PROGRESSIVE5 FARMER
3
Tuesday, September 9, 1902.
Oat Experiments.
i V
The Arkansas Eperimer ,
speaks as follows regarding its ox
tended series of experiments with the
oat crop:
While in many localities further
north timothy and clover may be the
most profitable hay plants, it does not
follow that the same is true further
south: nor does it follow that the
Southern farmer must depend on
these two crops for his hay. When
a Southern farmer whose soil is only
moderately fertile depends upon an
nual instead of perennial plants for
his hay, he will find the road to s ac
cess far less difficult, since there are
a number of such plants adapted to
Southern conditions capable of pro-"
ducing high grade hay, and many of
them may be harvested before the
sowing of a fall crop, or after the
harvest of a spring crop, thus facili
tating rotation and diversity.
After giving experiments of va
rious kinds in the preparation of the
soil, quantity of seed used, fertiliz
ing effects of different crops upon
the yield, etc., the following conclu
sions are reached:
1. The following crops may be
sown after oats are harvested, and
give profitable returns: Cowpeas,
Spanish peanuts, soja beans, sor
ghum, corn, Kaffir corn, German mil
let, sweet potatoes and second crop
Irish potatoes.
2. Thorough preparation for oats
gives an increased yield of from 50
to 100 per cent, as compared with
sorry preparation.
3. Breaking the soil eight and ten
inches deep gave the better results
than breaking six inches or less.
4. Breaking the soil in fall and to
breaking in spring gave - better re
suits than one breaking either in fail
or spring.
5. Harrowing and discing after
breaking and just before. sowing, and
covering with double shovel, seems
to be the best method of planting.
6. Two and two and a half bushels
of seed per acre gave the best yields.
7. Oats following legumes gave an
increased yield of from 33 to 49 per
cent of grain and from 32 to 59 per
cent of hay, as compared with oats
grown upon soils where the preced
ing crop was other than a legume.
8. Plowing under moderately heavy
crop of legumes gave a greater in
creased yield of oats than the appli
cation of 1,000 pounds of a com
plste fertilizer to preceding crop.
9. Where oats followed oats, an
intervening crop of cowpeas increas
ed the yield of the second crop 33.76
per cent.
10. Pea stubble increased the yield
of oats 22.4 per cent over oat stubble,
and the whole pea plant plowed in
gave an increase of 51.9 per cent orer
oat stubble and 24 per cent o'ver p?a
stubble.
11. The whole pea plant plowed un
der in Septmber gave an increased
yield of 74.8 per cent over oat stub
ble in March.
12. Rye and vetch plowed under
and followed by cowpeas plowed un
der gave an increase of 99.8 per cent
of oats, as compared with oats fol
lowing a crop of sorghum.
13. Thre varieties of fall-sown
oats gave an increased yield of 75.2
per cent over twenty varieties of
spring-grown oats.
14. Culberson and Virginia Gray
(Winter Turf) oats gave highest
yield from fall sowing, and averaged
over forty bushels per acre.
HORTICULTURE
Harvesting Apples and Pears.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
The proper picking of apples and
pears has more to do with their keep
ing than many imagine. On a large
orchard where thousands of bushels
of these fruits are harvested the work
is apt to be rushed, and haste gener
ally spoils a good deal of the crop.
Poor, ignorant and careless pickers
are also responsible for the spoiling
of a good deal of the fruit. From
two to five per cent of the crop is
generally figured out as injured by
the picking and packing. The ex
perienced apple picker who works by
the day is worth more to the farmer
than two inexperienced men working
by the piece. The latter, in order to
count a. great number of bushels for
the day's work, will grow careless and
indifferent. He will injure more
fruit than his services are worth.
I prefer experienced pickers' em
ployed by the day every time, espe
cially in an orchard where fine fruits
are raised. For the export trade you
cannot afford any other kind of pick
er. Apples intended for "this trade
should be raised on trees where the
fruit has been thinned out system
atically, in order to make each apple
grow its largest. Now on such a
tree you cannot afford to lose an ap
ple by careless picking. Yet this may
be done by careless pickers so easily
that the profits will be seriously cut
into. I have seen beginners in their
haste to fill their baskets shake the
limbs where a few choice apples were
just beyond their reach. They not
only dislodge these fruits, but injure
many more on other branches. So
important is the picking that I al
ways begin early and employ only a
few pickers at a time. They work
under my supervision, and if the
limbs are shaken or the fruit unduly
bruised and pricked, some explana
tion must be given. The apples are
all large and choice, and I expect
each one to be harvested without a
bruise. There is no reason why more
than half a dozen or so apples should
be dropped from each tree. If more
are dislodged there is some trouble-1-carelessness
or ignorance on the part
of the pickers. The employment of
boys to pick apples is generally a
great mistake unless the apples are
small and intended for the cider mill
or some local market. While the boys
cost only half the amount paid to
expert men pickers, the difference
will be found in the favor of the lat
ter at the end, especially where
choice apples or pears are raised. So
much depends upon the proper har
vesting of apples and pears that it
may be said the packing and ship
ping are of only secondary impor
tance. No bruised and pricked fruits
can be packed and shipped to keep.
First of all the fruits must be sound
and free from all injury.
S. W. CHAMBERS.
New York.
THE APIARY
HOW TO MAKE BEES PAY.
No. HI To Control Swarming.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
As before stated, to get good re
sults from your bees, it is absolutely
necessary to control swarming. There
are several methods. Some practice
one, some another.
Clipping the queen's wing, cutting
cut queen cells, and the use of ex
cluders, are the three methods most
commonly practiced.
EXCLUDERS AND THEIR USE.
Now, where a man hasn't a suffi
cient number of colonies to justify
him in giving them his entire time
during the swarming season, I would
advise the use of excluders, but un
der no other circumstances. These
are made of perforated zinc, and are
placed before the entrance of the box
about the time you think your bees
arc getting ready to swarm. The
perforations in the zinc are just large
enough to allow the worker bees to
pass through, but too 1 small for the
queen to pas3 through. r Therefore,
when a swarm issues she is held a
prisoner in the box. The bees, after
flying around for awhile, and finding
the queen is not with them will re
turn to the box. But you may be
s-ure they will try it again the next
day, and for several days to follow.
Finally, finding that they cannot get
the queen out, they will give it up,
tear down the queen cells, and go to
work. After they have gotten fairly
settled and you are satisfied they are
over the swarming fever, you can re
move the excluder.
CLIPPING THE QUEEN'S WING.
Clipping the queen's wing is a
method practiced extensively by men
who run large bee farms, or apiaries.
Early in the spring, as a rule before
the swarming season has fairly set in,
the boxes are gone through and one
wing only of each queen is clipped.
Then when a swarm issue later ru,
the queen being clipped, of course
cannot fly and falls to the ground in
front of the box. Where this method
is practiced it is supposed that there
is some one constantly on the look
out. The queen is picked up and
placed in a wire-cloth box or cage,
then the box from which the swarm
has just issued is placed on a new
stand, and a new one put in its place.
The bees, of course, as soon as they
discover that the queen is not with
them will return to the old stand and
occupy the new box, it seeming to
them, and very naturally, that it is
the one they left. When they are
going in the queen can be dropped
among them at the entrance and she
will go in also. The bees after their
flight, will at once go to work, and no
more swarms will issue, as a rule,
from this box during the season. The
old box being moved to a new stand
there is no likelihood of any swarms
from that either.
CUTTING OUT QUEEN' CELLS.
Now, if you have all the colonies
you want and do not care to increase
your bees and wish to throw your en-
J
tire force on comb honey early in thai3
spring, you will have to practice the ,e
method of cutting out queen cells..?
Watch your boxes closely and as soon
as you think they are on the verge of t
swarming, lift the frames, one by, I
One, in the brood chamber and cut I
out all the queen cells. Make a note j
of the date of each box from which j
the cells are removed, for in about J
nine days it will be necessary fr
you go over them again and cut out
all cells that may have been started
during that time. And in about nine
days more, go over them again for,.
the third time. Three. times, as
rule, will suffice, but sometimes it is
even necessary to cut them out as i"
many as four times.
SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
f
"But isn't this rather hard work?" f
you will ask. Certainly, and very dis-
agreeable, too ; but the adage, "There
is no roval road to wealth." amdWF
to bee keeping just as much .as toy !
anything else. But if you want
honey, and lots of honey, this is the y.'i
way you will have to go about get- -
ting it. If you go into the bee bus
iness with the object ofgetting any
thing out of it, you have got to work,
and work hard, not only your muscles J
but your brains as well (and occa
sionally your legs also). In fact,
there is not a member of your body
you will not need at times.
To keep your boxes strong and a
large working force on hand just
at "the time they are most needed, is
the secret of success in the produc
tion of large quantities of honey
a secret the best of bee-keepers have
only partially learned as yet. But
to control swarming perfectly hks.
more to do with keeping the colony
strong and in good shape than any
other method yet discovered. Next
week I will have something to say
about drone-laying queens, fertile
workers, etc. -
A CORRECTION.
i
In reading over my first article It
find the printer has made a slight
error in regard to the number of
acres that should be planted for a
hundred boxes of bees. The sen
tence reads as printed: "Then the
first thing you should do is to plant
15 or 200 acres in honey-bearing
crops for them." It should read, "15
or 20 acres." The honey crop, of
California, according to statistics, is
5,000,000 pounds annually instead of
3,000,000 pounds as printed.
WALTER L. WOMBLE.
Wake Co., N. C.
The recent experimental shipment
of a couple of carloads of peaches
from Fort Valley, Ga., to England
was highly successful. The fruit ar
rived in fine shape and brought hand-
some profits. Those who expect the
European markets to be op'ened to
Georgia fruits are elated.
Crops of all kinds are above tW
average in most sections of the coun-
ty, and old Richmond will have some
hog and plenty of hominy for next
. . . . 1
year, uotton is opening ana tn
harvest will begin in a few days.
Rockingham Headlight.
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