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Title Registered in U. S. Patent Office.)
Vol. XXIII. No. 17.
RALEIGH, N. C, JUNE 4, 1908.
Weekly: $1 a Year.
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Don't Destroy Your Harvest After it is Made.
Courtesy M." V, Richards, So. Ry.
That is a striking article we print on page 3, which warns our wheat-growing farmers against destroying their crop by harvesting it while
green or when wet by constant rains. Money saved is money made; likewise a harvest saved is a harvest made. Don't cut your wheat green,
wait until it is ripe; don't cut your wheat wet, wait until it dries. If you ntust violate these rules, then be sure to- make small bundles and
shock and cap them well. But read here and read again the one safe way as set forth in the article just mentioned: "Now. there is just one
safe way. to handle wheat in this rainy country, and the farmers will adopt this plan in the course of a quarter of a century from this date, when
(after they have squandered thousands of bushels of golden grain) they realize that there is a better and safer way, and that way is to allow ,
the grain to become thoroughly ripe, with every head turned down and perfectly dry, even if you have to wait for two weeks after you
think it should be cut ; wait until it stops raining, no matter when that time comes, and then cut your wheat and put it in the barn from the
machine without shocking it at all or if convenient, thresh it right from the machine.
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SUGGESTIONS
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WUKK.
IN
JUNE
I. -COTTON CROP HINTS.
Keep Ahead of the Grass. -If you have used the
weeder and the smoothing harrow' in the early
stage of the crop, you will find less difficulty; in
keeping out of the grass during the rains of May
and June. Cotton gets "in the grass" from neg
lect in the early growth, and because growers are
afraid to run across the rows with the weeder as
soon as a crust forms. There is nothing like
keeping the crust off fc and preventing the plants
being chafed by the wind against a crust.
Start the Riding Cultivators. As soon as chop
ped, to a stand is the time to start the two-horse
riding cultivator. And I was glad to hear that a
manufacturer reports that more of these have
been sold in the South this season than ever be
fore, it shows that what we have been urging
is taking root and that the Southern farmers are
gradually getting away from the turning plow and
the sweep as a means for cultivating cotton, and
are finding out the economy of putting mules in
place of a man.
I hear too that in many sections the negroes
that have been thrown out of employment on the
railroads are coming back to the farms and that
labor promises to be more plentiful.
. : -
Frequently Now, Bnt Not Too Deep -Use the
weeder and then the, cultivator after every rain,
but not too soon after the rain, for no cultivation
Should be done j especially on a heavy soil, while
it is wet. Then, too, understand that cotton roots
run far and wide over the middles just as corn
does, and that after the plant gets to a good size
the cultivation must be shallow, for the feeders
of the roots are not alongside the plant, but away
out near the tips of the advancing rootlets, and
. when you cut a root you are taking from it the
power to get food from the soil.
: '
Spread Coarse Manure in the Middles. When
rough manure is used on cotton it is far better to
spread it down the middles, or run a furrow there
while the plants are small, and put the manure
in that, and the roots will find it just at the right
time, when the plants are blooming and making
squares. It will do more good there than under
the rows.
Keep an Eye on Bettering Your Land. Then
determine this year that you will not leave tho
cotton fields to lie bare all next winter, but will
have crimson clover sown "among it as the last
working. Then if you scatter manure between the
furrows as fast as made, you will have a far better
chance for the clover. Then, too, if you grow a
crop of peas and make them into hay and feed it
and spread the manure next winter on the clover,
you will have the best possible chance for a good
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WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THIS WEEK'S .
PAPER.
Page
Alsike Clover Save Your Clover Seed,
Clarendon Davis . . .... . .... .......
Capons Bring Big Prices, Uncle Jo .
Don't Harvest Wheat Until It Is Ripe. . .
Fight Flies as You Would Disease, Chas. M.
Scherer
How to Make Cow Peas Popular. . .
How to Save Tobacco Seed, Dr.-F. L. Stevens
How the Large Land Owner Can Farm Bet
ter, Chas. M. Scherer. . ... . . . . . . . .
Implement Dealers Often at Fault. .......
June Farm Work, "W. F. Massey . ......
Sow Sorghum With Your Peas, A. L. French
Spring-Time Health Problems, Dr. K. xi.
Lewis .......... -...... ...... 6
The Cost of Creameries. . ........... 10
The Tragedy of Jefferson Davis. . .
The Weeder and the Harrow, C M. Scherer,
Why Some Hardens Do Not Pay, Chas. M.
Scherer . . . .
'What's the News?". . .......... ... .
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corn crop, for I take it for granted that all read
ers of The Progressive Farmer will follow a rota
tion and not put the same land in cotton again, no
matter how good the crop this year. In all that
you do keep in mind the future improvement of
the land.
H. WORIUNG WITH THE CORN.
Keep the Weeder Busy. -The seeder and the
smoothing harrow were just as important in the .
early stage of the corn crop as in the cotton field.
The way to kill weeds is not to let them get estab
lished, and the weeder can be used on the corn
crop longer than on the cotton. There is no ob
jection to a deep cultivation close to the corn
when It is small, but all subsequent working
should be shallow and rapid and care taken that
no roots are cut.
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; Sow Dwarf Peas. Do not sow rank running
peas in the corn to tangle It and make it harder
to cut, for I assume, that you are going to cut
the crop off at the ground while the fodder is
good and the ears are well dented. Sow a dwarf
bush variety and when the corn Is cut you can
disc in the vines thoroughly and put the surface
in order for winter grain.
A Word About the Seed Patch. Then I hope
that you have planted a seed natch, and are going
to watch it and take out the green tassels from
air inferior plants and then select the very best
for the next year's seed patch and use the rest
for the general crop, thus advancing year by year
towards an Ideal prolific corn plant.
Much has been said by 00!' breeders about the
need for promoting cross fertilization to increase
the vigor and productiveness of the crop. The ad
vice is to plant separate rows from a series of
ears. Then de.tassel each alternate rCw .so that
the pollen from' the other . rows will cross the
(Continued on Page 12.)
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