Newspapers / The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, … / March 12, 1909, edition 1 / Page 6
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r Our Farm Department | Oevoted to the Interest of Those Wtia W Till the Soil ? F CONDUCTED BY J. M ktAH \ i ^ The Farm Help Problem. It is getting more and more diffi cult for farmers to get help on the (arm, and surely there must be some reason for this. I have talked with some of the young men about this and I want to give you their side of the question. In nearly every case it Is this: Hours too long, pay too small and no privileges. In other words as one puts it; "You see it is this way, when 1 worked on a farm 1 was ex pected to be up in the morning by four or & o'clock and help do chores and get into the field to work by sev en or earlier, even during haying and harvest. 1 came up at night, ate my supper and did more chores until bed time. Now in the city 1 get up at six, eat my breakfast and go to work at seven. My work is done at six at night and then 1 can change my clothes, go to see my girl or spend the evening as 1 choose." "It is healthier to work out of doors," I urged. "Perhaps, but then there is another thing, a farmer does not usually want help the whole year, and from Novcm ber to March or April there was nothing to do and it took what little I had saved to carry me through the winter." I could not contradict that, ao I said: "What about privileges?" "Guess you don't have any on a farm. You have to board with the family, of course, and 1 can assure you farmers' wives are not all good cooks either. Now in town we can change our boarding place if the grub don't suit. Then in the country there is no amusement, nothing to go to?while in the city?" "In the city there are plenty of places to spend your money," 1 Inter rupted, "and plenty of pit-falls and temptations." "Well, I'll risk the city," was the answer; and so they all say and what is^to be done? Many of the farmers here have solved the problem by building a tenant house and hiring a married man by the year; and where this can be afforded 1 believe it is the best way. Many little extracts go with It, such as a garden, the keeping of a cow, fuel perhaps, and of course, the house rent. Important Items these when a man has a family, and they are not missed on a large farm. But what is the small farmer to do, tie one who needs help part of the year and cannot afford to hire by the year? It is a problem that is confronting many a farmer today, and they do no Beem any nearer the solution than they were a few years ago when the country lads first began leaving the farms for the city. I have a few things to suggest how ever in regard to the treatment of a hired man, providing you are fortu nate enough to get one. Don't for get he is a human; in these days of free schools many a hired man is the equal If not the superior of the man he is working for. Don't for get this and treat him as an equal. Don't think any old thing is good enough for the hired man. Give him a pleasant room, as good at least as his money would buy In the city. Be sure that the papers and magazines a re at his Hiun/iB-il onH (Imn unnii tr )i U|U|>UDUi ItUU II111U V,iiUUp,U in the evening to enjoy them also. He 1b something besides a machine. Give him a day off ouce in a while. It will encourage him and he will work the better for it. This may sound superfluous to some of you, but when I see the way hired men are treated in some famili es I do not wonder that they are leav ing the country and flocking into the city. I do not feel sorry for some farmers either, but 1 can hardly ex pect any of that class to read my article for they are not usually the wide-awake, progressive farmers that read their farm papers eagerly for help, but those who know enough to run their farm without the help of any old paper."?Indiana Farmer. Hog Cholera Treatment. After studying the question for twenty to thirty years the Depart ment of Agriculture, under Secreta ry Wilson, last year announced that It Lad perfected a serum treatment for hogs which, when used in time, would effectively prevent hog chol era and which would cure mild cases If taken early in the course of the disease. Having perfected the treat ment, the government leaves It to the different states to apply. In a number of states the matter has been taken hold of by the experiment stations and serum 1h now being fur nished to residents ot those states either free or at the cost of produc ing It. Nothing has as yet been done for the farmer* of Iowa. The Iowa legislature should not adjourn with out appropriating the money suffici ent to establish a serum station and provide for its continuance.?Wal laces' Farmer. Farm Notes. Is it not a sad commentary on the farming condlf' ns in the Cotton Melt that farmers need to borrow money every spring, depending on the one crop of cotton to pay the debt, and then to start in another season in the same old hopeless way, never get ting ahead, never with cash, but al ways at the mercy of the fertilizer man, the merchant and the money lender? No section can be permanent ly prosperous when her farmers are working year after year simply to pay debts contracted for the. purpose of growing cotton. ? ? ? One of (lit greatest faults in the South is the patching of the land, a plot of cultivated land here and a bunch ot bushes there, with broom sedge intermingled. Here in Mary land there are broad, clean fields and not a bush to be seen, but every foot of the open ground cultivated, and worked with no terraces and no gullies, for the plow goes deep, and the farmers have a clover sod to turn when breaking for corn, and either wheat or clover on the land In winter. a A A The scarcity of manure is one great drawback In the way of better farming In the South today, and ev ery opportunity should be taken to Increase Its amount or to use It where It will do the most good. The land cannot go on feeding the owner if he will not feed it.?W. F. Massey. m Selling Cattle at High Prices. High priced corn and a halting cat tle market did not seem to worry eastern cattle feeders who attended the Denver Stock Show last week. They took the feeding cattle sold there at prices which indicate a high grade of optimism to say the least. The top price, $0.85 per cwt., was paid by Casper Beekman, Atlantic, Iowa, for the champion load of twen ty feeders, which averaged in weight 981 pounds. Mr. Beekman took an other load at $6.35. A large number of loads sold at prices ranging from $5.25 to $6.00. Iowa, Illinois, and Nebraska buyers took most of the high priced stuff.?Wallaces' Farmer. Timber Growing. It is still popular, as it always has been to lock the door after the horse is stolen, speaking metaphorically. When the writer of this was a mem ber of the Indiana legislature of 187!) he introduced a bill, and tried hard to have it passed into a law, to offer liberal inducements to land owners to grow forest and timber trees, abat ing the taxes on a limited acreage to each land owner who would plant. ftiun uuu luiuiaic n uuuiun of trees to the acre. The bill was "laughed out of court" then, but members of State legislatures every where are now advocating and argu ing this policy to restore In some ex tent our doBtroyod natural grown tim ber. It Is a good illustration of the fact that many people see better af ter necessity and peril is upon the country. There must be timber-grow ing all now admit and forestry has become popuiar. The Indiana legis lature is advised by our new Govern or, and wisely, to take up this mat ter in an earnest and practical way, and it is to be hoped that his sug gestions may be heeded without fur ther delay.?Indiana Farmer. Rapo for Hogt. Carefully conducted experiments at several different experiment stations show that an acre of rape, when grazed by pigs, will save from 1,500 to 2,500 pounds of grain, and some cases have been reported in which the amount saved was even greater than that last mentioned. With gralq at a cent a pound, as it will average now, an acre of rape the coming spring and summer will be worth about twenty dollars when fed to pigs. The cost of producing the acre of rape and harvesting It is less than that of almost every other crop grown on the farm.?Wallaces' Farmer. The Southern Hog Induitr/ Much has been said and v/rltten on this subject, but uiore perhaps on the hog himself than the Industry In general, and I believe In too many cases by people who drew their con clusions more from hearsay than from personal observation, and who* bank rupted their Imagination by making too heavy drafts upon It. However this may be, It is a common belief that our southern brother has not kept an eye open to modern require ments but, as the saying goes, is "behind the times." 1 am inclined to believe in the fact of facts that the southern breeder has an apology due him. I cannot speak for all the south, but what I do say will be from per sonal observation and I will try and confine myself to what I "did" and "did not" see. It was my good fortune to visit the I International Fair and Live Stock Ex position held from September 26 to ; October 12, 1908, at beautiful, histor ic old San Antonio. I left home on the morning of September 25th and arrived oA the grounds forty-eight hours later. About the first thing 1 did was to locate the hog pens, and after seeing what they contained I 1 had to pinch myself to determine whether I was really in Texas or Iowa. I rather expected to see at least some trace of the old "historic I hog," but in this 1 was disappointed, j While the numbers were not as ?reat as at the Iowa or Nebraska state fairs, there were the same breeds j and types. The Durocs outnumbered ' by a few head, with the Polands a ! close second, and then came the Berk shire, Chester Whites, and a nice i ditjplay of Tatnworths and Essex, and i one pen of Yorkshires. I nuked one of the breeders what had become of the old-time hog that we "read about," to which he repli ed: "The razor-backed hog, the Tex as steer, and the long-haired man with his pistols have passed into history." And he must have told the truth, for in my sojourn 1 did not see either of them. I was told there was only one long-horned steer in the state of Texas, and he is now fourteen years old. 1 "did not" see him, but "did" see bis photo, which now sells for about as much as the steer himself used to bring. Just how the states of the south west will ever rank with Iowa and sister states as the years go by in the production of hogs is a debatable question. While they may in a gen eral way rank high, I think the corn states proper will always lead as far as the "fat backs" are concerned, for hero corn is king. But with the diver sity of soil and resources of Oklaho ma and Texas and the conditions so corn necessarily takes a back seat, and It is the conviction of at least part of the couthern breeders that cottonseed meal will ultimately be come one of the staple hog foods and be utilized to the limit; peanuts also cut quite a figure in the bill of fare. These facts, together with the natur al environment, would seem to give I lie south leverage on the bacon hog. In Iowa, with our high priced land and scarcity of and consequently high priced nitrogenous foods, the bacon hog seems more like a huge joke than anything else. I do not believe the southwest can ever "do us" on the lard hog, but to the Iowa man who contemplates raising bacon hogs for the market 1 say, Look out for your southern brother, for certain it is the man who thinks the breeders of the s< uthwest do not realize the oppor tunity s at hf.nd will wake up some morning to (hid his mistake. If any one is at all skeptical on this point I wish to call his attention to the fol lowing facts: Two hundred and eigh ty-five shares of stock in the Nation a' Puroc Jersey Record Association have beon sold during the last year. These are scattered over eighteen states, making an average of nearly sixteen to each state. Texas has tak en twelve, or only lacks four of the average; Oklahoma has taken twen ty-seven. or nearly twice the average. Other breedB havo good representa tion and have Just as enthusiastic supporters. This may not seem very large, but when we stop to think what a short time has passed since we could see train loads of both na tive hogs and cattle coming from these states and now we see practi cal, y none, we must conclude the southerner has been getting busy. As the native stock leaves the country, what Is taking its place? There is only one answer: The pure bred. It would be a mistake to say the southwest will have to be reckoned with by and by; but rather. It will have to bo reckoned with now.?H. F. Hoffman, in Wallaces' Farmer. It Saved His Leg. "All thought I'd lost my leg," writes J. A. Swenson, Watertown, Wis.. "Ten years of eczema, that IS doc tors could not cure, had al last laid me up. Then Bucklen's Arnica Salve cured It sound and well." Infallible for Skin Eruptions, Eczema, Salt Rheum, Rolls. Fever Sores. Burns, Scalds, Cuts and Piles. 25c at Hood Bros. 6,000 LBS. OF White casting Just received. Cotter-Stevens Co. M cWhortcr' - Inipnn cd - ^Horse S || Fertilizer - Distributor | The Distributor is worked with one horse and will distribute Fertilizer in three ? furrows if 2 feet 9 inches or less apart; over ih?t width and up to 5 feet it will W ?Vn distribute in two furrows. It will side dress two rowsof any growing crop on MM each side ofJboth rows. It will also side dress one sidf of two or three rows; ZC that is to say, either the north or south side, as may be desired It will distribute fertilizer over two rows of cotton of ordinary widtli, spread JW C#C# nicely to suit the case. Ro a s .'{ to 4 feet apart, it will do tine work fertilizing mA each side of two rows at o ice It can be instautly changed to a complete Z% broadcaster, taking a scope of(> feet. In a word, a farmer can go into a field Mi(v with this Distributor and do almost anything with ferti izer it is reasonable to expect. W MM It seems to us that a man who makes anything like an extensive use of fertilizer, and studies at all tlie question of economy, cannot hesitate long as to 22 whether he ought to use this machine. Its cost will soon be returned in the saving of lab. r, and the worK is tir-t class in every re-pect, as has been fully HKR demonstrated in all the experience we have had with it. Remember thaj it VJ*VS* fertilizes two and often three rows at once, t-ide dresses growing crops and M| broadcasts perfectly. QA Not kept in stock but sold and shipped direct to farmers. For sale by Mg gjj R. L LASS1TER, | I Preston | Woodall I ===== > The Big > Cash s Store The Big Cash Store! | Is Doing the Business S The Special Sales are now over and _>ou have a desire f to a clean line of Roods <tbere you can get your mon- ^ ey's worth. ... ... ^ My Stock ie up-to-date and you cm get here what you ^ fail to fled elsewhere. Sr> please b<*ar in tnind that it ^ will pay you to always call on us titst and make your ^ entire bill wilh up. You can secure bargains here now in ^ all winter (roods. Clothing and L*nlttM and Misses Coats ^ going at a sacrifice. Our mot-to is t.< -ell you beter ^ goods cheaper. Yours truly, PRESTON WOOD ALL. | FERTILIZER ljjj| M THAT NEVER Vi v\ % Tobacco Guano mmmmmmmm ? mmmmmmmmm COLUMBIA GUANO CO. ^ NORFOLK, VA.
The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 12, 1909, edition 1
6
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