156 (4)
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What Farmers Want to Know
Dy W. F. MASS EI Y
VALUABLE IMPLEMENTS FOR
THE SOUTHERN FARMER-
How Land Rollers," Fanning Mills,
Planters, Cultivators and Mowing
'Machines May be Used to Save Ex
pensive Labor ; ,. -'. . '
VERY lew farmers in the South
seem to appreciate the value of a
good roller in the preparation of the
soil, especially ill getting Jand, ready norse cultivators, doing twice the hu-
for the fall sowing of small grams
A good; roller not only compacts, the -wcre doing, ? and doing
1 sou. but tines ..tne cioas. a smooin
In one day's ride I noticed a great
difference in this respect.. I rode
from Wilmington, Delaware, down
the Peninsula to Cape Charles, Va.
Oh the beautiful- and well - farmed
lands in the upper part of Delaware I
saw men riding on two-row- cultiva
tors oyer : clean fields of flourishing
corn. ;' As I came southward in lower
Delaware and Maryland; I saw them
eoine through-the rows with one-
mire to make what they call compost,
and then dribbling thia diluted ma-,
nure In the -rows to ' make cotton,
when they, would have gotten .better
results from the. manure by loading ,
It- on a' manure spreader as fast as '
made and then driving off and leav
ing it where the plant roots- would
findIt I have seen otherwise good
farmers, loading, man ifre- in wagons Y
and then forking it off In little piles
to be. handled again, , thus handling
: the manure three times when one
handling would.? have , sufficed ,, and"..
THE rilOuiiiSSSiV FAiOIOL
feet apart and eight or ten. Inches In
the rows. The crop can. be dug any
time in fall and winter whenever the
demand is good,. . The best variety, is
the-Maliner Kren. . ' V V -
v ' v Growing Cantaloupes I ,
1 INTEND to plant 10 or 12 acres In
; cantaloupes, "and would, like; to.
know where to buy the; seed; how to
prepare, fertilize and cultivate,' and
where to sell." "- ' -i: rPi''. 'S-
given better results from a more unl-,; of acres planted in 'cantaloupes. The
form, distribution with the .manure f ground was plowed Jn December and
spreader. I. have seen "farmers strip-' the furrows run out -five; feet apart,
; roller should; never, be used on hill
' land that, is Inclined . to.. wash, as it
win leave loose places for-the water
v ; to get into. ' But I haye used ia roller
f: that overcome this difficulty. . . It was,
V made of" a series of fluted steel rings
5 $ about three inches wide each, turning
; . loosely on the same axle. . . These
"j rings - sink into every inequality of
y : the soil and leave the surf ace looking
:'. x as though a. drill had gone over it. .
':$k ;5 -Another, farm implement that is
man labor that the. men farther up
it on Joot,
while the others; were riding. When
I reached the' Virginia. counties I saw
them going through." the corn rows
with one-horse turning plows, barring
off the corn to be later thrown back -aud
the middles, plowed but with two
more furrows; doing nearly six times
ping the leaves from' their corn while
the green ears ' stuck t straight ;" up
ready for the food the ' leaves were;
getting from the air, and making less
corn by this" labor, while what the
corn lost would have paid for all' the
fodder. ': P'.:;r X&'-yMh:
. ; i . have seen,; men , every; year chop
ping down; the ranis growth, of open
ditch banks by hand, when the labor
thus-, spent would.;in a" little while
have put tiles in the ditches and given
? the' man: labors that the farmers In
the upper counties were doing, and them clear fields and no bushes to
doing poorer work: " ': ' ; clean and no ditches to dig out every:
- ; Theii I have "seen1 farmers going year. : And I have seen them digging
'through the com and cotton fields in out .ditches and. piling the earth in ar
lavlnsr bv the croos with a turning dam alongside to keep the water out,
not used: as it should, be is a good fan- nlftW or aween. niline the soil to the when a horse scoop would have
ning mill for the cleaning of grain; rows to dry Out; " when they could, sloped the ditch banks and made even:
This . is especially ivaluable, ; in the - - i:
cleaning of oats and wheat" for seed,,
P so that only the heaviest; and plump
; est: seed will be. sawn. A good: fan
- nlng mllL will take but of . the oats all
the light cheat jseed,: and your oats
If will not "turn to cheat'! it them are
no cheat seed sown. A friend of
mine in-Maryland, has, a fanning mill
arranged in the second, story ojfk his
granary and he made three grades
of the wheat, coming down to the
lower floor In three, chutes JJown
one come the trash and- lightest
gram and weed seed; which are used
;: for the chickens Down, the next
' chute comes the medium: milling
: wheat and down the thirdchute
comes the heaviest of ,; the wheat,
' which is used for seed. v This; farmer
found that some people were buying
his milling wheat and using it; for
P seed, and he stopped, selling any of
this except to millers,; and nver. sells
: . any. but th heaviest for seed, as he
has made & reputation for his seed
' wheat, and does' not want It injured
.:.by- farmers sowing the lighter grain.
This same man has a - home-made
grader, for corn which, allows all the
smalt and misshapen . grain to go
through, and retains the corn of uni
form size, so that the. corn planter
will drop it uniformly and. only the
; best grains, and he makes nearly 100
" bushels-of corn an acre all over- his
:' -fields. Another friend has made an
and filled half full of stable manure
This, lies till planting time! in: April,
and then' about 1,000 pounds ai"aere
of ,a" high-grade . fertilizer, la applied
on ' the manure, and furrows i thrown
over from each : side. -The ridges are
slightly flattened and the seed drilled
in ; in . a - continuous" rowj j Atteii a
stand is 'sure the plants are thinned,
to 18 inches, and then a. little nitrat
of soda' is scattered around, each; hill,
and ;the plants worked ' clean, till the
vines cover the rows.; The cucumbers
are grown in the- same way.: As the.
fruit makes, : crimson; , clQien sed are .
sown over the. entire field. to: majcea
winter- cover. - The variety mainly
planted is: the Edetf : GemJ fitrairi' of .
the Rocky, Ford. They are, shipped in
' ABE . YOU, COMPETING WITH A MACHINE, OR ARB YOU MAKING IT
,' " , WORK FOR YOU? - : V -
rrGUS i$ cm a&eof
machinery on the
farm; and the farmer
wha attemph to do his
farm work with inad
equate machinery
mast remember that
he is competi,n& with
farmers who are re'
ducing the cost of pro
duction by using good
implements. If he,
with his crude labon
continues tc i compete
with a machine, he
wiUoon bejorcedto
reduce his standard of -living.
y
Prof, J. O. Morgan.
V?
1,;'
wwiWHMiwyii
A TWO-LEVER DISK HARROW; AT WORK
with" the open ditches better cohdi-v
tions and better crops. :by;'v
In short, we see farmers In every
direction complaining of the scarcity i
of; labor and then using many times:
more human labor than would be
have retained the needed moisture by
level and shallow cultivation; and I
have seen them hilling tobaccov with
hand hoes when the same level culti
vation would have given better re
sults. '
I have seen hundreds in the South needed jlf they used more horsepower
improvement on an implement for matching . over; red . hHb wUh a bull- and better, implements r . ; ' .
cutting down corn. : Up in PennsyK tongue, or a one-borse:plow, about -,-.,. ;" ,-;:;,
tnree lncnes aeep, ana men. wuuuer
ing why their lands washed so badly,
even with terraces, when in fact the
only way for the summer floods to go
was down hill, since no deep loosen
ing of the soil hadbeen done to re
tain the water and the best terraces
will . not stop the washing when the
hard V subsoil is only three inches
down.' The subsoil plow, following in
the same furrow with a good two or
vania and northern Maryland they
cut corn ; with a long-bladed knife
like the machete of the Cubans,' and;
; this leaves a tall,' sharp-pointed stub
ble dangerous to the legs , of mules.;
; This man had small-blade steel hoes
made from an - old cross-cut saw
. blade, with eyes that set the blade at
right angles to a short handle. The
blade is well sharpened and with if
he can cut the corn stalks right off at v
the ground and leave no high stub' -ble.
. : ' ' : ' ,;:;;;
; One of the most useful garden im--plements
now sold Is a five-tooth cuK
" tlvator with curved steel shanks at
tached to the ordinary hoe handle.'
With this one can cultivate narrow
rows in the garden, worklng back
y .wards and cultivating the crops bet
, ter than with the wheel : cultivator
used by many This costs only a dol
lar and I find It the handiest of gar
; den "cultivators 1 , . .;
; On the farm the cotton planter can
save a great deal of labor by using
the drop planter that spaces the
i seed in he rows, and does away with
! hand chopping. In these days of la
.,'bor scarcity we have got to studythe
use of. implements, that mules or
houses may replace the costly man
crates holding 45 cantaloupes. No
one here ships on this account except -the
s largest growers, who can load
One or more cars daily. Most of the
growers sell to buyers. at the stations' -or
; ship - through : the Produce; Ex- i
change, which has traveling agents :
in all the. Northern cities taking or
ders forbear'-; loads.-;- ..Hence- a man
working alone- will be badly; handi- r;
capped In freights and; having to ship
to commission men, and it is out ot
horse radish, and- would iik m power, to aa vise you about the
what Information you can give on selling v. You can get the seed from
Horse Radish
T AM thinking of planting; an acre
JLln
the subject, when to, plant, distance
apart, ' depth, .method of planting,
when harvested and how cured? Will
frost injure it?" .
Horse radish is grown from cut
tings of the smaller side roots; v It is
very commonly planted between the
rows of an early truck crop, for in
stance between early cabbage. Holes
are made with- a crow bar 'and the
cuttings dropped In and the crop has
possession of the ground after the
cabbage are cut.
and trimmed any time in the late
fall and winter, for they, do not mind
any amount of freezings The trim
mings are made into cuttings for the
next season and buried for the win
ter.
any reliable seed house in Norfolk,
Richmond or Baltimore, r
Budding Peach Trees ; - ;
HOW . are young peach trees bud-
ded?" ,v;-iV -- i'
three-horse plow,' will ; do ; much to
stop washing. To , the farmer on the
red hills the subsoil; plow is an im
portant implement,' while useless to
the., man on the level sandy soils of
the coast plain". ; V; .,'": i ' -f ;
: ; I have seen farmers allowing sas
safras and persimmon bushes to grow
all summer and then, because they
were told that the dark of the moon
in August was the time to kill bushes
go over the land chopping them off by
hand when, ' if i they-y bad run the
mower over them when just starting,
and kept them mown off, the mowing
machine would have destroyed them.
briers simply, because' the .mowing ke th. Tiw wi,. jna tne bud remains dormant till thr
machine is nbt sed it shpuld be, It following spr ng. -Then Hhe. tpp of
.1; have seen, farmers' Uboriousir wmSur "Sh 5
hauling a lot of earth from the feuee SSXrX hiUS. " JSlli 2!& 5? ?ture
l corners and mixing it with their m in -C r:-" : ' 'w-wy tor. we orcnara.
- . " " vjr mnn, yvuv la TOWS IWO
The nurserymen sow seed of the
peaches In the fall. in rows, with a
drill inade for the purpose. The next
summer generally in August, shoots
from bearing trees are taken, and the .
leaves ellpped off so as to leaver th
The roots are dug leaf stalk as a handle. The buds? are .
then cut out In a shield shaped piece,'
a half inch of bark above and below
the bud. Then an incision Is. made in -the
seedling tree just , above the
ffrOUnd.' Cutting th hart . f-
The trimmed roots are shinned shaned
and sold by the ton. To make good turned aside and the bud slipped in
hors radish roots the soil must be under the bark and tied. After the .
deep and very rich. No stable ma- bud has ottn tiAidKTTr.'i.
after one, summer's growth..