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TILE DRAINAGE AND IV HAT. IT
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A Farm and Home Weekly for North and
South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia.
Vol. XXV. No. 47.
RALEIGH, N. C, NOVEMBER 26, 1910.
Weekly: $1 a Tear.
Larger and Gleaner Fields Reduce the Cost of Crop Production.
THAT, UNTIL THEY substitute Improved machinery and better work
stock for the inefficient implements and small mules they now
use in their farming operations, it is going to cost Southern farm
ers more than it should to make their crops, we have stressed again
and again in the last few years. The man who breaks his land with a
one-horse plow and cultivates his ' -: '
crop with s a double-shovel and a
hoe simply must produce his cot
ton or corn at a greater cost than
the man who plows the same kind
-.HE1 -
a -a a m - - A. - 1 "
OI lanu Willi uvu ur iiirw uui bob.
&na cultivates. It with a weeder ;
Jlid a two-horse cultivator. Im-
proved machinery is a necessity if
crops 'are to be most, economically
- produced. -. . - .- -
3
1
THE KIND OP FIELDS YOU SHOULD HAVE.
But there is another thing to I t
consider. Much of our land here f h' M&
in the South is cut up with ditches
and terraces and patches of un
cultivated land, or is broken up
with stumps and bushes and little
clumps of worthless trees, until
the use of any of the larger and
heavier farm implements is made
difficult if not impossible. To
use machinery economically, it is necessary to have fields of reasonable
size and to have these fields free from obstructions. A disk plow, a
grain drill, a weeder, a mowing machine' cannot do good, work-or cheap
work among a lot of stumps or between clumps of bushes.
Nor is there any necessity for having such fields. In our series of
drainage articles we have pointed out one way to get rid of many of
the open ditches and uncultivated patches that now break up the fields.
Terraces could, with proper plowing, often be done away with and
nearly always made low and flat so that they could be worked over.
The wide, shallow surface ditch which teams can cross is not in the
way and really gives better drainage than the deep and narrow ditch
which makes turning necessary. Stumps and busheswell, if they do
any good, we have never noticed it, and tney cost the farmer far more
than he is likely ever to imagine. This winter, instead of the farmer
and his hands and tenants remaining idle, let them get to work and
:' - - - - ------ciean up the fields, if there are
any of these hindrances to good
cultivation present, and thus pre
pare for better work and cheaper
crops next year. Let - the man
who has land to rent demand that
(the tenant help get it in shape
to cultivate next year, guaran
teeing payment for the work out
of the crop. The landlord . often
has to "carry" the . renter any
way; why not let him do a little
carrying? It will be to the ad-
, . . . .
vantage of all concerned.
At any rate, let the farmer get
rid of the stumps and ditches and
little strips of uncultivated land.
Until he does this, as we said In
the beginning, bis crops are going
to cost him more than they
should. '
FEATURES OF THIS ISSUE.
BREEDS OFOATTLE Vm.- JERSEYS
12
CHRISTMAS GIVING 8
IN THE LAND OF UPSIDE DOWN. . '. 11
PRACTICAL TILE DRAINAGE VI. 4
SELLING TO THE BEST ADVANTAGE . 8
THE REAL THEORIST .... . . . . 10
THE SAN JOSE SCALE 17
WHAT I AM DOING FOR BETTER CROPS NEXT YEAR 19
WHAT IT COSTS TO LAY TILE . .......... . . . .' &
WINTER FORCING 2
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"one or the best and cheapest ways to get bid of the stumps..