“What’s New in North Carolina” from the July, 1944, issue of Southern
Planter
By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh
J.D. Parker of Eagle Springs, Moore County, has a nice heard
of Jersey cows. He also has a flock of sheep and some goats; and, it is now
easy matter to provide feed for all of these on the sandy soils of his farm. He
began to take stock of the situation last fall when every man with livestock
and poultry began to fear the outcome of the feed situation. Mr. Parker had a
nice 11-acre field conveniently located for grazing so he put the soil into
tip-top condition, applied about 1,500 pounds of limestone, added 800 pounds of
phosphate and 100 pounds of muriate of potash per acre. Then he planted oats,
crimson clover and Austrian peas, seeding rather liberally. This spring he
top-dressed the crop with 200 pounds of nitrate of soda and on April 10, he
decided that the growth was large enough to turn 26 Jersey cows and six head of
work stock into the field.
Two weeks later, however, the grazing was getting so far
beyond the capacity of these animals that he turned in 75 sheep and 110 goats.
He figured that certainly sheep and goats could eat all of everything. But the
growth gained on all of these and lasted until about the end of May. Mr. Parker
said he never saw so much grazing from an 11-acre piece of land—and this in the
Sandhill section. He attributed the enormous production to the liberal seeding
and the heavy fertilization.
Rain Makes Record
Roughage Crops
But from all over North Carolina there comes similar reports
of fine hay and grazing crops this past spring. Much of the cereal mixtures and
winter legumes planted last fall to be plowed under for soil improvement were
never turned due to the simple fact that one could not get a plow into the
fields until it was too late. The rains were almost continuous up until time to
plant the summer row crops. But then the weather favored the haymaker and as a
result the State is harvesting one of its record crops of fine quality
roughage.
H.T. Watkins of Caswell County, for instance, reports almost
as good returns from 13 acres seeded to
oats, crimson clover and rye grass. He grazed 40 cows on this field last
November and December and put them back on it April 1. He made the field supply
grazing until late spring by dividing it into halves and grazing each half for
about 10 days. He says more grazing is secured in this way.
R.L. Spencer of Columbia, Route 1, Tyrrell County, has 18
cows and 37 hogs that got most of their winter feed from 6 acres of oats, 3
acres of rutabagas and 18 acres of field gleanings. The rutabagas are
especially relished by the cows in mid-winter when there is a lack of succulent
feed.
W.N. Shearon of Bunn, Franklin County, seeded 45 acres to
crimson clover and rye grass last fall and grazed about 300 head of cattle and
300 hogs all winter. He finds that the rye grass will provide more winter and
spring grazing than any other crop that he has ever planted.
Alvin R. Askew of Goldsboro, Route 2, and D.Z. Holloman of
Goldsboro, Route 1, reported similar grazing results with cereal mixtures and
Italian rye grass on a smaller scale but proportionately as high returns.
Some dairymen are now installing hay driers so that the hay
of spring and early summer will be saved despite tricky showers and thunder
storms.
Water for Two By
Hydraulic Ram
C.H. Boyles and Benny Jones live on adjoining farms on which
there is a need for water for five milk cows, three heifers, four mules, 100
hens, 600 chickens, 29 hogs and pigs, and a beef animal. The two families and
these animals require at least 500 gallons of fresh water each day but Mr.
Boyles had been hauling all the water supplied to his stock and Mr. Jones had
been carrying his about 800 feet. They found a free flowing spring on the Jones
farm and installed a hydraulic ram at a cost of $235.38 t the two families. Now
there is plenty of water for all uses and life is more sanitary and satisfying
on both farms.
Mule Clinics Prove
Profitable
A farmer of Martin County bought a mule from a neighbor for
$75 because the mule had a lump on his jaw and the neighbor did not value the
animal very highly. The buyer took the mule to the workstock clinic held in
that neighborhood by animal industry specialists from State College cooperating
with the county agent and the local veterinarian and had the “horse doctor”
look at the lump. A tooth was extracted at a cost of $1 and the owner returned
home with a work animal easily worth $300. H.M. Stamey, assistant livestock
specialist, says the veterinarian found that the mule had a split tooth in
which food was compacting causing all of the trouble. These clinics were held
in 59 counties during the late winter and early spring when 6,549 animals were
examined and many of them treated. Treatments were given at nominal cost and
the owners say that excellent results were obtained.
Cotton Choppers Look
Promising
Once again the machine has invaded the cotton field,
historic home of hand labor, and if present experimental trials with two-row
cotton choppers are successful, North Carolina farmers will use more of them in
the future. A number of the machines have been purchased in widely separated
parts of the State and almost universally, the owners say that they work.
Clifford Hamrick of Boiling Springs, Cleveland County, has one which he says
chopped his cotton all right and killed the grass at the same operation. The
chopper is pulled by a tractor and requires one man to operate it so that the
chopping blades may be kept set at the proper depths.
Airplane Used for
Dusting Peaches
Peach growers in the Sandhills of Moore, Montgomery and
Richmond counties have been saving labor this spring by having their orchards
dusted by airplane. A commercial plane operator has worked in that section at
the request of the orchardist and has performed a service which hardly could
have been accomplished otherwise. The plane is equipped for the work and can be
used to dust 100 acres of orchard trees in one hour. It takes a little more
dust for the job but growers say that they get a better coverage of the trees
than with the regular farm outfit. County Agent R.E. Davenport says he has
observed the plane dust a 30-acre orchard in 10 minutes enveloping the trees in
600 pounds of chemicals. The dust is used for control of brown rot and
curculio.
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