Before the time of
the county agent, farmers used to mail their questions to agricultural
magazines, and the answers would be printed for all. Here are some letters from
the March 1909 issue of The Southern
Planter
I have a 10-acre lot set well in herds grass and clover, off
of which I got a very good hay crop last year. Can fence same with six bales of
wire. Would it pay best to pasture that land to improve it while in sod, or
would it be best to break for corn? I have other shifts for corn, but not quite
so nearby. Pasturing this land will put me on a four-year rotation instead of
three years. Which is best to increase fertility fastest? I have 10 acres in
grass and clover for hay crop this year; would you advise me to spread my
manure on it to increase hay crop and fertility, or would you put manure on wheat?
It is rather a difficult matter to get all on before April. Will sow timothy,
herds grass and clover on wheat and can use manure on sod next fall and winter.
--W.H. Moore, Person
County, NC
We prefer a four-year rotation to a three-year one, except
upon very light land, which will not hold a sod well. We would therefore
pasture the grass land this year and then in the winter get manure on it for
corn next year. Corn land is the best place upon which to use farm yard manure,
as it always tells more effectually on corn than any other crop, and the great
root system of a corn crop can most effectually utilize the coarse manure. This
is the place where we would apply the manure you now have. If you have more
than you need for this purpose, use the best rotted part of it as a top
dressing on your wheat. On the grass land to be mowed we would apply 300 pounds
of acid phosphate and 100 pounds of muriate of potash per acre at once, and
then when the grass commences to grow freely would top dress with 100 pounds of nitrate of soda, and they should
give you a heavy crop of hay. The manure which you can spare for the wheat will
help you to secure a better stand of grass.
--Editor
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Tobacco and cotton
growing
I want to trouble you with two or three questions having
great faith in your suggestions as to farming. I have just read your article on
tobacco growing in the January Southern
Planter. You are doubtless familiar with the soil of Edgecombe. The farm I
am now running is of the grey sandy loam subsoil. Will the formula mentioned in
the above article suit this class of land? Will Kainit answer for the potash
and how much? Will fish scrap answer in place of dried blood? As it is not
convenient to get this. If so will you kindly give me proportions? Will a crop
of rye turned under be injurious to cotton, say turned under in March, cotton
to be planted middle of April, rye followed cotton and peanuts, could not get
it in until too late for clover.
Subscriber, Edgecombe
County, N.C.
The formula mentioned in The
Planter will do very well for light sandy soil in Edgecombe. It was used in
Granville at a rate of 700 pounds per acre. Kainit will not answer at all for
the potash, as the chlorides will damage the quality of the tobacco. A man in
Forsyth county, N.C., used this formula and put in the same quantity of kainit
and, for course, did not get more than one-fourth the potash required, and that
is a bad form for tobacco. Potash in kainit is a sulphate, but is associated
with so much chloride of sodium that it acts like muriate would. Nor will fish
scrap do as well as blood for the same reason. Rye turned under will help
cotton.
--W.F. Massey
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Will you please give me the kinds of fertilizers and the way
to mix it, for an acre of onions? Also, the kinds and mixture for an acre of
Irish potatoes? I will not have any stable manure. When should I set out Prize
Taker onion sets so I can harvest by August 1st to 15th?
How many bushels will it take of sets per acre?
How many bushels of Irish
potatoes will it take to plant an acre? Can you give me some points about how
to cut the Irish potatoes for planting? The farmers here simply peel them and
drop the peelings in the ground.
What is the best corn I can plant and the fertilizer I can
use? What is the best cotton I can plant, and the fertilizer I can use? I go
out in the country and ask the farmers what kinds of seeds they use for cotton
and corn. They don’t know. I am only going to try 12 or 15 acres. Prepare it
right and work it right, and see what I can do with it. I may fail, but I don’t
think I will.
--O.L. McFarland,
Cleveland County, N.C.
We would not advise you to plant Prize Taker onion sets in
the spring. They should have been planted in the fall. The best way to grow a
crop of onions now is to sow the seed either under glass and then plant out the
young onions in April, or to sow the seed in the field where the crop is to be
raised in March. The Prize Taker is one of the best varieties for sowing under
glass in February and then plant out the young plants. It makes an early, good
crop handled in this way. It will also do well grown from seed sown in the
field, but will not be so early. The land should be finely prepared and then
laid off in furrows wide enough apart to admit of horse culture. In these
furrows not less than 1,000 pounds of fertilizer per acre, made up of 200
pounds of nitrate of soda, 750 pounds of cottonseed meal, 750 pounds of acid
phosphate (12 per cent.), and 300 pounds of muriate of potash to make a ton
should spread. Two furrows should then be lapped over the fertilizer furrow and
the ridge thus made be flattened down by rolling or with a hoe. On this ridge
the seed should be sown. Sow plenty of seed, then thin out when the side of a
lead pencil, so as to leave the plants three or four inches apart. The
thinnings can be planted out on other ridges made in the same way. Cultivate
the crop repeatedly so as to keep free from weeds. The soil should be worked
away from the bulbs when they begin to form so as to leave them to mature on
the surface of the ground and not under it.
In this issue you will find an article dealing with the
question of the fertilizer to use for growing the Irish potato crop. This crop
in your section should not be set out before June so that the crop will mature
in the fall. You will require from 10 to 12 bushels of potatoes to plant an
acre. If the potatoes are large and have few eyes, more seed will be needed. If
they have many eyes the sets will cut out further and less seed be required.
The sets should be cut so as to leave two or three eyes in each piece and leave
as much of the potato as possible. It is ridiculous to expect to grow a crop
from peelings. The eyes must have the substance of the potato to support the
spouts they send out until the roots are formed and have taken hold of the
ground.
In this column you will find advice as to the variety of
corn to plant and as to preparation and fertilizing of the land. As the
varieties of cotton to plant, Russell’s Big Boll and Culpeper’s Improved have
been found to be good varieties for planting on light land. For heavier soils,
Kin’s Improved has been found a good variety.
If you prepare your land well and make it rich and give the
crops the proper attention, you ought to succeed.
--Editor
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Tobacco and Oats
1. I would like to have a formula for a fertilizer for
bright tobacco. My land is gray to white sandy soil underlaid with red and
yellow subsoil. I cannot produce a heavy tobacco, but can raise a bright light
tobacco. So you see why I want a fertilizer that will grow a bright, silky,
fine leaf tobacco. The land I wish to plant this year is what is considered in
fairly good state of fertility for the above-described land, with a fair amount
of decaying vegetable matter in it. I think maybe Professor Massey can help me
in a formula for this section as he is somewhat acquainted with the nature of
the land in this section, as he has visited Yanceyville in the interest of the
Farmers’ Institutes. What I want is the best fertilizer for bright tobacco on
gray land.
2. Is kainit mixed in equal parts with bone meal and 300 to
400 pounds per acre drilled with oats a good fertilizer to use for that crop?
A.H.D. King, Caswell
County, N.C.
1. See Professor Massey’s reply to “Subscriber in this
column. The nature of your soil seems to be much the same and the same formula
should meet its requirements.
Acid phosphate would be preferable to bone meal to supply
the phosphoric acid for a spring oat crop, as it is more quickly available and
the period of growth of spring oats is very short. For fall seeded crops or
crops having a long period of growth, bone meal is the best. To supply the potash,
we would use muriate of potash instead kainit. Twenty-five pounds of muriate
will give you as much potash as 100 pounds of kainit, and will cost you about
the same per unit of potash, and you will save on freight and hauling. The acid
phosphate and muriate of potash will give you a cheaper fertilizer than the
bone meal and kainit and be more effective.
--Editor
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