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THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY.
Volume XVII.
RALEIGH, N. C, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1902.
Number 37.
AGRICULTURE
HARRY FARMER'S TALKS.
XCI1.
Editor of The Progressive Farmer : .
We paid the Sunny South Colony
at Chadbourn, N. C, a visit last
week, and were well pleased with the
improvements made by our Western
friends. They are trying fruits of
various kinds, such as apples, plums,
peaches, pears, etc. We shall watch
the experiment with interest. If it
proves a success, it will open up an
industry of much ' importance to
Eastern Carolina.
We noticed that they are using
geese for keeping grass out of the
strawberry fields during the summer.
This saves a great deal of hard work.
Geese have been used for this pur
pose in cotton a long time. All that
is necessary is to keep the middles
plowed and a good supply of water,
and they will keep the grass out of
the rows.
One of the most successful grow
ers plants his berries on small ridges
and uses fertilizers heavily. He has
learned that you can not get some
thing for nothing, so he spends any
where from $1Q to $15 per acre for
fertilizers for his berries. The plants
are a long way ahead of the average
now and, if they continue on, will
produce an immense crop of early
berries. This is the first lesson that
sill successful truckers have to learn:
to use about three times the quanti
ty of manure that the crops require.
- The crops through this section are
being gathered now. The cotton crop
will be an average crop. Corn is
turning out much better than was ex
pected. Some farmers report fine
sweet potato crops. We see more sec
ond crop Irish potatoes than 13 usual.
Itice is light, owing to dry weather
late in the season. Some claim the
best crop of cow peas ever grown.
The hay is not so good, as the army
worm took all the early grass.
We have noticed that farmers who
gave their crops thorough and often
cultivation through the growing sea
son have done well and made paying
crops. How often have we seen this
before! It will surprise any one to
see what he can gain by keeping the
top of the ground well stirred dur
ing dry weather. It will cost an
average farmer about 35 cents an
acre to run two furrows to the row
of such crops as cotton or tobacco,
and about 30 cents for corn. Now
if you can get 25 pounds of cotton
or one bushel of corn for giving a
little extra work, don't you see it will
pay well? Who will think of this
next year, and try it ?
HARRY FARMER.
Columbus Co.. N. C.
Winter Planting of Strawberries at the
South.
Editor of The Progressive Farmer:
Anywhere south of the Mason and
Dixon's line the strawberry may be
set at any time during fall, winter
or spring, provided the ground is not
too wet to walk on or not actually
frozen at the time. In many re
spects winter is the safest of all
times to plant. Air and soil arc then
cool 01 cold and moist, just tlip-tion-ditionJhat
the strawberry rcveljs in.
For it is decidedly a cool weather
plant, extending its root growth
every day during the winter that the
ground is not frozen, even though
the frost keeps its leaves nipped off
as fast as they peer out. The mo
ment that the heaviest frost abates
in the spring, leaf growth begins,
and close on the heels of this-come
the blooms. Then before most other
fruit has well begun to bloom, straw
berries are ripe and the average mor
tal is happy.
Heat and drought are the great
foes of the strawberry. The South
ern grower avoids harm from these
foes at planting time by setting
plants in weather as cool or cold as
practicable. We plant largely in
late fall and in the dead of winter.
It is the rarest thing in the world for
cold weather to do direct harm to the
strawberry plant at the South. The
only indirect harm it can do is on
wet stiff soil to heave or lift the
crust of the soil up by freezing. This
also lifts the plants and leaves the
roots exposed to the wind and sun
when the freeze over the soil sub
sides to its normal level.
There is no danger of this only on
wet, soggy soil which keeps saturat
ed and is therefore greatly subject
to heaving when frozen. Even on
this soil planting may be safely done
in dead of -winter provided care is
taken to step directly on the plant
after it is set. This compresses the
soil around it, prevents an excess of
water from soaking in just at that
spot and greatly decreases the heav
ing effects of severe cold.
But . there is a much better plan
than this whenever it is practicable.
That is to put about a fork full of
coarse manure evenly around and on
the plants. This gives the desired
protection of the soil around the
plants from cold and the fertilizing
properties are leached out and wash
ed in where the roots can at once ap
propriate them. In fact, this is the
best way that stable manure can be
applied to the strawberry plant,
North or South. The coarse litter
after the fertilizing properties leak
out makes an excellent mulch to keep
the berries clear of grit the follow
ing spring. If too much manure has
fallen on the plant it will be neces
sary to remove some of it about time
growth begins in spring and leave it
around and between the plants.
If manure cannot be had to mulch
the plants set in dead of winter on
"wet and soggy land, any coarse litter
or straw will answer. Forest leaves
do very well only that they are more
liable to be blown ofr by high winds,
and being so much broader they are
more apt to smother the plants. Pine
straw is an ideal mulch, than which
there is nothing better.
The mulching directions for win
ter set plants which we have just
given is for the North or for such
soil at the South as is much given to
wetness and to heaving in the cold
est weather. We plant over one hun
dred acres every winter on ordinary
soil without any protection or any
precaution except to set the plants
properly.
O. W. BLACKNALL.
Vance Co., N. C.
A Hertford, N. correspondent of
The Progressive Farmer, writes:
"Crops in this part of the State are
about matured and (except cotton,
which is something short of an aver
age), we thinks that we have the best
crops for many years. Corn is phe
nomenal. Potatoes, both sweet and
Irish, are all that could be asked.
Cornfield peas and peanuts are excel
lent. Gardens and pastures are good.
Fruit, apples, grapes, and pears, are
abundant and cheap. Fall oats and
clover are very ' fine. Our people
know, or ought to know, how to ap
preciate these blessings, for perhaps
this generation never labored under
greater disadvantages to make a
crop no crops to speak of last year,
nothing to pay debts with, and no
feed for the teams, but some way we
have got along. I went through the
central part of the State first of the
month, and was sorry, to see such
poor crops in many localities. Farm
ers say their crops are not so good
as last year; can't see what they will
do."
Meeting of the State Agricultural Society.
The annual meeting of the North
Carolina State Agricultural Society
will take place Thursday night of
Fair Week in the Capitol. This is
one of the most important meetings
to be held during the Fair, and its
program is looked for with much in
terest by the State.
The program for this year prom
ises to be unusually attractive. It
consists of seven papers and speeches
discussing practical agricultural
problems, presented by seven stu
dents in the. Agricultural Depart
ment of the A. and M. College. These
.discussions promise to be decidedly
interesting and instructive. The
whole affair illustrates most forcibly
the growth of the A. and M. College
and especially the growth of its
Agricultural Department. The pro
gram is as fellows :
"Bacteria: Useful and Injurious,"
Cadet J. E. Coit, of Rowan County.
"Practical Butter-Making," Cadet
J. W. Bullock, Granville County.
"Rusts of the Cereals," Cadet J.
C. Beavers, Wake County.
"Smuts of the Cereals," Cadet S.
W. Foster, Anson County.
"Conformation of Beef and Dairy
Cattle," Cadet W. W. Finlev, Wilkes
County.
"Insects as Disease Distributors,"
Cadet C. W. Martin, Portsmouth,.
Va.
"Soil Culture and Legumes," Cadet
J. C. Temple, Moore County.
Call for Meeting of Tobacco Growers.
Cuningham, N. C, Oct. 15, 1902.
To the Tobacco Growers:
There will be a meeting of the To
bacco Growers' Association at the
Capitol in Raleigh on Thursday
night, October 30, 1902. I greatly de
sire to have the farmers from all
over North Carolina to meet and
discuss the tobacco situation at the
present time. The outlook is for
one of the greatest State Fairs in
the history of the State, and it will
be wise for the farmers to attend the
Fair and to witness the exhibits of all
kinds from every part of the State.
Not only farmers are invited to be
present at this meeting, but all per
sons interested in the tobacco busi
ness. State papers will please copy the
call for this meeting.
JOHN S. CUNINGHAM,
Pres. N. C. Tobacco Growers' Asso.
French miners have voted for a
general strike.
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