Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / March 3, 1903, edition 1 / Page 1
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, o) (n (f jo) fp J f m l oJ Jci" V-J cLSna cLz? Cy QJ) cli j iSD THE INDUSTRIAL AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OP OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATE POLICY. Volume XVIII. RALEIGH, N. C, TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 1903. Number 4. AGRICULTURE HARRY FARMER'S TALKS. CIX. K.litor of The Progressive Farmer: The Legislature ought to give or appropriate the $50,000 asked for to put up a suitable building for the teaching of agriculture at the A. & M. College. Farmers are so used to asking nothing of tlTe State that they d not take the interest in such mat ters that they should. "The Lord njs those who helps themselves," so write to your Representative and Senator and let them know that you want this building, and you will be -ure to get it. DIVERSIFYING CROPS Can we afford to make tobacco an 1 iuy our home supplies? Farmers who raise tobacco in this county often have to buy corn and other feed. T. 'Laee as managed by our farmers e-.i -une-; too much time at a season win n ether crops need attention. It liu- been impressed on the farm r in the South by nearly all writers (ii agriculture that they never can : ed when they have to buy near ly ; !'. their home supplies. All cot- !- all tobacco, all strawberries or ; 'i ..t ;niy other one crop is not best i' i" the average farmer. The farm ' ' '"1 1 that lie must specialize or (1 Iii.ate only one crop if he would r.- V. - 11 Jill l.v" .1. li. there are some crops that i ir.eer in rare instances might ni l succeed in making enough an 1 above expenses to justify ' it where you find one, you ' n ! ninety-nine that will fail, "(ham works and tries to save ( "'in in order to inerensfi his 'si'!; :ee unt. have a plenty of capi ,:I t" buy when the market is in the '-oiiditioii, and be able to buy in l '!'-e onantities. This is his constant 1 - nV tlii "f o Tin oi mncf -fr ifr 4-r 1 " soil (In safest bank) a le evi-rv- ... 1 ' no mat ins crops V l!! ! ' ' little larger, for we all that it is what we can make "x,'r and above expenses that pays lis het . '11. here eonies the necessity for a r"tatio. You cannot plant corn iu r.v y ar on the same land without !lK111!!iV "r fertilizer and make pay-cr,,l,s- Vou cannot do it with ("l!ll!!( '--ial fertilizer. You are com I" II 1 to add some humus to the soil with a yearly increased ",n,"nit -v,'llr crop will be smaller. A r'tu.n of amrent crops on some anU W,U keP up the fertility without the addition of any other manures. Every farmer knows that certain crops will almost ruin his lands ; for instance, cutting a heavy crop of crab-grass on uplands. Now if there is no manure applied to the land the next crop will be smaller. CROP ROTATION. If the hay is fed to stock and the manure returned to the land, there is but little lost. Hay of this kind seems to hurt our uplands worst in this section, but it is different with the cowpea or other leguminous plants. A rotation of cowpeas and oats, although both are cut off the land for hay, seems to affect it but little. A leguminous crop like cow peas seems to like a change. So that we see that we must rotate or plant different crops if we expect to get the most benefits from our farms. We do not want to leave the impres sion that we must plant a little of everything in order to make a suc cess; such farming would be almost as bad as to plant just one single crop, but it is necessary to rotate sufficiently to keep up the fertility of the soil and at the same time make heavy crops. HARRY FARMER. Columbus Co., N. C. Sweet Potato Culture. Editor of The Progressive Farmer: I am a reader of The Progressive Farmer and a potato raiser, and I eat the big "Ambaiters" along the road. I raised five kinds last year and prefer the Peabody potatoes to any kind for my hogs, simply because they produce the most to the acre. Some people tell me that hogs won't eat them. That person I find feed ing the most costly feed to his hogs. The Peabody is the earliest potato we have and could be shipped to large markets. I have sold them for $1.00 per bushel by the first of July and I have heard of their bringing seven cents per pound on foreign markets. The real value of that potato is not known to Tar Heels. If it were known, bacon would not be so high during short corn crops like 1901. I have used various kinds of ferti lizers and have made large quanities to the acre. I have heard old folks give their experience with a perfect fertilizer, but nothing has been clear to. my mind yet. I would like to know, through your columns, what is a perfect fertilizer for sweet pota toes? Tours,,. W. H. B. Wake Co., N. C. GROWING CROPS THAT HELP THE SOIL. Dr. Kilgore Replies to a Correspondent and Tells of Some North Carolina Ex periments Leguminous Crops and Crop Rotation. Editor of The Progressive Farmer : The inquiry in The Progressive Farmer of February 10th, by O. W. S., whom I know to be one of the best farmers in his section, regard ing the growing of vegetation for the addition of humus to the soil, is a pertinent and important one. No soil will produce wrell which is devoid of of poor in vegetable mat ter. On the lighter types of sandy soils in the Eastern part of the State there is a heavy loss, especially in wet seasons, of the plant food added in commercial fertilizers, by its be ing leached o.ut.of reach of the roots of the plants, or entirely away into the branches and streams. Vegetable matter, which on decom position, produces humus, contains plant food itself. This plant food only becomes in condition to feed that plant, as well as subject to loss from washing away, on the de composition of the humus, which goes on slowly and feeds the plant by degress. In addition to furnish ing the plant food itself, the humus assists in holding the commercial fertilizers added to the soil, and maintains at the same time a better supply of water in the soil and en ables a better cultivation of the crops. Fertilizers can only do their best work in producing the greatest increased growth of crops by the aid of humus. What then is the best way for the Eastern farmer to get this material into the soil ? There is nothing bet ter than our cow-pea for the time it occupies the land. One ton of pea vine hay per acre is only a moderate ly good crop. These vines if left on the soil (but it is better to feed them and carefully save and return the manure) and turned under in the late fall or early spring, will add to the acre of land about fifty-four pounds of ammonia, costing in commercial fertilizers, at present prices, about $8.00; and in addition, about twenty pounds more ammonia costing about $3.00 would be left in the stubble and roots of the pea plant. This growth is made from July first till frost. This is all well known and is being largely practiced. The cow-pea can and should be supplemented by grow ing winter crops like rye, oats and wheat, for grazing or cutting for early hay or for seed. They cover the land during the winter, take up and use in their growth plant food that would be washed out of the soil, and make humus if turned under in the spring. Winter growing legumes, like Burr clover and vetch, would be still bet ter for improving the soil. Last July we sowed burr clover broadcast in our cotton on the Edgecombe County Test Farm of the Department of Ag riculture, and continued the culti vation till laying-by time. For more than a month now this crop has al most covered the ground. It will, we think, mature seed in May, and it is our purpose to plant corn after the cotton, leaving a small unbroken strip in the middle of the row, on which we hope sufficient seed will be matured to re-seed the land. If this prove to be the case, which is true further South, without further cost in cultivation or for seed, this land will be again covered with a green crop next fall, winter and spring, and will add to the soil the very best kind of humus, that rich in nitrogen ob tained without cost from the air, in addition to furnishing grazing and preventing the loss of soluble plant food from the soil by the leaching rains of winter. This work is still in the experimen tal stage, but success is indicated, in which case the addition of this crop to the rotation of O. W. S . (1) peas or rest, (2) corn, (3) cotton wTould cause his land to be occupied not less than 25 months out of 36, with a soil-improving, nitrogen-gath-ing crop. Similar experiments and rotations are in operation with hairy vetch and other crops with corn, cotton, peanuts, wheat, oats and oth er crops generally grown in the sec tions where the work is in progress. At present, two Test Farms are in operation in the Eastern part of the State in Edgecombe and Robeson Counties in the two ends of the sandy soil section of the State and one is just being started in Iredell Coun ty on a good type of red clay soil of the Piedmont section of the State. Work along this line is also being conducted on the Experiment Station Farm at Raleigh. Soil improvement by the growth of leguminous and other green crops and rotations is being given a prominent place in all of this experimental work by the Department of Agriculture and the Experiment Station, and we shall be in a better position from year to year to say, on basis of our tests, what . is the best procedures on the different soils and sections of the State. We shall be in a position to give something more definite along this line next summer. B. W. KILGORE. N. C. Department of Agriculture, Raleigh.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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March 3, 1903, edition 1
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