Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Feb. 3, 1903, edition 1 / Page 1
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,5T c5) (n) p jo) W 4i J vy iyvi is) C9) TIIK INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OP OCR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OP STATE POLICY. Volume XVII. RALEIGH, N. C, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1903. Number 51. AGRICULTURE HARRY FARMER'S TALKS. CIV. " Editor of The Progressive Farmer : We have heard a farmer say re cently that he thought potash paid him best of any fertilizer he could buy. Three years ago, in sowing guano on a cotton field, it lacked a few rows of going over the field and, as the land was poor, he decided to use some potash on the remainder, as that was the only fertilizer he had on hand. It did not make any show until late in the season when it be gan to tell on the crop. When he gathered the cotton it showed a heavy increase over any other in the field. This was not all. He planted corn and peas on the same land two years afterwards and it showed plainly on these crops both years. It required no marking of rows or plat to see the results but they showed it too plainly for that. fcXPfchlMENT Willi FKKTIL.1ZU.KS. We have often advocated in these columns the necessity of farmers ex perimenting a little every year. We do it on our own farm and will con tinue so long as we have any man agement of it. The chemistry of the laboratory is not always the same as that of the soil. And some of the best agricultural chemists will tell you that they can not tell you exact ly what your soil needs by simply an alyzing the soil. This is the main rea son why there are experiment farms being established all over the State. VELVET BEANS We tried velvet beans again the past year, but did not carry our ex periment out as far as we wanted to. Wc concluded to try them on our milk cows, but Mary Jane said, "No; I want to make some good butter now, and I don't want to spoil the milk." Well, the best of men will get henpecked some time, and as we always let her have certain parts of the farm her own way, we gave in this time. You know that if there are any words that will stick to a fellow's memory in spite of all efforts to drive them away, they are these, "I told you so!" As we did not try them on the milk cows we let the pigs in to eat some cow peas and they ate the last one of the beans and we never had pigs to thrive better. So we learned something after all. Here is the on ly advantage the beans have over the cow pea or any other plant we have tried for late fall pasturage: they will grow all the summer and when the weather begins to turn cool they hold all of their leaves and the large clusters of green beans afford a quan tity of succulent food at a time when such food is hard to get. The cow pea sown very late will not make much growth, and early planted ones will sheo off the leaves, so we have found nothing that will do as well as velvet beans. We intend to grow some another year and try them on the milk cows. THE KOAD AND INTEREST LAWS. We have been informed the Legis lature changed the road law. two years ago. It seems that our road supervisors failed to notice it. Our reason for advocating a change in the rate of interest as set forth in the last issue of The Pro gressive Farmer, was based on the success that farmers in the States of Georgia and South Carolina are hav ing by borrowing money instead of buying from merchants on time. It is done to a certain extent in this State but to evade the law Farmer B goes to Banker A and tells him he wants to borrow one hundred dollars, He is informed that .he can get that amount if he will give his note for $105 and G per cent. He agrees and after he signs the note he gets $94 A change in the law will prevent this to a certain extent. HARRY FARMER. Columbus Co., N. C. When I enter a farmer's home I like to see a few first class farm pa pers on the table. It seems to speak well for the intelligence of the fam ily. The farmer cannot afford to get along without taking one or more up-to-date, agricultural papers. It is absolutely necessary for his great est success, but now and then we find a man who does not read a farm pa per. He "don't b'lieve them fellers what make the papers know nothin' 'bout farmin' nohow." The farmer nerds the aid of agricultural papers, that he may become broad-minded and elevated in the matter of agri-4 cultural information. The good that the agricultural press has done for the farming population of this country in the last twenty-five years cannot be estimated. It has been the cause of the farmer erecting better buildings, embellishing his home, im proving his -fields, keeping better live stock and wearing better clothes and becoming more polished in his manners, to say nothing of tha chil dren becoming better educated; and I have not yet mentioned all the god that the agricultural paper has accomplished. F. H. Dow, in Farm ers' Voice. Kainit or Phosphate in the Compost ? Edlor of The Progressive Farmer: Kainit has often been recommend ed as an excellent chemical to apply to barn-yard manure and to chicken manure to prevent the loss of am monia, but some experiments noted by the office of experiment stations of the National Department of Agri culture indicates that crude rock phosphate and acid phosphate are probably superior. In the experi ments a lot of cow manure was di vided into four parcels. On one parcel finely ground, untreated South Carolina rock, known in the South as "floats," was dusted on the ma nure; on a second parcel, acid phos phate was dusted; on another the crude potash salt, known as kainit, and on another, land plaster or gyp sum, these materials all being used at the uniform rate of forty pounds per ton of manure. For corn and wheat the man are was applied as a top dressing, beiii put on with a manure spreader at rates of four and eight tons per acre in the rotation, and two and one-half to five tons in the continuous crop ping. The results of the experiments show that it will pay well to give more attention than is done on the average farm to the preservation of barn-yard manure; first, by guarding it from the sources of loss which occur in the ordinary open barn yard, and second, by treating it with materials calculated to reduce the losses from escaping ammonia on the one hand and to increase its con tent of phosphoric acid on the other. To accomplish this purpose, acid phosphate appears to be the material producing the largest and most prof itable immediate increase in effective ness of the manure, but the experi ments strongly suggest the possibil ity that finely ground South Carolina or Florida rock from which acid phosphate is made may be found an economical substitute for the latter, by using it as an absorbent in the stables and thus securing an intimate mixture with the manure in its fresh condition. GUY E. MITCHELL. Col. Olds: The British American Tobacco Company, incorporated, un der English laws, domesticated itself in North Carolina to-day, with head quarters at Durham, and C. W. Toms as its representative. J. B. Duke is chairman, and A. Cunliffe secretary of the company. The capital is six million pounds sterlinc. The com pany he. power to errow tobacco and make tobacco, cigars, cigarettes and snuff. Surry County Tobacco Growers. Our people will try for another full crop of tobacco, next year," said Mr. J. R. Llewellyn, of Dobson, yes terday. "They did so well the past season that they are sure to have as large, if not larger, crop this time." In discussing the prices received by many growers Mr. Lewellyn de clared that he knew of several in his section who actually received more for their tobacco crop than they could sell their entire farms for and it is in view of these conditions that these men are willing to take chances this year on another full crop. Ra leigh Post. The Agricultural Lien Law. The attention of the Legislature is called to take into consideration the practicability of repealing the "agricultural lien law," which has -been in force the last thirty years. In the early days of the republic when factories were built a tariff was placed on their goods in order to compete with foreigners. It was deemed necessary for the protection of "infant industries," but now it is unnecessary, and the privilege is abused. So likewise after the war ended in 1865, when the South was broken up and its credit destroyed, it was necessary that something should be done to help the farmers to make their crops; so the Legislature passed what is known as the "agri cultural lien law," making it lawful to mortgage their future crops something not in existence. It was thought that after a few years it would be no longer needed, and that they could take care of themselves. The law for protection of "infant industries" is still in force, enrich ing a few at the expense of the masses; so also the "agricultural lien law" keeps the farmer poor to the benefit of a few. If these laws were a blessing once, they are now a curse to the country. It opens the door to extravagance and extortion and the indolent and unprincipled take ad vantage of it. If this law should be repealed far mers would be compelled to raise wheat, corn and hogs. Farming then would be on a solid foundation. Short crops and panics would affect them less than any other class. Thirty years' trial of this law ought to prove that it is no longer a benefit, and it is hoped that the Legislature will investigate it. Farmer, in Scot land Neck Commonwealth.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 3, 1903, edition 1
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