The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., April 16, 1910, HOME CANNING NUMBER, Image 1

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

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home canning number
Volume XV. No. 15 SATURDAY. APRIL 16. 1910 Weekly; SI a Year.
The Most Important Thing on the Farm Just Non?,
THERE arc countless details in farm work to which attention
must he given if the farmer would get the greatest returns
from his labor and his investment ; but there are also a few fun
damental operations which are absolutely necessary to success,
and the neglect or misdoing of which means failure.
One of these, which is of special importance just now, is the
cultivation of the crops and by cultivation we mean (hat done
before as well as that dene after the crops are planted. Last
week we took occasion to give a tittle warning to the effect that
poor work in planting the crops would necessarily mean de
creased yields next fall ; and wc wish to repeat and emphasize
that statement this week It is a thing you must not forget.
l'ii //• mi /inn /nr tht
purpose of conset v.
ing moisture anj
keeping (town gross
unit weeds should be
gin with the break
ing of the land un- B
less that has been C
(tone in the fall or
winter —and should |
continue until the 1
crop approaches ma
turity. Right here,
too, it is worth while
to remember that if
the first object men
tioned the conscrip
tion of moisture is
attained, there will
ordinarily be little
trouble with weeds and grass
All of us who have farmed know that there are times when
it is impossible to prevent the grass from getting a start and
making much hard work: but such seasons arc the exception, not
the rule If a man starts in time and uses the proper implements,
he cun, in unv ordinary season, KEEP his crops clean, so that
it will not be necessary for him to PLOW OUT the grass. To
do this requires frequent and shallow stirring of the soil, and to
be able to stir the soil frequently in our uncertain seasons means
that the farmer must have tools that will enable him to get over
the land quickly. He can not hope, if the season is showery, to
keep his crop clean if he must go four or five times to the row
with a single plow; but if he can cover six to twelve feet at a
through with a harrow before the crop is planted, take a raw at
a time with a weeder while it is young, and with a cultivator
when it gets older, he can keep his crop clean in a wet season,
or save the moisture for the use of hts crops in a dry season.
I Bv Courtesy Bateman Manufacturing Co.
Improved tools cost money; but they are far cheaper than
is cultivation with the single shovel or the turning plow. This is
why, in season and out of season, we have urged the purchase of
better tools and the use of more horse-power as a necessity in
the production of cheaper crops and the attainment of a larger
prosperity.
Two-horse cultivators are not within the reach of all our
readers this year. Some of them do not cultivate enough land
to justify their purchase ; some of them work land too stumpy
or rocky, or too much cut up by ditches and banks to make their
use profitable ; some of them have not two horses to pull them.
But mark this : A larger per cent, will be using them next
__1 __A
^ V**f f Mill* i V »•«. Al;
and the next; because
the land is going to
be put into better
shape, more work
stock are going to be
obtained, and a truer
appreciation of their j
value is going to make
itself felt.
Because a man can.
not have such an out
fit as the one here
shown, however, is no
reason why he should
work his crops with a
turning plow. The
one-horse farmer re
mains a one-horse
*
former tn too many
cases simply because he has the idea that he must continue to
use the same old tools and methods. He is the very man who
most needs to make each day's work count for more, and just
so long as he continues to devote two days' time to doing one
day's work he will fail to get ahead. If a man has only one
horse, he can use a harrow and a weeder with suceess, and he
can make both of them pay for themselves the first season.
Vherefore, let us say it again : Right now is the time to begin
the cultivation of all your crops—even of those not planted.
Use modern labor-saving tools, so you can get over a whole lot
of ground in a day. See that the soil is in good condition be
fore you plant, and when the crop is planted keep right on with
the cultivation. It is not necessary to wait for the corn and the
cotton —and the grass and weeds—to ’get up and get a start.
Get your start first; get the soil in good condition, and keep
your cultivation a little ahead of the crop, and your work
will be easy and your reward great. '
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