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TUK 1NDUST1UAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY.
Volume XVII.
RALEIGH, N. C, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1902.
Number 46.
AGRICULTURE
Gotten Fertilizing.
Editor of The Progressive Farmer :
Too many planters have to fertil
ize cotton with such materials as
they can get. especially if well en
meshed in the hooks of the local
dealer. However, it seems that the
interests of the dealer are really in
the line of a pood crop, and conse
quently the quality of the fertilizer
they ileal out to their following de
serves a careful examination. "A
great many fertilizers are com
pounded to suit the materials most
convenient, and with but little re
gard to the actual needs of the crops
for which same is designed. This
fertilizer formula problem is far
from being an insuperable one, but
it does require a little study.
For example, an average cotton
crop of 300 pounds of lint per acre,
produces from the soil a great deal
more than this 300 pounds lint;
there are grown also some C50
pounds of seed, 1,000 pounds of bolls
and leaves, and about 900 pounds of
stems and roots. Now, fertilizers is
used l.y all these products quite as
much as l.y the lint, and to make the
rne, the other must also be made.
Consequently, in figuring out what
the er needs in the line of plant
food, Y. must take all these more
or lo useless products into con
sideration. For a crop such as is outlined
above, taking the whole plant growth
into consideration, the actual plant
food u?t.(l amounts to 47 pounds of
nitrogen. 40 pounds of potash and
1- pounds of phosphoric acid. A
great deal of this nitrogen may and
does come from the growth of cow
pcas or some plant of the same class.
These plants have the power of tak
Jng the inert nitrogen from the air,
ad converting it into such forms
that it is useful as food for plants.
Perhaps half the nitrogen needed by
the cotton crop is obtained in this
manner, at least it should be, and we
must consider it done to figure on
economical manuring. Also, the
Phosphoric acid is hard to keep in
available form in the soil, and the
fertilizer application of this ingre
dlent should be at least doubled.
From this point of view, a good
cotton fertilizer should be such as
to pive to the crop per acre, about
25 pounds of nitrogen, 40 pounds of
Ptasb, and 25 pounds of available
Phosphoric acid. It is impossible to
exPeet the crop to reach and assim
ilate all of the fertilizer applied, in
fact, not much more than half can
be actu. ily realized, and this too un
der the most favorable conditions.
This is-another point for thoughtful
consideration.
The plant food for the crop as out
lined contains, taken by itself, some
28 per cent nitrogen, 44 per cent
potash, and 28 per cent phosphoric
acid. Let us compare this with the
manure of the farm, which is of
course not made from cotton, but
rather from the grains and grasses.
Such manure contains per ton about
10 pounds each of nitrogen and pot
ash, and 5 pounds of phosphoric
acid; that is, considering the plant
food by itself, some 40 per cent each
of nitrogen and potash, and 20 per
cent phosphoric acid, and very little
of this latter available at that. Cot
ton is a special crop, and it is quite
evident that ordinary farmyard ma
nure is not a well balanced fertilizer
for same. It should be fortified by
mixing with it, or using with it, both
the German potash salts and acid
phosphate. With this illustration as
a guide, it is an easy matter for a
planter to figure out the proportions
of the plant food ingredients in the
fertilizers he is asked to buy, and
act accordingly.
R. GARWOOD.
A Batch of Notes from Our Washington
Correspondent.
Editor of The Progressive Farmer:
The Committee on Agriculture of
the House has been asked to secure
legislation which will give the Secre
tary of Agriculture authority, after
an inspection of live stock, to issue
a certificate to the shipper which will
permit of his transportation from
one State to another and through
States, without further inspection by
State authorities. It was explained
that by a recent decision of the Su
preme Court, cattle may be stopped
at any State line, thus affording a
serious interference to inter-State
commerce in cattle.
Secretary Wilson appeared before
the House Committee on Agriculture
December 10th and explained the ur
gent necessity of an immediate ap
propriation to enable his Depart
ment to stamp cut the foot and
mouth disease now prevalent in New
England. He stated that it had been
found necessary to kill all infected
cattle and he had ordered their
slaughter. He estimated that it
would require about $700,000 to kill
the disease, arrangements having
been made with the State authorities
to pay seventy per cent of the value
of the cattle killed. Congressmen
have become thoroughly alarmed over
the inroads of the disease and the
possibility of its spread to disastrous
proportions and it is believed that
an appropriation of a million dollars
will be placed at the disposal of Sec
retary Wilson. Dr. Salmon, chief of
the Bureau of Animal Industry is
now in Boston, directing the organi
zation of a force to cope with the
trouble.
According to some experiments in
Belgium noted by the Department of
Agriculture, tests were made in the
use of nitrate of soda, superphos
phate and sulphate of potash, for
growing 16 of the more common gar
den vegetables. In each experiment,
1 plat was used as a control, 1 re
ceived all three fertilizers combined,
and on 3 plats one of the elements
of a complete fertilizer was omitted.
The plats were duplicated in another
series, except that like amounts of
barnyard manure were used on each
plat in connection with the commer
cial fertilizers. The results obtained
showed the best yields when a com
plete commercial fertilizer was used
with barnyard manure. Where the
barnyard manure was used alone, not
nearly so good results were obtained,
but they were about equal to the
yields secured when commercial fer
tilizers were used alone. Both ex
ceeded considerably the yield on the
control plat. It is concluded that in
order to obtain the largest yield of
vegetables, chemical fertilizers
should be employed simultaneously
with barnyard manure.
GUY E. MITCHELL.
Washington, D. C, Dec. 20, 1902.
Tobacco in Martin.
Hon. Harry W. Stubbs, of Martin
County, who is here as a member of
the committee to examine books and
vouchers in the treasury and audi
tor's office, says the people of his
county are unusually prosperous.
There are two tobacco markets in the
county Robersonville and William
ston each of which will sell as much
as 3,000,000 pounds of leaf this year.
The former was established three
years ago and the latter is now in its
fiist season. Mr. Stubbs estimates
that between six and seven thousand
dollars have been paid out daily
since the new crop sales began to the
farmers of Martin County. Raleigh
Post.
Cowpea Hay as a Beef Fattener.
Editor of The Progressive Farmer :
An experiment in feeding three
lots of steers was made recently un
der the auspices of the Missouri
State Board of Agriculture on differ
ent sorts of coarse fodder with corn.
Timothy hay, corn fodder, clover hay
and cow-pea hay were used in about
equal quantities. The average gain
in weight per day with each feed
was
Timothy hay 1.69 lbs.
Corn fodder 1.94 lbs.
Clover hay . 1.94 lbs.
Cow-pea hay 2.64 lbs.
The grain required for each pound
of gain in this test was
With Timothy hay 11.51 lbs.
Corn fodder 11.29 lbs.
Clover hay 11.29 lbs.
Cow-pea hay 8.31 lbs.
This shows very clearly what an
advantage Southern farmers have in
the cow-pea, and furnishes a pointer
for every farmer who has cattle to
fatten. D.
Wake Co., N. C.
All along the road-sides one sees
hedges of bush and brier which take
up room, and draw sustenance from
the fields where productive crops
should be cultivated. The removal of
these hedges would cost but little and
would add greatly to the attractive
ness of our farms, to say nothing of
conserving fertility. In some places
the bushes have become small trees,
and a large space is ruined by the
shade. The farmer (?) gives back a
little each year, and in rare cases the
field has become a little patch in the
middle with hedges all around. There
are other ways of improving the ap
pearance of our farms which the in
telligent farmer will not fail to see,
but this matter of hedges is indeed
an eyesore to the farms all over this
section of the State, and I, for one,
would like to see them disappear
from our roadsides. E. S. Millsapps,
Iredell Co., N. C, in the Mascot.
The famous Texas steer about
which so much has been written in
history and which until quite recent
time3 has figured in the development
of the Great Southwest, is fast be
coming extinct. The Texas steer and x
its companion, the cowboy, are both
"passing" and will be known soon
only in fiction and history. The
"longhorns" are vanishing before the
onward movement of the blooded
stock of the North and East. Gero
nimo, a famous long-horned animal
from Texas, when 36 years old had
a pair of horns measuring nine feet
and a half from tip to tip.