Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / March 11, 1909, edition 1 / Page 7
Part of The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Thursday, March ii, 19&9. $fifc PROGRESSIVE FAftMElt. Successful Cotton Growing. It Depends on (1) Well-Selected Seed, (2) Proper Fertiliza tion, (3) Frequent and Shallow Cultivation. I Where to Buy m Best Farm Implements. F YOU have not good seed you cannot make the best crop, no matter how well you fertilize and cultivate. What I call good planting seed is seed of i the most highly improved varieties on the market to-day, and the price of these improved seed is so reasonable that there is not one single excuse for any farmer to plant, any other. rieties on a small scale at first,! and when you have found a variety that is suited to your section and your iauu, ucgiu men iu xuipiuvc 11 ujr se lection, i After planting some of the f best varieties I came to the conclusion my section best, and from these I found the Toole to be the best. Then ing to keep it up to what it was! At this time I was making hale per acre, and often less, while now rcan get 1 bale per acre, attributed al most entirelv to the 3 vears' selec tion I have given my seed. I began by selecting a few of the j very best stalks I could find, and with the seed from these I planted myj first breeding patch. The next year I again selected a few bushels of seed from the very best stalks I could find in this patch for my next years' seed patch, always planting myj main o.mrt fmm thpst natr.hfis after kelet.- tions were made. This I have done for 3 years and I have almost dou bled the yielding quantities of my cotton. . Last year I had a patch planted in individual stalk selections and a per son would be surprised to know the great difference there was in the yield of seed from these individual plants. The majority of those se lections made about 500 pounds of lint per acre, while I had one selec tion n mato sr hifh ns 900 nminds . Ul 1. W MM O w v v i" " " of lint per acre. All had the same fertilizers and cultivation, but; there was the seed from one stalk almost doubling the yield of seed from other stalks that the year before looked to be just as good as the best. j Unless the farmer has a; small plantation gin outfit, or has access to one, it is an uphill business to keep his improved seed pure, much less make any progresis as to further improvment. The farmer should own his gin anyway.! The gasoline engine has made this' a very feasible proposition. I have been running a 70-saw gin with one for the past 3 years, and I find it very satisfactory indeed. Mix Fertilizers at Home. The next great subject to me is fertilizers. Our soils are naturally very poor, and to get a greater profit -from the use of improved seed we must fertilize well. Nearly all our farmers just take what the manufac turers make for them at the lowest price per ton.' Very few farmers have the same grade of land all over their farm and for this reason they need different formulas for the different graaes oi iauu. ; maun year I conduct fertilizer tests on our farm and each year on different sec tions of the farm, and by this means I know how to mix for best results. I consider these tests worth hun dreds of dollars to me each year, be sides what they are worth to my neighbors who become interested enough to study the results which I publish in my local paper for their benefit. I always buy ingredients and do my own mixing. I mix in a good tight wagon box or body just as we put it out, by puU ting a layer of acid phosphate, a lay er of cottonseed meal and then a layer of potash, repeating these lay ers until body is fulU Drive to the field, cut directly through these lay ers, mix and put in distributors. This way of mixing can be done almost as quickly as you can load with ready mixed goods and you have saved $2 to $5 per ton and you know what you have. Level and Shallow Cultivation. Next comes cultivation. This must be of the best, or you lose the start you have made, if you began with good seed and proper fertilization. We break land in fall and winter with 2-horse plows, harrow and lay off rows with a very small plow, just large enough to make rows. In these marking-off furrows we run our fer tilizer distributor (usually a Garrett machine) and on the foot of this dis tributor we have a narrow plow, about a 3-inch scooter and 14-inch heel scrape. The fertilizer falls di rectly behind this narrow j plow and the heel scrape pulls the dirt back in the furrow over the fertilizers, leav ing avery flat, broad furrow. The Lcotton planter is following immedi ately behind planting the seed. This gets the cotton planted on or below the level. When the plants are up they are barred off with a turn plow, using a fender board to protect the young plants. Cotton is then chop ped to a stand and balance of culti vation is very rapid . and shal low. By this method we destroy none of the cotton roots, the cotton will stand droughts 50 per cent bet ter and will make fully one-fourth to one-third more cotton than the old way of planting on high beds. We do the work at a great deal less ; expense and hold the moisture better and thereby make better crops and more money. Of course, j on poorly drained fields this plan could not be followed successfully. Summed up we have: j (1) good planting seed of the variety best suit ed to your section; (2) home-mixed fertilizers properly; formulated ac cording to the needs of your land; (3) level preparation, level planting, level, shallow and rapid cultivation, and ( 4 ) a fine cotton crop made and the farmer happy. W. F. COVINGTON. TWO USEFUL TOOLS. They Are the Cutaway Disc Harrow and the Planet Jr. Wheel Hoe. Two tools which I was strongly ad vised not to buy have turned out u be among the most useful on th place. These were a one-horse cut away disc harrow and j a Planei Junior double hand wheel hoe. The disc beats anything I havi tried thus far for fitting land af tei it has been plowed arid for covering seed sown broadcast. I also expect to use it this season for the cultiva tion of two patches of dewberries The spaces between the rows are so full of roots and vines that the ordi nary cultivator does poor work, bu. the disc will cut up the obstructions and turn them under without tearing them out of the ground as the cul tivator does. j The hand wheel hoe has been very useful in the home garden and is one of the best constructed tools of its kind I have ever seen. WILBERT S. DREW. The walk is the gait of infinitely greatest importance in determining the usefulness of the farm work horse. jlf '" "WORTH S100.Q0 EVERY YEAR" These are the words of an intelligent farmer. copy of his letter: Here is a Loutsburg, N, C.y Route No. , Feb. if, i97' " Gentlemen : I value the Cole Planter more than any I ever saw. , I donH see how I could farm without one. It is worth ioo.oo to me every year. Yours very truly, when thousands of good ers, agree in saying J. H. FULLER." The statement of one good man carries great weigh t,and men, who have used all kinds of plant the Cole Planter will save enough every year to pay for itself one to six times over -surely no one can doubt that it pays to use Cole Planters. Why is it that you have never even written to us for in formation ? You have seen our advertisement for years, and yet you have never made a move to profit by it. We want to send you more information. V If you are willing to receive it, please write us a postal or short letter at once. The Cole Manufacturing Co., Box 300, CHARLOTTE, N. C. PLANT COTTON ONE SEED AT A TIME With a Led better "One Seed" Planter. The only planter that can ( plant cotton seed, without any prepara tion of the seed, a sinorle seed at a time uniformly spaced. It can be set to plant thick or thin a bushel or more of seed to the acre or a peck or less, always maintaining the same uniform drop. When set to nlant t.Mrlr t.hARppr?a fall 1ns X - w together but singly when planting thin they are spaced farther apart but without skips. $14.00 WE PAY THE FREIGHT QDmkb Rim TTdnniie? MY tl . Write for the one seed planter book giving full information. There being no bunches of seed every plant comes up standing alone, they get sunshine, air and all the nourishment of the soil, mak ing healthy, vigorous plants; they have the strength to with stand excessive rains, drought, cold and other blighting In fluences; they branch low, fruit heavily and mature early; they will continue to grow though chopping may be de layed; chopping can be done in half the usual time and plants are not Injured by careless chopping. - . : ' - There being no Skips, just a single seed at a time regularly spaced, a perfect stand .is assured; every foot of land Is making cotton; you are not working waste land; you use less seed and get a better stand. This planter has no equal for planting Corn, Peas, Beans, Cane and other seeds, large or small and. It plants In plain view, you see every seed before It drops. Write for a one seed planter! book giving full Information, or better, send 114 and get a planter at once, all freight paid. Every Planter is Fully Gnaranteed. THE SOUTHERN PLOW CO. ; i - camp st., Dallas, Texas. When .writing advertisers please mention this paper.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 11, 1909, edition 1
7
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75