THE rnOGRESSIVE PAIlMEn.
868 4P
Prof. Massefs
Editorial Page
A GROCER here has some tons of salt refuse
from meat? Will this be of any value aa a
fertilizer, for. fall oats?" No, it is not worth
hauling as a fertilizer. ' v
WILL it pay to use nitrate of soda on a patch
of potatoes that were planted on a turned
down sod of alfalfa?" ." I hardly think it would
pay. It would mainly increase the growth of the,
tops without a corresponding increase in the
tubers.
HOW shall I keep beets in winter, for I have a
nice lot?" Do not try to keep the early-sown
beets, but plant some Blood Turnip beets now and
then let them stay all winter right where -they
grew, with a furrow thrown to each side, and you
can get at them all winter through when the soil
is not frozen. Treat carrots in the same way. '
WILL ground oyster shells-give me as good re
sults as burnt lime?" If the shells are pul
verized as fine as flour, and you can get them at
a reasonable price, say $1 a ton, they will pay
very well, and can be used more heavily, than
burnt , lime. But burnt lime well slaked and
allowed to get carbonated in the air will have a
more speedy effect in smaller amount.-
HOW-shall I keep my Irish potatoes?" JYou
cannot keep the early crop of potatoes for
winter, no matter what you do. The only way is
to have a late crop from July planting which will'
grow till frost. .Then, if these are stored in a
perfectly dark place and kept at a temperature
but little above the freezing point, they will keep
all right. Heat and lightswill ruin, them quickly.
A GOOD BEEF SIRE.
JEAD Mr.' A. U
French's article
onpage 12 telling
how the young folks
can v help raise the
beef calves and find
it pleasant and'Prof
itable works The
South is going to be
a great cattle country
one of these ' days;
and it will pay you
to interest your boys
in good cattle of both
the beef and dairy
breeds.
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healthy seed and to avoid planting-land where the
disease appeared the year before, for the v germs
may live in the soil for several years.- In South
Carolina they have found that seed taken from a
healthy plant among di seased ones may breed a
resistant strain. North Carolina farmers had
better be careful' where they buy seed. .
WHAT is the proper color of Jersey cows? I
have one that has some white spots that was
bought for full-blood, and some say that; this is
not a true Jersey." Your cow may be all right,
for white spots do not indicate impure blood in a
Jersey cow. They are generally buff in color and
sometimes squirrel gray,; and at one time there
was a fad for solid color and black points, but
some of the . best Jerseys have white spots, and
no ope demands solid color now.
CAN I sow onion' seed now for plants to. set in
fall, as the soil is hardly workable in early
- spring?" You can sow seed of wthe Prizetaker
- uuiuu m eiiiu oeuieiuuci ouu iiauayiaut . mem
when they are the size of a goose quill, and they
;Will do very well and make large onions. Ot you
can sow the seed in February under glass sashes
In a cold-frame, as I did this spring, and trans
it plant them and they will do well, for mine are
now of good size and still growing.
IT THAT 'is the best top-dressing for bluegrass
W lawns?" Dressing with r stable manure will,
of course,' make the grass grow stronger, but it is
apt to bring in so much crabgrass and chickweed
that it damages the lawn. . The-best top-dressing
I have .ever used ,on a lawn is raw bone - meat.
This will have nitrogen enough to encourage the
growth, and the phosphoric acid in the bone will
maintain the growth well. An annual dressing of
bone meal in the spring as the grass starts in
growth will keep the lawn in a healthy, growing
condition. Then, in all growing weather, cut the
lawn every week and leave the cut grass to decay
where it falls, and it will thicken the sod. If you
leave the grass to get tall before mowing. the lawn
mower will not do good work and the cut grass
will be so heavy that you will have to rake it off,
- and that tends to the exhaustion of the sod. The
fine cut grass will build up a mulch-that will be
a protection to the sod in dry weather.
rows and evidently the roots o the corn had been
severed, and but for the fact that the rainy season"
had enabled the corn to recover more quickly
from the mutilation, there would have been seen
far more damage done.
I had a large audience in the schoolhouse and
tried to show them the error of this sort of work,,,
not only cutting the corn roots but throwing up
; the ' soil to dry out rapidly, and only the ; rainy
season had saved much of it from serious loss.
It is surprising how slow farmers are to fully
realize the mischief they are doing with turning
plows in the corn field. , x
The-weather is now changing -from wet to dry,
and the piled up soil around will dry out and the
corn will suffer, while corn that has simply been
kept with a shallow dust blanket will thrive.
WHAT do you think of the open-furrow method
of sowing oats?" I have never tried it, and
from what I have seen, never shall want to do so.
The best way to sow oats is to prepare the land
thoroughly by harrowing till fine and then drill
the oats in" with a regular , wheat drill. Rough
preparation and the loose and lumpy soil cause
, more winter-killing than anything else. With the
soil well settled and. the surface made fine, the
'. winter oats will stand as well as in furrows and
the crop will be 'heavier
WJIILE the regular tiles are best for under
V drains, you can make very good drains with
pino poles skinned. Give the ditches a regular
fall with no sags in it to fill up; dig the ditches
as deep as 'you can get a fall of a few inches in
100 feet, say two to three feet deep." ; Lay two
poles side by side in the ditch with a space be
tween them,' and then lay another pole on top,
rather larger, to cover this space. Then put in
some pine straw to keep the soil from working in,
and fill the , ditch. Dig straight to a good outlet,
and put the ditches about fifty feet apart. It will
pay well to under-drain as it will dry the land
better than open ditches.
YOU can grow violets in a cold-frame under "
glass. , The common hardy violet known as
the Tarboro" violet, and the Pinehurst violet, will
. bloom very well in the open ground, and seed
freely and stands the summer heat The finer
sweet violets such as the double Marie Louise
need to be grown in frames. Then there is a fine
single one that sells well. This is the Princess of
Wales. But I hardly think that you can make .
anything shipping violet flowers North. With a
little frame tho, you can-have more and better
flowers-than outside The plants are set in the
frame in September six inches apart each way. In
the spring, runners are rooted and placed in three-'
inch pots and packed closely together on a bed of
coal ashes With a lath screen over them. Then,
by watering, carefully protected from the sun,
you can have fine plants for setting in the fall,
but planted outside the red spider will destroy
them in summer. - . v
I HAVE two letters from North Carolina farmers,
stating that they bought cottonseed and both
have, the cotton anthracnose . in their crop. This
dlsease.is conveyed in the seed and has not here
tofore been common in North Carolina, and grow
ers should be extremely careful in getting seed to
knov that they are not getting the disease. There
Is no remedy for it. ' Some bolls will make half a
crop and seed from such bolls, will carry the dis
ease. The only thing to do is to plant perfectly
; Good Farming and Poor.
THERE is a great difference in the agricul
tural development in various sections in"
the South. In the upper Piedmont section
' of North Carolina, from jGreensboro to Charlotte ,
one finds that the shallow and level cultivation of
the corn crop has very generally been adopted
and here and there we find one who is, trying it
, with cotton and tobacco with success. V .
But last week I went from Raleigh down, into
the near-by county of Harnett to attend and speak
at the annual picnic of the local Farmer's- Union.
Down in this section I. find that the modern methsL
. ods of cultivation have not yet taken hold r and I
saw field after field of corn "laid-by" with turning
plows, throwing up high ridges of earth to the
The One Way Out.
A, SK a small farmer in the South why he keeps
Z growing nothing but cotton, and he will tell
-fc-1- you that r it is the only money crop, and
that he cannot afford to grow things that he can-.
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not get casn ior, as ne can ior cotton. Ana ne
f?np nlnnsr malrinc n 'Uttlp nrnn nf cntinn nnd
being carried by 'the merchant, and the store bill
at the end-of the year takes his cotton. In fact,
he never sees any money, does not know what it
cost him to make the cotton, and instead of set
ting ahead, he goes backwards till the merchant
owns him and his land.
He could not afford to. raise forage and feed
stock, but he could afford to pay two or three
prices for hay that he could have grown, and for
meat that he could have raised and his little crop
of cotton helps, to make rich a host of other peo
ple who furnish him food for himself and his
mule, while it keeps him poor and makes him
poorer year after, year. Why will men keep doing
this hopeless sort of work? Why, in the name of
common sense, do. they keep on making a couple
of hundred pounds, or less, of lint an acre, when
times as much cotton per acre, and at the same
,time; raise most "of the things they now buy on
credit at three prices to be paid for out of a poor.
crop or cotton?
Cotton is a splendid money crop to the man
who arms well, buys what he must buy for cash,"
and can. hold his cotton till the speculators have
gobbled up all the weak cotton at their 6wn price,
but to the farmer who grows nothing but cotton
and buys everything on the credit of the cotton
crop, cotton Is far from being a money crop, and
becomes simply the. emblem ' of his enslavement
to the merchant and the fertilizer Man. V And the
only way out is to farm right ami grow the things
he is now paying exorbitantly for, andto stop
trying to make , cotton pay for everything that
.he needs. . .1 . ' -: J-n--:r :;: -
. as an am to getting a Btana or crimson ciover,
no nvuiu uog iixua auu tiiauio uiauuic iicci uu a
small arp.al Tf will ;nv.' for whan p.r 1m ann fin VAr
is; once made, a successful crop on. the 'farm, its'
value Is very great. ) " . . s l- (-.