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THEir DUSTSIAL AID EDUCATIOIAL DiTEEIBIS OF CUE PEOPLE PiEAIIOUE? TO JUL dim omOAuO 0? GTATD EOHCY.
Vol. I?'
Raleigh, H. C, April 22, 1902.
I?o. 11
1 ! ' -
Z
Agriculture,
KABBT FABHEB'S TAXES.
LXX
wDoaaence of The Progressive Farmer.
we stated in a former article
jW8 would give oar opinion in
to the decrease in the produo
oi apples in the eastern part of
Carolina, we herewith give
ovm experience and observation,
tiat of others.
jPPLE RAISING IN EASTERN COUNTIES
goon after the Civil War you could
31 large orchards bearing nice ap
jes. These trees were mostly grown
ir hnme. some grafted and some
from cuttings. We have seen
,,.,9 trees grown from a switoh
tated doeply, leaving a iew duos
r .. A A VI11n..nl11f.
3ffl tne grUUXlU. A xxxxx wao uouauj
ted and the timber out off and
cleared so that the land could
wTjlowed- Sweet potatoes , being
v.firatcrop planted, the land had
tobe very well grubbed so that the
i j i- 11.1.
coulu De mauH up. oy tints
jjans the land was well subdued
fc first year. After this
jcj ORCHARD WAS PLANTED IN VARI
OUS CROPS
ti manured with the best manure
uie en the farm. There was no
ercial fertilizer need. If the
ctipvis corn, it was planted early
ias& &Qd always hilled up by the
fcnih of July. A farmer who failed
tohXtii oorn by that date wasoon
ired far behind. Potatoes were
pifed in April and laid by in June.
5:stton was planted in the orchard,
fosonally a crop of rye followed
feeorn, the rye being sown early
afcrember.
Jj2 notice that the land was never
trrated after the first of July,
fch gave the trees a good ohance
mature the wood. Land was
rely cultivated two years in suo-
Am i J -
xsion. and ynen is was aone a
application of manure of some
fcul xas given the second year.
ters thought it was impossible
tojbe successful and crop the land
eTEjyear. This kept a large amount
cftmua in the soil, for the land
alms would have a heavy growth
ofTeeds and grass on it the year
fhea.it was not cultivated. Some
tres & few calves and pigs were
putaed, but not enough to do any
kf.ozi damage.
It is our opinion that the lands be-
ing treated this way was the best for
fc apple trees. The thorough culti
fca given crops to day is not best
l fruit trees. The heavy use of
ocssercial fertilizer we all know
tilqcily exhaust the humus or
TEgetable matter in the soil. We
I00K AN OLD APPLE ORCHARD
fci gave the trees a good pruning,
aitewMhed the bodies with lime
ui sulphcr and then planted the
Wad in cotton, using commercial f er
(ftzers very heavily and the next
fear had a nice crop of apples. We
planted cotton in it for two or three
Tears in succession, using guano and
freely, and the fourth year
to trees nearly all died. We had
,0tte young trees and they soon died
F. on the other hand, had an
fc&wdthat he planted in sweet po
fctoes nearly every year and ma
athem with the best stable ma-
He had a heavy crop of ap
erery year. He had them when
farmers failed. After he died,
l&Ud Wfta Tito V 4n nntf an nnrl
r -3Ct2CO Doands of cnano annlied to
. o i, - -
acre, with the result of dead
Other farmers have done the
thiCg. The best agricultural
JCtLTlvAXK)N AFTER THE FIRST OF
TTTT
J9 introduction of new trees
districts whioh have diseases
co the trees has helped to de
7 our orchards. Farms being
Xra.t i , i t ji
"y wooas Kepi aiseaeea
sPrearlinrf Kn olnna trio timhar
' 18 nothing to prevent wind and
t icings from carrying any
"9 lT orohard to orchard.
W..,4 nould be kept fall
of
Vi;ie tter and the trees
W 6very year tboroughly, if
htm 68a witn apples or other
pl expected.
fKln,v Harry Farmer.
lS Co., N. C.
i
i
1TET78 07 TH fABHIlTO WOULD.
Our "Wuhington Correipondent Telli What
Progrtu ii Bing Had in tht Varioui
8etioni of the Country.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
The Department of Agriculture
has now in press Farmers' Bulletin
No. 149, whioh is devoted to uEx
periment Station Work."
In it are desoribed various subjeots
of interest to farmers, among them
being "The Value of Muok or Peat"
as a fertilizer a? tested by the New
Hampshire Experiment Station :
"Improved Culture of Potatoes" be
ing experiments by the Cornell Ex
periment Station: "The Farmer's
Vegetable Garden," in whioh is
given data showing the cost of a
vegetable garden whioh the farmer
might conduct to supply his own
table with fresh green truok the year
round : "The Shrinkage of Farm
Produots" experiments by various
stations in the "United States;
"Transplanting and Manuring Musk
melons" from the Arkansas Station ;
the best "Soils for Strawberries"
shows the general conclusions ar
rived at by various stations as to
what they consider the best soil and
fertilizers for largest yield and finest
quality of strawberries ; the Ver
mont, KaDsas and Wisconsin Experi
ment Stations send in reports on
"Plum Culture." Other subjeots
treated are "Methods of Growing
Onions," "The Digestibility of raw,
Pasteurized and Cooked Milk ;"
"The Dairy Cow and the Weather ;"
and "Feed Mills and Windmills." The
bulletin is free to farmers upon ap
plication to Members of Congress or
the Seoretary of Agriculture, if you
do not like your Congressman.
ADVANCE IN PRICES OF BUTTER AND
BEEF.
A story is going the rounds of the
Capitol whioh has caused more than
one statesman to see double. Many
of them are now wondering whether
in falling over each other in their
endeavor to protect the cow, they
have not thrown a boomerang which
will in the proverbial way come baok
and thump them in the short ribs.
Since the passage of the Oleomar
garine Bill, two very important and
necessary commodities have risen in
price considerably. Beef has ad
vanced all the way from $1.50 to $3
per hundred in the carcass, while
butter is five cents a pound dearer
than it was a week ago.
The theory is advanced that the
beef men are going to make the gen
eral publio pay the tax of 10 cents a
pound on oleomargarine colored in
Imitation of butter, and this they ao
oomplish indireotly by raising the
prioe on beef
As for the cause of the advance in
prioe of butter, that too is explained.
Since butter is now protected from
competition with cheap oleomargar
ine, the dairymen know that they
oan get better price for putter. If
the ordinary oleo whioh is sold to
day for 25 cents a pound is made to
pay a tax of ten cents, then the re
tailer must oharge at least 35 cents a
pound for the same margin of profit.
This is much more than was asked
for bntter a week ago, but now the
price asked for butter is equal to
that amount and the puroha?er will
always favor the pure artiole.
Congressmen who opposed the
Oleomargarine Bill no doubt will
have trouble when election time
comes, and now those who favored
its passage may find themselves in
the same boat.
The House Committee on Agricul
ture in order to expedite the
FINAL DISPOSITION OF THE OLEOMAR
GARINE BILL,
has decided to recommend the ac
ceptance of the Senate amendments
which prevented any loop holes for
variation of the law.
Inasmuch as the Ssnate has made
some changes in the method of fixing
the tax, the opponents of the bill
olaim that the new amendments
must be considered by the House of
Representatives in Committee of the
Whole, since under the Constitution
all appropriation measures must
originate in the House of Represen
tatives, unless a special rule is
adopted allowing the bill so be ac
cepted as amended by the Senate.
They claim that suoh a rule will not
be given, in consequenoe of whioh
another fight may be on in the
"quarreling body."
A WELCOME DECISION AS TO R. F. D.
MAIL BOXES.
The commission of postal experts
whioh has been investigating the
question of letter boxes on rural free
delivery routes has submitted its re
port to the Postmaster-General. The
recommendation of the commission
will be weloome to farmers all over
the country, who at present must
purchase their boxes from one of the
fourteen manufacturing establish
ments approved by the Department.
The commission believes that the
farmers should be allowed to use any
boxes they desire so long a they are
made to meet the requirements of
the Department as to size, shape and
materials.
Guy E. Mitchell.
Washington, D. C.
A HEW INDUSTRY FOB THE SOUTH SUG
GESTED Superintendent McNair, of the Southern
Pines Experiment Farm, Talks of the
Profit in Bailing Early Lambi for Northern
Markets.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
An industry whioh should be taken
up by the Southern farmer is the in
dustry of raising "hot house lambs,"
so-called. The name is really a mis
nomer, for no hot house is uted nor
any artificial heat, for a "hot house
lamb" is only a lamb whioh is
dropped in November or December
and forced to be ready for market in
February or Maroh. The raising of
Christmas lambs is only another
phase of this business. That the
South has great advantages in this
business, ought to be apparent to any
one who knows sheep. Early vege
tables and early fruits are already
raised on a large scale in the South
for the Northern markets and there
is no reason why early lambs should
not also be produced on a large and
profitable eoale.
Let the reader bear in mind that
"hot house lambs" sell every year in
the big Northern markets during
February and Maroh for prices whioh
range from $6 to $12 per carcass;
such oaroasses dressing from 30 to 35
pounds.
With the mild winters whioh the
Southern States possess; a climate
whioh permits much open field graz
ing and whioh calls for only a small
expense to provide suitable shelter it
is singular that the Southern farmer
has not developed this business
already. It cannot be said that the
South laoks the right kind of grasses
and forage drops for sheep, for it is
not true. On the contrary, the South
can raise as many pounds of good
sheep feed per aore as the North and
probably more. The South may not
have as good a grass for permanent
pasture as the blue grass of the
North, but the day has passed when
it is necessary to depend upon per
manent pastnres either for sheep or
cattle.
More feed oan be raised on each
acre of ground by growing a succes
sion of forage crops, eaoh in its sea
son, than by depending upon any
permanent pasture. It is the ignis
fatuus of modern agricultural
thought that permanent pastures
are a neoessity in the live stock busi
ness or even that they are advaD
tageous exoept in special cases or
over limited areas. It has scarcely
dawned upon the average farmer
that there can be produced three
times as many pounds of digestible
nutrients per aore in suoh crops as
cow peas, velvet beans, soy beans,
the vetches and clovers, alfalfa, the
sorghums, oorn, rape and cabbage as
in the far-famed blue grass.
Prof. Thos. Shaw, at the Minne
sota Experiment Station, has grazed
sheep from May 1st to November 1st
on suoh crops as rye, sorghum, rape,
oorn, oats and peas, barley, cow peas
and oabbage and obtained results
which would astonish a blue grass
farmer.
The time is ripe for Southern men
to take hold of this business and
push it as they are pushing their
manufacturing interests.
A. D. MoNais.
Moore Co., N. C.
Alms are but the vehicles of prayer.
Dry den.
i i i
BE3T0BING A W0BN-0UT FAB II.
I do. not doubt . that a great many
of your readers are getting to a point
when they begin to think they must
do something to restore the failing
fertility of their farms. If they are
not they ought to be, for I know by
my own experience that it is much
easier to keep land rich than to make
it so again after it has been badly
run down. I will, therefore, give
your readers some of my experience
in putting baok into the soil the fer
tility it had lost, and hope that some
may be wise enough to take warning
and begin to feed the land before it
gets hungry.
I inherited a farm in Virginia.
The land had been in cultivation
over two hundred years and all the
virgin strength was gone even be
fore my father bought it sixty years
ago. But he was a man of wealth as
well asfa good farmer and it was not
hard for him to make the land rioh
again, but he had slave labor and
used hundreds of tons of guano.
When I got possession, it had been
in the hands of a very poor manager
for many years and was poorer and
had more gullies on it than when my
father bought it. Still I tackled the
job with the determination to make
it what it was in my boyhood.
The first thing to be done was to
divide the farm into suitable fields
and get more sheep, hogs, cattle and
horses, for there was very little
stock on the place. The next thing
was to build a roof over the barn
yard so as to proteot the manure
from leaohing rains. Then as fast
as I could, I had the undergrowth,
pine, willow and persimmon, grubbed
out and the gullies filled up. All
this laT was done by the
regular
hands. 4" the place and did not cost
verynxuh. All this had to be done
you see,1" before I could even get in
shape to begin the improving of the
soil.
The land nearest the house was not
a very diffioult problem, though
some of it was awfully poor. I
divided it into lots of three to five
acres, planted it in different crops
for hog pastures, using some fertili
zers and some manure. The crops I
used were crimson clover, winter
oats, Canada field peas, early oorn,
oow peas early and late, soja beans,
snd sweet potatoes. I got two crops
off eaoh lot as the later crops followed
the earlier ones. My hogs ran on
the different lots in succession, and
were fed some grain all the time. I
kept an aooount with them, every
thing exoept the manure and fertili
zers, and the pork oost me $2.25
dre sed, and I sold it for $4.25. Two
or three years of this treatment,
taking nothing off but pork, im
proved the lots so rapidly that it
hardly looked as if they had ever
been as poor as death. The amount
of stuff left on the ground to be
turned under, soon filled the soil
with humus and then I began to get
the full benefit of the fertilizers used,
and the crops of all kinds, in three
yeara' time, got to be very rank
Then the land was devoted to grow
ing tobacco, which is the most profit
able crop to grow in that seotion,
and more was fenced for the hogs.
The farthest outlying land was
used for sheep pasture, but as there
was a great deal of it, I grew a lot of
as fine sheep as I ever saw, without
any feeding to speak of exoe pt when
the ground was covered with snovr,
whioh was very seldom. I never did
do anything more with that part of
the farm, so will not refer to it again.
But the remainder of the land to be
devoted to cultivation was a hard
problem. Where the soil was washed
off entirely, or the gullies filled up,
there was no humus at all, and I
noticed the first year that nothing
would grow on suoh absolutely bare
places, however muoh manure or
fertilizer was put on them.
For such plaoes I found that the
only thing to be done to get a start,
was to get some vegetable matter
into the ground. And the best way
to do it is to spread over the surface
just as early in the season as possible',
as muoh straw, weeds, grass or any
other vegetation as can be had, keep
ing the land shaded during the sum
mer, then plowing under in the fall
and sowing to oats, rye, orsome
thing else, to be grazed off or plowed
under early in the spring.
I had some of those galled spots in
a field of tobacoo, and quite an area
of it was in some fields sowed to oow
peas. All of it was both manured
and heavily fertilized, but the first
year these spots did not make either
tobaoco or peas six inohes high. It
is absolutely necessary that there
shall be some humus in the soil or
you cannot make a crop. After
learning that, I made it a rule to
spread my manure on the land that
had the least vegetation in it and
put the fertilizers on most liberally
where the soil had not been so badly
washed. After pnoe getting the soil
pretty well filled with humus, it be
gan to respond very well to fertili
zers. The rotation in common practice
in that seotion is tobacco, wheat and
clover on the best land, and oorn
followed by oats on the rest. The
best farmers also sow clover on their
oats. I adopted the rotation for my
tobaooo land and after my wheat,
got a fine stand on olover the first
year it was sown, and on land that
was as poor before as it oould well
be. Some of my wheat too was
very fine. My oonolusion after two
years was that the soils with, clay
subsoil was chiefly deficient in
humus and nitrogen, and that the
supply of potash and phosphoric aoid
was fairly good still. I therefore
came to rely mainly upon clover and
cottonseed meal, they being both
very rich in nitrogen.
In buying fertilizers I always
bought the ingredients and mixed
them myself, so as to be sure of get
ting what I wanted and paid for. I
also found that having the barnyard
manure fully proteoted I got a great
deal more and very muoh better ma
nure. When it is nnder cover, how
ever, one must be careful that it does
not heat and become fire-fanged. For
this is more destructive of its value
than washing.
Pursuing the plan mapped out
above in three years, the old farm
began to look like another place, and
when finally business interests else
where induced me to sell it, was so
vastly improved in appearanoe and
in faot, that I sold it at a fair price
with very little trouble.
. There is but one other point that
is worth mentioning in this connec
tion and that is that in some cases as
I wished to follow one hoed crop
with another, I sowed on the land a
orop of rye in the fall and plowed it
under in the spring. 1 found that it
would, if plowed under about knee
high, rot in a few weeks and would
keep the land mellow and moist all
summer. As this keeps the land
supplied with humus, it is a great
thing to do.
I believe the plan I have outlined
will work well anywhere and is
worthy of a trial by all who begin to
think they must do. something to
help their land. G. M. Baxter, Camp
bell Co., Va., in Journal of Agricul
ture. THE SOUTH NEEDS PASTUBES.
Secretary of Agriculture James
Wilson, in speaking of the needs of
the South the other day, among
other things, said : "You need pas
tures more than any one thing I can
think of ; good pastures ; drouth re
sisting pastures ; pastures that always
have some plant at its best ; pastures
that last through winter ; grasses
that shade the soil from the sun in
the summer, with legumes that feed
the grasses from the air , with nitro
gen, that fill the soil with roots to
enable it to resist drouth. When
you solve the pasture question the-
lands of the South will double their
yields of or ops of all kinds. The De
partment of Agriculture is bringing
grasses and legumes from all lands
under the sun to help in the solution
of this question. Grasses for the
rich bottom lands, for the thin hill
sides, for the semi-arid plains, for
sandy soils and stiff clays, for drift
ing sands and rolling prairies, for
sea beaches and river fronts but
especially for the pasture, for feed
ing the dairy oow and the meat pro
ducer.
NITEIFYING BACT2BIA KT THE 8 Oil
AND HOW TO PE0II0TE THE W0BB
OF THESE 0BGANISU8.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
For many years it was considered
by the most intelligent farmers that
the value of barnyard manures con
sisted only in the aotual fertilizing
constituents whioh suoh manures
contained in themselves. Strange
as it may appear it is neverthelesi
true, that all the advances in ohemi
cal knowledge as related to agricul
ture, as well as most of the most im
portant discoveries, have been made
and worked out by persons who were
not aotually engaged in that higls
calling. The interest in agrioultur
felt by early students of chemistry
led them to investigate the subject
of plant life and plant food; this
naturally carried them to the soil,
then to experiments; experiments
led to new discoveries, controversies
followed, and controversy stimulated
deeper researches. So that opposing
opinions resulted in bringing to light
nature's hidden truths, again evi
dencing the faot that all progress
and all growth is the result of oppos
ing forces.
And although agriculture is the
oldest high oalling ordained for man,
yet it may be regarded as being in
its infancy to day. Its growth and
development, however, is wonderful
and when
CHEMISTRY CAME TO ITS AID,
it received an impetus and a help
truly wonderful ; but it remains yet
for those engaged in it to put into
practioe the discoveries already
made.
Many antiquated theories must be
pushed aside in order that the new
discoveries may be put into practice..
Already the agricultural schools and
oolleges and the experiment stations
are spreading the light and the in-
ventive mechanics are at work, bring
ing us labor-saving maohines to do
the work with one man that formerly
required twenty or more to do.
TEACHING AGRICULTURE IN THE
SCHOOLS
This is only the beginning. Francs
has set & grand example to the world
her efforts to foster and encourage
her agricultural interests free
schools, where the elementary prin
ciples and practice of agriculture
horticulture and arboroulture art
taught, ohildren from 7 to 9 years,
and 9 to 11 beginning with the gar
den. Under the guidance of the
Minister of Agriculture her boys are
advanced from one grade to another
until they are fully prepared to take
charge of and manage estates, sugar
manufactories, distilling, etc., in all
their teohnioal details as well as till
ing the soil, renovating and improv
ing the fertility of the soil. In faot,
their training leaves nothing undone
that pertains to soil production.
The United States has made a good
beginning, but it is only a start com
pared with what it must yet result
in. We need to have the elementary
principles of agriculture taught in
every rural free and private sohool,
graded somewhat on the Frenoh
plan. Up to within the last half
century we may safely say that the
Americans worked to exhaust our
lands by wearing them out, leaving
them in gullies and washes, turning
out and clearing more, only to repeat
the operation and finally to remove
to newer States in order to pursue
the same old oourse. But we are
glad to see signs of a revolution ; the
tide is starting now whioh is to
usher in a new era in American agri
culture. As the movement gathers
force we may hope to see in a few
years many of our solitary and waste
plaoes blossom and yield their wonted
abundance.
We started out to v- rite this artick
on
THE NITRIFICATION GOING ON IN TH
SOIL,
but for the existence of whioh our
lands to day would not support the
people now living on them. Man's
ingenuity to discover and find out
has hardly been as commensurate
with the deterioration of the soil as
in mechanics, nevertheless, and an
important discovery pertaining to
agriculture is made, it is not long be
fore the advance guard takes it up
and utilizes it. For many years it
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1 ..