoh the same, deorease the in come. THE HAY LEAK. This seems to be the most general leak upon the farm. Scarcely a farmer seems to fully appreciate the value of the hay crops growing upon his farm. Grasses, of many kinds are permitted to grow to waste, die and be burned up, as if it had no market value. Many of these very farmers are buying Western hay to feed on. Many of their neighbors are buying Western hay to feed their sawmill steers 'or mules or their livery stable horses upon. We saw one man, who was buying hay at twenty-two dollars per ton, and yet pulling fodder and losing all the hay he might have made from his corn stalks. We found one man who had over six hundred tons of corn stalks, enough to make over six hundred tons of first class hay ; but this man could not make up his mind to buy a shredder to make them into hay, although he had an engine ready to pull it. 'Why not stop this $1,200 leak? Farmers are paying high prices for bagging and ties, when they do not need either. Why not stop this leak? Farmers are buying thousands of tons of commercial fertilizers, when good, deep plowing and rapid har rowing would do their lands perma nent good and make larger crops than the fertilizers do. Why not stop this leak? Farmers are cutting rooks and stumps at great expense and loss. They could easily remove both of these. , Very many of them are still suffer ing their lands to wash away. Deep plowing and subsoiling Would stop this leak. Many farmers are still growing scrub cows, when the same grass would grow Shorthorns and Here fords that would bring in four times the money. Why not get a Here ford or Shorthorn bull and stop this leak? Many farmers have what they call pastures, but bushes, briars, worth less weeds and rooks occupy nearly all the fields. Real good grass can hardly get hold. Why not dear out everything except the grass and have a pasture? Stop these leaks. Southern Culti vator. When planting carrots do not make the soil veryj rich, as it is the cause of the roots Witting. I. D. Cook. Live Stock. SHEEP IN THE SOUTH. XHI. Third Mating Time New Stock Ram an American Merino Fully Described Flow ing Oil Increased Wool His Main Useful ness Footrot Surely Aroided Making Lambs Ear Tabs New Stock Ram at Be ginning of Sixth Year A Shropshire Chosen and Described Heavy Fleece and Best of Mutton Qualities His Pedigree Keep Stock Ram Alone. t Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. At eighteen or twenty months old the first crop of lambs are ready to be bred. It is the third time of mat ing for the old ewes or end of second year in the business. Now is the time to be again most careful in selecting a stock ram for the pur pose, first of adding the greatest amount of fleece possible to the off spring ; and second, of keeping the size up at least to the highest point yet attained. The great excellence of the Ameri can Merino now comes to the front. There being some 50 odd young ewes, a yearling ram may be selected, if carefully handled and stood and not at all turned out with the ewes. No need of using a small ram because there are plenty of American Merino rams weighing 280 pounds and guar anteed td .shear 30 pounds of long, fine greasy wool unwashed, of one year's growth. I should not discard wrinkles but rather prefer them moderately for this purpose and would be sure to seleot one with as greasy wool as possible, but in no case at any time breed from a ram that does not unmistakably show up a good healthy and. robust constitu tion. See that he has a broad deep breast, short rather than long legs, good well-formed, sound feet, (discard a foot rot sheep) good length of body, square and straight down buttook, rather straight (not swayed) back, short but broad head, with thiok neok well set up at the shoulders, giving upheaded lofty carriage, with energetic, square (not shuffling) movement of each quarter in walk ing. See that his sire and grand sire, dam and grand dam possessed the same characteristics. For our purpose in hand, high toned premiums, and even pedigrees may amount to but little ; buy a sheep as well as pedigree. I emphasize the matter of a thiok, heavy fleece not too short in staple but well crimped at least two and a half better three inches long un stretched, and nearly of uniform length and density on belly and on other parts of the body, with the back. Much long very coarse hair on the heavy folds and hips is ob jectionable. For our purpose in view select a ram with some heavy folds on the neok, perhaps at flank and behind fore legs and on hips, but be far more particular to have small skin wrinkles much as possible all over the body and markedly so on the belly so as to "give it a close, firm and solid feel and the appearance of good greasy wool. See that there is an abundant flow of oil (yolk) from the skin into the wool on all parts. This excess of oil in the Merino sire has a tendency to increased wool and establishes a wooly propensity in the offspring of the cross, rather than too much grease ; a characteristic that will prove very profitable in the flock for generations to come. This excess of grease in thoroughbred Merinos for thoroughbred breeding is a different matter. I am now writing of a cross that is to be followed by a muoh dryer wooled mutton sheep, hence the importance here attached to' the elements of density, grease, crimp and quality of fleece. In short, we may remember that every pound of wool secured in the heavy fleece of the Merino ram used in this cross means an increase of hundreds of pounds of wool added to the annual fleeces of the three crosses of lambs secured while he stands at the head of the flock. It is the great purpose to be gained by this Merino cross. Supposing the ram to be shipped a distance, and to make sure of no footrot, immediately on receipt of him, completely wash his feet anc, a little above the hoofs and carefully between hoofs in a pretty strong solution of blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) or of white vitriol (sulphate of zinc) and water, and repeat every few days for two or three weeks', meantime with a sharp knife paring off bottom of hoofs into as elegant shape as possible and continue to keep them so (also the feet of every stock ram) by frequent paring as long as he is used for a breeder. Be sides this have a certificate from the breeder that the ram purchased has not been taken from a footrot or otherwise diseased flock and is free from it when shipped. These precautions carefully fol lowed will set aside any danger. Of course the ewe lambs from these young ewes must be marked when they - come so as to be readily known, to be permanently marked say at Weaning time by using me tallic ear tabs with initials and num bers engraved.1 They are very cheap and by keeping a reference book, are an infallible guide for keeping rec ord of all separations, divisions, notes of matings, of conditions or of sales or any other matters of im portance. Such marking and contin uous record is of inestimable value to the owner or shepherd who does, or wishes to, understand his busi ness. They should go in the ears of ' at least the ewe lambs eaoh year at or before weaning time. Red paint spots put on when they first come will designate them until they can carry ear tabs. By mating time or end of this third year in the business, and supposing the buck lambs to all have been put off, the ewe flock of all ages may stand about 115 old ewes, 50 two-year-olas, 50 yearlings and 75 lambs, in all 290 head. Or it may stand 115 old ewea, 60 two-year olds, 60 yearl ings and 85 lambs, in all-320 head. I would say that if the number is below the former, something is seri ously wrong, but if above the latter the shepherd deserves a high com mendation. Though with nioe care and feed and attention to the pre cocity of the stook ram and raising of twins a considerably higher record may be reached. However, with a view to outting the fiook down at once, the old ones may be sold as stock sheep at a good price if they were young when bought. The old ewes being sold, and the fourth and fifth years the young , half-blood Dorsets being twice bred to the Merino ram brings us to be ginning of sixth year with 1E0 half blood Dorsets to be once more bred to the Merino and 65 young half blood Merinos for which a new stock ram must be had, besides 85 bjlf Merino ewe lambs just weaned. It will be a flock of large young ewes of superior quality, the half Dorsets clipping six pounds and the Merinos eight pounds at least on the average while many of the half Merino cross will shear ten pounds. To hold, their high characteristics in density, crimp and quality of fleece, while raising the average of the third cross fleeces up to ten pounds and increasing the weight of carcass to an average of 200 pounds in full fleece and flesh, improved in every way for mutton sheep, will be the problem which shall present it self to the owner and the question will be, "Where will the ram to do this be found? I fully believe there is more than one of the, long wool and mutton breeds will do this, but I have not tried them all and shall write of what I know. . Notwithstanding the dark face that is disliked by some, I would buy a pedigreed Shropshire. I would pay less attention to some of the fine points of excellence that would make him a prize winner and see rather thae he shear a long fibre, well orimped, very lustrous, dense and evenly set fleece, good wool on head, and between and below the eyes, especially dense long and good lus trous quality on the belly and hips as well as on sides and back, and weighing certainly n6t under 20 fCONTIZTUHD OH PAG 3 8 -
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 17, 1901, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75