Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / May 6, 1902, edition 1 / Page 1
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-SN .53 XSy vgp - THE INDUSTRIAL AID EDUGATI01AL HTERESI8 OF OUR PEOPLE PiEAHOIffil! TO ML GiHE3 OHSnKainO C? SUITE POLICY. 7ol. I- Raleigh, H. C.f May 6, 1902. Ho. 13 Agriculture. s0W WE MAY INCREASE SOIL FERTILITY ljtske That We Have Made in Commercial fertilizer Matters We Muit Co-Operate Vitb Nature. trrespondence of The Profrresslve Farmer. " There is, perhaps, no question of neater importance to the farmers 0f our State than that of soil fer tility. The fertility of the soil would re gain practically unchanged if all 6 ingredients removed in the vari ola farm product were restored to e land. Many farmers of this cte bavt tried to do this by the ge of commercial fertilizers, but in of improving the soil they have psatly depleted it. Commercial fertilizers have been one of the greatest injuries the farmers have ever had. They have planted but cue crop, mainly cotton, and used commercial fertilizers to keep this crop u? to ne maximum until the loil has, by the growing of only one crop, become hard and caked and de void of humus, the most needed ele ment for plant growth. The land fails longer to produce paying crops isi is considered "worn out.' CCUERCIAL FERTILIZERS ALONE IN ADEQUATE. :ci has been the method of farm tig through the middle section of tie State for many years. Buoh teds as these cannot be brought up to& state of productiveness by the ae of commercial fertilizers alone. And even if it could be done it would be so expensive that the average farmer would have to leave his farm unimproved, and go to the town or city to work in a factory, because he has not the money with whioh to purchase such a vast amount of fer tilizers. It is impossible for a man to bring up the soil of a worn-out sr.ton field to produce profitable Kps by the use of commercial fer Lizers alone, becamse in most cases iij seek to make all the plant food mailable. This soon robs the soil of :g fertility and puts it in a barren mi unprofitable state. GROW YOUR OWN NITROGEN. Nitrogen is by far the most costly of fertiliser ingredients, and yet it can be secured cheaper than any ether if proper rotation of crops is practiced. This may be done by pitting crimson clover or oow peas in the crop rotation. Either of these sops will add much nitrogen to the fcil through the tubercles on the plant roots ; but the oow pea is pref erable, as it makes a rank growth e?en if put on poor land, but muoh mere will be added if tne plants are Pto-ghed under green. This, how ever, is not advised where the farmer iai a sufficient number of cattle to eat his hay, for the excrement would contain most of the fertilizing value the hay and at the same time make a finished product out of the which always brings the greater Profit. CROP ROTATION. These farmers must learn, sooner later, that soil fertility oannot be maintained, if the land is planted in earne crop each year, and re &ve- nothing but commercial fer- zer. Why not rotate crops and beef and dairy cattle and swine qU raising all cotton, or all of :? uther one thing? LtAIiN A LESSON FROM NATURE. Lo !c how nature builds up the crn -ont fields ! The first thing she fces s to cover the soil with some kfct growth to protect it from the m tft i t: ceptible to washing away. ea k how nature oontinues to fc?rov( the soil, by growing the 'd then letting it die and an ether ting its place, and each suo- 9 ? cycle until the land is oov v;rh decaying vegetable mat ''h'ch slowly brings back the Jl1' fertility. vshvlma-v nnt nvorv farmer ; - " J rh Carolina assist nature in riCnlnL' bant- tVo anil foftintv tru th w . . A- 1U1 Bill V J WW j. - uuu. UUUtUUUUUVO UOiUOi fcerr- ' r w tv U!tl fertilizers potash and paonc acid applied to some ' win01J8 crop, suoh as cow peas, it can be done at a small cost. Farmers, let's wake up and put forth an effort to make North Caro lina one of the leading States in the Uniou in agrioulture. North Caro lina's soils are as good as those of any other State and need only to be treated in a rational and up-to-date manner to make them yield profit able returns. J. C. Beavers. A. and M. College, West Baleigh, N. C. HABBT FARMER'S TALKS. LXXII Oorreepondence of The Progressive Farmer. Boys, don't loaf. This habit does you more harm than you might think. It is neoessary some times for men to remain in a public place to attend to business, but the boy who stands around a postofnoe or other publio place with nothing to do all day will lose both financially and morally. The day is lost when noth ing is learned or nothing earned. THE EVILS OF LOAFING. Perhaps all the boy hears is some smutty jokes whioh do him harm, or some tattling news of the neighbor hood that he would be a better citi zen not to know ; or he may hear of some murder or other criminal news whioh some fellows delight in dis cussing, making heroes whioh to im itate leads to the State prison or gallows with a whole family name disgraoed. Boys who make a prac tice of loafing grow up to be men loafers whioh no business man wants exoept to do hand labor. Bad habits are formed. You will hear profane swearing and see men drinking. Thus the boy commences to smoke the deadly cigarette, to imitate some one else whom he regards as being a worthy example. Then you will want far more than your purse is able to pay for. Perhaps mother or sister is home doing the work that you ought to do, or it may be father is toiling hard for your support. THE VALUE OF THE TIME LOST. Now let us make a little calcula tion, look at it from the business man's standpoint. There are fifty two weeks in a year. If you idle or loaf one day in eaoh week you lose just two months in the year. Twenty six days are regarded as a working month ; you see you have lost one sixth of the year. If you begin at the early age of ten and follow it for eleven years or until you are twenty one, you have just lost two thirds of the time that Harry Farmer spent at sohool. Suppose you just averaged five dollars per month at work dur ing that time, you would be one hun dred and ten dollars better off. This muoh money saved and placed in bank every year for eleven years, or until you beoame a man, would pay your way one year at college. Well, suppose we spent the time studying, we would have over two years' sohooling, whioh would give some men a good start towards an educa tion. WHAT KIND OF MEN DO LOAFING BOYS MAKE? Notioe the successful men in every community and see if any of these were loafers ; if not, decide at onoe that you will try to improve all your spare time and never become a loafer. If you have no work to do, employ your time reading good books or papers. It takes long years of hard study to get an eduoation just as it takes the saving of nickels and dimes to make a large sum of money. Lit tie spare moments carefully saved by reading useful books and papers will count and surprise those who have never tried it. How often do we see men and boys spend all day Saturdays and some times other week days in pure idleness 1 Life is too short to throw away so muoh time. THE FARMER'S BEST CROP. As we said in a former talk, it is best to take a day off occasionally, but it will not do to make it a regu lar habit to throw away a day or two every week. Men who do it are nearly always the ones who are the first to cry out hard times. This may seem a little out of plaoe, but a good crop of well-trained boys is the best thing that is grown on the farm Harry Farmer. Columbus Co., N. C. FABMING I IT OKLAHOMA. A Tar Heel Who Hai Settled in the New Ter ritory Tells of Iti Soil, Climate, Product! and Inhabitants. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. I will try and blow old Greer County, Oklahoma, a bit and tell what I know and what the old ''nest ers" (as they are called by cattle men) know about the oountry. I will say to start with that Okla homa is the beet farming oountry that I have seenNvest of the Missis sippi River, and I have seen a good portion of the best farming land of Texas. Corn, cotton, and all the small grains do unusually well here. We have about three different kinds of land a black light land, the red sandy land, and the river bottom sandy land. The bottom land is a sub irrigated land and is as rich as oan be. A very little rain makes fair crops on this if it is worked well. About all the "government land" is taken up and it is advanoing in prioe at a rapid rate. People are ooming in fast and buying, the prioe being from ten to twenty dollars per acre, aooording to location. We are having lots of rain now, and the indications are good for the best crop this year that we have had in several years. If we could have rain here like you have in North Carolina, farmers could soon get rioh. One great feature of this oountry is that the farmers do not use any f ertilizeron their farms as the land is already as rioh as oan be, and with the improved labor-saving machinery that we have, farming is a pleasure compared with farming in North Carolina, for we have no stumps nor rooks to oontend with. To see the oorn and cotton when it is about half leg high and the land being so level is a beautiful sight. The year 1901 was considered here very dry. The last rain that fell was on the 29th of May, and we had no more of any importance until Maroh 10th, 1902. But in spite of this dry spell, oorn made in some plaoes fifty bushels an aore, and thirty bushels an aore was oommon. Cotton yielded on an average one third of a bale per acre. Some one said that in the fall and winter of 1901 when the oattle would see a oloud passing over they walked under it and bawled for water but I never saw this. The people of this, Greer Comity, are made up of a poor class, or f.hey were when they came, and they oame to get oheap homes. So notv they are in good circumstances and contented and they are making money. A great drawback has been that this part of the oountry was so far from markets, but that will soon be overcome for two railroads are be ing built through the county and that is causing land to go up. Health is generally good. Water is pretty fair, although some of it is very gyppy. Fruit does well and every thing that has been tried is a suo cess. We have a good sohool system. The sohool term is five months in the year. The people of each pre cinct tax themselves so muoh as they see fit for sohool money. The sohool buildings are first class. This is a fine oountry for a man with a family -good 8Chool8,churohes and good health, and if he is a farmer he will have plenty of work to do and oan work nearly all the time, for there is not muoh bad weather. The country is laid off in sections of a mile square, there being no roads only on section lines. Of course every farmer does not own a seotion ; some own a quarter, some a half, and some a whole seotion. The best and smoothest roads are here that I have ever seen very fine for driving or oyoling, level and firm. J. W. G. Greer Co., Okla. The House of Representatives has taken up the Agricultural Appro priation bill whioh carries an appro priation of $5,158,570, an increase of $576,150 over the current law. The largest increases were those for the Weather Bureau and the Bureau of Plant Industry, eaoh about $100,000. PLANTING AND FERTILIZING. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. All lands should be prepared in keeping with natural growth of the plant to be grown. One of my rea sons for bedding or ridging land for Limajbush beans is to keep the fruit age from the water. Also bush snap beans, parsnips, carrots and beets want depth of soil below, as does the salsify or oyster plant. The prepara tion of land and the manuring is not known by all persorjs. An advanced lady wanted to know why her snap beans did so badly ; a furrow was opened and much rioh stable manure was filled in and some soil thrown on, and when the dry weather set in the vines died. Plant your beans in good soil and put the manure on top and it acts as a xnulohing as well. So with ashes and rough manure. After cutting, my Irish potatoes, I put on one pound of sulphur to the bushel and rolled them well so as to get the sulphur on all the pieces of potato. The potato is a heavy feeder and must have its food in short or der. One man said to me, "My land is too rioh now for potatoes." Land may be rioh and yet it may be in an inert oondition for the fruitage. I have seen cotton stalks grow to an immense height and but little fruit. So when we learn to grow the fruit as well as the vine or weed, then it is that we are getting our business well in hand. 1 have never had land too rioh for me to grow Irish or sweet potatoes, but have had it too poor. It is often said that too muoh guano causes firing in dry weather. Crops are of tener fired for want of fertilizer than by too muoh. All fertilizers should be well stirred in the furrow, so the plant will not feed it all up at 'once. u "R. R! Moore. Guilford Co., N. C. The continued high prices asked by the beef trust for its produots has at last resulted in a decision by the Attorney General to proseoute the combination whioh he states is be ing operated contrary to the laws of the United States. THE COTTON BOLL WORM. Entomologist Sherman's Flan for Getting Bid of the Pest. Now is the time to cope with the boll-worm, whioh did so muoh dam age to ootton in the Southern tier of counties of North Carolina last year. This worm is exaotly the same species as the one whioh attaoks green oorn in the ear, and it is by using corn than that we fight the worm. Plant oooasional rows of very early sweet oorn through the ootton field, so that it shall "be in tender ear at the time the bolls are forming on the cotton. The parent moths of the boll worm will by this means be in duoed to deposit the eggs on the oorn and muoh of the ootton will be spared. When the ootton bolls are well formed and the ears of oorn have be come badly infested with the worms, the corn should be cut and fed to cattle or hogs and the worms are thus destroyed. This method was explained last summer in a letter to Mr. N. S. Alex ander, near Charlotte, and the letter was published in the Observer, bat it seems well to reprint the advioeat this time. Franklin Sherman, Jr , in Charlotte Observer. Some statistician has compiled figures on the consumption of oleo margarine in the United States. Ac cording to these figures as presented to Congress during the disoussion of the "Oleo Bill" 107,045,028 pounds were plaoed on the market in 1900, a little less than the consumption to day. This amount is sufficient to give over a pound each to each man, woman and child under the protec tion of the Amerioan flag, including the Filipinos. The revenue oolleoted as tax on oleo in 1900 amounted to $2,545,785.18. Since 1886 more than 859,000,000 pounds of oleomargarine have been accounted for by the in ternal revenue offioe, on whioh more than $21,000,000 was paid as revenue. Guy E. Mitohell. Live Stock. SOME INQUIRIES REGARDING COWS, MANURES AND GRASSES. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. I am in need of some information and don't know of a better plaoe than your offioe to get it. So I will proceed to ask questions. 1st. Since turning my cows on rye, they have fallen off considerably in butter, but have increased in milk, not seeming anxious for any other feed. Have not been feeding anything. Should I have continued feeding bran and ootton seed meal? Would it be a good idea to put some wheat straw in racks at night? 2d. Is it a good plan to stand oows in stanohion stalls, well ventilated, with shed on north side of barn at night during the warm weather? I am anxious to save all the manure possible, but want all the milk and butter that I can get. 3d. I am saving the liquid manure from the oows. Have been using it instead of nitrate of soda around early oabbage. Can I depend on it to take plaoe of nitrate of soda, and how muoh is it worth say per gal lon? Will it do poured around snap beans? 5th. Can you tell me what grasses to use for permanent pasture for oows? My land is red "push" day land. What do you think of John son grass? Would it be good to graze? J D. Sledge. Rookingham Co , N. C. Answer by Dr. C. W. Burkett, of the N. C. A. & M. College : 1st. In turning oows to rye pas ture, there is not enough protein to keep up the regular butter yield. If our correspondent will oontinue the use of from one to four pounds of ootton seed meal for his best milk ers, I think he will be able to get the usual quantity of butter. At the College farm for two weeks past we have been pasturing rye, but have oontlnued the use of meal in connec tion, and our oattle have not only kept up their regular flow of milk, but have inoreased a trifle. From six to ten pounds of oow pea hay daily will be good practice, and if this is done part of the meal oan be left off. The wheat straw will be of little value ; in fact, there will be difficulty in getting oattle to eat the same when on rye pasture. Wheat straw oontains so little protein it will be of little value in making butter. 2d. There is no objection in tying up cattle if the stable is well venti lated. I think, however, it is best to give them as muoh liberty as pos sible so as to keep them in good vig orous health. This always pays and is an important consideration in building up a good dairy herd. We like the idea of giving dairy oows a little lot or run for the night. The manure is thus saved and the lot can be plowed up and put to oorn or peas or rape that can be out or fed off for summer feeding or fall feeding. As soon as one lot is planted turn into another, and so on. 3d. The urine is the most valuable part of the excrements. At current prices it is worth for nitrogen, pot ash and the little phosphoric aoid in it $4.76 per ton. The nitrogen alone is worth $3 56 per ton. On the basis of nitrate of soda a ton of liquid ex crements calculated on basis of nitro gen is equivalent to 150 pounds. That is for nitrogen 150 pounds of nitrate of soda is equivalent to 2,000 pounds of cow urine. The urine is extremely valuable for all kinds of vegetables and the quantity to be used oan be estimated aooording to quantity of nitrate of soda you are accustomed to use. 4th. The Station is now working on best gras&es for pasture lands. The native grasses are all good for their respective seasons. We think Orohard grass will prove one of the best cultivated grasses. For a series of pasture grasses: Native grasses supplemented by peas and corn as soiling crops for summer practice; Orohard grass for winter and spring ; oats and vetch, and rye and vetch, for spring. These kinds make a good working basis. Johnson grass is a big produoer, but when once started it is next to impossible to eradicate it. For this reason it beoomes a pest and many good farmers oppose it for this reason. Where one follows a system of crop rotation, the griev ance is a just one and it is perhaps best to keep clear of Johnson grass. TEE SOUTH AND THE BEEF TRUST. A Good Sized Steer Fattened for the Market Worth Two Sales of Cotton The Opportun ity of the Sonthern Farmer. Writing from Chicago to the Char lotte Observer, D. A. T. (presumably Mr. D. A. Tompkins, who has been on a trip West) emphasizes, as The Progressive Farmer has been so long doing, the importance of oattle raising in the South. He says : While the Iowa farmer is growing rioh by means of1 the high prioe of beef oattle and the so-called beef trust is being abused high and low for the high.price of beef, what is the Southern farmer doing to make any of this hay while the sun shines? For several years the Observer has been pointing out the opportunity there was in oattle raising for the South ern farmer. Attention has again and again been called to the faot that the Western prairie grass lands were ooming year after year, under culti vation, that the consumption of beef was year by year increasing, that the oonditions in the South had been growing more and more favorable to oattle raising and that oottonseed hulls and oottonseed meal together with other ordinary food stuffs fur nished everything necessary to fat- ten the beef oattle for market. Present oonditions more than jus tify every favorable thing that was ever said in the paper on this sub jeot. One good sized steer fattened for the market is worth the price of two bales of cotton even at the pres ent high price of ootton: "The cost of raising and fattening one steer in the South would probably be little if any more than the oost of produoing one bale ot ootton. In the last ten years the South has beoome a large oonsumer of beef but has not proportionately inoreased its produotion of beef. The usual pro portion per capita is consumed and besides this many of the paoking houses have established oold storage and beef market to supply the looal butchers with Western beef. Thus the market for Western beef has been very largely inoreased by the inoreased consumption in the South without any corresponding increase in oattle raising and fattening. The reason for this increased con sumption in the South is due to in creasing manufactures. Great num bers of people who formerly worked on farms are now in faotories. On the farms they ate less meat than, they do now and what they did eat they produoed. Now they buy beef and it is this market whioh has made it profitable for the packers of the Northwest to open and profitably maintain storage and sales branohes in the South. It looks as though this is the day of the farmer if he will avail himself of the opportunities. Cotton is high but beef is higher still. A good farmer can raise a normal ootton crop and still have time to raise some oattle every year. It is more than probable that this is a permanent oondition. The grass land is not in the West any more. The increasing cotton crops and increasing ootton seed oil mills will improve the con ditions in the South. Cattle and ootton are good supple mental farm produots eaoh to the other. Besides the value of the oat tle, the Southern farmer would get from the cattle a lot of mnnure that would take the place of commercial fertilizers he now has to pay for out of the ootton crop. In this respect he has the advantage of the Iowa farmer who cannot use the cattle manure to such advantage as it could , be used for ootton in the South. Our exoelient contemporary, The Progressive Farmer, shows that we were in error in making light of the rural free delivery of mail. We are very glad we were wrong, and hope the new routes, of whioh there are more than a hundred in North Caro lina, will be a great blessing to our people. Charity and Children.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 6, 1902, edition 1
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