Newspapers / The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, … / Sept. 3, 1909, edition 1 / Page 6
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r Our Farm Department j Devoted to 'he Interest of Those Who I W Till the Soli m f CONDUCTED ?* J. M BtATY 1 | c-"??? Importance of Hog rai*ing. We cannot sell our soil fertility acd still have it for growing future crops; nor can we send our money to other 8tates for food products and ?till have sufficient to build up and develop our farm homes and a high standard of rural civilization. So long as farm products, food for man and live stock, go from the towns and cities to the farms, instead of from the farms to the towns and cit ies just so long will we fall to pros per to the full measure offered by our splendid agricultural resources. And so long as food products con sumed by our cities come from other States, just so long will the South being an agricultural country, fall to play her full part In the making of the glorious new rural civilization. We have heard much about the necessity of raising our "home sup plies," and while this is good, so far as It goes, It is also discouraging to those who believe the hog should be one of the chief money crops of the South. There is not a crop rais ed on Southern farms that can be made as really and truly a money crop?a crop, the money from the ?ale of which can be enjoyed by the farmer's family, and not by the mer chant and the manufacturer?as can the hog crop if even tolerably well managed. The advantages of pork production over other lines of live stock hus bandry are )1( It costs less to se cure the breeding stdck, )2( it can be Increased or decreased more quick ly and at less cost; )3( houses and other necessities for caring for hogs are more easily and cheaply provided; )4( the amount and period of out lay, before returns and profits begin to come in are not so great; )6( the bog will eat more In proportion to bis weight and make better use of It, that Is, produce more pounds of meat from a given amount of feed, than most other farm animals, and the price is not generally lower, In recent years at least. The machine which is to convert our feed stuffs Into another product of equal or greater value, and at, the same time leave on the farm !)0 per cent of the plant food taken from the soil in the growing of those feed ?tuffs, for the production of other feed crops, Is certainly of much im portance. Southern farmers are fond of asking which is the best breed, but I am inclined to think there Is no best breed. There are many ex cellent breeds. It Is a matter of type or adaptation to a purpose. The des tiny of the hog being the pork bar rel, the sole object in swine, breeding is the production of hogs tlint will make the greatest quantity of the beet pork at the least cost for feed. The correct form or type, therefore, is that which, while fulfilling the breeder's requirement of rapid growth with a minimum consumption of feed. Will, when marketed, meet the butch er's demand for a profitable carcass of good quality. In addition, it may be stated that those characters which indicate constitutional vigor and good feeding qualities, while not merchan table quantities with the butcher, are scarcely lesB important to the pro ducer of a profitable pork than those which constitute market demands.? The Progressive Farmer. Progressive Farming. We believe that the section of North Carolina contiguous to and in the neighborhood o( the old Carolina Central railroad, from Rockingham to Lumberton, is the most prosperous farming community we have seen in the state. Around Laurinburg, and especially that section on the South Carolina border, farming for forty years has been carried on in scien tific and successful fashion. Cotton is grown to perfection there, and the people are experts in handling It from planting to selling time. But .of recent years that scope of coun try on the east side, aforetime sleepy and slow, has waked up and rivalled the western planters. Indeed, per haps the most extensive and success ful farmer in that splendid region is Mr. Will Cobb, of Lumber Bridge, who has mastered the art of produc ing the double crop and at the same time improving the quality of his land. He has now a fine crop of both cotton and corn on land that has already this year yielded a profi table crop. In his cotton field he raised a crop of Irish potatoes, and followed a big crop of beans with hi* corn. The papers have had a great deal to say about the fine skill of Mr. Cobb as a farmer, but they have not exaggerated the matter in the least. It Is amazing to see . how much be has been able to pro duce on an acre of ground. Cotton Is no longer king In that land of cot ton. Corn In abundance Is raised to supply all local needs and a little to sell besides. Cantaloupes, water I melons, beans, potatoes and other truck products are given careful at tention. Instead of one crop they raise a half dozen, and if one fails another Is apt to hit. They are not j afraid of a fertilizer kill. From eight , to twelve hundred pounds per acre is about the average. Some of them I put as much as a thousand pounds I per acre under their corn. Farming in that country is a business and far- : j iners are men of affairs. They put ? brains in their business and they are making money right along. They | feed the soli with the food It needs, i They keep thoroughly abreast with the times. They employ the best methods and the best tools. They ; j pay good wages and labor is a less difficult problem than It has been. j In short, in that country farmers are the folks.?Charity and Children. The One Crop Habit a Form Of Slavery. I There are various forms of Hlavery | and degrees of servitude?some of j them worse than others. They are all bad enough, but we can imagine none worse than that coming from the Idea that an Individual or com- ^ I munity must depend upon one crop ! or one line of work for its existence. "Industrial slavery is the worst form of slavery. There are more in dustrial slaves among inhabitants of, Southern farms than in any other ; Bectlon of the country," says the j Carolina Union Farmer, "and it all came about through the one-crop sys-1 i tem. Cotton and tobacco and the ( lien and mortgage system go hand in hand. The most disgusting condition I of things ever witnessed In this coun try is to go through a section of country where practically all the , land is owned by inhabitants of the j j towns and cities and the farms cul- ( tlvated by tenants?Industrial slaves hopelessly bound down under the yoke of serfdom. In such a commu- | nlty there Is no society that is worth anything, no schools or churches that i are any account and no chance for the kind of development that makes the community worth living in. In such communities there is but one i hope for freedom and that is the abandonment of the one-crop system. The abominable method of buying a living at the stores has reduced mil lions of homes in the South to pov erty, and there is only one way out ! and that is live-at-home way. This plan is best for one who Is in debt and it is best for one who is out of debt. Almost any food crop now is I a better money crop than cotton and j tobacco, and the indications are that the price of food products will con- 1 tlnue to advance. "A man who does not make a liv ing at home ought to be ashamed to ' claim that he is a farmer. Primarily the object of agriculture Is not to ' 'make money' but to make a living, : and whererer you find a farmer who has been living at home all these ! years you'll find the farmer who has ] money to lend to the planters who buy their living at the stores."? The Cotton Journal. I A Record-Breaking Corn Crop. It is an Inspiring record publish ed in The Atlanta Journal showing that the corn crop of the country this year would be three billions of bush els and hence would break all records in the history of the United States. We get some idea of what a crop like that means when we are told that the growing corn would make a green belt seven miles wide round the earth; that the area would be greater by fifty per cent than that of England, Scotland and Ireland, and three quarters as large as the area of France or Germany. Only twenty per cent of It will be marketed as corn. The rest will go to feed the live stock which sup ply the big packing houses, and there by depends the food supply of the world. With a record like this there is no danger that the American people will go hungry. On the other hand, the indications are that we will have a record year of prosperity.?Dunn Guide. The Value of Sorghum as a Food Far Stock. While over In Rockdale county at tending the Farmers Union rally at Smyrna camp ground, we were the guest of Col. W. L. Peek, one of Georgia's best farmers. Col. Peek grows fine corn and cotton, but he Is a strong believer in sorghum. He has 20 acres sown in sorghum anJ It will average from 8 to 10 feet high. ! One can imagine what a quantity of feed this will make. He feeds his mules and hogs nothing else for sev eral weeks during the summer and al! of his stock looks well. Many of our farmers have false notions about sorghum. Some think it is injurious to stock and even dangerous to feed; others consider It very exhaus tive to the soil. In fact, it Is an excellent food and we have never known any 111 effects where the sorghum was cut and fed to stock. We have heard of some cases of death from bloat, or poison, where the cows or mules got into the field and ate the second crop while the dew was still upon it. Sorghum does not exhaust the soil any more than other crop where the yield Is equal. Then It has this advantage: you feed It at home and all the manure should be saved and returned to the land. Col. Peek says he would hardly know how to farm without it. It keeps his mules fed through the sum mer, thus saving several hundred bushels of corn. It gets his hogs in good shape and ready to finish off on corn during the winter. He thinks it a great help in keeping his ! hogs in perfectly healthy condition. We believe one can grow more feed for same amount of labor than with any other crop. You need not hoe It at all; can sow or plant in rows as you desire. It stands the drouth better than corn and has more out- ' come, after having any setback. We hope to see more and more of it planted. Every farmer should have a patch near his horse lot. This patch should be increased in area ac cording to the number of live stock you keep.?The Southern Cultivator. ! Are We "Fertilizer Crazy?" A writer recently said that the Southern farmers are "fertilizer era- ' zy," and I am inclined to agree with hiin, for in the past two weeks I j have had fully 200 letters, the whole | burden of which has been, "Give me I a formula for a fertilizer," for this, I that or the other crop. One man asks for five different for mulas for tobacco on land following different crops, or none. The only encouraging feature in all this is that farmers seem to be more and more inclined to mix their own fer-' tilizer and to stop buying sand in the low grade goods already mixed. Hut what I do object to Is the con- j stant reliance on commercial fertili-1 zers alone for the production of sale crops, and the slow progress in real j farming, which would save the pur-' chase of so much complete fertilizer. I .Secretary Wilson recently said that one-third of the money spent for fer- | tllizers in this country is wasted, be-1 cause farmers buy what they need not buy if they farmed right. I believe that in the South one-half the fertili-' zer bought is wasted, for of all the farmers in the whole country, the cot ton growers have the least need for buying nitrogen. They produce the most highly ni- ' trogenous food material in the world In the meal from the cotton-seed, and they let this go abroad and to the North for feeding and making ma- j nure to enrich the soils of other peo ple, while they restore but a small part of what they sell off. Then they depend on fertilizers, Instead of on the soil, to make a _.crop, and ask endless Questions about what formula to use for this, that or the other crop ?questions which no man who has not seen the land can possibly ans wer In more than a general way.? W. F. Massey. Intensive Farming The Solution. A great stretch of land to the , farm, and scraggy, short crops on these lands, Is a detriment to the ! farmer, for no matter how large the ' yield there will be so much expense i and labor the net result will be a ; loss, for there has been a scattering of forces, a loss of energy and of time, that has not produced the re- ' suits of concentrated forces and con- ' centrated energy. In other words, it is intensive farm-i ing that is the true secret of the ? successful farm. It is work of the intelligent kind that makes one , acre produce such a crop that will not come from three, four or five acres that are looked after in the careless, happy-go-lucky style. Some times a great farm spells ruin to the farmer, if he had less acres and gave [ these for the same attention the net results would be the better by hundreds of per cent. ! Labor is a matter that is more and [more to be considered, for at times this is difficult to get and the very | necessity of It at times sends the ! price* up to such a level that the : farmer who scatters his efforts finds ' that his cash returns will hardly, If i at all. pay for what the crop has I cost. Assiduous work on smaller acreage, this handled by smaller for ces, will bring returns that will show on the correct side of the ledger ; balance, and turn a losing proposition Into a paying one. "The proof of the pudding Is In the eating." and that intensive farming has paid Is within the knowledge of all who would know. The best advice to be given each j farmer is that he concentrate and farm on the Intensive plan, so as to get the very greatest yield from <ach acre. The farmer who makes seventy-five bales of cotton on fifty acres of land is certainly better off in every way than he who takes sev enty-five to a hundred and fifty acres to produce the same crop. Just as the small diamond has in It more cash value than the ton of coal. When farmers get down to the basic principle of Intensive farming they will become more and more prosper ous and will have arrived at the true secret of success.?News and Ob server. Out With the Stumps. I am a two-horse farmer, located in the long-leaf pine district of South Mississippi. I have about twenty-five acres of cultivated land. One of the first things I did was to remove the stumps from my land, which I think is of great importance. In the spring of 1907 I purchased a stump-puller from the W. Smith Grub ber Company and began pulling stumps, I removed the stumps from about five acres. In the fall and winter of 1907 and 1908 I removed the stumps from about ten acres. It took me about ten days to pull the stumps from ten acres, with the help of two hands. We would pull about forty stumps per day. Last winter I finished pulling stumps and sold my machine. I find that clearing the stumps from the land Is of great advantage: First?There is a great deal of pleasure in cultivating land where the stumps have been removed. You can do your work so much easier and better. Second?You can use improved im plements, by which you can make a crop with less labor. Third?Greatest of all, it increases the production of the crop we may plant.?The Southern Ruralist. Profitable Farming. Prof. J. B. Carlyle, of Wake) Forest passed through Raleigh yesterday re turning from Lumber Bridge, in Robe son county, where on Sunday he pre sented in behalf of Rev. J. W. Cobb a portrait of Rev. John Monroe to Lumber Bridge Baptist Church, of which he was pastor more than fifty years. Prof. Carlyle spent Sunday night with his cousin, Mr. W. S. Cobb, who owns and operates one of the finest truck farms in the State. Twenty years ago this farm of five hundred acres could have been bought for $2,000. Today under his expert management it is easily worth more than fifty times that amount. The returns already realized from the present crop after deducting freight and commissions, are as follows: English peas, 33 cars, $1,0X3; Irish potatoes, 2 cars, $5,750; snap beans, 5 cars, $1,500; early corn, 3 cars, $600; cantalopes, 43 cars, $11,500; watermelons, 38 cars, $2,850; making a total of $23,213. On the pea, bean and potato lands a small crop of cot ton was planted which gives promise of a bale per acre. Making a total of 150 bales. On the watermelon and cantalope land, peas and hay are the second crop from which 150 tons are expected, worth $15 per ton. On wheat and oats land corn is planted from which enough feed is expected to run the whole farm. His main idea is to raise two crops on every acre and to utilize fully everything pro duced. He rotates all crops in such way as to supply humus and prevent soil exhaustion. HIS' products are in demand In Pittsburg, Philadel phia and New York, In which cities he has regular representatives. He classifies all his goods carefully Into three grades, thus meeting the ex act needs of the trade. The grading and shipping are in the hands of an expert from Philadelphia. The busi ness Is organized perfectly. The prof its on the farm this season will probably exceed J10.000 Mr. Cobb be'ieves that the su preme need of North Carolina today Is expert agricultural education, and that the public schools should more and more train boys and girls for con tented, happy and useful lives on the farm. He thinks that more and more the emphasis in our great tech nical college at Raleigh should be shifted from the mechanical to the agricultural. Mr. Cobb's previous suc cess proves clearly that farming can i be made profitable in North Carolina. ' ?News and Observer. | One Car Load fy M Of Rock Hill Buggies just received from the factory, & These Buggies were selected personally by Mr. H. D. ^ Ellington, who visited the factory a few days ago. ^ ^ Several choice styles for you to select from and prices ^ will be made right. m < Few Nice Horses S < And Surreys > ^ For Hire. We don't meet any trains and therefore can ^ ^ give you nicer and better teams Give our competitors ? your hack service, but let us serve you when you want ^ ^ to take a delightful drive. ? ^ Yours to serve, $ The Ellington Buggy Go. a & SMITHFIELD, N.C. M ^ lfe^Wc Have a few HORSES FOR SALE n ^ FOR - SALE One 30 in. Right hand Leffell Turbine Water Wheel. The wheel can be seen at the Roller Mills. One double geared 48 in. Grist Mill in good running order. Nearly new. O. R. RAND, - Smithfield, N.C. i Smithfield Roller ? SM I L Li g s #j Highestimarket prices paid for Wheat, jjf Will Mill your Wheat on Toll. Will * Jr exchange any Product desired for 1C Jfy WHEAT. 3 * Fine Flour, Feed, Corn Meal * or any other product exchanged ^ on a cash basis for Wheat. The * #j mill is open for business every # week day. All orders promptly X | filled. | ? ? ? 8SHXXXXXXXXXX i i 3 Headquarters | | For | X Heavy and Staple Groceries? X & General Merchandise, High a O Grade Fertilizers, Buggies O 5 and Wagons, Furniture, 5 X Coffins and Caskets. . . x A Compare oar prices^before yoa buy A | Cotter-Underwood Co., % X Smithfield. R.*C. %
The Smithfield Herald (Smithfield, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 3, 1909, edition 1
6
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