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f if Q) S S and PROGRESSIVE FARMER VOL. XX. NO. 29 THE COTTON PLANT-VOL. XXIL NO. 28. RALEIGH, N. C, AUGUST 29, 1905. Weekly $1 a Year. The frooresslve Farmer AND TUB COTTON PLANT. (Consolidated September 87, 1904.) Entered at Raleigh, N. a, a second clan mall matter. CLARENCE H. POB, B. W. KILQORB, 1 C. W. BURKBTT, Bdltor and Manager. Agricultural Editors. CIRCULATION STATEMENT. The sworn and proved average weekly circulation of The Progressive Fanner and Cotton Plant for the year ending December 31, r 1904, was 10,509 copies. For the six months ending June 30, 1905, the sworn and proved average weekly circulation was 12,288 copies. The Progressive Farmer and Cotton Plant has 1 A larger circulation than any other weekly pub lished between Richmond and Atlanta, and 2. A larger circulation than any other farm weekly published between Philadelphia and Dallas. THOUGHTS FOR FARMERS. Subsoiling Again. However much instruction may have been given on this subject, there are always farmers readj to ask new questions or to repeat the old ones. An intelligent farmer of Camden, S. C, as in the city last week. He. said: that water stood in the cotton middles several consecutive days. It was suggested that it would not have done that if the hard pan had been broken. His reply was that many farmers considered sub soiling of doubtful utility down in his county. In most of that county they have a red or yellow clay. A few general principles may be stated for the guidance of young farmers, or old ones, who wish to improve their lands. Reference is had entire ly to lands that have a clay subsoil. We have no experience with alluvial lands such as may be found on the rivers in the lower part of this Stats. Never subsoil land when the clay is wet enough to mould into brick. It should always fie dry and easily pulverized. It is worth little to subsoil land when the top soil is very thin and devoid of humus. Break about one-fourth as much of the clay each year as there is top soil to mix with it. One to two inches a year will soon give a 10-inch soil, provided humus is added by means of small grain and cow peas. It is scarcely worth the labor to subsoil pipe Jjay, as it has no plant food locked up in it. Chemists state that there is enough potash and phosphoric acid in one foot of the dark red or chocolate-colored clay to last a hundred years. Never turn a two or three-inch layer of clay to the surface. It will make the land less pro ductive for a few years. After the subsoiling and harrowing very little clay should appear on the surface. Land subsoiled in the fall and sown in small Pram and followed by peas will show no signs of , for it. will be thoroughly mixed with the top a tilroush the agency of frost, air, water TTi r0ts Pants ceases to become clay, ihe very foundation of progressive improve ent 13 judicious subsoiling, sowing small grain 11(1 peas, and a three-year rotation. Improved Methods. 8t.KaW agricultural papers, occasional In reJ 1 and farmers' club are slowly working a pff?tl5n in tQia county. A. B. Groce near iord is making 40 to 50 bushels of corn on upland. He is now considering the practicability of introducing a traction engine to break his land. There are scores of farmers that are fall ing in with improved methods. There are more peas sown and planted in this county than the writer has ever seen. There is much inquiry after seed oats and wheat. From experience and studying reports of successful farmers the Ap pier and Red Rust Proof are the oats for fall sowing. This is the time to sow them, or rather plant with the drill. This slow improvement is a revolution. It will work slowly. Editors of agricultural papers need not despair. The seed they are sowing may be slow in producing fruit, but it is very sure. The non-resident landlords, those who buy a little tract of land, or two ,or three tracts and then rent to any one who will pay a bale or two bales of cotton in the fall, are enemies of true progress. They do not care how the tenant proceeds so the rent comes up in the fall. But revolution is working. There are ten thinking, progressive farmers to-da7, where there were five ten year ago. The outlook for the future is hopeful. CHAS. PETTY. Spartanburg, S. C. HOW TO GET GOOD SEED CORN. Importance of the Subject Not Appreciated Breed ing With Scrubs as Bad With Plants as Witn An imals. A farmer in the central part of this State writes to me: "This spring, in February and March, I broke my corn land deep, and at the sam time ran a sub-soiler behind, breaking two inches of the subsoil, and harrowed each day's plowing in the evening. Then harrowed twice more be fore planting. Planted with a com planter 2x4 feet. At once began to run the weeder and continued it until the corn was two or three in ches high. I then used a four-foot cultivator, and again put the cultivator on till it was two feet high, and the weeder till laid by. Never saw corn grow faster, but it has almost failed to ear out, and what ears are on it are small, and I do not believe that I will make over 150 bushels on 20 acres, on a field where with nothing but pea roots, the year, before made 100 bushels of wheat. I cannot understand the failure. Did I do wrong -in" subsoiling in the spring? The cultivation was ideal, shallow and level and the seed was first class. Can you tell me the cause of the failure ? The height of the corn is all right Did I plant too close? T find no ears in places where the corn has a space 4x5 feet. The land is red up-land. I have replied to this letter personally, as I do to all North Carolina farmers, but here is such a prominent example that I have concluded that others may be helped by a few words. In the first place I am of the opinion that spring subsoiling is not generally advisable, since the subsoil is then to wet to crumble well. But this is not the cause of the failure, for the corn did grow all right and the .cultivation, as our friend says, was ideal. The land is evidently not strong, as was evidenced by the fact that with pea roots plowed under, the 20 acres made but five bushels of wheat per acre the year before. The pea roots had still left some, nitrogen in the soil doubtless, and the growth was good, but the soil lacked phosphoric acid and potash to mature the ears. But aside from this I believe that chief cause was bad seed. He says that the seed was first class. It may have been so, so far es germanat ing power is concerned. But it was evidently sired by scrub male plants, and it has bred after the scrub just as an animal sired by a scrub male will deterioate. The corn may all have come from beautifully shaped ears, and may have been of perfect qual ity so far as growing is concerned. But it was evident, we think, badly bred. " Selecting pretty ears in the field or in the crib will never improve the seed corn to any extent. That is what-our people have been doing all their lives, and the re sult is long-legged corn that has to be planted wide apart, single ears on the stalk, that wide planting can never make a large crop, and barren stalks all around it to furnish the pollen for the ear. For the ear on any stalk is seldom if ever made by the pollen from the same stalk and should not be, if we are able to keep. up the sta mina in the plant. But these baren stalks, while making no ears, are abundantly supplied with the male element, the pollen, and the corn inherits from them the same barren character. We have advised our friend, and we advise all others to getthe best corn to be had in their neighborhood or in the same climate. Do not take seed from the field that is now full of barren stalks, but get some that has been better bred in the same cli mate. Plant a patch solely for seed on the best of land, and give it the ideal cultivation as you have this crop. Watch it closely at tasseling time, and take out the tasels while prreen from every barren stalk, and from every stalk that tend to grow long-legged and to produce but one ear. Let no plants bear pollen but those that come nearest to what you would have the ideal plant, and which show a greater productiveness than a single ear. Take seed for your next crop and seed patch from these prolific plants, and every year plant a seed patch in the same way. In short, breed at first for corn, in quantity per stalk and per ear, and when you have established a hereditary habit of prolificacy it will be time enough to pick out the finest ears. If the ears grow too high from the ground, try platning the lower ears by themselves and note the difference. Breed the corn to a stature that will enable you to plant as close or closer than you have planted, and if you give attention to improvement of your soil you will soon have no reason to complain of poor crops. Get more peas on that land and use acid phosphate and potash liberally on the peas and you may depend on their doing the rest. The peas that you grew before the little wheat crop left you some nitrogen in the soil, but you took off in the peas a large part of the phosphoric acid and potash that the corn needed, and aside from badly bred seed this helped to make the poor corn, for phosphoric acid and potash are both needed in the perfection of the grain. Then practice a good rotation and occasionally use some lime on your land, and it will enable you to get the potash that is usually plentiful in red clay land, but in an insoluble state. But no matter what rotation you use, you will never get the best returns in the crop till you breed your seed corn right. It is not enough that the seed corn be sound and vital, it must have an inheritance be hind it of good sires just as much as an animal must have. No breeder of cattle ever thinks of using a scrub bull, but thousands of farmers are using scrub males to produce their seed corn, and the result is scrub crops even en stroru? land. W. F. MASSEY, North Carolina Experiment Station. The Spencerian Style. "I am going to thrash you, but you can have any style of whipping you want," said the school teacher. "I'll take 'Spencerian' style, please." . "But what is Spencerian style?" "Up strokes heavy and down strokes light, sir." If f 1 - s
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 29, 1905, edition 1
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