Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Sept. 30, 1909, edition 1 / Page 2
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Thursday,; Septembe r . 1909. Professor Massey'o Editorial Page. Cowpea Hay: How Not to Cure It THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER. . , s ...... - i ' ." . : . ilr -,. ' : ' - - - .; ; . ' t . ."" . . t .. ... -.5. , - -, 5s., . - R. ALVA AGEE in the National Stockman and Farmer tells an inquirer to cure cow- pea hay well in the field, and not run the risk of mold in the mow. He advises to let the cut hay lie in the swath till the top leaves are crisp, and then to rake-into windrows, and as soon as the top leaves on the windrows rattle to break up the windrows into big forkfuls to bring fresh material 'to 'the -sun and air. The result of this sort of curing will be a lot of dry stems and all the leaves shattered off. The leaves are the best part of the hay. I have cured cowpeas long before Mr. Agee ever did, and never let the hay stay out till the leaves rattle, but always got it in while limp, and for thirty years or more I never had any moldy hay, but have it finish its curing in the barn, and then have hay with , the leaves still green in color, sweet and well cured. Rake into windrows as soon as wilted. Turn the next day, and that afternoon cock it and let it cure in the cock till no sap can be wrung from a twist, and then into the barn with it before a leaf rat tles Then let it alone and ft will cure bright and sweet, and not a mere pile of stems. Make Money Selling Farm Seeds. HILE WITH MOST of our garden vegetables I do not believe that it pays to save seeds, there are even some of these that can be saved to advantage by a careful grower. Sweet corn, for instance, seldom succeeds in the South because the people buy the sweet' corn from the seedsmen that has been grown from them in Ne braska, and it is not suited to Southern condi tions. But take a good corn like the Country Gentleman or Stowell's Evergreen and breed it as you would field corn by constant selection, and you can soon get a sugar corn that will succeed in any part of the South, for corn of any sort should always be bred in the section where it is to be planted. r , 4 But with farm seeds the case is different. 1 know of one farmer who by reason of his minute care in the growing and selection of his seed corn has built up : a trade that takes all the corn he can grow at $2.50 to $3.00 per bushel. There are few farmers who will take the trouble to breed their corn carefully, and one man who will do so in every section can make a good thing in growing corn for his neighbors' planting . The same is true of cotton. By giving atten tion to the selection of their cotton seed, especial ly in the upper South where the superior earliness needed by the weevil-infested sections can be brought about, a number of growers are reaping profit from their cotton seed. - Down in Texas a man bred a tomato that re sists rot and blight, and gets $1 per packet for his seed. And in all parts of the South a man can find a specialty that he can produce to per fection in his soil and can make money in giving the minute attention demanded for such work, an amount of attention that the average farmer will never give. One man in North Carolina finds a profitable market for all the turnip seed he grows, and he has produced a fine one and a large cropper. An .othr might take the collard and breed it into better heading and dwarfer growth. Of course, there are certain of the garden seeds that must be grown in a cooler climate. Radishes are grown in northern France, but run to tops in our climate. Cauliflower seed are grown in Denmark. But the best of cabbage seed of the late varieties can be grown in the mountain country of the! South, and we can produce eggplant, tomato and a few other garden seeds of fine quality. Down in Georgia Mr. A. W. Smith, of Americus, a banker, has a small place where he grows flower! seed for the Northern seedsmen, of such things as mature too late in the season for the' North. He has made a reputation for his' moonflower seed, and the Northern trade all buy Smith's moonflower seed, and many other things in that line, and on his ten-acre place he probably gets more money, than many cotton farmers on large farms. . j Some day the South Atlantic coast section will grow the lily and narcissus bulbs that are now im- r 3Mf JlV- i In -T 4 A Beautiful $3,600 home for Country or Town ANY COUNTRY HOMES ON WHICH plenty of money has. been spent are never theless far from beautiful, simply because built without a plan and the same thing is even more inexcusably true of many of our churches and schoolhouses. No farm residence costing over $500 or $600, and pertainly no church or schoolhouse, should ever be built without having an architect to draw lip the plans. The cost should not be over 3i per cent of the total expenditure, arid it will pay both in point of econ omy and beauty. Speaking on this subject to a convention of Southern farmers recent ly Prof. Franklin Sherman said: i i " "Welldrawn and carefully planned specifications are an economy, for it is the architect's special business to know how jto arrange a house so that it shall give the best satisfaction at the cost, and his livelihood is dependent on his ability to prepare plans that will give satisfaction.' Fancy corners and gables are not needed, but a pantry, a bath-room, convenient stairways of an easy slope, and conveniently arranged closets hallways, chimneys, etc., are . . essentials worth looking after. By all means! have the rooms high and pro vided with plenty of windows. Let there bt plenty of bed-rooms to allow for additions to the household without crowding to an unhealthful degree. Plan for a closet in each bed-room, and plan for a good interior finish on the wall and ceiling, either of plaster and whitewash; or a neat papering. Let's make it a bright and cheerful home while we are'atjit -one that the good wife will be proud to preside over and not feel obliged! to apologize for.' ' -i . ; t . ported. In fact,, this is being done to some ex tent, just as eastern North Carolina supplies all the tuberose bulbs for the North and England. There are seed specialties that are suited to every neighborhood if the right man can be found with the needed intelligence and industry to grow them. Why Good Farms and Poor Are Found Side by Side. WENT LATELY to Inspect a farm four miles from the city of Camden, N. J., and I saw a farm carried on by two maiden sis ters as a dairy farm. The farm is less than 200 acres, but they have a herd of 160 cows. The farm I Inspected Is right along side of this one, and belongs to a professional man in the city. It is worked In a sort of haphazard way with few stock and not with any systematic rotation; and right there was an object lesson, for the farm of the sisters, managed by these women, showed what cattle and manure could do. The cattle were sleek, the grass was fine, and the grain likewise, while oh the other farm the corn was but a few inches tall, the oats not worth cutting, and the small field of wheat was the so-called Alaska wheat that the owner had been victimized Into buying, and which no miller In the country will buy, and will all have to be sold for chicken feed. The land on both farms was more or less sandy and naturally thin, but by reason of its location Is worth several hundred dollars per acre. One farm Is being made a source of profit while the other has been a load for the-owner to carry. The sis ters have accumulated humus In their soils, while It Is badly lacking In the other. The land naturally was just what would be good cotton soil in the South, 'just like thousands of acres that are being scratched in cotton every year and worth only a few dollars -per acre, while the owners work hard and get little better off an nually, land right there were two women making money Jon similar land that was worth $300 an acre. ; f And ll thought then that if these two women were I where they could grow cotton, they would grow big crops and make money out of cotton, for they fully understand the importance of keeping caiue. iMaKing money on land worth hundreds or dollars an acre, what would similar work do on better land In the South worth but a few dollars per acre? 111 AST Crop Potatoes for Seed. SPRING. . instead of planting second- crop potatoes for seed, all the large grow- ers or early potatoes on the eastern snore of Virginia bought seed from Maine, and they rot ted In the ground, some growers losing their en tire planting and others fully half. The potatoes seem :to jhave brought a disease with them from Maine, for New York seed potatoes handled and kept in the same cellar did not rot. This summer there is a general effort to grow second-crop seed, and the man who plants Maine seed next spring will be considered to have lost his head.) The loss was tremendous, for there are plenty of these growers who planted 1,000 bar rels, and th ere were four men near Norfolk whose combined crops took 7,500 barrels of seed. The second-crop seed are the best for the South, and good seed can also be grown by keeping over the second-crop potatoes in cold storage and grow ing a 1 late crop from these, as is done around Louisville, Ky. e ves eacu Mother Nature, in giving out energy, man about an equal proportion the difference is in the way you see It. Elbert Hubbard.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 30, 1909, edition 1
2
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