Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Oct. 4, 1906, edition 1 / Page 1
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To Kirs. Subscriber: A Person! Letter Pago 4 v J- A Farm and Home Weekly for the Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. PROGRESSIVE PARMER VOL. XXI. NO. 34. THE COTTON PLANTVOL. XXIII. NO. 33. RALEIGH, N. C, OCTOBER 4, 1906. Weekly : (l a Year. THE FIFTEEN CENT OFFER IS A HUMMER. Our fifteen-cent offer is a hummer there's no other name for it. They are coming in by every mail, and we are as sure to make our "Twenty Years and Twenty Thousand by Thanksgiving" as-anything in the world. The woods are afire and now is the time to make a clean sweep of your neighborhood. If you will get your wife, Mr. Subscriber, to read you the letter we have written on page 4 or part of it rather, for there's one little plot we have fixed up against you that we'd rather you wouldn't discover you will find how the tide is running. Get into line yourself and send us a club this week. HARROWING LAST WEEK'S PAPER. A thorough reading of last week's paper failed to reveal a single large "clod" to be mashed. This is as it should be, for the harrow should never be used to break clods for the simple reason that there should never be any clods to break ana there will be none when sufficient humus has been incorporated in the soil and the plowing is done at the right time. The harrow should be used to smooth, to stir, and to invigorate the soil by let ting in the air. and light.- From the excellent articles on small grains, the following points seem worth stressing: R. W. Scott says, begin to prepare for the wheat crop six months ahead. How can this be done when not on one farm in fifty is there practiced a sys tematic rotation? Why, my dear man, not one farmer in. ten has- ever thought about where the wheat is to be sowed six months ahead. But Mr. Scott is. right, even six months is too short a timt in which to prepare for a wheat crop. Again, Mr. "Scott says, clover and peas are a good preparation for a wheat crop. My dear sir, do you know ot any crop that clover or peas is not a good prepara tion for? I believe I have heard it. said that these crops are not a good preparation for tobacco, but. Mr. Scott doesn't know anything about tobacco. Feas and clover is a good preparation for wheat, and yet how many acres will be sowed to wheat this fall, to which either is a total stranger or only a visitor at altogether too long intervals? The idea is that if wheat is to be grown success fully a rotation should be planned and the wheat placed in that rotation at such a point that it will follow clover or peas. The second point we would stress is that the land for wheat should be broken early. Or, per haps, it is not necessary to break the. land at all for wheat. This is certainly so if the land was well broken for the crop of peas early in the sea son, or if the corn land was well prepared and cul tivated. If the land is broken it should be well rolled and harrowed to compact the soil as Mr. Scott suggests. But really, here is something "theoretical and bookish": Mr. Scott, a real, practical farmer, ac tually tells other farmers that the small grain crops should be worked before, they are planted. Tu, tut! Mr. Scott, that will never do. Don't you know that half of the practicaK?) farmers of this State .don't believe a word of that? Why fre quently they even wait until after their crops are planted to do half their plowing. Why should the land for small grains be cultivated? There are no weeds or grass to kill in such crops? Is it really possible that those book farmers, or Ex periment Station fellows, out in Arkansas, are right, as stated on page 4, that "Thorough prepa- 5t M 9 t It I' .J 5S.V ' V. ration for oats gives an increased yield of from 50 to 100 per cent as compared with sorry prep aration?" I fear you are going to lose your reputa tion as a "practical" far mer if you are not care ful, Mr. Scott; for not half your brother farm ers believe such "theory" as that. If they did the land would be better pre-? pared for small grains than is now the case. And then again, we must have good seed, ac tually select our seed, I believe the book farmers tell us, and after getting it, must treat it with some sort of medicine to keep off the smut. Oh, that is too much! We expect Dr. Stevens to be guilty of that sort of foolishness, but really what is to be come of us "practical" farmers when Bob Scott actually tells us we must soak our seed wheat in a solution of blue-stone and water to prevent the heads of next year's crop smutting. Why don't i - those fellows who sit up until all sorts of late hours of the night studying up things for us to do, leave us alone? Are we not already growing six bushels of wheat per acre without all these scien tific ideas and new-fangled methods? ' - & For many years Harr6w has been going around over the State and from the appearance of the pastures of the practical farmers he had' learned that a pasture was a field where grass didn't grow. He never dreamed that the reason' was because it was always so completely occupied by briars, bushes and weeds that there was no room for giass. For hasn't he always been told that this is no grass country anyway? Oh, yes, there may have been some grass in the cotton and corn this year, but grass just won't grow in this country in the pastures. And now Mr. French comes along and says grass will really grow in this country and in the pastures, too, if it has room. Harrow has often wondered why our farmers failed to realize the necessity of keeping the weeds down in the pastures when they seemed to fully appreciate the fact that cotton, corn and other crops couldn't grow if weeds and grass were allowed to choke them out. When our farmers give as much atten tion to growing grass as they have to killing it, there will be less complaint about this not being a grass country. "Twenty Years and Twenty Thousand," and twenty thtousand years may she prosper! HARROW. .J.: ill- 4 rr j 8 4 THE BEST WAY TO STORE YOUR SEED CORN. "Seed corn should always be stored in the ear, but never in barrels, boxes or sacks, or above large quantities of grain. A satisfactory meth od and one adopted by many farmers, is to tie eight or ten ears in a string with binding twine,- and hang them in an open shed where the sun will not shine on them,, but where the air can circulate freely about them. An other plan is to tie the ears together in pairs and hang them over a wire." Extract from an article, "Selecting and Storing Seed Corn," by G. I. Christie, of Indiana Experiment Station, to be printed in full in next week's Progressive Farmer. Courtesy Farmer's Voice- A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK. Where a few words, quick, sharp, and decisive aren't enough for a man, a cussing out is too much. It proves that he is unfit for his work, and it unfits you for yours. The world is full of fellows who could take the energy which they Xjut into useless cussing of their men, and double J their business . with it. Old Gorgon Graham. I NEXT WEEK'S PAPER. There are two or three features of next week's Progressive Farmer that we must tell about in ad vance. First is an article by Mr. G. I. Christie, of Indiana, one of America's foremost corn authori ties, on "Selecting and Storing Seed Corn." And now that the matter of building warehouses is on every farmer's mind, we count ourselves extremely fortunate in having an article from Mr. J. C. Stribling, of South Carolina, on "How to Build a Cotton Warehouse," giving plans and estimates for the clay floor and cement block system now so popular. Thirdly, Miss lone Cates is going to tell you some things about "Our Common Snakes" that willr excite your interest, and fourthly, we are ex pecting a series of striking articles on "Scupper nong Culture." Look out for these features. FOR YOUR ATTENTION. Bills are now being mailed to subscribers. It there is any error in your account, remember we are just as anxious as you to correct any error. Don't get-mad, but write us promptly and briefly and we will give your complaint immediate attention. In Early October. - On the threshold of opulent October, summer lovingly lingers in the lap of autumn. The arms of the forests still lift up the rich green foliage which broke the heat of an August sun, and only upon a hidden bough here and there do signs ap pear that Nature is testing her dyes of gold ana vermillion against the carnival of color that shah presently hang upon the garments of the hills. Gastonia Gazette.. 'II -!-r -
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Oct. 4, 1906, edition 1
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