Newspaper Page Text
rTuesday, 'October 18, 1904. 2 Crops, Soils and Fertilizers CONDUCTED BY B. W. KILGORE, 8Ute Chemist North Carolina Department of Apiculture and Director Agricultural Experiment Station. Inquiries of Progressive Farmer readers cheerfully an swered. OCTOBER COTTON .CROP &EP0RT. The Progressive Farmer the First Paper In the Country to Print it in Full. When the October cotton crop report was an nounced some days ago, the 'newspapers of the country gave only the average for all the cotton States with no detailed report as to conditions in any one State. All our exchanges were search ed, but nowhere could this information be found; whereupon the Editor of The Progressive Farmer wrote the Department of Agriculture at Wash ington for a complete copy of the report, and has since received the following reply: "Mr. Clarence H. Poe, Editor, The Progressive Farmer, Raleigh, North Carolina. "Sir: Replying to your request contained in your letter of recent date, now just referred to me, I send you herewith a mimeographed copy of my last cotton report that of the third in stant. This report has not been published by the Department in any other way, though it will ap pear in a few days in the Crop Reporter, a monthly publication of this Bureau. "Very truly yours, "JOHN HYDE, "Chief of Bureau of Statistics, United States . Department of Agriculture." -'mm I . mm m mm i m1 J. J.t a good plan to spray them thoroughly every year before, plow ana narrow, until you get uie week or ten days, with Paris green in water at land in the best condition you can, then sow the rate of one ounce of the green to six gallons broadcast, about eisrht or ten pounds to the acre, of water. If they are left standing ana not about middle ot April, and aon't cut it tne nrsi sprayed then blame yourself for the crop of flea- year, unless the crab grass gets into it. If so, beetles next year. All kinds oi tobacco insects mow it when the nrst blooms turn brown. will take advantage of these green sprouts to A very similar treatment suits the alfalfa. I multiply, but the flea-beetles are more dependent call it lucerne; the new name has got in, being upon them than the others, so we will here devote the Mexican for lucerne. By proper care you a little special attention, to them. can get a good stand, which will last fifty years The tobacco flea-bettle not only feeds on the or more ; the red clover will need renovating after tobacco, but also on the potato, tomato, egg-plant, five years. You can get two crops of hay from and pepper, among our cultivated plants, and the red cover, and four or five from the lucerne. on the jimpson-weed, horse-nettle, night-shade The preparation for the lucerne, is like the clover, and husk-tomato among the wild plants. At this but you should sow the alfalfa, or lucerne, in time of year some of these plants are gone, as the drills 18 inches apart, and use four or five pounds potato and tomato in many gardens. Therefore per acre. the flea-bettles are concentrated on a few plants You may cut the alfalfa when it gets a foot and by destroying them carefully great numbers high, and then every thirty days, until middle of of the insects will be starved out. September, but never let an animal tread on it. It is unfortunate that most of us do not look And there is no end to its life and value, but ahead more than we do. Now that the crop is watch for the crab grass; it spreads in a myste harvested, tobacco growers are apt to pay no at- rious way, but it is death to all crops. After you tention whatever to their insect pests until they begin to cut the alfalfa, it will cut back the grass, begin to be destructive next year. But right now It is very important to keep up the fertility of is the time to work againts the flea-bettles. the land, for you cannot keen up land and get It would be a most excellent plan topull up by heavy crops without fertilizing heavily. Hoping the roots all the tobacco stalks, pile, and burn I this may save some farmer from such error as them. It is of great importance that the roots be destroyed as they contain eggs and larvae of the flea-beetles. Then after these remnants have been thus disposed of, follow it up, if possible, by destroying such other plants as may be near by on which they feed. The tobacco field which is thus left bare, may be at once deeply plowed to bury any remnants which young ones make, with many good wishes, I am, Truly your friend, J. WASHINGTON WATTS. Mountville, S. C. THE COMPLETE OCTOBER REPORT. The monthly report of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Agriculture shows the average condition of cotton on Sep tember 24th to have been 75.8, as compared with 84.1 last month, C5.1 on September 25, 1903, 58.3 on September 251902, and a ten-year average of 66.8. The following table shows the condition by States on September 25th in each of the last two years, and that on August 25, 1904, with theten year averages: States. Sept. 25, Aug. 25, Sept. 25, 10-yr. 1904. 1904. 1903. average. Texas 69 77 54 63 Georgia 78 86 68 70 Alabama 76 84 68 68 Mississippi ... 77 87 69 68 South Carolina 81 87 70 69 Arkansas 77 88 69 66 Louisiana 78 87 71 . 69 North Carolina 82 88 74 70 Tennessee 76 88 71 71 Ind. Territory. 83 89 71 68 Oklahoma .... 85 96 72 69 Florida 82 88 70 71 Virginia .. 82 88 77 75 Missouri 82 87 74 77 United States 75.8 84.1 65.1 66.8 JOHN HYDE, Chief of Bureau. Approved: JAMES WILSON, Secretary. A Revival Needed. Messrs. Editors : It has lately been our privilege may be left, and sowed to wheat, rye, winter oats, to inspect many farms. The great need in this or some other winter-errowiner crop which will region is crop hold the soil and prevent washing and leaching. FRANKLIN SHERMAN, JR., Entomologist Department of Agriculture, Ra leigh, N. C. TALKS ON INSECT PESTS. XIV. Tobacco Pests : Destroy) Remnants at Once. Messrs. Editors: The tobacco crop for the most part has been gathered and the old stalks are standing in the field. These are sending out sprouts which will remain green and growing until cut down by frost. Upon these sprouts the flea-bettles, tobacco-worms, climbing cutworms, and grasshoppers are feasting, growing fat, mul tiplying and getting ready for the winter. Wouldn't it be better to destroy all these rem nants at once? If that be done it will surely lessen the number of these pests, especially the flea-beetles, for next year. If you are going to allow these remnants to remain, then it would bo ALFALFA AND CLOVER. Suggestions as to Best Metheds of Growing by a Farmer of 6o Years Experience. is crop rotation which , lies at the foundation of soil improvement. On the farms that we saw the plowing was not over four inches deep on nine-tenths of them. It is easy to get a progressive farmer to sow small grain, peas and sorghum seed and break his soil 7 to 12 inches deep, but the majority of them rare not up to that yet. These are the ones that need the missionary so as 4,0 get up a revival m every neighborhood. The agricultural papers and coun ty papers should constantly urge farmers to Messrs. Editors: I see in The Progressive adoT)t better methods. Th mmiltil" n. Farmer and Cotton Plant of September 27th, an have to do thft work fnr tW . Tint ftTlp nftl . article from H. M Daniel Hot Springs, N. C, paper in ten that eyer has a Hne that Mp8 farm. m which he says: Our alfalfa seems to have ers in their dailv orl , ptfi failed entirely I cut a clean crop of grab crass' neighbor to take a good agricultural paper is a irom tne paten recently." nl ;Qo0 t i,;0 s Now, as my experience fits his case precisely. I I 1. j? feel it a duty to give it, as it may save other ;ftT1, n nw failures. My age (85) is my excuse for poor penmanship and scattering ideas, but as I have gone through Mr. Daniel's experience, I will be gin with red clover, as they need the same prepa ration, and in many respects are alike. About sixty years ago, I began to farm, and wanted red clover. I began sowing it after the plan at the North and West, that is, to sow the clover with some grain (wheat preferred). Failure was the consequence. After farming here for several years, I sold out and moved to Cass (now Bar tow), Georgia, where the land is fine, and well adapted to clover if properly treated. Feeling confident of success, I went to work as before, sowing with some grain. After two or three failures, I had made up my mind to move a srain if I fnilfH. A-wkilo. , wcAwxe me nine 10 sow wneat, a inend paid me a visit who had p. rience with clover, and suggested that I leave off tne wneat and sow the clovers alone, both red and white. My success was complete, and from that day to this, I have not missed a stand, either in Georgia or since the war in my native land, and have grown some as fine I ever saw anywhere. The preparation is all. Sow in the spring on land that has grown a clean crop the year before so as to exterminate the crab grass, for no crop that I have eyer seen will grow with the crab grass. Select land where no crab grass grew the But there are difficulties in the way of progress. First, the tenant system retards real improve ment. Most of the tenants make contracts by the year. They are not interested in any im provement of land or buildings. In the second place, farm animals owned by tenants are inferior. They are not able to do good fall plowing. Hence the soil is scratched about three to four inches deep and every crop leaves the land poorer than it was when planted. In the third place, land owners are to blame. Many of them do not live on their farms. Just so they get their rent, they do not care how the land is treated. Let farmers lease for a term of years to such tenants as have good stock. Or better still, let them furnish stock and require the tenants to use best implements. Small grain should be sown liberally so that peas can follow. CHARLES PETTY. Spartanburg Co., S. C. Judge Parker's mother says she used the switch on "Alton" when a boy. Doubtless, for Judge Parkerjwasapparently brought up in the way he should go, but while Mother Parker did not spare the rod, she utterly failed to keep her son out of the river. Asheville News. '"