Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Sept. 19, 1905, edition 1 / Page 2
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PROGRESSIVE FARMER AND COTTON PLANT 2 SELECT SEED CORN IN THE FIELD. Now is the Time to Pick Ears for Next Year's Planting Observe Charac teristics of Parent Stalks. Messrs. Editors: This is oue tiling the farmers of the South should pay more attention to. As it stands now, the average production per acre in North Carolina, for example, is less than twelve hushels. This could be brought up to twenty to thirty bush els in the next few years if the farmers would select their seed corn right, and by improved methods of cultivation and breeding. Questions are constantly being ask ed as to methods of improvement, and where good seed of improved va rieties can be obtained. There is no crop that is more re sponsive to the careful selection of seed and better methods of improve ment generally than is corn. A dif ference of five to ten bushels per acre in productiveness is easily made in a few seasons. Any effort of improve ment must be based on proper meth ods of breeding and seed selection, as well as careful field culture. Better seed will go a long ways toward pro ducing larger yields. The importance of selecting good seed corn, taking good care of and preparing it for the plant ing seasons, cannot be over-estimated. Experiments have shown that weil-bred and carefully selected seed corn of a type suited to the soil and climatic conditions where it is to be used will produce from ten to one hundred per cent more com per acre than the seed corn used at pres ent by the average farmer. To get the best corn it should be selected in the fall, in the field after it has matured, and while the char acters of the parent stalk can be ob served. Seed corn should never be picked before it is mature. An im mature kernel has not had time to store up all the food it wanted, aEd consequently will be more or less weak in vitality. Early picked corn may germinate if well preserved un der favorable conditions, but its con stitution has been weakened, and the yield will be correspondingly lessen ed. Nature should be allowed to ripen seed in her own way. Selecting seed corn from the crib is always objectionable. The vitality of the corn has generally been more or less injured, and while the ears selected may have good appearance, one can tell nothing as to the char acters of the parent stalks. It has been shown by experimenters that crib corn produces smaller yields than corn that has been properly se lected in the field and well preserved through the winter. The quantity of seed corn selected should be considerably more than will be needed for planting so that there may be room for farther and more critical selection later on. Much corn that is intended for seed is injured by improper methods of drying and storing. It should be stored at once in a dry, well venti lated place, and in such a way that there may be a free circulation of air around each ear. Seed corn sliould be always stored in the ear and should never be put in barrels or bags. M. P. LIPE. A. & M. College, Raleigh, N. C. you use lime, and how much per acre V For the last few years I have been using ground lime with a small pro portion of high-grade phosphoric rock ground up with it with excellent results; I would suggest from 500 to 600 pounds per acre broadcasted along with 200 to 300 pounds of cot tonseed meal per acre. The more lit ter or vegetable mater the better the result (for any crop), as I find that there is but little soil that lime will not improve, most especially if it js not burnt with some phosphoric acid rock ground up with it. Notwith standing we have had one of the most unfavorable seasons in years, yet where I put from 400 .to 800 pounds of ground lime rock per acre, I have the finest peanuts, as well as corn and cotton, I have seen, and where I put COO pounds of ground lime rock with 200 to 300 pounds of cottonseed meal per acre I have the best fruited cotton that I ever had. The good results of this lime shows bettor frorr. the second to the fifth year. B. F. a. New Hanover Co.. N. C. When, Where and How to Use Lime. Messrs. Editors: Looking over The Progressive Parmer of August 22nd I find J. A. T., Sampson Co., N. C, asking for information when to plow pea-vines under, also, "Would Fruit Orchards in the Mountains A Suggestion for Piedmont Farmers. Messrs. Editors: The fruit crop in Piedmont section of the Carolinas is often not a full one. Sometimes it is almost an entire failure, even two or more years in succession. And this tendency seems to be increasing. But in the mountain sections of these States fruit nearly always hits. This contrast is so marked that often a full orchard is seen only a mile or so from another seemingly good one that has scarcely any fruit. On sev eral recent trips in these sections this difference was noted in many places. Only a few miles up the mountains, or rather before you scarcely reach the mountains, the trees, apples, peaches, pears, etc., with almost no care whatever, were bending with beautiful, almost perfect, fruit. Even the seedlings growing up in weeds along the roadside were full. At one place visited, the fruits of all kinds were everywhere in abund ance. The old gentleman and family were living in almost Eden bliss. A beautiful pecan, grown from a nut given him by a traveler several years ago, and now beginning to bear, had just been cut down. It was begin ning to shade one corner of his gar den. Then the butt end of its trunk would make two axe handles that would bring ten cents each at the country store! And why should he care for nuts anyway? White and black walnuts, chestnuts, etc., were growing in abundance wild and with out any care except gathering. See ing these bountiful crops of fruit growing with scarcely any care, I could not help thinking of the little orchard at home, the years spent in trying to grow it, with the best va riety an extensive travel-knowledge could suggest, clean cultivation, the fight with the insect nests and all that; and for three years no fruit, or nearly so. And yet, it is on a farm and in a neighborhood noted for fruit a generation and a half ago. Simi lar conditions, strange to say, exist in many places. Many old men tell me that in their boyhood days more fruit lay on the ground and rotted after all their brandy-making than is now grown with all our nurseries, improvements, increased population, etc., this, of course, being inters1 d to anply only to their imr .uiate neighborhood. But I started out make a sug gestion: Many of The Progressive Farmer family live within a day's drive or less of the mountains or high table land near the mountains where it is known fruit is almost invariably a full crop never an entire fail ure. These mountain lands are for sale at one dollar and a quarter tr six dollars per acre. Let one or mor neighborhoods unite (no matter if there be twenty-five or more fami lies) and buy up a lot of this land with a view to raising fruit for family use, allotting to each family for its own use one or more acres, to be set in such fruit as each may de sire. A tenant, as superintendent, may be put in charge who can make his living at general farming on the place. A house in common for stop ping over-nights may be erected. Of course there is one or more springs of the purest water on earth nearby. Besides making trips for the fruit, it will afford the best of outings for the over-worked family for a week or so after crops are "laid by," and then carry back a load of fruit. T would not see all these moun denuded of their beautiful and luxu riant cover of green, yet I would gladly see every family within forty miles of these mountains bountifully supplied every year with the best of orchard fruits and at the least possi ble cost. C. C. GETTYS. Rutherford Co., N. C. One Experience in Corn Growing. Messrs. Editors: Have just read "How to Get Good Seed Corn," and an inquiry as to cause of corn not earing; also giving his manner of preparation and cultivation. Now, I have a small farm near this place on which is a tenant who moved on the place during that icy spell in February. The rain continued so long that he could not plow until the latter part of March. He had but two horses, and put one to Dixie one horse turn plow, the other to Geor gia stock two inches steel hoe in bottom of furrow. After breaking in this way, harrowed nicely, run off rows with one-horse Dixie, followed with same Georgia stock and hoe in bottom of row furrow; dropped by hand; covered with plow; cultivated with four-foot cultivator until last time; then used what is known as heel sweep. On a small part of this plat of about eight acres poor land, there was about fifteen one-horse loads of stable manure put broad casted about half in fall "by another man." That applied in fall is by long odds the best. I drove out yesterday, met two neighbors right at end of corn. They both said it is the best they ever saw on the ground. My man was cutting the corn ; said he didn't think that he ever handled heavier corn. He planted on this ground the strawberry variety; got it from Mr. T. M. Arrowsmith who lives nearby. Now, it was getting late and my man concluded that it was time his corn was planted; so he rushed through plowing and planting; stop ped his sub-soiling. This corn is not nearly so good. I think it pays, and pays well, to sub-soil, either fall or spring, if land is not too wet, pro vided you take it by degrees. A. G. S. Two Oaks Farm, Guilford Co., N. C. Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have Everett Edward Hale. AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PIEDMONT FARMERS. There is a place for Christ in ev ery heart and in every home; and Christ gives you a place a sphere of duty in His Church. Growing Vegetables For Eastern Mar ketsMoney to be Made in Raising Vegetable Seed and Onion Sets. Messrs. Editor: I want you or some kind reader of the Progressive Farmer to tell me in the next isre if it will pay, or is it best to cut off sweet potato vines at this season My vines have rooted nearly their full length across the rows " and I think this must take a great deal from the potato. I have thought of pulling loose the vines or of cutting them off with a wheel hoe in the mid dle of the row. What is your idea as to either plan, or is it better to leave them alone? I would like to hear from people who have tried this. I would like to say a word to West ern North Carolina farmer in the mountain section. At this season they can have plenty of snap beans or green beans, and there is a good market, even in North Carolina in all the eastern towns, at a fair price for these, but I don't see any coming this way. Now, why don't these far mers plant for this season? The vegetables grown in the mountains are better and grow to perfection, with less expense than anywhere in the State, fie crops of corn-field beans being raised without any fer tilizer at all. There is big money in raisin beans and potatoes in "Western North Carolina for seed. Instead of pav ing some Northern seedmen GO to GO cents a quart for bean seed that are no better, wThy not these people turn their attention to this I First, buy a strictly standard or pedigreed seed of both beans and po tatoes. Plant these separate and keep them separate. Carefully cull and select the seed and there is n reason why they will not sell at a good price. The sweet corns will also grow there to perfection, and the seed will grow in Eastern North Carolina and make better crops than seed bought from Northern States. Why not some good farmer up there go into this business? It will be a success from the start. The writer knows one country merchant who shipped 125 bushels of onion sets at $1.25 per bushel to a certain North ern seedsmen last winter. I am sure I bought some of the same sets back at 15 cents per quart last spring, for I bought sets of this same seedsman. Now, why do we do this We need being aroused. When shall we begin '. "A TRUCKER." Cumberland Co., N. C. To Get Rid of Stumps. Messrs. Editors : I have a pioce ot land with a great many oak stump-j upon it. The land has been cleared about ten years. I am anxious to get rid of the stumps, so write v know the most economical way to get rid of them. Is there no chemi cal preparation which I can apply t" them that will burn them up t It .v0U do not know of anything or way ex cept to prize them up, I should con ider it a favor to myself, as well a to other farmers and subscnoers, n you would advertise in your pest is sue for the desired information, tor I am certain I read in some papu years ago some process by wlncn m- could get rid of them at a small t. pense. , i Hoping you can give me tnt sired information, I ai"'TrT? Af ton, N. C. The best thing we know for out reader to do is to get a stump Write Milne anufact;loutl pany, 878 Eighth Street, Mommout Dl., for full information. I I I
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 19, 1905, edition 1
2
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