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THE INDUSTRIAL. AND EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE PARAMOUNT TO ALili OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OP STATE POLICY.
Volume XVIII.
RALEIGH, N. C, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1903.
Number 25,
AGRICULTURE
HARRY FARMER'S TALKS.
CXXVII.
Editor of The Progressive Farmer:
The South is the best place to make
money truck farming. As shipping
facilities are improved some every
year, the chances to make money
become greater.
It would surprise some of our far
mers to see the stuff sold on the
Washington (D. C.) market. The
cantaloupes, for instance. They are
pulled green, but nicely crated, and
sell for paying prices. We were
pleased to find a lot with a nice card
on the end of crate raised by a Du
plin County farmer. He has learned
to sell his truck to Yankees. If we
knew that he was a subscriber, we
would give his name.
We also found a lot of corn from
a point near Elizabeth City that was
selling at the rate of $6.75 per bushel
for dry corn. The commission mer
chant said that it would not keep
lonir. Where any one is so situated
as to be able to get the corn to mar
ket in twenty-four to thirty-six hours
from the field, it would pay well to
plant it. Green corn will not stand
to he packed in bulk, unless you have
cold storage. It will heat in a few
hours when packed in a tight barrel
or box.
Our farmers must learn to have a
late spring crop of Irish potatoes.
'I here has been a good demand both
in Northern and Southern markets
tor them for several years. It is
more costly to raise them later, but
it would pay. Nearly all the South
ern crop is sold by the 20th of June,
and the Northern potatoes do not
come on the market before the first
of August. Even the Wilmington
tN. ('.) market is bare of good pota
toes. Nearly all the potatoes raised in
the middle States from North Caro
lina to Pennsylvania, excepting near
the coast, are not ready for market
in time to fill the gap. The main
'aue for this is the dry springs.
Irish potatoes need considerable
moisture to do well. Every farmer
knows that a long dry spell from the
-'oth of April to the 20th of May is
snre to make a light crop unless the
land is stirred. Well, potatoes plant
ed late enough to catch the first sum
mer rains can not mature before the
-th of July or later, and that ac
eoiuits for the gap. Now if we raise
a crop to fill this gap it will pay well.
" e must learn to grow the late ma
turing kinds. The extra early pota
to s are only grown in the extreme
-rth and in the South. We might
I'hmt Northern slopes a little late
and after they mature cover the po
tatoes by splitting the middles with
a turn plow, thus making a good fur
row to carry off the water. This
would help to keep the potatoes cool.
HARRY FARMER.
BUILDING UP WORN OUT CLAY
LAUDS.
Paper Read Before A. & PI. College
Fanners' Convention, Raleigh, Juljr
21, 1903, by R. W. Scott, Esq., of
Alamance County, N. C.
Mr. President and Members of the
Convention :
The subject assigned to me, "The
Building up of Worn-out Clay Lands
in Middle North Carolina," as I un
derstand it, refers especially to the
red soils to be found in portions of
Alamance, Chatham, Granville, Guil
ford, Orange and adjoining counties.
I want to show that these lands can
be improved and that it is being done.
The people in Alamance know that
Mr. L. Banks Holt bought one of the
poorest farms in the county, and to
day it is producing fine crops and
is paying him. Mr. Jno. Trolinger,
of Haw River, bought a worn out
tract of land, and is now producing
crops that are a surprise to his
neighbors. We see what has been
done by- General Carr at Occonee
chee, and Mr. Duke at University
Station. It may be aj-gued that these
gentlemen, on account of their
wealth, are able to improve their
farms, when an ordinary farmer
could not. It is my purpose to show
how the same results can be had, ex
cept that it may take a longer time.
Any young man of energy, can take
a worn out farm, and if he lives his
alotted time, he can see it in as high
state of cultivation as either of these
farms.
I speak very decidedly about this,
for I speak from experience. I be
lieve I can best illustrate my point
by telling you what I have done and
expect to do at Melville Farm. I
trust that no one will think me ego
tistical, or that I have carried out
my ideas entirely or that my farm is
in a perfect state of cultivation, be
cause that would be misleading. But
I do say that the plan I am pursuing,
if carried on, will result in changing
what was once a very poor farm to
one in as high state of cultivation
as any I have mentioned. It just
takes longer. I rejoice to see that
the leaders of thought in our State
are realizing the fact that itis as
necessary for a boy who expects to
be a farmer to have an agricultural
training as it is for any other pro
fession to have professional training,
and for a farmer to successfully im
prove his soil, his crops and stock,
he must have thorough knowledge
and training, such as is being given
by this College, and other institu
tions of its kind in the United States.
I know that I have wasted time and
money on account of the lack of such
training. Knowing what a drawback
it has been to me, I would therefore
urge every young man who expects
to be a farmer to get an agricultural
education.
Twenfy-five years ago I left school
to take charge of the farm where I
was raised. I thought there was no
place like it in all the world. My
sisters and brothers, knowing my
love for the farm, and desiring that
the old home should be kept together,
willingly sold their interest in the
farm to me. I only had enough
money to pay for a half interest in
this farm. It contained 600 acres
one-half in timber, and the other in
a rundown condition, having been
workedby negro tenants. It was
badly washed; galled places were in
every field, and wTere getting larger.
Fields were full of stones and irregu
lar' in shape. A few more years of
such cultivation and it would have
been worthless, because you could get
nothing from it.
There was upon this farm at that
time about 50 acres of land that were
producing an average of 10 bushels
of wheat or 20 of corn per acre. As
near as I can recollect-, the year I
took charge of the farm the crop was
one hundred bushels of wheat, seventy-five
of oats, two hundred and fifty
of corn and a little hay. The work
stock consisted of five horses, a few
sheep, ten head of cattle, and some
hogs. The year 1901 this same farm
produced eight hundred bushels of
wheat, fourteen hundred bushels of
oats, from one thousand to fifteen
hundred bushels of corn, besides
nearly twenty-five tons of clover hay
and some peavine hay.
The farm is now carrying about
fifty head of cattle, forty sheep, thir
ty hogs, eight work horses, and a
few colts every year to supply work
stock for the farm.
I wish now to tell how this has
been done, and I believe the way I
have done it is the best way to im
prove these lands. I took fifty acres
of land as a nucleus to build on. I
would find a few acres of good land
in nearly every field. I began by sow
ing peas, and clover, keeping stock to
consume the food raised, and with
the moderate use of fertilizers, I have
gradually increased the productive
ness of the farm. I have made it a
rule to apply all manure direct from
the stable to the galled spots in the
field, rather than (as was the custom
of many) to apply it to corn in the
hill. By this application of manure
I would at once stop these places
from washing, and get them in con
dition to grow clover and peas. Hav
ing pursued this plan for this num
ber of years, you can now hardly de
tect any of these spots. I extended
this plan until I am now making my
best crops on land that had gullies
ten feet deep. I have made it a rule
every year to get as many stumps
and rocks off of the land as possible,
to get the fields in better shape, to
make them larger, to clean out all
little thickets and briar patches, and
to leave the field in better shape than
when I began it.
I have now adopted this rotation.
I do not say that it is the best, but
it is what I am doing. For the first
year wTheat, second corn (and subsoil
if possible) ; third, oats and clover
sown together In the spring ; fourth
clover to be mown for hay; fifth year,
peas, to be mown or picked for seed,
and sown to wheat in the fall.
I adopt this rotation because it
gives good results, and uniform work
for N the team throughout the year.
You will see I take off the land three
grain crops, and raise two ammonia
growing crops. These two crops of
clover and peas make a splendid prep
aration for the grain crons to fol
low. My corn is cut in the fall, about
September, with a corn harvester,
and set up in shocks where it re
mains until after I finish sowing
wheat. I then shred this corn with
a McCormick shredder. This leaves
the land clear, so that I can at once
start the plows to break the land, for
spring oats, and clover. By breaking
in the fall, this red land becomes
thoroughly pulverized and in fine
condition to receive the oats and
clover. The advantage of breaking
in the fall is that I can get the oats
in early, about February. Some may
ask : "Why have a pea crop follow a
clover crop; would you not make
just as good a wheat crop after the
clover?" The difficulty has always
been that if I depended on a wheat
crop after clover, I would take a big
risk, and often lose a wheat crop on
account of not being able to break
the land soon enough on account of
dry weather. I begin in the spring
when land, is too wet to cultivate
crops, to break the land that was in
clover the' year before, and sow it in
peas. If we should have a dry sum
continued on page 16.)