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i ) " : . ". . . " ; 1 S-- v ' v., THE INDUSTRIAL AHD EDUCATIONAL IHTERESXB OF OUB PEOPLE PAEAKOlffiT TO ALL OHIO amB32m03 C? STATE FOHCY. Vol. 17. Raleigh, N. C, Hay 20, 1902. Ho. 15 Agriculf re. JEWS OF THE FAB 10 WORLD. rJ Washington CorrespP ent Tells What frogreii i' Being Maae in the Various Sections of the Country. florrWipon(lence of The Progressive Farmer. The Division of Publications of $8 Department of Agriculture is fcttsily engaged these days in prepar ing the many bulletins gent them for plication by the heads of the vari ces Divisions. Among these bulle j9 ig a publication by Mr. M. F. ililler, of the Ohio State University, C3 EVOLUTION OF REAPING MA- MACHINES. i In no class of agricultural imple ments," says Mr. Miller, "has there ken a more marked development fcaninthatof grain reapers. Thlsde- relopment has taken centuries, not because of suoh a great number of stages, but because for centuries there was no improvement, the eickle reigning supreme. " A mention is made in history of a hand reaper found among ruins of tie stone age in Great Britain. The earliest reoords seem to be in Egypt iia history ; a tomb at Thebes, prob ibly built 1400 or 1500 B. C, bears a gating -where two men are repre ie;ied with eiokle-like implements, ftier paintings of this kind show fro distinct methods or modes of reaping. 'The anoient Chinese and Japanese used an implement resembling the sickle, and strange as it may seem, almost the same thing is used by them to-day. Even in the Bible, in tbe Old Testament, tiie words reap and 'sickle' appear. "It was for the Americans to de vise improved forms of the sickle. The earliest American oolonists, con structed what is termed the 'Ameri can cradle." Tbe bulletin describes the various early English machines, American reapers, harvesters, binders, headers and mowers, showing .the evolution from the ancient and even prehis toric ages down to the twentieth cen tary methods of harvesting crops.. One of the most prosperous indus tries cf the State of Oregon is that cf CANNING HORSE ME4.TS While the idea of horse meat as a facd is repulsive to most Americans, yet the praotice of eating the flesh of ran's dumb friend is carried on to i great extent in European countries. The horses slaughtered in Oregon we of the "scrub" variety whioh are cf little use for working purposes "ith the inoreased demand and fc?ier prices for horses during the pwtfew years, the horse meat can ing1 industry has greatly waned noever, in Oregon the horses slaughtered are the cast offs of the tore -apply of this country those which cannot be "palmed off" on the British Government for use in South Africun operations against the Bjers AN INTERESTING BUG TALK. Dr. L. O. Howard, the Entomolo gis't :x:g man) of the Department of Agriculture, one day last week en tert&ned a delegation of Congress men irom Texas who came to urge kbi to use all his efforts in an en deavor to have Congress make an appropriation of 120,000 (as intro te-i in the House) for the destruc tion of the cotton boll weevils. This tase--t, it is stated, caused damage kst year to the extent of over $1, ''ILere is no reason to believe,' Ir. Howard, "but that there is fcnt m such an appropriation, for ext,- certainly needs protection XMcst this inseot emigrant from ex.ro What is needed is not (as ln thf: ease with anarchists) restrio t;rJH upon emigration, for that can tr t h done, but a means of eradi catiLr the evil. course we have aided the cot- growers as muoh as possible, but means are limited. Another fcrm of inseot life against whioh we forking is the grasshopper. We re trying to eradioate them, you a3 by introducing a fatal fungus Ia si? tour of insneotion in the vari 0113 localities out West last fall. I confronted by various reports 316 enoouraging and others the contrary. Where the fungus was nsed in wet weather, the results were all that could have been asked in dry weather it made small in roads on the insects. And so, we must make further experiments along these lines for another season, and then hope to be able to deter mine whether or not the South Afri can fungus will do all that is claimed for it. I will treat the subject at ength in the new Yearbook of the Department. "Insect life after all is nothing more than a reproduction of the everyday affairs of the human family one band preying upon an other in order that they may live. Instead of a form where might is the winner of the battle, suooess crowns the efforts of those who live by stealth and avarioe. THE LOCUSTS. "This latter form of those who work in silence, their neighbors un conscious of their labors, is repre sented in inseot life by the seven teen year cioada, whioh for seven teen years has been existing under ground, undergoing the various changes of its life until it will emerge this month in suoh . numbers as to cause alarm anion? the uneduoated. But aside from considerable twig pruning, they are not so devastating as one might believe. That the cioada will appear very soon, I am not in the least doubting they will oome just as sure as the sun rises regularly and .they will go with the same precision. We have reoords reaohing baok for the last hundred or hundred and fifty years of the appearance of the periodical oioada in different localities and the brood whioh appeared in suoh vast num bers in the Eastern and Middle States in 1885 is the parent of the family whioh appears this year." That the work of FOREST DESTRUCTION is still going on is evidenoed by re ports from Maine in whioh a state ment is made that more than 200, 000,000 feet of lumber will be out this year. About one-half of this harvest is utilized by the largest pulp and paper mill in the world located at Millinooket. Guy E. Mitchell. Washington, D. C. AX OUTING FOE THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY AT THE EAST TENNESSEE FARMERS' CONVENTION, MAY 21ST, 22ND AND 23RD. Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer. Next week the E-ist Tennessee Farmers' Convention will convene in Knoxville, and it is doubtful if a finer array of agricultural talent has ever been brought to address a farm ers' meeting. Men who are special ists in every line will be there ; men both successful and practioal as well. The railroads have come to the aid of the farmers and granted a single fare rate from all East Tennessee territory, so that the cost of attend ing the Convention has been reduced to a minimum. A good many farm ers will say it comes at a busy season of the year, but it is doubtful if the Convention were held at any other time if they would find it more con venient to leave home. Any pro gressive farmer can afford to spare the time, as he will learn enough to well repay him for making the trip And what better time oan be chosen to give the family a holiday outing? They will have a delightful time and the memory of the Convention will be a treasured "bright spot throughout the whole year. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." and that is one reason why the boy and the girl want to leav the farm. Business men of every class and description find it necessary to meet in convention to discuss their interests ; to go to school, as it were and get new ideas. Certainly it is aa essential for the farmer. A cordial invitation is extended to every one. Come along and swell the numbers attending the Conven tion and have a pleasant and enjoy able time and you will never regret it. The Convention meets My 21- 23 and single fare tiokets are on sale from the zutn to mo u to turn to the 25th inclusive. Andrew M. Soule, Sec y. Knoxvllle, Tenn. WHAT WE OWE TO THE BIRDS. The Greensboro correspondent of the Raleigh Post gives an interest ing summary of a leoture on birds reoently delivered by Prof. T. Gil bert Pearson, of the State Normal end Industrial College. We a note the following paragraphs : Prof. T. Gilbert Pearson's address at the organization of the Audubon Society, at the State Normal and In dustrial College yesterday afternoon has been highly oomplimented. Prof. Pearson is an ornithologist of note and handles his subjeot in a very en tertaining and instructive manner. It is a genuine pleasure to listen to him. In his address yesterday afternoon he called attention to the fact that the usefulness of birds to mankind is revealed in many ways. For in stance, first, they serve a great part in the plan of nature in keeping down the surplus numbers of many obnoxious forms of life. Certain speoies numbering millions of indi viduals feed largely on mice and rats, and others upon destructive vermin. Birds also perform the part of scav engers and tnus aid in preserving the health of the neighborhood. The vultures in the South and the ravens in the North and West render man this great service. Gulls dear the wayes of dead animal matter, and swarms of shore birds keep the beaches oleansed from putrid re mains. Some birds serve the part of messengers as trained pigeons, or self-appointed herald as certain sea birds whioh gathering in numbers about the ship give the mariner a warning of the approaohing storm. Shooting game birds, if properly oonduoted, does not deorease their numbers, and it gives employment to thousands of men and boys as trappers and guides, while the health ful outdoor exercise and the relief afforded the mind and body by an occasional outing is enjoyed by thou sands of others. As a food, birds form an important staple in some places. The peasants of large areas of Russia depend largely for their meat supplies upon the flocks of wild ptarmigan whioh inhabit the country. However, it is as inseot destroyers that birds perform their most evi dent service to man There are one hundred thousand kinds of insects in the United States, the majority of whioh are injurious to the crops of the farmer and the fruit grower. Ao cording to estimates made by the the government at Washington, the annual loss in plant produots to the United States from insects in $200, 000,000, that is, about one tenth of the entire agricultural product, is the total average. Henoe any influ enoe tending to lessen or keep down the increase of these figures would be a benefit to man. . The bird is one of the insect's, ohief enemies. A covey of partridges on a farm is worth more to its owner in a year than all the products of his poultry yard during the same time. A young swallow will eat six or eight hundred flies a day, and a young robin needs in the same length of time as many worms as you can hold in your hand. Most birds are partially fed on in sects, and two-thirds of the sparrows are almost solely inseotivorous. The work of inseot destruction goes on nrmtinuallv. In summer it is the adult inseots and their larvae whioh is eaten, while in winter it is the effcrs whioh are hunted out of their retreats and devoured by tons. It does not take a very wide sweep of the imagination to fancy the seri ous state of affairs possibly existing on the earth for man should birds cease to exert their power as inseot destroyers. Birds consume the seeds of many weeds which have baneful effects upon many orops. As a single example of thin, it has been estimated by Prof. Beal that the little tree sparrow of Iowa annually destroys l 720.000 varieties of noxious weed - i seeds. Then, from the aesthetio stand point, birds are of great value to the human raoe. They have stirred the souls of poets and of literary cnarao- ters, as well as of almost every per son who has come within the influ enoe of their songs. Man has paid them baok so poorly for all their good to him. He has exterminated the .dodo, the great auk, the Labrador duck, and is fast driving to extinction the ivory-billed woodpeoker, the wild pigeon, the white egret, and others of our plume birds as well as many of our song birds. It ir the hope of the promoters of this organization that the subjeot of bird study may find a hearty reoep- tion in the minds of the good people of our State who are interested in seeing that our native birds are pre served from extinction, who are in terested in learning more about the wild life about them, and who desire that the subjeot ef kindness to all wild oreatures shall be inoulcated in the minds of the ohildren. FARMING IN WESTERN COUNTIES. Farming is the backbone of all in dustry, the oenter of all prosperity. How long will it take the people of Wilkes to learn this faot? Here are thousands of acres of land that is as rich, and with four years proper cul tivation, oould be made as produc tive as the land of Illinois or Penn sylvania. These lands have been here since oreation's dawn and have scarcely furnished the birds insects, and animals that inhabit them a soanty living. What is . the matter? Our people do not study farming; they do not farm. Here where oould be one of the finest cattle-growing sections in the world, butter selling at 20 cents a pound, our people are howling hard times, and not a dairy in the county,-and not a hundred head of cattle exported from the county in a year. Here in the broad Tadkin bottoms and broad and fer tile meadows of the smaller streams not enough forage is raised to supply the oounty 1 Everything else is equally bad. Instead of farming the people seem to prefer to peel tan bark and hew cross-ties in the sum mer and hunt rabbits and 'possums in the winter. Generations have idled away their lifetimes with these golden opportunities all around them ; and succeeding generations are following suit. Why don't some one set an example and get others to follow C, in Wilkesboro, N. C , Courier. THE FARMER'S BANK. In the first month of a new year we inoline to compare our finanoial condition with that of the previous twelve months, trying to learn what headway we are making. Very often there is not a big gain in oash, but I like farming for the very reason that there is constant opportunity for investing surplus dollars or extra labor in permanent improvements that add to the value of our oapital. As we go along through the year we are following out plans that give us a better soil or better stook or better improvements, increasing our earn ing power for the future. This is better than the accumulation of some money that would not bring us muoh income if safely invested in a loan or some outside enterprise. The farm is the best bank for a majority of us, and if it is improving we are gaining each year, even if little sur plus oash is laid by. David, in Farm and Fireside. It is a well known faot that some farmers grow twice as many bushels par acre, or twice as many poinds, or tons as the oaee may be, as many others do. Is it luck that enables them to do this? Don't you believe it ; or if yon do, believe also that the man who knows how to do this is lucky in his knowledge. It is all in knowing how and doing it. Would it not be a good idea to set about finding out the true secret of good crops and adopt the same general plan? No farmer should permit a neighbor to make better orops than he does without having an "investi gation." While our representatives at Austin are developing a mania for investigating every chip under which a possible bug may be in hid ing, let farmers start a general in vestigation of the methods of those who persist in making better crops than 'the average, and keep it up year after year as if merely to humiliate their less successful neigh bors. Farm and Ranch. TO THE YOUNG FARMER BEGINNING BUSINESS. By F. A. Warner, Manager Estate Farms. of the Sibley (Reprinted by Permission, from the Philadel phia Saturday Evening Post. Copyrighted, 1902, by the Curtis Publishing Company.) There is no event in life of so muoh importance as the choosing of the business of life. That 'time oomes, or should oome, to every young man, and to many it is a souroe of muoh anxiety. It is a step well worthy of his very best thought and his most careful deoision. It is for the purpose of assisting young men in making the choice of a business that this article is written. Self-reliance, ability and energy are three requirements for suooess in any vooation. Without these any suooess aohieved is more a matter of ohance than a reward for oorreotly directed effort. An earnest desire to suooeed, with a keen appreciation of the difficulties and obstacles to be surmounted, yet with a fizm deter mination to attain the desired end by one's own effort, honestly applied is half the suooess, attained already. As a rule, wealth unearned by his own brain and hand is more likely to be a curse than a blessing to the average young man. Rioh men's sons who can get money for the ask ing, with no thought of giving any value in effort for it, are not ouz best oitizens nor is society benefited by their example. Sons making the right use of inherited wealth are the exception and not the rule. There is an immense attraction in the sudden acquisition of wealth. The idea of getting rioh at thirty-five or forty and using the rest of one's life in spending the money is firmly rooted in the mind of the average young American. He first sets a mark of perhaps $200,000 as the size of the fortune he wants, but if able and fortunate enough to seoure that amount he immediately sets about doubling it, and then, if he follows in the usual course, he not only fails in the new effort but loses all he had first won, and is rarely able, after ward, to gain more than a mere live lihood. In these days there is too muoh plunging and not enough conserva tism, too muoh venture and not enough caution, too muoh triokery and not enough honesty, too muoh self and not enough thought for one's neighbor. In the consideration of agriculture whioh I think is an ideal business, I want the reader to follow me for a few minutes while I describe the ideal young farmer engaged in the reaf business of farming a descrip tion made from the standpoint of studied and careful observation and praotioal work for a period of over fifty busy years. Starting out with the assumption that the young man was raised on the farm with only moderate oountry sohool advantages, with possibly a winter or two in some city academy, I should advise him to attend, if pos sible, and even at some sacrifice, the College of Agriculture and the Ex periment Station of his State. He should take up especially the study of soils and their adaptability to produce oertain varieties of product, and the study of the proper prepara tion, cultivation and preservation of field orops, the care and feeding of s to 3k both for beef and dairy and also swine husbandry. Even winter terms at such a college will add an interest to farm work and will great ly aid in explaining the various pro blems whioh arise to puzzle the far mer. The principles taught in these State Agricultural Colleges are broad in the soope of their work and are exceedingly helpful. A COUBSE OF BEADING FOR THE FARMER If, however, the privilege of attend ing suoh a oollege is denied, I should advise a young man to spend as muoh of his time as possible in the deliber afce, thoughtful reading of some selections from the following list of publications : For a general survey of agriculture : First Principles of Agri culture, by Voorhees ; Principles of Agriculture, by Professor L. H. Bai ley, of Cornell University; New American Farm Book Revised and Enlarged, by Lewis F. Allen. These all treat of general farm matters in detail. Fertility of the Land, by Professor I. P. Roberts, discusses soils and their composition, and remedies for the renewal of lost fertility. How Crops Grow, and How Crops Feed, by Johnson, are excellent for study and reference. Soil and Crops of the Farm, by Professor George E. Mor row, is a carefully oompiled work relating, to the most approved meth ods of making available the plant food and to methods of oultivation, and it pertains more especially to the great grain growing and stook rais ing Western States. Land Draining, by Miles, gives most complete directions regarding open and tile drainage, and it is well illustrated. The Book of Corn, oompiled under the direction of Herbert Myrick and now in the printer's hands, promises to be, from what I know personally of the contributors, an invaluable book for the corn grower. The en thusiast on corn would be greatly interested also in Indian Corn Cul ture, by Professor C. S. Plumb ; Corn Plants, Their Uses and Ways of Life, by F. L. Sargent, and Manual of Corn Judging, by A. D. Shamel. All the orops grown by the farmer are more or less subjeot to insects pests or diseases, and Inseots and Inseotioides, by Weed, and its com panion, Fungi and Fungioides, by the same author, treat of these mat ters very comprehensively. Weeds and How to Eradioate Them, by Thomas Shaw, ought to be in every farmer's hands and should re ceive his earnest attention. Breeds of Livestook, by J. H. Sanders, editor of the Breeder's Gazette, gives an exhaustive treatment of the distin guishing characteristics of the vari ous breeds of farm animals. As for specialties, there are Swine Husbandry, by F. D. Coburn ; Amer ican Dairying, by H. B. Gurler ; Shepherd's Manual, by Henry Stew art ;Youatt and Spooner on the Horse, and Wright's Praotioal Poultry Keeper all of them interesting and instructive. Feeds and and Feeding, by W. A. Henry is a standard work and mod ern in every respeot. Diseases of Horses and Cattle, by Donald Moln tosh, should be owned by every stookman and carefully studied so that he may be ready to make prompt use of the suggestions and remedies when needed. Silos, Ensilage and Silage, by Manly Miles, tells how to build and fill silos and feed silage. It would certainly be only in keep ing with advanoed ideas in farming to buy the young wife The Woman's Manual for the Household This book is a veritable direotory for the thousand and one things indispens able to know in a well regulated household. The Praotioal Fruit Grower, by S. T. Maynard ; Garden ing f or Young and Old, by Joseph Harris, and The Beautiful Flower Garden, by Mathews, would all add to the comfort and pleasure of the farm home if read and heeded. I have also read with interest and profit Clover Farming, by Henry Wallace, and Horse Useful, and Forage and Fodders, by F. D. Co burn. RULES THAT THE YOUNG FARMER SHOULD FOLLOW. The reader will understand that these books mentioned are only a few of the general agricultural works. I have sought to oover in a general way the leading industries on the farm. There are a great number of books discussing special ties, and any of them can be obtained through the agricultural publishing houses. I should recommend the reading, first, of suoh of these books as treat of matters oonnected with the young man's immediate work on the farm, and those which relate most directly to his particular surroundings. If he is to start as a strictly grain-raising farmer he should read those works which most fully relate to that subjeot. If he is to be a stook farmer then let him read the works treating direotly of that subjeot. The ideal young farmer is the one who will heed the helpful sugges- CONXTNUED 05 PAGE 8 t 1
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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May 20, 1902, edition 1
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