North Carolina Newspapers

r " ' THE INDUSTRIAL AID EDUCATIONAL D5TERIBIB 0? OUR PEOPLE PARAHOUIiT TO ALL (mm 0CE!inUXllC3 G7CTATB EOHCY. fol. 17- Raleigh, N. C, April 16, 1902. Ho. 10 63 P, ir Agriculture. jyffg OF THE JAB HI 310 WORLD. ihington Correspondent Tells What 5n;rTiu i Being Md in the Various unioni of the Country. apondenc Cf Tbe Progressive Farmer. The oleomargarine Dili nas passed 9 Senate by a majority of eight 9 and now it will go into con ference with the committee of the Qrje of Representatives. The bill jased by the Senate is a better & than that offered by the lower jy of Congress, inasmnoh as it ixt not leave any loop-holes for tiolations of its statutes. The Honse jill only stipulates that oleo oolored .. imitatlnn nf hnttnr nhnnld 0W iu taxed heavily, not providing for jay emergenoy of butter oolored orange or any variations of that ihade. The Senate bill provides a t,T on oleo into which has been mixei any artioial coloring matter that c&wea it to look like butter. The manufacturers of process or KiioTated baiter must pay an annual kx of $6C0, the wholesale dealer test pay $480 and the retailers a tax ifiSper annum. A tax of ten cents vysnd by the provisions of the bill rjiced on adulterated butter, and si one-fourth of a cent a pound jb novated butter. " IRRIGATING ARID AMERICA. Congress has given a good deal of ration this session to irrigation of is arid lands. What is known as k'Hansbrough-Newlands bill passed Senate by a unanimous vote and thft Hnnsfl. This bill il II kV w v w v - 1 - brides, in general terms, that the tho sales of Western '-Mio lands shall be used for irriga- - AVVUU m V m.mm ,u nuio w j:wtion as 1o how the bill in lis psent shape would work out, the irge being made that the bill is so eely drawn as to allow for gpecu cng and land grabbing, instead of serving the reclaimed lands for cia&l settlers under the homestead L1. The President the other day Ue gome of the Western CongretfB-j-ja clearly to understand that the b, to reoeive his support, must ab- LzXely preserve the land to be irri jited for the use of the actual set- a and "home-maker as he ex cised it. He also insisted that the ligation works should be controlled the government. The President mil known as strongly supporting ie national irrigation proposition, ilia annual message he charaoter ifis U as the most important internal Won of the day and shows that irrigation would help the West, reflexly be of great benefit fce entire country. KI3 FOR RURAL FREE DELIVERY PATRONS e rural free delivery box com "on, recently appointed by the Faster-General, to eeleot an ap Ped It -1 of mail boxes for rural c jmmenced its sessions in T&&iEgt.)n last week. The Com mon i to decide the question l:her the farmer must purchase a of the pattern approved by the ?meut.. or whether the Depart- h-juld permit the ereotion of ss by p-itrons who desire to select without limitation or restrio B x Commission which met year approved fourteen styles of 9. on? of whinh it was necessary fach rural patron to erect when 'fie rntfl T3pu AtitAhlifihnd. At timP tVir. rnrul fna dalirfirVRTH. Hd n developed into its pres- fiiatrnitno Tho -M-ntri crrnwth brought about conditions not . ed for lat year, and resulted in Election of this Commission to jine whether the present sys of box selection should be oon- wnetner specinoations lor -""uiug or ooxes euouia oe jCcK AND BARNYARD MANURES. 9 exrifirimonto f Vi TIfiw N - - - VCJ A. VAW .w. regarding the of muok and i ' u manure indicate but sliglit 1 8aperiority of the former as a h 4, Tbe conclusions drawn IXXm vaiue oi muoK is no the 1 m a. Ml a ihftHfl dently do not take into consideration the wide variations in the composi tion of muok. Some muck is simply day blaokened by humus and con taining a goodly quantity of grass and weed roots, Other muok, suoh as that for instance which is found in the Louisiana and Florida bay heads is concentrated, pure vegetable matter pure humus and is of very great strength as a fertilizer. The best Florida muoks are worth, as fertilizars go, $15 or $20 a ton, dry. Their virtue is very great. No suoh muok as this, however, is ever found in the Northern States. AN ENDURING WHITEWASH The woodwork of stables, fowl- houses and sheds of all kinds can be largely preserved from deoay by con tinued whitewashing. An enduring whitewash used on some of the build ings at Washington is made as fol lows : One-half bushel of lime slaoked in boiling water in a covered vessel to keep in the steam ; strain this through a fine sieve or strainer and add to it a peck of common salt, previously dissolved in warm water, and three pounds of ground rioe boiled to a thin paste and stirred in while hot. Add also one-half pound of Spanish whit ing and one pound of glue previously dissolved by slaoking in oold water, and then melted in a glue pot. Add five gallons of hot water in the mix ture and stir well. After being allowed to stand for a few days pro tected from dust, the wash should be applied hot. This mixture is some trouble to make, but where a good wash is wanted it is highly satis factory. THE VIRGINIA GOOD ROADS MEETING. Under tbe auspices of the Jeffer son Memorial Good Roads Associa tion, the good roads people have been holding a sort of jollification meeting at Charlottesville, Va , where several members of Congress and government officials identified with the movement, gathered and spoke in praise of Virginia's move ment to improve her country high ways. The road which is being built at Charlottesville conneots that town with Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Guy E. Mitchell. Washington, D. C. REUIRISCZCES AS TO COTTON. Correapondence of The Progressive Farmer. Cotton has of late years been styled king of all farm produots, but before the advent of this century cotton was almost unknown. The cotton gin was Dot invented or discovered until about 1795, and it was a long time before the gin was oommon through the country. In the cotton region in North Carolina in 1840 I knew of but one gin in sev eral miles of where I lived. In 1860 in the same territory, there were twenty five. The cultivation of cotton has pro duced a wonderful ohange in our country, and the change has been for the better. Muoh has followed in its wake that has had an ameliorat ing influence upDQ the world. At the first of the present century and for a number of years, the prioe of cotton was high, and it paid well, to raise it ; but in 1845, after hauling it to market seventy-five miles, 4 to 5 cents was all that could be realized for it. Then up to 1860 the price ranged from 8 to 10 cents. Since the war it has been exceedingly variable, ranging from 50 cents a pound down to 4 cents. In the olden time, 50 or 60 ye irs ago, the task for a negrc woman was to spin four to six cuts of yarn a oay ; and one white woman (the name oi Martha Callthrop) would cook her husband's dinner and tend to her child and reel her eight cuts one day with another. J. B. Alexander. Mecklenburg Co , N. C. The Committee on Premium List of the State Fair, Prof. W. A. Witn or. merman, is arranging the ad var.no iut for field and garden prod- V MUWW w uots, and the officers will revise this at onoe during this week. Farmers and others should send lor me same IMPROVING P00S LAND. Oorreapondence of The Progressive Farmer. The question is often asked, What should be the first thing done to re deem a wornout field? In the first place, no land should ever be allowed to become so poor as to be aban doned and left to wash into gullies. Yet there are a great many fields in suoh a state that it does not pay to oultivate them unless a ohange be made in the mode of farming. The first thing toward improving poor soil is to STOP THE WA8HING. This oan be done by making terraoes with a fall of not over one and a half inohes to every twelve feet ; or by means of small ditches, though the former are better, as they do not take up any room from cultivation. Care should always be taken in not plowing thin soil too deep. I have known poor fields made a great deal worse by being plowed in this manner and burying what little soil there was. It is a very good rule to plow shallow at first on thin soil and go a little deeper eaoh year ; that is, to turn up a little clay every year. By this process, the soil is deepened gradually. We oannot make a large crop of anything the first year on poor land, no matter how muoh we may fertil ize same, but at the same time, the poorest of soils can be made rich in a few years with care as to the mode of cultivation, crops planted and fertilizers used. No one must ex pect to make something from noth ing ; so if poor land is made rioh it must be done so gradually. HUMUS NEEDED. Neither wheat, corn, oats nor cot ton should be sown on poor washed land, as these crops tend to make it poorer. What is most needed is humus. We cannot grow legumes unless there is a liberal supply of potash and phosphoric aoid in the soil. It is generally thought by some that a clay soil has enough pot ash and the only thing required is nitrogen and phosphorio acid, but my experience teaches me that this is a mistake. Of course, there is potash in the soil, but not sufficient nor available for the requirements of the growing crop. To improve poor land at the least expense we must first begin by rais ing crops that do not leave the soil poorer when matured than when sown. COW PEAS AND THE CLOVERS are great land improvers, but if sown on poor soil, and no fertilizer be used of course there will be noth ing made. On the other hand take a poor piece of land, sov about four hundred pounds acid phosphate, two hundred pounds kainit and one hun dred and fifty of cotton teed meal to the acre, sow in cow peas about last of May, cut the crop when ripe, which will be in September. Har row the ground well and sow in an nual clover, using about three hun dred pounds of aoid phosphate, and one hundred and seventy-five pounds of kainit ; the clover will be ready to cut about the middle of May ; then sow the same land back in cow peas, using eay two hurdred aud fifty pounds acid phosphate and one hun dred and fifty pounds kainit. Cut the peas as beforo and sow annual clover. When thl crop is cut plow well, harrow thoroughly and plant same in c. rn, using some one hun dred pounds acid phosphate and fifty pounds of kainit to the acre. By this process but little money is paid out for nitrogen. None is needed after we onoe get a crop of peas as they make nitrogen from the atmo sphere, but should the first crop of peas be a poor one, it would be a good idea to use some nitrogen when the clover is sown. When we have barnyard manure, a good fertilizer would be, to use fifteen hundred pounds manure, two hundred and fifty pounds of acid phosphate, and one hundred and twenty pounds of kainit to the acre, plowed in and harrowed well, when the peua are sown. I find that it is a hard matter to improve land under THE TENANT SYSTEM. Of course there are some who rent land and take care of and improve it, but the average tenant generally leaves a farm poorer than he found it. The only true way to improve our: soil is by hired labor and care fully managed. The average farmer knowsjhow to make his soil produoe better, but so many acres must be planted in cotton every year that it seems there is no time left for im provement. I have often heard the question asked "Does it pay to buy fertilizers to put on a very poor piece of land 1 I oannot make enough to pay me for my trouble.' This can be answered by saying, it does not pay if we ex peot to live through only one year ; but if we wish to make farming pay in after years, as well as to-day it does pay ; and pays a good per cent. No one oan take a poor washed hill side and make it pay the first year, but if care betaken in stopping it from washing, using liberal supply of the proper fertilizer and raising peas and clover for several years, then afterwards putting corn or oot ton on same land, there will be a wonderful improvement. , It will be found that the money spent for fer tilisers and labor came oheap in the long run. ' P. H. Mangum, Jr. PROFITABLE STOCK RAISING IN ORANGE. Interesting Experiments With Cattle and Swine. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. The interest in thoroughbred stook is increasing so rapidly in our State that t am moved to offer to your readels the results of my work. First, with cattle : two years ago I bought an Aberdeen Angus bull. He was mated with Jersey cows, Hol stean Friesian and soruboows. Last summer the oalves began to come all blaok as oro v?s and hornless ; all short of leg and flat along the back. In u.Aer words, the bull had the power to impress himself, to trans mit his traits through any sort of oow. This fact is most important. I had seventeen of the blaok oalves. They all stood in one stall and ate from one trough, just as close as sandwiches. No horns, henoe no fighting. It is a beautiful picture. And how they eat ! How they grow 1 These oalves are now larger than some of my yearlings, although a year younger. They are the cattle for us. Now for the pig. I set out to get a pig that would pay me one dollar per bushel for oorn and wheat. The farmer can't raise grain for less, and as the merohant did not want it at this prioe, I wan . obliged to hunt a market. I have found it in the Berk shire pig. I took two average pigs, fed them thirty day all they would eat, and then killed -them. Ioharged them 85 cents for oorn (the market prioe), they paid this by their in crease and had left a margin of one dollar and ten cents. So this demonstrated that I had found my grain market. It is the thoroughbred Berkshire pig. If you have any corn and wheat io spare, don't sell it, but get you the right sort of pig and let him have the grain, mixed half and half. Get a pig with a short leg and a fiat back and you will not regret it. The well bred Berkshire pig is the farmer's friend. There is another question that I hope to report on later. This" is the sheep problem. We must have more sheep in North Carolina. First we must find the sheep that will thrive here. I am searching for a sheep that is adapted t i Southern condi tions and believe I have found him- H. H. Williams. Glenbornie Farm, Orange Cj , N C. WILL TEACH ELEMENTARY AGRICUL TURE. The Summer School of the South, to be held at Knoxville from June 19 to July 31, will be unique in offer ing to teaohers excellent co arses in elementary agrioulture and manual training that oan be taught at almost no extra oost in the country schools by the regular teaohers and that will link the work of the school room with the work of the farm Muoh of our eduoation has no oonneotion with the every-day life of the com munity, and this step is for the direct benefit of the country boys and girls and is therefore in the right direction. , TOBACCO UNDER CHEESECLOTH. Conclusion of Interesting Report of Dr. S. H Jenkins on Bailing Sumatra Leaf at Po quo nook County i Last Year. The oured leaf was taken down in rather high case September 29. The primed leaf weighed, in the bundle, at the rate of 1258 pounds net per acre, less by 250 pounds than the crop of last year, when the plants stood 2 inohes closer in the row, but whioh was oaloulated from only one sixth of an acre. The leaves were taken from the strings and sized without other sorting than to throw out bad ly torn or otherwise damaged leaves. The hands were then tied with bast fiber. The leaf could not be put into, fermentation until December 4. Eaoh lot was then carefully weighed be fore putting into the bulk. It has dried out somewhat and net weights were as follows: primed shaded Su matra, 206 pounds from 7820 square feet of land, which is at the rate of 1150 pounds per acre. Shaded Su matra oured on the stalk, 883 pounds from 32,300 square feet of land, whioh is at the rate of 1190 pounds per aore. Sumatra raised in the open field, set at the same distance as that under shade, cured on the stalk, 184 pounds from 6552 square feet of land, whioh is at the rate of 1223 pounds per acre. The crop was fermented in bulk, the bulk being made December 4, 1901, 5 feet wide and 10 feet long. Fermentation began promptly and went on satisfactorily. The bulk was a very small one and not changed until Deoember 19. On January 15, 1902, the bulk was taken down, and the leaf, now well fermented, was cased for shipment and sale. The leaf whioh was oured on the stalk was, of course, marked in the bulk and separated by strings from that whioh had been " primed " and cured on strings. Some shipped for sale was as follows: Of the stalk-cured leaf there were 133 pounds of 20 inoh leaf, 219 pounds of 18 inch, 59 of 1?, 50 of 16, 116 of 15, 202 of 14 and 44 of 12-inoh, 'a total of 825 pounds. Of the primed leaf there were 31 pounds of 18-inoh leaf, 44 of 17 inoh, 50 of 16, 29 of 15, 16 of 14 and 11 of 12-inoh, a total of 181 pounds. This leaf was paoked in boxes, holding from 90 to 120 pounds eaoh and handled preoisely as the domestic leaf is. The prioes asked were accepted by buyers with out objection, and indicate that those who bought a portion of the orop believed that it was worth at least as muoh as they paid. An to the charges incident to put ting up the shade and harvesting the leaf by pioking the aotual initial cost of the first year for these items was 582.63 in our experiment per aore. Charging the firrt crop, however, with only 20 of the cost of frame and 40 of the oost of lath for hang ing tobacco, the extra cost per aore, per year, inoident to raising shaded Sumatra was $326.68 It is, however, possible to reduce the initial oost in the first year to about $150 per acre and the average yearly expense to about $300 per acre. The weight of the whole crop as it was taken down from the curing barn was not ascertained. Nearly two months later when the leaf was put into the fermentation it weighed at the rate of 1171 pounds net from an aore most accurately measured. Last year from a measured one sixth of an aore there were raised at the rate of about 1500 pounds per acre. Most growers this ye-ir report crops of from 1500 to nearly l700 pounds. No doubt our own crop weighed some what more at stripping time than it did two months later when it was as sorted In the opinion of competent judges of Sumatra tobaooo, the leaf raised by us under shade in 1901 is muoh better than that raised on the same land in 1900. The green oolors, so prominent in 1900, are almost en tirely wanting in our crop of 1901. The 1901 leaf has muoh more "body," elasticity, or "life" than that of 1900 and will, therefore, be more accepta ble to manufacturers. It is equally important to note the defects. Our leaf lacks finish, thejoolors are rather dull and would be better If it had still more "body." Careful testa showed that 1 pounds of leaf would wrap 1000 cigars. A leaf with .more body, of whioh two pounds wrapped 1000 cigars, would, other things being equal, be preferable. The burn of the leaf is satisfactory and would improve by aging. As to the stalk-cured oompared with "primed" leaf, samples of hands of the various lengths, from both sorts, marked for identification, about a dozen hands in eaoh lot, were submitted to Messrs. Darius Ferry, Jr., Seymour and Sutter Brothers of New York, with the request to de oide whioh lot was the better. They were not told of the difference in the curing of the two lots. After full ex amination they unanimously agreed that lot A, primed, was decidedly better than lot B, oured on the stalk. Both lots were of exoellent quality. The stalk oured had lighter oolora, but was more papery and had less elasticity and "body" than the primed leaf. Weight for weight, Lot A would cover more oigars than lot B. Unquestionably more leaf is damaged 'when the plants are out than there is when the leaves are picked or "primed " Oar experience shows that if the plants are put they should be wilted on hurdles before carting to the barn, as in the un wilted oondition they are extremely brittle. Finally the real value and the standard prioe for Conneotiout Su matra has not yet been established, nor can it be until the leaf has passed from the dealer to the manufacturer,' and has been worked into oigars and tested by the oonsumer. The verdict of all three is needed to fully deter mine the value of this new grade of wrapper leaf. At present, however, there is every reason to believe that the leaf can be sold at paying prioes and that the new industry, first in troduced by the experiments made by us in 1900, may be so managed as to be of great value to the tobaooo growers of this state. So far there have been sold 90 pounds primed leaf at $175 per pound, $157.50; 90 pounds primed leaf at $1 71, $158 37 ; 90 pounds stalk cured leaf at $2 60, $225 ; 89 pounds stalk oured leaf ai $2 25, $200.25 ; 101 pounds stalk oured leaf at $1.40, $141.40. Average price per pound $1.91, GRASS vs. LEGUHES IN THE SOUTH. As a rule the Southern farm does not need grass, except as permanent pasture and meadows on fertile bot toms. The great need of the South ern uplands is humus, and this can be restored to the soil better with legumes in a short rotation than by grasses in a longer one. The legumes, and especially the oow peas and soy beans, will furnish all the forage needed while at the same time in creasing the fertility and mechani cal texture of the soil. The effort to get Southern farmers to adopt North ern praotices will always fail, beoause of olimatio conditions. Meadows on Southern uplands, with the grasses used in the North, will never be a success, and the const int advice given, by those not familiar with Southern conditions, to grow grass, is not good advioe. Fortunately the Cotton States have, in Bermuda and Texas blue grass, tho finest of gras ses for permanent pasture, and on the moist bottom lands almost any grass will suooeed and make profit able crops of hay. But even then they do not need grasses like the Johnson grass, which will invade the cultivated lands and become pestife rous weeds. What the Southern up lands need, as we have said, is a short rotation in whioh the cotton orop is grown in connection with Winter grain, oow peas, crimson clover and oorn, and cattle kept to oonsume the abundant forage that oan be produced, and produoe reve nue while leaving behind manure for the land. The South needs farmers more than crops ; men who will make use of the abundant resources for oattle food, and will use them to best advantage in reducing the oost of their staple crop W. F. Massey in Practical Farmer. A good road maketh a glad hone. to J. E. Pogue, oecreiarj. II -J' ? 4 1 V