The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., March 05, 1910, Page 158, Image 2

About The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920

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Farm and Garden Work For March.
F YOU ARE so unfortunate as to have fail
ed to sow your oats last September, and
- did not get them in in February, you still
have in the upper South a chance to sow this
month. But in spring sowing in the South I
would always sow the winter oats, as I have found
that they will make heavier oats than any of the
Northern spring oats. More seed should be used
in spring sowing than in fall sowing, as the crop
will not tiller as much.
Now, our friends who think that oats will turn
to cheat will find that the spring oats never do,
since the cheat sown in spring does not head with
the oats, as it will if sown in the fall. But if you
sow oats mixed with cheat seed, the cheat will
be there all the same to infect the land after the
oate are cut, unless the stubble is turned at once
for peas as it should be.
GET READY TO PLANT CORN.—Now, the
farmer who was wise enough to get crimson clover
on his land to be planted in corn can afford to
wait till it is fairly mature before turning It
down. In all parts of the South we have plenty
of time to make a crop of corn after the clover
has done all that it can for us, and with the ex
ception of the Lower South, March corn planting
Is seldom the best. The best crop of corn I no
ticed last year was made after the clover was en
tirely dead.
If you are so unfortunate as not to have the
clover on the land you propose to plant in corn,
the sooner you get the land deeply plowed the
better. Spring is not the time for subsoiling,
even on land where subsoiling is needed, for the
surface may be in good condition for plowing
while the subsoil will be in such a condition that
the subsoiler will merely plaster It.
Good deep breaking and thorough chopping up
with a cutaway is needed before planting, for you
are going to work the crop shallow from the
start. Some advise deep cultivation in the early
stage of the corn crop. I have tried it, and as
compared with shallow work from the start, I do
not like it. I will have a good deal more to say
on this next month.
aft
PREPARATION FOR COTTON:—The prepara
tion for the cotton crop is, of course, the greatest
interest at present. I have seen cotton above
ground in Florida the middle of March, but I am
not speaking of the great upland crop. Few fully
understand the value of a complete preparation
of the soil for this crop, and few realize that the
roots of cotton will run far and wide across the
rows.
Why not try an experiment in preparing part of
your cotton land very thoroughly, fertilize broad
cast and plant on the level? Then run a weeder
over the ground before the cotton is up to break
the crust, and as soon as it is fairly up run the
weeder again both ways. You can go over very
fast and will loosen the soil right alongside the
plants and stop the grass just germinating, and
will not hurt half as many plants as you will
nave 10 taae out any way. You can use the weed
er till time to chop to a stand.
Then do not complain about the scarcity of la
bor when you put a man and a mule to every cul
tivator or sweep, but put one man with a pair of
mules and a riding cultivator to do more and bet
ter work than three men can do with plows. There
is an awful waste of human labor in the South,
and it is time to make a change. Make a change
not only in the Implements used, but in the man
ner of cultivation. Keep the two-horse cultivator
going shallowly and never allow a crust to stay
on the land. Especially in dry weather, keep stir
ring an inch or two and keep the dust blanket
on the soil to check evaporation.
But more of this later. The thing now at hand
is the complete pulverization of the soil in prepa
ration for the planting. Throwing up rough,
cloddy beds and then drilling the seed on them is
not a good way to get a stand. Even where bed
ding is adhered to, the soil should be put into the
best condition before running a furrow and a
light roller over the beds will put them in condi
tion to retain moisture for the germination of the
seed. Then plant as early as is safe in your sec
tion.
The German writer Goethe wrote: "Are you
in earnest? Seize this very minute. What you
can do, or think you can do, begin it. This is
a good rule in all farm operations.
IN THE GARDEN.—The tomato plants should
now he well on the way in the hotbed and can
be moved into glass or cloth covered frames to be
hardened for setting out late in the month where
frost is over and later northward. I once set out
tomato plants at Raleigh, N. C-, March 1 .th, and
on the 26th the mercury was down to 21 above
zero. But the evening before 1 bent each plant
down and placed a wisp of hay on it and then
shoveled the soil over it, and the plants came
through the freeze all right. The earlier we get
tomato plants out and live, the earlier they will
give us fruit.
In all the warmer parts of the South the early
Irish potatoes will be in the ground, If not above
it, and in the upper sections where the crop may
not yet have been planted, no time should be lost
in getting them in.
As far north as eastern North Carolina we can
. . . . . ^ - a M _ __ ^ « W*
uttte ine rioiv m iimuuus a ouop-u^aua |
last week in March. If they get frosted. It is only
a few seed lost, and if they escape, we will be
iu early.
If you did not get your early beets planted in
February, sow them fct once. Onion seed may
still be sown in the upper South If gotten In the
first week in March, and will make good onions.
Much later they will make sets only. Plants of
the Prizetaker onion that were grown from seed
sown in frames in January should now be traae
planted.
The early cabbages should have the ridges
worked down and the soil well cultivated. A
dressing of nitrate of poda along the rows will
help greatly. As the plants get Into large site,
and seem slow to head, running a one-horse plow
deeply, with the moldboard off, will cut some of
the roots and give a check that will cause them to
head more rapidly.
Plants of lettuce for the late crop can now be
set, and for this purpose there Is no variety belter
than the Wonderful. Plants of Succession cab
bages from seed sown in frames early can now be
set, but the seed for late cabbages should not be
sown till late summer.
A little garden corn may be planted. For this
purpose, plant the Adams Early. It Is not a su
luiu, uui luu uc pianicu earner man mo
wrinkled corn. As soon as It is up, plant some of
the Country Gentleman sweet corn. This is as
early a variety as will do well In the South; the
extra early sorts seldom succeed.
The later and better varieties of garden peas
can still be sown. I use for this planting the
Premium Gem and Nott's Excelsior, both dwarf
varieties that need no sticking For the taller
sort, I use chicken-wire netting, and And this the
best and cheapest thing to use in the garden for
beans and other climbing plants, as It will last a
life-time if rolled up and put away when not In
use. Then, too. it is so much neater than brush
or bean poles.
Cattle Feeding in the South.
H. JACKSON, of Salisbury, Maryland, has
Just put In his barns for stall feeding this
- winter, 375 young Western steers. And
yet we have correspondents in the South who im
agine that it does not pay to feed cattle.
Mf .T KOft ft fi a t ti # 4# i. a a. a
-- -- K-/ " vv IVUU uin cum, i
even at present prices. Instead of selling the raw
material. He has six or eight large silos and with
20 tons of corn silage per acre he gets a great
amount of excellent feed, and with the manure
made gets an Increasing growth of corn and other
crops. He makes Immense amounts of peavlne
-nd crimson clover hay and cuts up corn for silage
that would make from 76 to 100 bushels of corn
per acre, while all over the South are men who
are making about 16 bushels of corn per acre and
declaring that they cannot afford to feed cattle
Of course they cannot till they grow enough to
feed them on, and the only way to get It Is to feed
as much as one can grow, knowing that he will
be able to feed more and more as his crons In
crease through the use of ft,e manure and the
growing of the legumes for the stock. With the
great Increase In the price of beef there Is every
Inducement for Eastern and Southern farmers to
eed cattle In winter and thus not only get manure
but cash for the spring work.
Then there Is another point It has been well
shown that the tick, the bane of cattle raising iu
the South can be abolished, and the farmers re
lieved of the quarantine. As fast as the united
farmers In any county adjacent to the quarantine
line rid their county of ticks, they will get north
of the line and have the best chance for feeding
cattle.
Some day the farmers of the South will wake up
to the great waste that they are making In letting
their valuable cottonseed meal go out to enrich
the land of other people through the feeding of It,
and they will be stirring themselvee to grow
silage snd hsy to enable them to feed In a proper
way the vast amount of meal that goee abroad.
When all the food sources of the Southern farms
are utilised no one can estimate the wealth that
will come to the farms and the farmers through
stock feeding. The Western plains no longer
supply sll the cattle needed, and every year the
making of beef will be more and more profitable
In the East, snd with every fanner growing feed
and feeding some cattle In winter the days of
bumblebee cotton will be ended.
How They Do it in Denmark.
□E REAR a great deal a beet the wonderfully
. prosperous dairying that la carried on In
Denmark. Away up there as far north ae
the Inhospitable land of Labrador on this side.
the farmers are well-to-do. and supply a large
part of the dairy products that Raglaad needs A
writer In an English paper who visited Denmark
says:
''Oa a farm of CSO acres I visited, everything la
so arranged as to produce a regular supply of milk
the year round, and not keep England waiting for
the butter she won t produce for herself. On this
farm there were ISO cows. 14 borsee and 40#
pigs, and 11 men and women to look after them
and the farm work. The owner Is a Misled by a
manager, a feeding master and a foreman He
told me that be could easily keep more cowe and
more pigs and produce larger crops If he could
only get the labor.”
Rut note that this man has more than one
herse to every 1* scree and keeps a large stork at
cattle and bogs. He has cemented pita to catch
all the liquid drainage from the stables and saves
everything In the way of manure, snd makes won
derful crops of forage on that land where men
have been farming It since the dawn of history,
while right here In the South, where the land has
been cultivated In a far better climate for a hue
area or two year*, we are talking about ”*rom*
out” land.
*
It la the cattle aad the manure and the rotation
of crop* that have made the difference, aad ham
kept tbo*e old landa In a cold cllcaatn Increasing
in production, while our virgin eotla bare hs*ra
wasted. The demonstration work of Dr. Knapp
and his helpers la rousing our people to the fact
that large crops can be made la practicing a good
method on a fewr acre* What w* now need ta
demonstration* that take In tba whole farm,
showing that by good farming, a proper rotation
of crops, and the feeding of stock, we can makn
the farm Increase In the production of our money
crop and make good crops ail around wbila using
but a fraction of the commercial fertilisers for
which our farmers are annually spending millions
Of dollars they need nnl ..J
for what they Deed not buy.
S
Ur. Duller well says that *lbe disadvantage* of
» system of cropping which does not give profit
able employment throughout the year to men and
I'-nms are many and far-reaching as affecting tb*
labor and other economic conditions of tb#
farm.”
You will note that the Danish farm, with It#
ong winter, keeps 3] hands, and would keep more
I* they could be had.
I have a ne«r neighbor who works «00 sere#
of land and a large part of It Is used for truck
and berry culture He keeps 20 hands all winter,
and Increases to 7 6 In summer, and makes money
• noiigh every year to buy a doten farms In many
parts of the South. He makes a good deal of
manure, but last year bought 3.000 tons of N#*
York stable manure at a cost of $3.75 per ton de
livered. as he finds that while using over 70 tons
of fertilisers he cannot keep his land In the best
condition without stable manure too. This man
started with nothing but youth and energy on as
poor a piece of sandy soil as can be found, noth
ing but sand and sassafras bushes, and recently
refused $100,000 for hla land.