Title Registered in U. S. Patent Offlce.
Vol. XXIII. No. 19.
RALEIGH, N. C, JUNE 18, 1908.
Weekly: $1 a Year.
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EVERY FARMER SHOULD ' GIVE ALFALFA A CHANCE.
There are many places in The Progressive Farmers territory where the wonderful alfalfa plant is growing luxuriantly. Is it growing on
your land and yielding its rich increase in three or four heavy cuttings every year? If not, give it a chance. Alfalfa has changed the history
of every community wherever it has gained a foot-hold. True, after it gets thoroughly started, it requires a vast amount of hard work to keep
it cut and hauled out of the field as fast as it grows, but to repay you for all this it will round out the hollows in your horse's sides, it will put
fat on the flanks of your cows, it will call for more milk and butter vessels, it will hang meat in your; smoke-house and will lift mortgages
higher than Hainan. In this issue an article (page 3) tells how the farmers of one Southern State are "doubling their alfalfa areas 3,000 and
6,000 acres at the time. Why shouldn't Progressive Farmer readers do likewise? Give alfalfa a chance; it is well worth a great deal of effort.
A SONG OF ALFALFA.
What makes the landscape look so fair,
What blossoms bright' perfume the air,
What plant repays the farmer's toil,
And will enrich the worn-out soil?
Alfalfa.
What grows in loam and clay and sand,
What lifts the mortgage off the land,
What crop is cut six times a year,
And no foul weeds in it appear?.
Alfalfa.
What makes the swine so healthy feel,
And never raise a hungry squeal,
That wholesome food that never fails,
To put three curls into their tails?
. ' Alfalfa.
What makes all other stock look nice,
And bring the highest market price,
What fills the milk pail, feeds the calf,
And makes the old cow almost laugh?
Alfalfa.
What makes the poultry good as gold,
When eggs are at a big price sold,
What makes the happy colts all play,
While mothers graze throughout the day?
Alfalfa.
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What-is the crop that always pays,
.And will mature in forty days,
Resisting drought, the frost, the heat,
Whose roots reach down one hundred feet?
Alfalfa.
R. E. Smith, in Farm and Ranch.
WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THIS WEEK'S
PAPER.
Page.
Alfalfa in Mississippi, Chas. M. Scherer; . . . 3
Breed Up and Not Down, Dr. Geo. H. Glover . .11
Beautify With Native Shrubs. . ... . . ... . . . . . 6
Do You Want a Profit on Your Tobacco? J. O.
W. Gravely 4
Exact Facts About the Williamson Plan . ..... 8
Fighting Summer Garden Pests. ... . ..... . . 15
Flies Carry Disease Screen and Clean Up ... 7
How to Manage the Strawberry Patch in Sum-
' mer . ... . 9
How to Root ScuDDernongs . . . ... .......... 5
Is It Safe to Feed Cottonseed Meal to Hogs?. . 5
Keep on Cultivating, Chas. M. Scherer . ... . . . 3
Points in Last Week's Paper Worth Empha
sizing . . . ... . . . ... . . ... ... 9
Practical Farm Questions Answered. .;. .... 9
Sorghum and Peas . . ... ... . . ..... I ... . ... 4
Shipping Milk in Warm Weather. . . ... 10
Summer Work in the Poultry Yard, Prof. L. I.
Smith . . . . . . ... . ...... . . . . .......
The Williamson Plan in Alabama, J. F. Dug-
gar . .'. ............. ... . .....
The South's Need of Leaders . . . . . . .... ... .
To Kill Gum Sprouts and Rot Stumps . . .
Williamson Method of Growing Corn. . . . . . . .
What Keeps Me on the Farm, W. S. Jones. . . .
with Our Rural Carriers. . . .... . . . . ... . . . .13
Williamson' Plan Defended, F. A. Felder 13
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THE SOUTH'S NEED OF LEADERS.
The deep public interest in the selection of a
strong man as President of the A. & M. College
finds abundant illustration in the great number of
commendatory expressions that have come to us
concerning our article last week.
The people of the State unquestionably see the
need of a great technical college at Raleigh, and
realize that the selection of a strong President
must precede this. If we could get a man who
would do for industrial - education what Dr.
Charles D. Mclver did in .waking up the entire
State to the importance of educating our young
women, such' a man would be cheap at $10,000 a
year instead of the $2,000 or $3,000 we offer.
North Carolina and every other Southern State
needs a dozen great leaders, and we must offer
such men greater inducements to come to us and
to stay with us. There is literal truth in the say
ing that a great leader is "a host in himself." A
Napoleon is worth ten thousand ordinary gen
erals.1 --.l- ' o ;' : -;v '
And the South, much as it has suffered in the
"emigration of her great middle classes, has suffer
ed tenfold more in the emigration of her strongest
men, her men fitted by nature to be leaders and
captains of thousands.
It is a striking statistical fact, for example, that
while the Carolinas and Virginia in the shifting of
population have suffered a net loss of only 14 per
cent from the total number of native-born popula
tion, they have suffered a loss of more than 48
per cent in number of strong men of the type
recognized in the compilation of "Who's Who in
America" with its list of 16,000 eminent Ameri
cans. In other words, while only one man in
every seven of our average population has left us
without being replaced, one man in every two of
our ablest sons has gone from our borders with
no man, of similar qualities to take his place.
It is high time for us to realize the importance
of strong leaders and that for every Important
post the fit man is cheap at any price.
It will pay very well to fence the oak woods for
a hog pasture as the acorns are a valuable feed
for them.