The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., November 18, 1911, WINTER PREPARATION SPECIAL., Image 1

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

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
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Volume XVI. No, 46._SATURDAY, NOVCTJER 18, 1911, Weekly: $1 a Year,
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What Preparation Have You Made to Take Care of Your Land This Winter?
TO CAKE for and improve
his soil is the farmer’s first
great duty, and the prob
lem of how best to do this is the
greatest of all problems he, as a
farmer, has to solve. We have
thought it fitting, therefore, that
in this issue, devoted cliiefly to
the preparation of the farm and '
the household for the coming
winter, we should on tills first
page ask each reader what he -
lias done to prepare his fields for
a comfortable winter.
It is such a big question, too,
that no fawner can afford not to
answer it fairly and frankly.
For, mind you, Mr. Reader, upon
tlie care yon take of your land,
more than upon any other one
thing, depends your success or
failure as a farmer. The man
who improves his soil is a good
farmer; the* man who depletes
his soil is a bad farmer.
Let ns ask the question again,
then, What preparation lutve yon
umae to take care of your land this winter? We leave it to you
to answer. p ’
The picture on this page shows a field that was well taken care
Its owner knew that It does land harm to lie exposed to our
"mter rains—bare and shivering, as it were—and to have the water
running over it, carrying away, not only the life-giving elements of
the soil, but in many cases the soil itself. So he sowed Ids land in
a cover crop—hairy vetch in this case—to protect it. He did it just
on the same principle that he would give his cattle and horses a
shelter from the sleet and the winter rain. The poor shivering house
out in tho fence corner is utilising, in the effort to keep warm, feed
that should have gone to the building up of his body or to the sup
plying of energy for doing useful work. The neglected field, with the
scattered com or cotton stalks as its only protection, is giving aip to
t o water that runs over it or through it elements of fertility that
should have gone to the growing of crops for the owner’s benefit,
OVV °an so treated be expected to produce profitable crops?
• he stiff red clays in the colder portions of our territory, if
M-.«ed deeply now and left in ridges so as to prevent washing, may
e all the better for a winter’s freezing and thawing; but in all the
"armer parts of °‘e South nU light lands there should he Rom*.
Mug and terrac
now, and where
needed they should bo done at once. The land* like the live stock,
and like the farmer himself, should be improving this winter so as
to meet the coining spring “in better heart.” Tlien there is reasonable j
hope that it will yield larger returns than this year. No care of other
details on the farm can make np for neglect of tlie soil; for a good
soil is essential to any enduring system of profitable farming.
FEATURES OF THIS ISSUE.
KOOKS KOR TRK COUNTRY HOMR—Also Some Suggestions for
tlie Heading Boom.....
COTTONSEED MEAL FOB HOGS—How to Feed With Safety and
Profit.' jj
FARMING VS. PLANTING COTTON—The Old Lesson Farmer
Are So Slow to Learn. ^ _ *g
GARDEN NOTES—Practical Hints by Prof. Niven, Mrs. Deaton and
the Editors.*. 19
HOW READERS ARE PREPARING FOR WINTER—The Priz-o
Letters and Others. 6—28
HOW TO PREPARE FOR AND TREAT EMERGENCTES—Helpful
Suggestions for Meeting Accidents . 10
LETTERS FROM OPR YOUNG PEOPLE—A Very Interesting Lot 0
MAKE THE LIVff STOCK COMFORTABLE—It Will Pay 14
ZZZZK “**«"“-* «riiami«u; —-j
RECIPES FOR HOG-KILLING TIME—How to -Our* « ‘ 1" ‘ 1 * I
How to Make Lard, Sausage, Etc. . *** 010 Hn<J I
TIMEIiY FARM SUGGESTIONS—Dr. Butler on Plowing ' S^iT'7 I
5S^TiTCH OX.«*in«. U. Thinicn * 1