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. r y THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OP OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. Vol. 16. J Raleigh, If. C., October 22, 1901. ITo. 37 9mmmmmmmmmmm ? ' r , i , Agricir ire- WEWS OF THE 1 MIIfQ W0BLD. Oar Washington C Progress ii Bein ipondent Tell What fade in the Various Sections of the ;ry. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. The government now stands ready to examine, teat exhaustively and report on the ADAPTABILITY FOR ROAD MAKING PUR POSES of any material that may be sent it by any farmer. More, it will test all samples of available materials that he may send, and report which will render the best servioe and will last the longest. "As a macadam road oosts from 18,000 to $10,000 per mile, and a difference in the choice of ma terials may make it last anywhere from two to thirty years, the enor mous value to the tax payers of selecting the best material whioh often oosts as little as the poorest is obvious. The work of testing is carried on in the "road materials' laboratory, presided over by L. .W. Page, aJHar vard graduate, who last December gave up a seven years connection with the Massachusetts State Road Management to take charge of it Mr. Page had to absolutely oreate the laboratory ; nothing of the kind had ever been done before by the government and there were no ma chines, no processes, no methods nor tests nothing, in fact, but the bare rooms. Since then, Mr. Page has designed maohinea to test the abra sion co-efficients, the ' cementing valuation and the toughness of the rocks sent him, and is now having constructed a machine to test their hardness, which is the factor of least importance for aoourate determina tion in road building. Limited appropriation and a lim ited force still restrict the work of the laboratory, which at present is able to complete about two tests per day, each requiring two to three days to carry out. It is therefore confining its attention to requests sent in from country road builders and letting the immense paving ma, terials' interests go for the present. Later on, it will take up this work. Just now it is not anxious for adver tisement, as a very little more work than now reaches it would swamp it altogether. Still, any person or com munity intending to build a road ought to send to it samples of all ma terial that are available in sufficient quantities, with a request to be in formed which is the best for the purpose. By so doing, they may save thousands of dollars in repairs. The Census Office has sent out a bulletin giving THE COTTON CROP OF 1900, compiled from statistics furnished by the ginners. This is the second bulletin on this subjeot issued by the Census Bureau; the materials for the first were gathered by the enu merators ; those for the present one were gathered through the mails Every one of the 29,000 ginning establishments in the United States has been heard from, either directly or indirectly. The Census Office now possesses a complete list of ihese, with the capaoity of eaoh as hown by the quantities of cotton handled ; and it is able to keep this li?t in perfect condition by the elimi nation of abandoned establishments and the addition of new ginneries. The success of the inquiry is due mainly to the direct appeal made to the ginners by the Census Office, for individual oo operation in this work. They have been made to see their oTrn interests wilt be promoted by nnnual official reports of the cotton crop, upon the accuraoy of whioh they can depend. From hundreds of them the Census Offioe has re ceived flattering letters in regard to its first report, and the great advan ce which must aoorue from a regular oontinuance of the collection of these statistics in this manner. The crop of 1900is found to be 10, 123,027 bales of the average weight of 500 pounds, or to 6,061,512,294 Pounds, an increase of 840,174 com mercial bales over the crop of 1899. The death of President MoKinley and the space allotted thereto and to resulting therefrom, INTERNATIONAL GOOD ROADS CONGRESS AT BUFFALO to pass almost unnoticed, even the resolutions adopted thereat being crowded out of the papers by the press of other matter. Yet some of these were important and, consider ing the size and enthusiasm of the meeting, were worthy of a better fate. The following extraots from them were obtained from Martin Dodge, Chief of the Office of Road In quiries of the Agricultural Depart ment. They have never been pub lished, even in the farming papers. Briefly, the resolutions are that the need for investigation and educa tion by the government in regard to roads is more pressing mow than ever ; that the publio roads office should be enlarged to a bureau and its appropriation increased to $150, 000 a year ; that the work of the Na tional Good Roads Association is heartily oommended ; that State as sociations should be organized in eaoh State and Territory ; that thanks are extended to the roads whioh or ganized and ran the good roads trains and the manufacturers that equipped them; that the polioy of the post office in requiring good roads as a pre requisite to rural free delivery is oommended ; that the. roads in the Yellowstone Park should be so im proved as to furnish an objeot lesson to the country. Three other reso lutions seem worth printing in full. They are : "Resolved, That enterprise has demonstrated that the greatest prog ress for good roads has been made in the States where the system of State co-operation has prevailed under the direction and oontrol of a State High way Commission or Engineering De partment. Therefore,' we recom mend this plan to the several States as far as the same may be applicable to their conditions. "2. That this Congress endorses the use of convict labor where prao ticable, in the work on publio roads or in the preparation of materials therefor, thereby taking the convicts out of competition with honest labor. "3. That this Congress heartily ap proves of the use of the wide tire on all publio roads and the substitution of the payment of the usual road taxes in cash instead of in labor." "There is LOTS OF MONEY IN FARMING," said Prof. Myron Whitney, Chief of the Division of soils oi the Agricul tural Department, "if the farmers will only take pains to be up to date in their management. For instanoe, take the growers of Sumatra tobaoco in the Connecticut valley. Like all the farmers up there, they have been living on the ragged edge of failure for years. Some of them had been making fair profits at growing to baoco in the open, but these were comparatively few. Last year the Department went up there and showed them how to raise Sumatra tobaoco under cover at a profit of $1,000 an acre. Now, some of them have invested about $20,000 in fol lowing the Department's example under direotion of a tobaooo expert to whom the government pays $4,000 a year. They will get all their in vestment back this summer and will make a clear profit of $1,000 an acre besides. Those who hadn't the money to go into this it cost about $400 an acre to start or who were not sufficiently up to date to do so, will make only a small prxfit. The moral is that farmers should find out what crops are best for their soil and should use modern methods in raising and rotating them. If they do this, their profit is reasonably certain. "For another instanoe, take the lands in southern Maryland whioh have been to a large extent aban doned," oontinued Prof . Whitney. "These lands at the best sell, when under cultivation, at $10 an acre, yet they are quite as good as similar lands in Lancaster Co., Pa., that readily bring $125 an acre the DIFFERENCE LYING SOLELY IN THE MANAGEMENT. The Pennsylvania farmer works his own land ; he rotates his crops ; he raises practically everything he eats the events caused the result, prosperity. The southern Maryland farmer with lands equally rich, rents his farm, raises only to baooo, wheat and corn ; sells his to baooo in competition with Ohio to baooo and without speoial attention ; sells his wheat in competition with the great Western farms and buys flour sent to him from a distance ; and feeds his corn to his work stock result, poverty, and in many cases abandonment. Yet there is no rea son at all why he shouldn't be as prosperous as his Pennsylvania con frere." A. B. Marriott. Washington, D. C. VARIETIES 07 WHEAT. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. It is not so easy a matter to deter, mine just the best variety of wheat for any farmer to grow, although the market is flooded with plenty of different kinds and an abundanoe of literature concerning each. The f act is that each farmer must find out through experience just what vari ety will do the best. After all one must cling to old standard varieties until something better is found. It would be fqlly indeed for any farmer to purohase seed of a new variety and plant acres of it before he had demonstrated to his own satisfaction its advantages. Take the concensus of opinion of farmers in regard to the half dozen leading varieties of wheat, and it will be found that no definite decision is reached. Advo cates of eaoh variety must modify his opinions and conclusions so that no definite news is conveyed. Even the experiment stations oannot say conclusively that this or that variety will be the best on farms of suoh a section. Now ther faot is that some of the best varieties of wheat used to-day are old standard ones, and they have not run out except on cer tain soils and regions. A fine variety of wheat need not run out provided proper oulture and selection re given. There is consequently no need to purchase new and untried varieties, although it is always well to set aside an aore of ground for ex perimental work. On this land plant as many new varieties as necessary, keeping striot aooount of the amount of seed used, and the amount of the yield. By a little comparison in this way it is easy to ascertain whether a new variety is superior to the old. Even when this has been shown by one year's oulture it is well to pro ceed slowly and merely plant a few aores with the Beeds the following year. Then if the test is successful its oulture oan bo extended. In this way one keeps abreast of the times, and at the same time runs no risk. The farmer who buys new varieties of seed wheat on the recommenda tion of others is in a fair way to meet with a great setback. He may be successful, but the ohanoes are even that he will fail. Beoause somebody in an adjoining State hap pens to raise an immense crop with a certain variety it does not follow that the same oan be accomplished elsewhere. There are soil, the climate, and many other conditions to oon sider. Experience in farming makes men proceed more and more care fully each year in adopting new methods and varieties of plants. There is too much information flying around ..loosely. It is wise to test any newreoipe before using it whole sale. Then we know of what we are speaking and doing, and the science becomes an exact one. C. T. Hill. Very few people know how to keep honey. The average housewife will generally put it in the 'cellar or into the refrigerator for safe keeping about the two worst places possible Honey is kept ver,y different from fruit. It is thoroughly ripe when taken from the hive and will, there fore not ferment unless placed in a cool, moist place. We learn from the. bees that it should be kept dry and warm, as they keep it. In the kitchen cupboard is a good place for it, or any room where salt will keep perfectly dry. Even a temperature of 100 degrees is not too hot for honey. F. G. Herman, New Jersey. PBEPABIHG LARD FOB. WHEAT GE0W- IlfG. A McDowell County Farmer Telli What Methods He Has Found Most Profitable. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. Wheat sowing time has now oome again, and the farmers are getting ready to sow their wheat. Some are buying their fertilizers, drills, and harrows with whioh to put in their wheat, while some are going to sow it the old way just simply sow it down with the hands and plow it in with a shovel plow. Now, every energetio man who sows wheat this fall, wants to realize just as large profit as he possibly can. In this artiole we shall attempt to give some profitable ideas from what knowledge we have gained by experience and by observation while traveling through the State from Tennessee to the ooast, and from South Carolina to Virginia in several plaoes. We find that a majority of the farmers of North Carolina sow too much wheat and do not prepare the soil well enough before they sow. If we will sow fewer aores, prepare the soil better, use more fertilizer to the acre, put the wheat in the ground with more oare, use nothing but first class seed, and sow it on time, we will make a better profit on our wheat and do less work in'' sowing and harvesting. Now, we wish first to notice how we should PREPARE OUR GROUND BEFORE SOWING wheat. If we wish to sow wheat for a profit, we should never sow it after oorn, cotton, or oane, beoause if the soil we sow in wheat is to yield a profitable orop it must reoeive a good supply of ammonia which is caught from the air by certain plants and conveyed to the roots and deposited in the ground that the next orop may get the benefit. Neither, oorn, 4 cotton, nor cane store any ammonia in the ground, but draw away what ,there may be in it. There is but one time in the year when the ammonia is o aught and deposited in the ground and that is during the summer or growing season. And wheat is sown just as this season closes and is out off just as it begins, therefore you plainly see that if we sow down our wheat after a orop that has drawn away all the ammonia, no matter how we may fertilize; we need not expeot a profit able yield of wheat. And wheat to bring a profitable yield should not be sown after wheat, unless we have a good ooat of peas on the ground after the wheat was taken off, and yet not every time will this bring a profit able yield. Now that we may get a profitable yield off our wheat sown : The first thing, our ground needs to have rested one year and not have anything done to it at all. Then the second year go in the winter and take a turning plow and let it down as deep as it will go if the land is light, mixed sand and olay, but if it is all clay let your turning plow down as far as it will go and let a subsoiler go right behind it. Then leave the ground alone until about the 10th of June, and go and cross plow your land with a shovel plow. Then sow down with about 1 or 2 bushels of peas to the aore and harrow them in, and leave them alone until you wish to cut them for hay. Then go again with your turning plow and turn again just as deep as you can. Then take a shovel or diso harrow and harrow it thor oughly just before you get ready to sow your wheat. And when you have done this you have your ground ready to bring a profitable yield of wheat. Some few years ago we took a lot of land that lay on a south hill side. It oontained five acres of land and had lain out and was pastured for about four years before. We pre pared it the way above described and it yielded that orop 75 bushels on the five aores, or about 15 bushels per aore. This was a very profitable yield for the land. The fall follow ing this we turned under just the j natural growth of weeds and sowed it down again just as we did before. And as I failed to tell how we pui the wheat in before, I will tell now. We drilled it in with our old-fash ioned hoe drill and put 200 pounds of 13 per cent, aoid phosphate to the aore. The seoond year we did the same and the five aores brought about 40 bushels to the five acres, or eight bushels to the aore, just a little over half the yield of the year before. Just as soon as this orop was off we sowed the land down in peas and turned them under at sowing time and drilled the wheat in with a Buok eye diso drill, putting the same kind and same amount of fertilizer to the acre, and it brought between 45 and 50 bushels to the five aores, about 9 to the acre ; but a slight inorease over the year before. That fall we turned under the weeds again and sowed the wheat down in like man ner as before, and it brought about 20 bushels to the five aores, not one third it brought the year we sowed it after it had rested. From the above you see the first thing essential to bring a profitable orop of wheat is to have rested land. One year is enough rest then grow a orop of something that will deposit in the ground a good amount of am monia. From the experience I have had, there is nothing so good for this as a good ooat of oo w peas. There is no pea that is as good for this purpose as the oow pea, for there is none that has so large vine and root as the cow pea. Some say the vine is no good to the ground. I don't think there is muoh good in turning under the vine, but the greater top the vine has the more ammonia it will oatoh from the air, and the more root the vine has the more ammonia it oan reoeive from the vine' and deposit in the ground. Farmers, if you expect to make a profitable crop of wheat, don't sow it on a pieoe of land you have run in wheat and oorn one after the other for years, for there has no ammonia entered the ground until it has be come tough or oloddy, and there is not life enough in the ground to bring a profitable orop of a grain that requires as muoh ammonia or alkali as wheat does. You find men all over the country who have land that ought to bring from eighteen to twenty bushels per acre, and they take lots of pains to sow it and fertilize it well, and make about eight to ten bushels to the aore, and they will say there is no piy in fertilizing ; and they Have not perhaps let their lands rest in twenty years. I know a man who bought a run down farm and moved on it a few years ago and there was some very good wheat land on it that had rested for about three years, and he turned it well in the winter and sowed peas on it and then turned again in the fall and sowed two aores down with his hand and harrowed it in. On the two aores he made eighteen bushels of wheat and the next year he had taken in one more aore and he used 200 pounds of 13 per cent, phosphate to the aore and drilled it well; and on the three acres he made 30 bushels but a little inorease over what he made by sowing with his hands. The trouble was his land needed to rest again and get in shape to receive the ammonia from the peas and weeds, If you will try resting your land one year and sowing in peas one year and then -plow as I suggested, I think you will be pleased with the results. If I write again, I will speak on how to sow wheat. Zeb. B. Pyatt. McDowell Co., N. C. S0EOHUM SEED. When the sorghum is ripe and still standing in the field, I go out among it and when I find a nice, strong stalk I out the head off it, leaving about a foot of the stalk with the head. When I have out all I want I tie the heads in bunohes of about a dozen eaoh, and hang them up to dry. When well dried I put them in a seoure place where I leave them till planting time the following spring. I, then take the heads in my hand one at a time and strike them on the inside of a barrel until the seed is all shelled off. In this way I have seed that is sure to grow. W. O. Denny, Piasa, HI. Live Stock. SHEEP II THE SOUTH. xvm. One Hundred and Twenty-Fire Tone of Dry Fertiliser Worth $1500-Machine Pulver ization to Hake it More Soluble One Ton to the Aore on 80 Acres of Cotton Fodder Con and Feai on the Other 80 Fertilized Also The Eighty-Acre Pisces Alternately Used for Cotton Late Peas or Bean Plowed Under Every Year. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. If the 300 sheep have been judi ciously housed and all the available manure gathered and oomposted as above noted, as a result of a year's work there should not be less than 125 tons of dry fertilizer ready for use and so well mixed and chopped up that it may be applied with the seed of cotton, corn or small grain by some of the fertilizer machines now in use. I never tried it, but believe that after the last mixing of the manure, if the whole mass should be run -through an old fashioned ("bunty") threshing machine, or a similar ma chine process, ' it would promote its solubility as plant food and facilitate its application to the land, to an ex- I tent that would surely pay for the extra labor and expense. The above 125 tons when ready for use will not at most have oost over $300, for material and labor and will be worth $1,000 the year it is applied, and if the system is oontinued its effects will be worth half as much more in following years. An amount of equal value purohased from re liable merchants would oost $12 a ton or $1,500 delivered on the planta tion. These valuations are given from the standpoint of prices asked and paid at this time for high grade -fertilizers. It is intended that this ' fertilizer shall be in suoh shape that it may be applied in the rows when planting the 80 aores in cotton, one ton to the acre. ' If possible, it should be ap plied one-third in the row with the seed and two thirds on eaoh side and about six inches distant from the rows, completely covering it all over with dirt. The other 40 or 50 tons being applied to oorn, potatoes, gar den and suoh other things as require it. The 80-acres not in cotton, that is, the other half of the old 160 aore ootton field, oan likely best be used by raising plenty of oorn as an all round feed for the sheep, also fer tilized. If oorn is raised the fodder should be shredded and fed. A better feed and more profitable orop ia to drill it in thiok, averaging a stalk every four inohes and out it in the milky or good roasting ear or glazed state for f od'der oorn and immediately sow or drill in oow peas. Having out the fodder oorn with a oorn harvester, shook and dry it sufficiently for the shredder, when it oan be shredded and housed' in loft of sheep barn. This fed with some peas and a good application of ootton seed meal thrown on it in the troughs, as else where recommended for sheep barn, is a most rarely good sheep feed. This mixture carefully cured and made more or less strong with peas, ootton seed meal, and then steamed fresh every day, cannot be excelled for sheep, even for the most carefully stall-fed weathers. When ewes and weathers of the "third cross," such as I describe in Chapter XVI., are well fed on suoh food, the ewes may average 100 per oent. increase of lambs, and old weathers may be brought to average 200 pounds gross and be sold in the best markets eaoh spring at 6 cents per pound, $12 per head gross in full fleece ; or if sold young as "spring lambs" they can be made to king $10 to $12. The latter is generally the most profitable way to dispose of them if expressago is not too muoh. Of course such prices re quire skilful handling and manage ment. x h It is the manure from suoh sheep fed in the way that is -so extremely valuable. The oow peas on the 80 aores above referred to may be partially ripened so as to get part of the peas for the sheep if needed and then, if possible before dead ripe, plow under. oontdtusd on page 8 7 -A
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Oct. 22, 1901, edition 1
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