Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Nov. 10, 1903, edition 1 / Page 1
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n V 1 iimiMiM111 ih Mitowiiiiiiwiiii liiinwiMMMiWinia wmMmnaii,, Jimi 1 'o V J i THE IWDUSTItlAI. AND EDUCATIONAL IHTEIIK3TS OIT OUU PEOPLE PAHAXXOUBT TO ALL OTHER COJlSIDEUATIOIf S OP STATE POLICY. Volume XVIH. AGRICULTURE RALEIGH, N. C., TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1903. HARRY FARMER'S TALUS. cxxvni. Editor of Th Progressive Farmer : Coming down the Atlantic Coast Line from Weldon to Wilmington we vere more impressed than ever with the importance of intensive farming. We noticed before we reached the berry section that most of the crops of corn and cotton were poor. It was a rare thing to see. cotton that would yield one-half bale per acre; the average would not exceed mere than one-half that quantity. But as soon as we reached the berry region there was quite a dif ference. You could see fields that would yield a bale to the acre. The heavy manuring required to make a large crop of fine strawberries en riched the land so that any crop planted on the land when properly worked would yield heavily. What a contrast there is in the profits 1 One bale of cotton at present prices would be $50. One-fourth of a bale would be only $12.50 to the acre. U. S. Deputy Marshal Council Meares, of Cumberland County, gave us the following bit of news along the same line. lie took one acre of land and manured it some and bought one bushel of improved cottonseed for which he paid $1.40. He planted his crop and gave it good atten tion and fathered two bales of cot ton. Let us see if it paid. Let us put down the cost of ma mire, seed and extra work at $25. Now two bales at $50 per bale would be $100; deduct extra cost of $25, which leaves $75. Compare that amount with $12.50 per acre. JNow we want to ask a question did you ever have much trouble in getting cotton picked on land that Welded from three-fourths of a bale and upward per acre? The picker could always make satisfactory ages, while on lands where the yield as small, and you had to stoop down fn(i Part the grass to get the cotton, !t as almost impossible to get pick ers. Some of the readers of The Pro gressive Farmer may be a little sur , 5rised at our mentioning this mat er at this season of the year; but nends, the man who waits till Feb- J hkely improve much. ' Now we ant to suggest that every farmer 0 ha never tried it, take one acre and Staple crop that he Plants" improve it as much as he can, and keep a careful account of the extra labor and manure used, and compare results with those from old methods. Then he can see whether it pays or not. It will be necessary to begin early so that you can have a plenty of time. This is one way to solve the labor question. HARRY FARMER. The Two Kinds of Tobacco Wilt. Editor of The Progressive Farmer r I see that some misapprehension exists as to the nature of the Gran ville? tobacco wilt, regarding which I sent you a communication some weeks ago. Tobacco growers in some parts of the State are confounding this wilt, which is a highly contagi ous disease, leading to the death of the plant, .and which, when it has once gained a foot-hold in the field, prohibits the culture of tobacco in that field for several years, with a more, ordinary and comparatively harmless filt due to local changes in climate and moisture. Every tobacco grower notes that under certain conditions of climate, the reaves of the tobacco will sud denly droop, but this condition of wilt is not maintained for a long time, and the plant rapidly recovers when proper conditions are restored. Another kind of wilt is caused by the sore-skin, by bruises of the stalk near the surface of the ground, and by the attack of any animal which cuts off the plant. In such cases the plant dies. This, however, is a local dis ease, affecting single scattered plants in the field. The Granville tobacco wilt differs from any of these, in that the disease remains in the soil from year to year, growing worse each year. It is not single isolated plants that die, but it is great numbers of them; from fifty, to ninety or one hundred per cent of the plants in the field. It is not a temporary wilting. A plant once attacked very rarely re covers. It usually dies within a few days after the wilting appears. Any one who has visited the fields in Granville County suffering from the true Granville wilt, will never con found this disease with the local dis eases mentioned above, or with the wilt due to improper climatic or soil conditions. Very truly youra, F. L. STEVENS. Every carpenter who shaves with a fore plane borrows the genius of a forgotten inventor.--Ralph Waldo Emerson. . . , Black Rot of the Cabbafe. Editor of The Progressive Farmer: For more than fifteen years thero. has existed in North Carolina a very serious disease of cabbage and other crops of the cabbage family. The annual damage in this State from this disease is probably more than $10,000. Besides cabbage upon-.which it most frequently operates, ths dis ease attacks turnips, kale, cauli flower, mustard, rape, and in fact, all crops and weeds of theN cabbage tribe. . J The disease in cabbage is char acterized by the outermost leaves cf the plants, near the edges, turning first yellow, then brown and finally black. The disease spreads down ward into the main stem and through this into the inner leaves of the head. While no plant of the cabbage kind is wholly exempt, those of a loose ox spreading habit like the col lard are less damaged than those which form close heads, like the flat Dutch type. The disease is very con tagious, spreading from plant to plant in the field. Frequently large patches of cabbage apparently healthy one day are found soft and rotten the next. The disease is al ways most virulent . in hot, moist weather. CAUSE OF THB DISEASE. Black rot of the cabbage and other plants of the same family, is caused by a germ or microbe (Bacillus cam pestris). This germ, lives from year to year in the soil, attacking with increasing virulence successive crops of the cabbage kind, until at length it becomes practically impossible to grow these crops except upon fresh or virgin soil. The germ increases rapidly, only during the warmer months of the year, or while the tem perature is above 80 degrees F. TREATMENT. The treatment for black rot must be preventive. Spraying is. -of no Value in this case. Rotation of crops so that no crop of the cabbage family shall come upon the same field of tener man once in three' or four years is the first and most essen tial precaution. The seed-bed should be made upon fresh ground each year, or the bed should, be burned over as is done for tobaccdbed3, to kill possible germs in the soil. Cab bage, turnip and all other crops of this family should be grown only dur ing the cooler months, or while the temperature is below 80 degrees F. If only a few scattered plants in field Number 40. show the characteristic yellowing or blackening of the leaves, such plants should be pulled up and burned. Do not throw diseased cabbage leaves or plants upon the manure pile. The germ can live an indefinite period in the manure, and will be scattered over the fields with the manure. In cultivating a field which contains dis eased cabbage or other plants of this family, before going into another field' clean all tools carefully and thoroughly to avoid carrying the germs into fields as yet free from them. Wage a vigorous war against shepherd's purse, , pepper grass, and all other weeds of the cabbage fam ily, as these may serve to propagate the disease during years in which other crops occupy the land. Except as stated above, no particu lar variety of cabbage is exempted, and no special brand of seed wil in sure freedom from the pest. GERALD MCCARTHY, Biologist North Carolina Depart- 5 ment of Agriculture. I am sending .you by express a small basket of Japanese persim mons of the Hyakume variety," writes Mr. A. D. McNair, of South ern Pines. "They are hard now, and therefore not fit to eat, but will soften within the next two or three weeks. I am to leave this place next week for Nacogdoches, Texas, where I enter the employ of the Angelina Orchard Company, and I would be pleased to receive The Progressive Farmer at my new ad dress." Mr. McNair has made many friends in North Carolina while act ing as superintendent of the South ern Pines Experimental Farm. .We regret that he is to leave the State, but trust that we shall not lose him as a correspondent. The persimmons are the finest we have ever seen. Danville, Va., dispatch: The farm ers of Spring Garden and vicinity will sell no more tobacco until the prevailing prices are greatly in creased, and not more than 50 per cent of the crop of 1903 will be plant ed by them next seascm. Such is the decision reached by the planters who gathered at - Spring Garden recently and perfected an or ganization, to be known as the Spring Garden Tobacco Growers' Club. The farmers realize that the. over-production should be decreased in order to increase the price. In addition to this the elub pledges itself to encourage diversified farm ing in order to render the growers more independent in the future.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Nov. 10, 1903, edition 1
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