By F.H. Jeter
North Carolina farmers are taking a keener and more intelligent interest in questions of crops and soils than ever before, according to facts that one will gather in studying the annual report of the division of agronomy recently made to Director B.W. Kilgore by Mr. C.B. Williams, chief of the division. Mr. Williams’ report shows a record of great activity during the past year, especially among the lines of seed and crop improvement. Mr. Williams points out that probably the cheapest gains that a farmer can make on his land are secured by planting good seed of the varieties best suited to the section in which he is farming. Seed improvement work in this division is carried on by Dr. R.Y. Winters, one of the best known seed breeding specialists in the South and a scientist of high rank among agricultural workers of this section.
The division has devoted much effort to show the importance of using good seed. Mr. Williams points out that the State would be the gainer by $24,856,525 if the farmers would select good seed and plant them instead of using the scrub seed that are generally planted. In other words, North Carolina is losing annually over $24 million on account of using low yielding seed as compared with what it might have were better seed used. Nor is this a guess, because accurate tests made in the division of agronomy show that this difference in yield does exist.
Improving Farm Crops
In this seed improvement work, the data are first secured by carefully conducted experiments on the experiment station grounds. For instance, the division now has tests under way to show how cotton transmits its economic qualities, how seed form one section of the country will behave when planted in another section, and how seed may be improved by careful selection and breeding. This seed improvement is being carried on with cotton, corn, soybeans, wheat, rye and sorghum. It includes plant-to-row tests and increase plots. Tests show that the Mexican Big Bolled cotton developed by Dr. Winters is continuing to gain in favor over the State on account of its large acre yield and its extra length of staple. In the plant-to-row tests a large portion of the plots furnish 1 1/8 inch staple and have been unusually productive. The corn breeding work is being continued with strains of Cocke’s Prolific that have been grown o the main station farm near Raleigh for several years. No other seed improvement work has yielded better returns that the work done with soybeans. About 14 different strains of these beans are now being bred up from original varieties and are showing good increases.
At each of the other stations farm work of similar importance to that particular section is being carried on. Down on the muckland station a large amount of work is being done with corn and the strains developed from Latham’s double are showing good results for use in that section.
Many Communities Reached
The extension work in seed improvement is probably the major extension project of the Division of Agronomy. Community cotton improvement is now being carried on by 14 communities in 10 counties. Demonstrations in field selections of better seed were carried on in 24 communities of 11 counties. These communities will produce approximately 40,000 bushels of improved cotton seed. Since the work was started in 1914 about 105 communities in 36 counties have been reached in this community effort to grow better seed. In only two of the communities has the work failed to introduce a better strain of cotton. The average increase of the improved strain over the variety generally grown has amounted to an average of $22.32 per acre.
This past season 33 counties were given help in the improvement of their cotton seed. As a result of community variety demonstrations and exhibits, 10,850 bushels of improved seed were introduced this spring into communities that have previously grown inferior varieties. In addition to this, the cotton breeders with whom the Division of Agronomy is co-operating sold approximately 12,000 bushels of improved seed in their local communities and 6,750 bushels were shipped out of state.
Seed corn improvement is being done in 28 communities of 19 counties. Corn is grown more largely over the whole state than is cotton, so these demonstrations have been located at wide intervals in the different parts of the state. An example of the good work being done is shown by the little Cherryville Community of Gaston County, where the division has been conducting demonstrations and assisting in holding a corn show for the past four years. The display of ore than 300 uniform exhibits of corn at the show this season was a distinct improvement over the first show four years ago when all kinds of mixtures were on display. Now on account of the care with which this corn is grown, Cherryville is becoming known as a center from which good seed corn may be bought.
This same work is being done with wheat, oats and rye. The test fields with these crops are located in nine different counties and consist of 24 fields of wheat, 11 of Abruzzi rye, and 5 of pedigreed oats.
Soybeans are being improved in nine demonstrations in eight counties. Regular campaigns for putting soybean information before the farmers have been held in nine counties of the Coastal Plain section, and seven counties in the mountains. The idea has been to push the growing of this crop in communities where the farmers are not generally familiar with it. On the whole, the work in crop improvement by this division is gaining widespread recognition both in North Carolina and elsewhere over the South. Farmers generally are paying more attention to seed selection and are using better seed on account of the demonstrations showing how good seed increase average acre yields.
Soil Fertility Work
One of the other major projects of the Division of Agronomy is in soil fertility. The soil survey is the basis of this work and during the past year Cumberland and Haywood counties have been mapped and about one half of Sampson county has been worked. The area finished during the year will be about 900,000 acres. The reports of the soil survey work are steadily increasing in popularity as they give accurate reports on the agriculture of any area that has been surveyed. Farmers, school teachers, prospective settlers, highway engineers, chambers of commerce and others are eager to have these reports and to use the accurate information which they contain.
As always, the agronomy workers are stressing the need for more fertile soils. It is from the cultivation of the soil that most of the wealth of North Carolina is derived and the division is trying to give the farmers of the State a fuller and more complete knowledge of the many factors that contribute to a fertile soil. No one can hope to make any profit farming while the acre yields are small. The unit cost of production will be too great. The division finds that every farmer should try to grow some legumes and that a portion of the crop, after harvesting some for seed, should be returned to the soil to provide more organic matter and to cheaply replenish the nitrogen supply of the soil. Where the soil is very poor, tests show that rye is one of the best crops for improving the soil, and after is has been used for a year or two, the organic supply is then built up to such an extent that the legumes may be seeded with an assurance of success.
Fertility work is being conducted on the six branch stations as well as on the control station farm at Raleigh. All problems of crop rotation, proper fertilizing mixtures, use of lime, fertilizers for different crops, the correct amount of fertilizers to use for different crops, the different carriers of the various plant foods, and methods of cultivation for highest yields are being studied by the division. For instance, at the Iredell farm in tests made in comparing rock phosphate with acid phosphate, the acid phosphate has given greater efficiency except when 3,000 and 4,000 pounds of rock phosphate per acre were used broadcast every three years. From this test, the agronomy workers say that if farmers wish to use rock phosphate, it should be applied in large quantities at stated intervals.
The results of these fertilizer tests are published from time to time in the bulletins of the State College and Department of Agriculture and have become some of the most frequently consulted results of any others published in the South. Fertilizer manufacturers and farmers from this State and others are constantly asking for these bulletins in order to study the fertilizer requirements of the different crops on different soils.
Soil chemistry is also receiving attention by the division. L.G. Willis has been secured to fill the position of soil chemist left vacant several years ago by the resignation of Dr. J.K. Plummer. Mr. Willis has begun some new experiments that will treat of the availability of potash in the common soil forming materials of this State. He will also study the cause of the low and unsatisfactory yields often secured in the muck land soils of eastern North Carolina.
Tobacco is being studied at both Oxford and Reidsville. The tests at Oxford on 36 different plots show that dolomitic limestone has increased the yield of tobacco on all plots and that there is less leaf spot trouble where this form of lime is used over where it is not used. A number of experiments testing out the best sources of nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid for tobacco are being conducted. The tests now underway in this state are probably the most complete of any state in the union and when complete will furnish some valuable information about how to properly grow and handle tobacco.
A summary of the work done by the Division of Agronomy shows that the crop improvement work is conducted by R.Y. Winters, assisted by S.W. Hill, P.H. Kime and G.M. Garren. These workers have been active in 55 counties of the State, have held 54 field meetings, 73 indoor meetings, have sent out nearly 8,000 circular letters of information, have written about 3,000 letters giving specific information, prepared 64 newspaper articles, held 205 office consultations, and traveled about 18,598 miles in carrying on the work of the office.
In soil fertility work carried on by W.F. Pate, work has been conducted with 12 county agents, 22 demonstrations made, 40 samples of soil studied, 20 meetings at which over 1,500 people were present have been addressed, 550 letter have been answered, about 9,000 miles traveled and about 100 conferences held.
In extension work, E.C. Blair has held 79 meetings at which over 1,600 people were present, visited 300 farmers, put in 38 field demonstrations, traveled over 12,000 miles, and has reached over 5,000 people in his work.
This work, in addition to the large amount of experimental data being secured at the different station farms, shows to some extent how this one division has tried to be of serve to the people of North Carolina.
The Experiment Station and Extension Service of the State College and Department of Agriculture has several other divisions all of which can show a record that is equally energetic and progressive. This will serve to explain to some extent why North Carolina is continuing to take high rank as a great agricultural State. New facts presented to the farmers in a straightforward way showing them how to improve old methods and how to make more money by using better methods, and the acceptance of these facts by the farmers, have done much to push this old Tar Heel State up the incline towards a better balanced and more profitable agriculture. And only a start has been made.
From page 3 of The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C., Monday morning, Dec. 11, 1922
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