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Professor Massey's
Editorial Page.
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"if hat Farmers Want to Know.
ITH PEAS to be followed by wheat I would
mow the peas for hay, and then disk the
stubble as fine as possible working in 400
tpounds of acid phosphate per acre. Let the mix
ture of. lime, phosphate and potash, proposedby :
one inquirer, alone.' Lime is not used as a fer
tilizer, and mixed with phos
phoric acid it simply makes it
less available. Lime is useful,
of course, where it is needed to
correct .acidity in the soil or to
hasten the nitrification 01 or
ganic matter, but if your land
needs lime, buy the fresh un
slaked lime and slake it your
self, and do not buy lime and
fertilizer mixed at a high price
"bofessob Masset. for the lime. If you want a
'fertilizer carrying lime, buy the basic slag or
Thomas phosphate, and you will get 40 per cent of
lime without paying for it, as the price of the
phosphate is determined by the percentage of
r-phosphoric acid it contains. I would never re
plow a pea stubble deeply, for at this late period
in the season it will be hard to get the soil well
packed down. But disk the surface fine and drill
with a disk drill. The disk drill is greatly to be
preferred to the hoe drill.
.4
CANADA PEAS.-Canada peas may do fairl.
well if sown in October with oats, but the chances
'are against them anywhere south of New York
'State. It is useless to sow them in the South in
the spring as they are sown North. But we do
vnot need the Canada peas in the South, for the
cowpeas, soy beans and velvet beans are all-far
-superior to the Canada peas and make heavier
crops The South has a great advantage over the
JMorth in the great variety of protein feed crops
that can be grown We can sow oats. in the fall,
und after they are harvested can get a heavy crop
Hf peavine hay far better and heavier than the
Canada peas make anywhere.. Hence, there is no.
reason to regret that the Canada pea does not
thrive in the South.
ALFALFA. Alfalfa four years old that has a
good deal of bluegrass among it, and alfalfa is in
bunches. Cut August 1, and now 14 inches high.
I would mow it clean and cure it. and then disk
'the sod both ways and sow 20 pounds more of
alfalfa seed an acre. Then roll the sod down
smooth and top dress with 25 bushels of slaked
lime an acre. In spring apply 400 pounds of acid
tphosphate an acre. I think that you will find the
PROGRESSIVE FARMER, AND GAZETTE.
In the fall seed, of the Virginia bluegrass called have not, in that they can take carbon from che
also Canada bluegrass. It is Poa compressa and leal compounds in the soil, and get carbon
suits such lands better than Kentucky bluegrass, lime carbonate. Hence the lime favors bacteria!
and it, too. is a winter grass. . growth. in the soil. There are sections ia thi
jt South where no clover has been grown, whete a
WINTER LETTUCE. Where one has plants of tlflclal Inoculation is necessary for crimson clover"
a good .variety of head lettuce ready now, as I This fact was plainly shown in experiments at th
have, it is easy to make a fall crop without any Alabama station. But in sections where clover
protection. I doubt if lettuce seed sown In Sep- of, any. sort has grown the crimson clover thrives
tember would come on early enough to head be- without any effort at inoculation. A farmer from
fore Christmas, ahdt frames and glass orxloth the Valley of Virginia once asked me if I had ever
would be needed. By heavy manuring and also known this clover to fail, as he had never known
heavy use of commercial fertilizers of high grade r to do so. He farms in a section where clovers
you can probably have good head lettuce In spring . have been common crops for generations. Lime
from plants set in the fall, grown from seed sown may not promote the growth of peas, but after
the middle of September, but if you w,ant to ship the peas have been grown lime will certainly be
winter lettuce "you will have to use frames and useful, and in a three-year rotation one can profit-
glass sashes or clotn. To nt up ior growing win- - aDiy use lime once In six years.
PEACH TREE BORDERS .-Wherever you see
gum at the ground in a peach orchard there is a
borer in the root. Clean away' the gum and trace
up the borer and cut him out. Paint the stem
of the trees a foot from the ground up with pure
white lead and raw oil. This will prevent the
moth laying eggs to some extent. But you should
go over the orchard in spring and fall and look
for the gum and take out the borers. Then be
fore the leaves come out in spring spray the trees
for the San Jose scale with lime and sulphur, 8
pounds of lime and 8 pounds of sulphur, and then
add water to make 50 gallons for spraying. Short
en the young shoots In spring one-third.
CRABGRASS HAY. The abundant rains of late
will make a heavy growth of cfabgrass, and crab
grass cut when the heads are out and still green
makes as good, or even better, hay than timothy;
far better than most of the timothy brought in
bales to the South, for I have seen a great deal
of that which was timothy straw left from thresh
ing for seed, and perfectly dead before it was cut.
ter lettuce with cotton cloth on the frames will
cost from $500 to $800 an acre, and the cloth
will have to be renewed every second year. To fit
up with glass sashesn frames will cost about
$4,000 an acre, and the sashes made of cypress
will be good if handled right for twenty-five years
or more. A third better lettuce can be grown
under the sashes and, in the long run, they are
cheaper than cloth. ,
ROTATION PROBLEM. One reader has been
growing corn two years followed by clover, and
crop has improved, but he thinks something
should be added as fertilizer. If the clover fol
lowing the corn has been regularly turned under,
he will be accumulating humus and nitrogen, but
he will, need liberal applications of acid phosphate
and, in his case, potash to keep up the' growth of
corn and clover. It would be better to lengthen
the rotation, and follow the corn with oats and1
crimson clover, and cut these for hay and follow
with peas for hay, applying 300 pounds of acid
phosphate and 25 pounds of muriate of potash, to
peas; follow these with crimson clover on the
stubble and haul out manure on the clover in
winter and turn for corn again in spring. Or if
he keeps up the corn and clover, I would sow peas
among the corn and then sow clover among the
dead peas after cutting the corn off and apply the
phosphate and potash to the corn.
More Talk About the Corn Crop.
Notes and Comments,
R"
(alfalfa greatly improved another season.
VETCH AND CRIMSON CLOVER.T-One reader
has land in peas that he wants to get in vetch on
jpart and crimson clover on another part. Mow
'the peas and cure for hay when the pods mature.
For the vetch, I would plow the stubble and har
row in 25 pounds of seed, and after harrowing
well would sow two bushels of oats an acre with
.a disk drill. Get some soil from an old garden
-where English peas have been, grown and scatter
Aa barrel of this an acre before harrowing, and it
'will inoculate for thg vetch. On the part for
crimson clover I would simply apply 300 pounds
'-acid phosphate and 25 pounds of muriate of pot
ash, if potash Is needed, an acre and disk .the
"stubble over lightly and sow the seed. If you
" can get soil from a field where this clover has suc-
ceeded it will be well to use it, but if any sort of.
Clover, wild or cultivated, has grown there, it will
grow well without any inoculation.
J
PERMANENT PASTURE. To make a perma
nent pasture in the coastal section I would now
'plow the land well and sow rye. Plow the rye
: 'Under in the spring and then mark off shallow
'furrows two feet apart and plant cuttings of the
' running stems of Bermuda grass in the furrows
-and cover them and roll the land tight to them.
Do this about the first of May, for Bermuda is a
'summer , grass and should not be planted In the
"tall. Then In the fall you can stick in pinches of
' fieed of the Texas bluegrass about two or three
'teet apart. These seed are matted together by a
" sort of spider-web growth that makes them hard to
bow, but planted here and there it will soon run
A READER who wants to use lime after peas, -is
offered air-slaked lime at $5 a ton and
prepared lime at $13 a ton and ground lime
stone at $4.50 per ton, and asks which is cheapest.
Neither of them would be chosen by me. The air
slaked lime has taken up a large lot of water, and
I would not care to freight water needlessly. The
prepared lime, I believe, has some potash added,
and is sent out with the idea that lime is a fer
tilizer. You can get lime, if needed, cheaper,
and potash, If needed,- cheaper. r Then" $ 4. 5 0 is
too yhigh for pulverized rock. It ought not to
cost more than $1.50 a ton where made, and could
be made anywhere on the coast from oyster shells
cheaper than that, for where I live we can buy
oyster shells for 2 cents a bushel delivered. This
would be, I suppose, about 50 cents a ton, and
they could be pulverized and sold at a fine profit
at $1.50 a ton. Years ago I was buying the air
slaked lime, or "agricultural" lime, as it is called.
A company wrote to me that, on a guaranty that
the lime was to be used for agricultural purposes,
they would sell me lump lime in bulk in car
loads for 12 cents a bushel, and on the same1 guar
anty the railroads would freight it at reduced
rates. ? I ordered a car-load from them. It was
440 bushels. I hauled this 440 bushels five and a
half miles from the railroad and piled it convenient
to water and slaked It to a powder with water,
and had nearly 1,000 bushels of slaked lime, and
had freighted and hauled only the 440 bushels.
I had plenty of water in the branch and did not
need to freight it in slaked lime. I believe that
it is cheaper to buy lump lime In car-loads than to
buy slaked or the so-called agricultural lime, the
sweepings of the kilns. .
LIME FOR COWPEAS. -It has seemed at
times that lime is detrimental to the growth of
cowpeas when applied directly to the crop, while
tnere have been a few experiments made that
IDING SEVERAL miles in the country yes
terday, I saw men topping corn and strip
ping the blades on plants where the ears
were hardly too ripe for table use as roasting-ears.
They, fail to understand that so long as the leaves
on the corn are green they are getting material
for starch-making and storing in the grain. But
strip the green leaves off and the corn gains no
more, but simply dries up, and there is weight of
grain enough lost to pay a good price for all the
fodder obtained.
Of course, the fodder got in this way is a better
article than that from the cut-down corn, but the
farmer is paying a big price for it The practice
has grown out of the neglect of the grasses in the
South and hence the lack of hay. The remedy is
to grow more hay from peas and soy beans and
olover and grass. Then the stover from the corn
crop has a place of smaller importance to the
farmer.
There is another important reason why we
should grow more legume forage in the South,
and this is its value in balancing a ration. I"
the city where I live the livery stables feed their
horses on othlng but corn and corn fodder. The
result is horses too fat for good work, since they
must eat more of this carbonaceous feed than is
good for them, to get what protein they need.
Driveone of Jthese .horses that are kept at these
stables, and In even rather cool weather they lath
er with sweat, and are' too soft to be driven.
More oats and less corn and corn fodder is bad
ly needed here. Oats are far better grain feed for
horses than corn, and oats can be grown 14 &e
South more successfully than elsewhere If grown
as a winter crop. Last fall I Induced a friend
here to sow some winter oats. He got clean seed
and, of course, had a clean crop and no cheat.
His oats are in demand for seed, for every one oi
his neighbors now wants to sow winter oats, an
he is selling them by weight, for they weigh 3
pounds to the measured bushel, and 32 pounds is
the standard weight for a bushel of oats, and no
spring oats grown here ever come up to It.
When to cut the corn is a question often askea.
I would cut it when the grain, is completely
it.
ie mai . m. , . - , - ita erowu
seemed to show that lime favors peas as it does .fu" Aa can e ?Ken as ?:lueuc" Vimr) and
is vuuipieie. do long as me giaiu
the leaves green the grain is gaining. If cor
to go into.the silo, cut it as soon as in a raiw
other lpcnmps. . Porfnlnlv hn tw .n 18 complete, bo long as me graiu ---
dance of humus-making material in the soil lime
does favor the. growth of bacteria. All plants
need carbon for their growth. Green plants get
carbon only from the air through the assimilation
of carbon dioxide from the air by the green leaves.
Bacteria, having no green matter, can not do this,
good roasting ear shape or barely past It.
I can not tell the 'exact proportion betvVft
. . . . .-a aUoti seed, "u
, v.uiW ucio uu lueic it win suoa run uacteria, naving no green matter, can not do this crimson ciover seea in tne cnau buu - hafl
over land and give you a winter grass growth, for and one European scientist determined that these the Practice is to so,w 40 pounds of seed in
purely a wlntr grass. Or you'might scatter microscopic plants have a power that green rfantt where we would B0W 15 Punds of clean see .