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Ir Be ■ 6u n d Ei) ?' _ . __ “ ' hV ' " - • HENRY W- GRADY- - VOL. 8 THOUGHTS APPROPRIATE TO NOVEMBER. ■ Winter is upon us I There is very little to be done for awhile now in the way of planting. In the extreme Southern portions of the country, something can be done in this direc tion, but very little above the 31st de* gree of latitude is to be commended. Now and then it happens that oats sown the middle of November in lower Georgia and anywhere in Flor ida anytime in November prove a suc cess, but as a rule, a very great risk is taken when sowings are made as late as this. The gardener has something to do in the way of preparing his cold frames, and there are some hardy and half-hardy plants that can be sown in cold frames to make plants to set out in January or February. But as a ruie cue ouik of the work for the next two months even in the South consist in listing up the land on which early crops are to be grown and applying such bulky manure as he may have so as to allow it to fer ment and become decomposed for the use of his spring plantings. Between now ana January all clayey or stiff soil should be ridged up so that the freezes may have a chance to pulverize it. In the South we have only a little of this kind of soil; still we hove enough to warrant consider " able winter plowing. Any soil that is in anyways inclined to run together and bake in the late spring or summer should be ridged up—not bedded completely but merely ridged or fluted sometime during December or early in January. This puts it in fine shape to be manured with all the coarse manure that may have accumulated in the stables or lots during the several preceding months. < And if there happens to be any I vegetable matter on such soils it £ gives it a chance to become deoom uosed before summer time. As a rule ■nr farmers neglect this winter plow and as a consequence it causes Pawing to be done with too great a tV oftentimes, such seasons as are dwUjterised by much rain in Janu [ February. If on the 10th of a farmer finds he has two tbirdi or even half of his land ridged | up htV&n rest quite easy through any I continuous rainy spell in January I even iflt should extend up to the mid -1 die of February or even later. Ha knows tAat this fluted or ridged up land can Ito very rapidly put in first rate shapk for planting corn in March. t Such landNvill not need many fur rows to put Ft in satisfactory condi tion to receive the corn seed. The impreAion prevails that there will be a loss a fertility if the land is plowed so far is advance of planting. From a long we are sat isfied that the gain greatly exceeds the loss, and oneA need not hesitate to ridge up any still land that has any vegetable matter' upon it especially, any time in December or January. The Southern farmer does not do the work in December and January that he should do. I am sure that the majority of truckers below the 34th degree of lati tude will concur with me in this prop- While the Northern farmer has al httNt ndthing to do in December and Jgfiuary beyond looking after his stock and making up compost under ATLANTA GEORGIA. NOVEMBER 15, 1893. shelter, the Southern farmer can find appropriate work out doors one-half if not two-thirds of the time in these months. # * » We have repeatedly said that there were two implements that our South ern farmers had sadly failed to appre ciate—the harrow and the roller. There is another “implement,” so to speak, that is not appreciated, and that is a wide-wheeled cart—one with strong axles and wheels but light body, for hauling out manure when the ground is frozen or a little too moist for narrow tired wagons and for hauling in the crops and for carrying out fertilizers (commercial) and vari ous implements of work it is unsur passed. Every one horse farmer should have one of them. They are very durable (when the right kind is bought and every way to a wagon ) Just as big a load as it is possible for one mule or horse to pull can be put into them and the loads can be dumped out just where it is needed and hie back for another load while the other is being spread either in the furrows or broadcast. Have a dump cart if possible. It is very handy. » • • In our Southland there is another valuable adjunct, if not to a great ex tent to the farmer at any rate to the gardener or truckers, and every farm er should be the latter to some extent and that is pine straw or forest leaves of some kind. If there is plenty of straw in a reasonable distance, great piles of it should be hauled up during the winter months, if there is no more profitable work to be done. Mulching is a valuable thing and is almost indispensable for young fruit trees of all kinds and strawberries, and celery, and Irish potatoes for the late crop of the latter especially. And if you are undertaking to establish a vineyard you will find mulching with pine straw a very valuable auxiliary. There are some perennial or perma nent crops that only need to have the spontaneous growth kept in check for a certain number of feet about them, to do the very best that nature inten ded that they should do. In the matter of grapes and fruit trees mulching is a more desirable means of keeping in check sponta neous growth than plowing or hoeing This is so. • • • Cotton seed hulls constitute a very fine mulch but their use ordinarily is much more expensive than pine straw, For strawberries though the hulls are so valuable one should not refuse to use them on the score of expense—that is, if it is possi ble to undergo the expense. If not practicable, then pine straw can be used as the next resort. « • * Until it has become stale we have used the remark that until the South ern farm came to appreciate the val ue of the harrow and the roller he oannot be regarded as having brought his work to the highest form of culti vation. Both of the implements are really more essential to the farmer of warm climates than to the farmer of cold climates. While the roller is useful as a means of preventing heaving, it must be re garded as more useful as a means of preventing the too rapid evaporation of moisture while the seeds are ger- minating and the young plants are endeavoring to take a hold on the soil. The harrow to commute and pulverize the soil perfectly for the young roots and the roller to press down the seeds and insure moisture sufficient to start off complete perfectly the work in tended. It happens fortunately that these two implements are not always indis pensable, but oftentimes they are, and they are always valuable. Every farmer should have a roller, not only for his broadcast sown crops, but for those sown in drills, if he would insure prompt and perfect ger mination of every fertile seed. Its use frequently brings success when failure would be inevitable without its use. This is also so • • • PEAS AND CLOVER AS RENOVATORS. While we have several varieties of peas that can be sown in the late fall along with oats or other grain and yet not germinate un til Spring. Still it must even be re garded as uncertain their coming up only after all the injurious frosts are over in March or April. If we could coun| on the peas not coming up un til all danger was over there is no doubt but that thousands of our Southern farmers would utilize them in this way. As the clovers are not injured by frost and as we have several varieties that do admirably open our soils it must follow that the clover will be made more available for mixing with grain than the peas will. We can sow clover with our grain in September or October or we can sow it on the growing grain the latter part of January or through February (in middle Georgia.) For 15 years we have contended against the practice of turning under a grain stubble in June or July for the purpose of sowing peas on the land either for bay or fallow purposes. We became opposed to this practice just so soon as we found that we could sow clover on the land without any plowing and that it would make just as good a cron and shade tbe land all summer and thereby accumulate an immense quantity of nitrogen There is no question that turning un der land in the heat of summer causes a greater loss of nitrogen than any ordinary crop of peas would be likely to give to it. There is no call for this summer turning and we should avoid it just as far as possible. Our common Red clover (in many instances the Mammoth is to be pre ferred wheh there is little or no clay) can be sown either in October when the grain is sown or 15 or 20 pounds of the seeds can be broadcasted on the growing gram in January er February and the clover crop will take full possession of the land promptly after the oats, or wheat or rye is cut off and this clover will give a fine crop of hay in August, or a little later, and if not cut too low will give a second crop to shade the land up to Christmas. Then we have the Bur and the Crimson clovers, both of which do well on our soils, but they do not stand the sun as the Red clover does. Then we have the Melilotus which is a rampant grower on our average soils. The Bur and the Crimson closers are more available for id spring pasture or early crops of S jy.; How late Bur cloy er can be made . Wfi grow when sown as grain in February] we are not apprized, but when sown •n the.fall in Middle Georgia it dies down in June. For winter and spring pasture it is a splendid plant, as all will testify who have tried it, h nowing what we do of clover and its value to our worn lands, we are naturally anxious to have some of our readers substantiate our own asser tions, and it would afford us much pleasure to have an article, even if it i” very brief, from as many as possi ble who have found clover a good thing. We are well aware that many of our readers lave found it thus. • * • There is another clover that we should have named in this connection but did not and that is “Japan” clover, (Lespedeza.) If we see it correctly there are many farmers, in Alabama especially, that regard this as chief among clovers. We should be glad to have the hon est opinion of some of our readers from that state as to its practical value to them, not statements based upon mere “hearsay,” but from prac tical experience. « • ♦ It is nothing new to say that our farming system must undergo, and is undergoing, a decided change from what it has been during the past fifty years. The silver question is a small question compared to the great question that actually confronts the farmers not only of the.Boutb, but of every section. The question how to make farming pay a reasonable living must take precedence of the “silver question.” Demagogues have been telling farm ers that the trouble lies in that “Wall street has put its heel upon the farm ers’ necks,” and ruined them. Such bosh! No sensible farmer is mislead by such statements. We have no sym pathy with “Wall street” which term stands merely for the aggregation of a few bankers who have little to do with farmers or the farmers business: but we do flatter ourselves enough to think that we know a better solution of the situation than that gives. We have not lived as economically as we should have done. We have persisted ( n following a policy that we should have seen years ago was not the proper one. How could Wall street or any other street have interferred with our indi vidual prosperity if we had kept our lands fairly rich according to the bibical law and had “lived at home.” Periods of depression, hard times and panics come to all countries at irregu lar intervals as the result of false living and false methods. We have got to correct them. Extravagance and high living will bring any man, merchant, banker or farmer to bank ruptcy. Have we not as farmers mistreated our lands? Have we not for many years attempted to get everything we wanted by merely raising one or two crops for the purpose? We have tried to make gold out of cotton. We thought we could buy everything on earth with cotton. The Western far mer thought he could make wheat an swer the purpose of gold. One sec tion of farmers thought he could make tobacco stand for gold. Another sec tion thought sugar would do it. It may be said that the farmers attempt to ipake special crops his dependence has ut him in the position he occupies, fc one of them “lived at home.” They Aurely but uninvitingly made them [selves'tbe slaves of commerce. Com- merce may be said to have no heart. Wall Street is the representative of commerce—not of agriculture. There are many noble (Christian) men engaged in banking the world over. They are not antagonistic to farmers. They would not defraud them of a cent. Nothing that the bankers do, individually or collective ly, affect the farmers’ interest. They are mere exponents of trade, as natu ral laws create or establish it. They (the bankers) have no power to change one iota the law that says “the supply regulates the demand” (or price.) When you are supplied with what you need, it matters not what it is, you are not likely to buy more unless you are tempted to do so by lower prices, and any man that buys what he does not need is apt to regret the pur chase. The sympathies of this writer are in tbe highest degree with the farmers of this country. As a class they are largely in the majority. The bankers and merchants are few in number compa atively, but all of them may be said to be in need of sympathy. As a rule they feel the hard times as much as tbe farmers. Let us not lose sight of the fact that all classes of workers are more or less dependent upon the others. Society as it stands to-day is the result of a steady development of man and his needs. The world demanded bankers, mer chants, farmers, manufacturers and the like or we would not have had them. The “middleman” that has been so extensively decried is an ac tual necessity or he would not have been developed., He will be done away with only when we revert to barbarism. Sadly as we may regret the situation of affairs, let us take a rational, philo sophical view of it and get all the comfort we can from so doing. OCTOBER WEATHER. Farmers in middle Georgia cer tainly have no cause to complain of the weather in October so far as bar vesting the crops of hay, corn an cotton were concerned. Since the 3d of the month no rain fell, and by the 31st th* soil was as dry as it us ually is in July. Daring September and October the total rainfall was only 362 inches, and for the ten months ending Oct. 31st the aggre gate was a little over 42 inches. This is about normal. The first frost occurred on Oct. 31st. Severe enough to kill potato vines. ONION SETS—HOW TO GROW. An Alabama Correspondent asks the following * (.1) How many onion seed to sow an acre for producing sets and how wide apart ought the drills to be. From 15 to 30 pounds of onion seeds are used to sow an acre to produce onion sets. It depends upon the width of row and quality of the land, the richer the soil the more seeds it will require. It is much better to grow onion sets on medium land and give only enough cultivation to keep down weeds. It is not desirable to have sets larger than a chinquepin. Any sets larger than that should be converted into pickles though the large sets will make early green onions, but they are likely to shoot to seed very early in the spring. NO. 42.