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THE IlfDUITRIAIi AHD EDUCATIONAL IOTEIlEiSTa OF OUR PISOPU3 PA.HAHOUHT TO ALL OTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF STATES POLICY.
Volume XVIII.
RALEIGH, N. C, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1533.
Number 42.
AGRICULTURE
HARRY FARMER'S TALKS.
C JC X3C
Editor of The Progrtiilrt Farmer :
Doubtless many of your readers
would like to have our opinion of the
Northern people. We found them
as kind and sociable as one could
wish.
The first thing to attract our at
tention was their eagerness to read
the newspapers. The dailies sell for
one cent each and everybody buys
and reads. Every boy that was not
selling papers was reading one. We
believe that this is the secret that has
made the North more prosperous
than the South. We do hope that our
people will take more pains to send
their children to school. The amount
of money spent by the North is
much more than that from the South.
We tooK a trolley car some distance
in the country. We passed several
large two-story brick buildings, each
marked "Public School, No. 4," etc.,
Of course, in the cold climate such
buildings are needed more than here.
We noticed that ladies do not have
escorts as much as they do in the
South. They care not how late, if
one wishes to take a train or boat,
they put off by themselves. Our
Southern ladies would be afraid to
undertake such a thing; this is
caused by the presence of the ne
groes. The men are not so gallant as
they are in the South; men and wo
men push and shove each other' al-
most like wild animals to board a car.
You must not think all of them are
this way, however. You will see a
young couple occasionally as loving
as a pair of cooing doves.
The men do not dress in up-to-date
styles as they do in the Southern
towns. Black is the color worn. It
is exceedingly rare to see any other
color. A great many wear clothing
two or three years out of style. We
agree with them on this. When you
get a nice suit you are not likely to
wear it more than a month the first
year. The average farmer does not
are to wear such costly clothing,
and if he adopts the Northern style
and wears them three years, no one
an blame him.
We were with men from nearly
ery State in the Union. There is
not much difference between the
South and West. Of course, every
section has some words, etc., peculiar
to itself. We used the word "tote"
Jn speaking about feeding hogs with
sweet potatoes We said "we prefer
red to turn the hogs on the potatoes
to digging and toting them to the
hogs." One bright young man want
ed to know what we did to the po
tatoes when we were "toting" them?
He had never seen the word used.
There is no word we can substitute
for it. It means to bear and carry
at the same time.
HARRY FARMER.
How Mr. Loftin SucceededVith Pecans.
Cdltor of The Progressive Farmer:
A communication from Mr. Robert
S. Taylor on pecan culture, whfch
appeared in your paper some time
ago, in which he spoke of me as a
successful grower of pecans, has
brought me so many inquiries that I
will give my experience through your
paper.
About eighteen years ago I saw
an article - on pecan culture, in
which the writer urged the growing
of pecans, and stated that they would
grow in fence corners, or anywhere
that the hickory would grow. As the
public road runs through my farm,
and I was compelled to keep fences
on either side, I decided to plant
pecans in each alternate corner on
both sides. Not knowing anything
about planting them, nor how many
required, I ordered ten pounds from
Wilmington, and planted in spring
of 1887. Not a one of these ger
minated. During the year 1887, I read very
article on pecan culture obtainable,
and learned that the nuts must bo
fresh, and that they had to be bedded
during winter, to be planted next
spring. I began corresponding with
parties who had bearing trees, and
secured four pounds of fine nuts at
$1.00 per pound. These I budded in
December, 1887, and in March, 1888,
planted in fence corners (but one
field side) along the road. About 90
per cent came up, and as they were
planted two nuts to the hill, there
were but few missing places.
Like other things planted in such
places, and given no care, however
they made very poor growth. So in
1890 I planted an orchard of seventy
five trees, on poor, sandy soil. These
were given no special care; the land
planted to cowpeas, corn, cotton, etc.,
and manured regularly with commer
cial fertilizers, but they made a fair
growth for three or four years, then
grew very fast, and some of them
are now bearing their fourth crop,
and the land is given over to them
entirely; no cultivation being done
except to break the land in late win
ter or spring.
The trees planted along the. fence
made very little growth for a number
of years, but one occasionally would
grow up three or four feet, and then
grow off nicely, until all are getting
to be fine trees, about half of them
now bearing.
In 1893 I planted a few more nuts
on good soil, first digging out a hole
three feet square, two and one-half
feet deep. Filled it with well rotted
mould, with a liberal sprinkling of
fertilizer mixed with it, tramping it
down firm, and planted two nuts to
the hill. These all came up, and in
six years some of them bore, and are
the largest and most productive trees
I have.
I do not know as yet how numera
tive they will be, but everyone should
plant pecans for nuts for their own
eating. In a future article I will
tell you about the different varieties,
budded or grafted trees, etc.
J. O. LOFTIN.
Mt. Olive, N. C.
Every Farmer Should Hare Plenty of
Fruit, Milk tad Eggs.
Editor of Ther Pogresslve Farmer:
I want every farmer who does not
get the monthly bulletins which are
issued by the State Experiment Sta
tion to write his address on a postal
card (write it plain, in full, giving
name, county, street if in a town,
etc.), and address it to the State Ex-
Iperiment Station and ask for Bulle
tin No. 187. It treats on the culture
of grapes, strawberries, currants,
dewberries, etc., in the garden. No
farmer can give too much attention
to these cheaply-provided additions
to the garden and his home. It does
not cost much to have a few nice
grape vines, some strawberry plants,
cultivated blackberries and dewber
ries (which are much finer and better
in every way than the wild ones
which are uncultivated),, some cur
rant bushes, etc., as well as a nice
orchard.
The home orchards in this State are
sadly lacking. I often wonder why
farmers do not have more of such
things. It is a serious mistake you
are making. If you do not know how
to start these things, and at no cost
scarcely, just get these Bulletins,
which are published on almost every
subject the farmer needs, and they
cost you nothing.
I want to se0 the day come in
North Carolina whea every farmer
will have a good cow (one that will
give two or three gallons of good
rich milk), and that can easily be
done if in no other way than by get
ting a calf of some good registered
stock and raising a cow. and then
taking care of the stock, and in three
or four years you can have some
stock you will be proud of and which
will pay you to bother with. The
scrub cow does not.
The same7 way with hogs. How
very few ever get any new blood to
improve their stock? They keep on
raising from the same old stock year
after year. Whether you know it jor
not, it is a fact, that every time the
same offspring of any class of stock
are crossed they become more and
more dwarfed and consequently of
less value. Even the one item of
chickens is well worth the trial. You
know what an item eggs are these
days. An old mongrel hen is a dead
expense. She will not lay enough
eggs to pay for keeping her, even in
the country. The State has a poultry
department where many of the nicest
chickens are raised and where you
can get the very best of eggs or pos
sibly a few choice birds. And be
sides, there are hundreds of poultry
farms of whom you can get chickens
and eggs to start with, and at little
cost compared with their real value.
It pays, my friends, to have the best
of such things. They do not eat any
more. They may require some more
attention, but it pays. It is easy to
find out where you can get these
things. Think of this matter, and
not only think about them, but try
them. W. O. SMITH,
R. F. D. No. 4, Raleigh, N. C.
Carolina and Virginia Tobacco Growers
Form an Association.
Three hundred tobacco growers,
representing eleven counties in Vir
ginia and North Carolina, met in
Danville Monday and formed what
will be known as the Tobacco Grow
ers' Protective Association of Vir
ginia and North Carolina.
S. C. Adams, of Charlotte Coun
ty, Va., was made President, W. T.
Bryant, . North Carolina, Secretary.
The object of the organization's to
decrease future tobacco acreage,
keep present crop off the market for
better prices and induce farmers to
grow diversified crops. All of the
counties in the belt will be organ
ized, President Adams being select-,
ed for the purpose of organizing
them.