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A Farm and Home Weekly for the Carolinas, Virginia,
Georgia and Tennessee.
FOUNDED, 1886, AT RALEIGH, N. C.
Vol. XXVII. No. 32.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1912.
Weekly: $1 a Year.
SOW RYE!
YES, that s the advice we give to sow rye and lots of it. It is
good advice, too, advice probably that we should have offered
wnn a great aeai more insisience ana persistence in lormer
years, and advice that we offer with full confidence to readers in ev
ery State and section of our territory.
We expect that right here a lot of readers will say to themselves
that it is advice they don't care for,
that rye is not much of a crop any
way, that there are plenty of better
things they can grow, and that
they are not looking -for advice, but
information. Other readers may ask
why we think they should sow
rye, whether for grain, or hay, or
pasture, or winter cover.
We are quite willing to concede
all that readers of theiirst class say
about rye, and about the need of in
formation rather than of advice; but
that does not change our opinion
that rye is a good crop for them to
grow and that they can profit by the
advice we are offering them. To
those of the second class we would
say that they should plant rye, first,
for a cover crop, then for pasture and
hay and grain and green manure.
"But are there not better cover
crops than rye?" asks someone. Of
course there are. Crimson clover
is better, and the vetches, and bur
clover, and in many cases some of the other winter cereals.
"Why should we sow rye then, why not sow crimson clover, or
bur clovef, or hairy vetch?" Well, frankly, we don't know why you
should not sow one of these crops, but the fact remains that you do
not no, not you, Mr. Up-to-Date Farmer, but a great number of our
readers and a great majority of Southern farmers. We have preached
crimson clover and vetch and alljhe other cover crops year after year;
have urged that they be planted more liberally, have tried to show
how it would pay to plant them, how they would add to the always
short supply of feedstuf fs, and to the sadly deficient supply of humus,
how they would prevent washing and leaching and add nitrogen to
the soil, how without them the permanent upbuilding of Southern
soils is impossible; yet every winter millions of acres of cotton
and corn and other cultivated lands are left stark to the destructive
winter rains, inevitably to be poorer when the spring comes than
when the last crop was removed.
We do not urge the sowing of rye in the place of the leguminous
cover crops, but because, the leguminous crops are not sown, We
know that many of our readers do sow them, that the practice is
increasing, and that nearly every year the demand for seed of all-of
them exceeds the supply; but after all the progress that has been made,
the prevailing color of the Southern landscape in winter is not the
bright green of growing crops, but the dull brown or gray or red of
bare and wasting soils. You will not sow the other crops vetch seed
cost too much, crimson clover is too likely to fail, and so on through
the whole range of excuses,therefore, sow rye.
THE RIGHT WAY TO CUT UP THE FIREWOOD.
These boys are students at the Arkansas Fourth District Agricultural School. They
are getting the firewood ready while learning to run the gasoline engine. This is the
way to cut up the firewood and stovewood, and this is the time to do it
Rye is not the best cover crop, it is not the best pasture crop, as
a hay and grain crop it does not hold high rank, it is decidedly inferior
as a soil-builder to the legumes, but, as Dr. Butler pointed out last
week, it has some merits of its own which make it eminently worthy
of consideration. It is just the sort of crop most Southern farmers
need. It is hardy, it will grow on poor land and on land poorly pre-
pared,it costs little to seed an acre,
it can be sown either early or late.
It is, in short, a wonderfully useful
crop for the man who hasn't learned
to grow the more valuable but more
particular winter legumes and for
,the :soil that is too poor for these
legumes. It is not a supplanter of
other crops, but a forerunner. In
some respects it is one of the poor
est winter cover crops, but it is so
much better than no cover crop at
all that there is no room for com
parison. Besides, we are not sure
that it is not, taking the South as a
whole and Southern farmers in the
mass, the most valuable winter crop
of all for the three reasons that it
will grow on, poor land, that it costs
little to sow it, and that a stand and
some growth are almost certain.
For these reasons let us again re
peat our advice to sow rye. Sow
every cultivated field that would
otherwise be bare, if it is possible
for you to do so. At any rate, sow as large an acreage as possible,
beginning with the lands most likely to suffer from exposure.
Get your seed and be ready when the time comes to sow it
between the cotton rows and in the corn fields and wherever there
is a bare spot. Don't neglect the other cover crops. If you have
grown them, slick to them and use rye to finish the job; if you have
not grown them, try them on a small scale and make rye your
main dependence. In any case plant a cover crop. Before Southern
farmers can get a fair return for their work, they must have soils that
will produce respectable crops, and they will not have such soils so
long as the land is left unprotected during the winter.
FEATURES OF THIS ISSUE.
A PRACTICAL DRAINAGE PROPOSITION A Big Question
Answered by J. P. Duggar, A. L. French and Tait Butler. ... 0
KEEP YOUR FACE TO THE SUNRISE It is the Man of High
Ideals 'Who Succeeds 1(
NUT GROWING IN THE PIEDMONT REGION Possibilities of
the Industry as Seen by Professor Hutt 1
OUR CLIMATIC CONDITIONS Shall We Profit or Suffer by Them? 23
PLOWHANDLE TALKS Interesting and Timely Letters 5
PRACTICAL HOME CANNING Why Fruit Spoils and How to
Prevent It 8
THE TWOFOLD PROBLEM OF AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZA
TIONA Study of Irish Methods by Mr. Poe 11
THE SOUTH IS A CATTLE COUNTRY Mr. French Submits the
Proof 12
WHEN TO CUT TOBACCO By Prof. E. II. Mathowson 18
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