The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., October 15, 1910, Page 702, Image 2

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

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
7§2 (2)
Old Ideas Versus Modern Methods.
AN OLD Confederate writes from North Car
olina that his father-in-law in South Caro
lina, who was considered one of the best
cotton farmers in his county, said to him: “Now,
Bill, if you try to raise any cotton, I’ll tell you
how to work it if it gets grassy. Run a furrow
in the middles with a straight
shovel and then run on an old
twister well sharpened and put
a wedge on the far side and run
around your cotton and bar it
off. and that will cover all the
grass in the middles, and iu
four to six days you can plow
it out, as the grass is all dead.
Then from the full moon in
July to the full moon in August
Pbofb88oh Mabset. go over your cotton and pinch
out the tops, and you will make a lot more cotton.
Plant your seed when the sign is in the twins and
you will have plenty of twin bolls. This shallow
cultivation may be all right when cotton gets
large enough to hold the dirt and ground—room
enough for it to grow’. The first plowing of cot
ton should be to bar it off as close as possible to
let the sun down to the roots to make it grow.
I have seen Blank, of South Carolina, bar his cot
ton off three times till the stalk was as large as
your finger and then begin to throw the earth to
it, and he made from 200 to 300 bales of cotton.’’
Here we have the old way of human labor ap
plied to cotton. There is no need for a man get
ting in the grass if he goes over his cotton with
a smoothing harrow before it is up, and then
rapidly goes over with the weeder. He will then
have killed the grass before it gets a chance to
smother the cotton and will have done the work
three or four times as fast as with a shovel and
twister. Then, getting on a two-horse cultivator,
he works both sides of the row at once and never
thinks of barring-off, for the modern cotton grow
er knows that this is of no use whatever. Then
the modern cultivator of cotton plants his seed
when he has made a good seed bed and has land
in condition to make a good crop, and does not
know nor care where the sign is. If he has seed
that has been bred to making twin bolls, he will
get them, sign or no sign, for the signs of the
Zodiac have no more to do with cotton than with
the hair on your head. He who has numbered
these gives the early and the latter rain, and the
man who cultivates his field in the best and most
economical way will make the most cotton.
Now as to topping cotton, I have never seen an'
advantage in it. I may be wrong, for I have
never tried it, and some who have, find it a help.
But the time of the moon has nothing on earth
to do with it, and it is time that intelligent peo
ple should get rid of these old superstitions about
ihe moon and the sign. Men whom I know are
making two bales of cotton an acre are not using
the shovel and twister, but are farming in a good
rotation and getting their land rich and are mak
ing cotton far ahead of the moon-struck people
who follow the signs, and the> are making it far
heaper than these men.
Jl
On the other hand, a farmer in Louisiana
writes: “I raised corn according to the methods
advanced in your paper, and it will make about
eighty bushels an acre. I also want to thank
you ior teaching me to cure peaviue hay. By
following your advice I lost very few leaves, and
all the vines dried out without souring.” No
moonology and no signs here, hut good corn with
out a “twister” or barring-off, and good haj
without rackB or stakes. The moon and the signs
evidently favor the man who prepares his land
and cultivates in the proper way, while the mar
who pays attention more to the signs and tb<
moon than he does to the Improvement of hii
land and his seed will get little help from th<
moon or the signs. The men who read The Pro
gressive Farmer and Gazette are getting awa;
from these old nonsensical superstitions. The:
know that If they do their part by the soil well
and cultivate the crop in the best and most rapi<
and economical way. the moon nor the signs wil
ever prevent their making good crops, for It 1
the sunshine and the rains that make the crop
too, that If they sow clean seed In clean soil the
will never have any cheat. In the crop of whea
and not the moon and the signs. They know
or oats, for cheat is like every other weed—it
must have seed to start from,—and not a grain
of oats or wheat ever made a cheat plant, or
ever will. The only signs a farmer needs to
notice are the signs that show his soil to he gain
ing iu humus and his crops increasing through
good farming and clean seed. I have driven
around the country this summer, and have seen
field after field of corn when the man who planned
it knew very well that the land could not make a
crop of corn, if he knew any of the signs of poor
land. And yet, we see such men planting year
after year, and failing, when they know that even
the moon or the seven stars could not give them
a crop of corn or cotton on that land till it was
improved by better farming; and men who have
been working on a piece of land for many years
write that their land is poor, and all because they
have made no proper effort to make it rich.
Money in Greenhouse Work for
Southern Truckers.
I WAS OUT at Grand Rapids, Mich., last week
attending the annual convention of the
Greenhouse Vegetable Growers and Market
Gardeners of America, and 1 wished that 1 could
have had some of our Southern truckers there
who are afraid to put money into glass houses.
1 was in one greenhouse mere, 210 x 500 feet,
and all planted iu cucun -..ers for the Christmas
trade, and the vines on wire trellises now six feet
high. This house covei i nearly two and a half
acres, and was not the only one on the place,
nor the only large place I visited.
And there are hundreds of these winter-forcing
establishments at Toledo, Cleveland, and Ashta
Viii 1 n in HR in n »«n. i• .1 Dnnhnetnr V V <111/1 arAllfl/1
Boston in New England. That men have made
fortunes on ten or twelve acres of land by this
intensive work in a climate where the sun rarely
shines in winter, and where the mercury goes
away down below zero, shows what could be done
in the South if our people once realized the im
portance of intensive, rather than extensive,
trucking. We have every advantage over these
growers in our winter sunshine and milder tem
perature. «
1 saw at Cleveland, Ohio, in June, two wagons
loaded with tomatoes and cucumbers ready tor
the morning s market, and they expected at least
3 500 for each load, and this was the last and
fourth crop out of those houses for the winter.
At Ashatahuia one firm has seventy greenhouses
growing lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, and at
lrondequoit, near Rochester, N\ Y., there are 2oo
establishments in this line of work. And the
greenhouse men have beautiful homes and ride
in their automobiles, and do not want more than
ten acres, as an average. The place 1 mentioned
at Cleveland is twelve acres, and the owner has
refused $50,000 for it.
And yet, our Southern truckers will potter over
a lot of cloth-covered frames, and hesitate to use
glass when the glaks in the long run is far cheap
er and more proiltablo than cloth. At I’inehurst,
N. C., any one can see how this winter forcing is
done, for Mr. Swinnerton there is a very expert
hand at cucumber and tomato and lettuce grow
ing under glass, and he knows that they can be
grown as well and cheaper there than at Boston
where he learned the art. True, we do not need
me neaceu grceiiuuubes iui icuuib iu mu ouum,
but we do need the glass sashes on the frames to
grow lettuce and other winter crops.
I have lettuce now growing In my frames that
I expect to cut out in November and at once sow
beets and radishes in the frames, for I use the
double-glazed sashes that keep out all frost, and
am certain that I can get off a crop of radishes
in the winter and a crop of beets in March. 1
will sow them in alternate rows six inches apart,
and when the radishes are out, the beets will
have plenty of room. Then when the beets come
off I will plant a hill of cucumbers under each
sash and get these a month ahead of the open
ground crop.
Of course, it takes more capital to run a place
equipped with greenhouses and frames with
1 glass, but there is no line of soil culture that payB
1 a better profit, for, as a rule, all the green
■ house vegetable growers North have made for
' tunes at the business, and many of them on land
worth $2,000 to $3,000 an acre.
1 Progress goes forward, and in a few' years it
1 will be as common to see corn shocked in the
3 South as in the North. Either way of saving the
3 stover is better than the Western practice of snap
' Ping off the ears and then letting the cattle range
t the fields, for the Western farmer is always waste
, ful.
PROGRESSIVE FARMER AND GAZETTI.
Deep Plowing and Soil Improvement
EAD THAT editorial on dee, plowing in the
Uissue of October 1. The fall is the time to
deepen Hie soil. It is the best time for sub
soiling the hill lands that are inclined to wash, for
the subsoil is now in a condition to crumble,
while in spring it is pasty when the surface is in
good plowing state.
The red hills need the deepest breaking, for
these red lands resulting from the decomposition
in place of the granite rocks are all soil down to
the fast rock and only need aerating and frosting
to make good soil as deep as you can drive a sub
soiler after a turning plow that runs eight inches
deep.
And nothing you can do will tend more to
check the washing than a deep bed of loose soil
tor the rains to settle in. especially if you prac
tice a good rotation and have vegetable matter to
turn under every lime it is broken for a hoed
irop. I believe in deep fall plowing and sub
tolling of the hills, but I do not believe in letting
them lie bare all winter. Sow rye on them and
turn this under in the spring, and it will pay well
for the extra work.
Hut, as the Mditor says, if you have level and
sandy land let the subsoiler alone. On deep,
sandy soil we want to make a sort of hard-pan
right below the turning plow furrow, and that
bhould not be over six Inches deep.
Ob level clay soils that need uiulcrdrainage sub
soiling is useless, for the wet soil will go right
back to its former Btate. Hut with deep under
drains even these soils, the "black-jack" soils, for
instance, can be wonderfully improved by deep
breaking and subsoiling. Deep plowing is only
. . • i # _t . . I_._
UUU 111 dsUUU lilt muihi 41IIM an VMC I.VlitVM **••/*•
deep plowing alone will not permanently Improve
the soil unless it Is kept up by a good rotation. It
will enable crops to withstand dry weather better,
will check washing; but If only the old methods
are then practiced, even the deep-plowed land will
ruu down. It is but the beginning point for good
farming in general.
Notes and Comments.
□UR FRIENDS are still giving us plans for
curing cow pea bay with racks and poles. 1
have cured it for many years, and know that
it will cure all right If you only let It cure and
do not monkey with any sort of a frame. I never
used anything of the sort, and l never failed In
thirty years to make clean, sweet hay by curing
partly in the windrows and cocks and finishing in
the barn, and 1 would not give a cent for any
frame ever made for curing it.
IMHJ ITiNM I,.—The plant known as dog fen
nel In the South Is a very different plant
from the dog fennel northward. It Is a species
of Eupalorium, while the true dog fennel Is the
stinking Maruta. The oily way to get rid of
weeds is not to allow them to grow. So long as
you allow the tall dog fennel to grow and bloom
Its myriad of little flowers and make seed, just
so long you will have It In the pasture. Hut If It
is cut off as fast us it shows above ground. It will
die out, for the roots of any plant will perish If
it 1b not allowed to make green leaves. The
mowing machine is one of the best weed destroy
ers. Hun it low and never allow the plants a
chance to make seed. Then top dress the pasture
J*
I HUM I'AK-OI I AtKTUAMA.—I received a
copy of a farm paper published at Sydney, Aus
tralia, which does mo the honor of printing my
portrait and says that It is going to print my hook.
"Crop Growing and Crop Feeding," in weekly
chapters, and one of tho agricultural officials
there Bays that If he had tho means he would dis
tribute the book by the thousands to the Austral
ian farmers. Surely one has to get a long way
liom home to he appreciated. (Professor Massey
is wrong; this Incident simply shows that he Is
appreciated by the discerning away from, as well
at at. home.—Editor.)
One pesnut grower said that he topped and
stiipped corn because lie always had peaH among
It that he wanted the hogs to gather, and ho had
i<> gather the corn out of the field, as In shocks
(he hogs would tear them down. Another peanut
grower said that he cuts and shocks his corn aud
turns the hogH Into the Held to eat the peas and
they do not disturb the corn so long ub there are
plenty of peas, and when they have cleaned up
the peas he wants them on the peanut fields to
glean them.
I