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A SEMI-MONTHLY AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL
Formerly the ‘‘Georgia Stock and Agricultura
Journal.”
Entered as second-class matter at the Post
Office in Atlanta, Ga.
HENRY W. GRADY, I J. R. HOLLIDAY
Founder, | Sec'y and Treas.
C. C. NICHOLS, - - B usi nets Manager
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $1 A YEAR.
In clubs of five, - - 75 cents each.
ADDRSS ALL MAIL TO
THE SOUTHERN FARM,
onstitution Building, ATLANTA, GA
APPLYING BULKY MANURE.
I will have 60 tone of stable and oow
manure and about 100 four horse loads
of well retted oak leaves raked up. I
want to put it all under 30 acres of
cotton in ’94, with some commercial
fertilizer. The haul will be short. I
want you to tell me the cheapest way
to handle it for the best results. Will
running a two-horse sub-soil plow in
drills add to the yield of cotton? The
land is sandy with red clay sub-soil.
Will make 800 to I,oo© lbs. cotton per
acre, with 100 pounds of guano.
Chester Co., S. C. H. T.
The plan that we would advise you
to pursue is as follows: Lay off the
land at three feet after plowing, with
a narrow but long turn-shovel, list on
this first furrows; then haul out the
manure during December or January
in a wagon or cart, the latter is pref
erable, and scatter the manure with
big shovels or forks all along this list
—the manure falling as evenly as pos
sible in both the furrows &along the
list. Sixty tons of such material will
be very slight manuring for 30 acres
of land. It will be more appropriate
to put such a quantity on 15 or even
10 acres.
From time to time as a section Is
completed, threw two more furrows to
the list, leaving the land almost com
pletely bedded out. If it is light
sandy land, all that will be necessary
to do at planting time is to run a har
row along these beds, open a furrow
and plant. If grass and weeds spring
up on the beds to any considerable ex
tent before planting time, of course
the beds will have to be re-plowed
just before time to plant, but this re
plowing will only insure a heavier
and more easily cultivated crop. We
should never put such manure as you
describe in the one furrow right under
the seeds. The double furrow plan is
much the best and it involves but a
little more labor than the common
plan. If the sub-soil is heavy and lies
close to the surface, running a sub
soil plow in the first furrow will prob
ably increase the crop somewhat above
the cost. For cotton there is such a
thing as having the soil too loose and
porous, and one must be governed by
the character of the soil. There is no
profit in subsoiling flight sandy soil.
This kind of soil generally needs the
roller rather than the subsoiler
THE DUTY OF SUBSCRIBERS—
THE ARTICHOKE.
It is the duty, and should be the
pleasure, of every reader of The
Southern Farm to do all he can con
sistently to increase the circulation
of the same. When a man causes his
brother farmer to subscribe to a good
agricultural paper like The Southern
Farm he confers a great favor that
will be duly appreciated by his broth
er, and will probably do much in the
course of time in promoting the pub
lic good, which should be the chief
consideration with every man. The
amount of good that might thus be
done,if every reader would do his duty,
is very great indeed, and it can be
done without loss or inconvenience to
anyone.
Now let every reader consider this
matter in connection with the great
scriptural injunction, “As you have
opportunity do good unto all men,”
and I have no doubt the circulation of
The Southern Farm will be doubled
in a short time, and an amount of good
done that is incalculable.
Every writer so far as I know
prsises th* Artichoke. It ii one of
our most valuable crops. An acre of
Artichokes is worth at least two of
corn.
It can be planted in the Fall or
Winter and made with one plowing.
It will carry hogs from October to
April, and is no doubt one of our best
crops for enriching land when con
sumed on the ground where it is
grown.
If seed is scarce the tubers may be
out to a single eye like the Irish pota
to.
I have a crop now that was pro
duced from single eyes planted early
in March and never ploughed, that
astonishes all who examine it.
Now be sure to remember your duty
in regard to getting new subscribers.
Lincoln, Ala. A Farmer.
No Apology for Asking Questions.
’An Alabama Correspondent makes
the very great mistake of apologizing
for sending us several interesting and
suggestive questions. We beg to re
peat what we have said several times
before that next to a good sensible
article upon some subject relative to
the work of the Farm, Garden or Or
chard, we like to receive a suggestive
question or two relative thereto. We
hope H. 8., will not apologize again
for doing us a favor. We need to
question one another just now as to
plans and processes for the coming
year.
And we want all the encouraging
helpful words from as many members
of “The Southern Farm Club” as
possible this winter. These long
winter nights afford abundant time
for writing out farm experiences, a
statement of which will interest a
fellow farmer.
Draw your table up before the fire,
take out your writing pad or tablet,
sharpen your pencil and give us some
of the useful facts you have gleamed
in the past few years. Among our
many thousands of subscribers and
readers surely there are several hun
dred who are willing to be active
members of the Farm Club who will
find much pleasure in asking and an
swering to various questions sugges
ted by their farm life and experiences.
Let us number you as one of these.
Among several subjects suggested
for discussion in December is the one
of Pork Raising. We would be glad
to have your views upon this inter
esting question.
Have you made any money raising
cotton this year? We doubt it, still
prove it if you can. We trust you
have, but are afraid you have not.
Strike out boldly for better things
another year. Sow plenty of oats be
tween now and March. Make up your
mind to have better pastures and
meadows. Make arrangements now
to plant sugar cane next year. It
may be that a few acres of tobacco
will be a good thing. Anyway sow
plenty of oats.
It matters not how much a man
makes at farming or anything else if
he does not properly economize what
be makes. There never was a time
when economy was more imperatively
demanded than it is now. Waste
nothing. Put every dollar you can in
bank. Save every ear of corn; every
blade of grass; everything you possi
bly can. We are not out of the woods
yet by a good deal. Keep up a good
heart and do the very best you can.
ALFALFA OB LUCERNE ON FINE
LANDS.
I would like to know of some one
who is growing Alfalfa on pine lands.
Abbeville, Ga. A. K. F.
If any of our readers hhve .estab
lished a Lucerne meadow we should be
glad to have him report his experi
ence for the benefit of A. K. F.
If the land has a good subsoil per
miable, and the upper soil is fairly
rich there is no reason why Alfalfa
should not prove a success on “pine
land.” If the soil is put in a fine
state of preparation in the fall, plow
ing in a liberal quantity of softie good
fertilizer that contains no grass or
weed seeds and using at least 25
pounds of good seeds that are rolled
in. Then do not be in too great a
hurry to take the first crop, but let
it get well established, even waiting
ten months before making the first
cutting. If one could wait fifteen
months it would be all the better.
THE SOUTHERN FARM
AN APPEAL TO OUR FRIENDS.
You are a subscriber to the South
ern Farm, and you know by expe
rience that its teachings are to be re
lied on, and its general matter far
ahead of that of other papers of its
class.
It is a semi-monthly, and its pages
are fu” to the brim of useful and in
teresting matter. The price is exceed
ingly low compared with the value of
the paper. It is not to be wondered
at, therefore, if our subscription list
is increasing rapidly even during
these hard times. Every mail brings
us hundreds of new subscribers and
renewals, and it looks now as if we
will have no trouble in getting 50,000
subscribers on our list this winter.
We can do this easily if you will only
help us. This is not intended for our
other subscribers; it is a directap
peal to YOU. Ten minutes work any
day in the week will enable you to get
us one new subscriber. You have on
ly to say a good word for the Farm,
show a copy, and the work is done. If
you will only do this, you
cannot imagine how grateful we
will be. It costs you nothing
and it benefits us immeasurably, and
will not only enable us to make a bet
ter paper, but will increase our facili
ties for doing good by enlarging our
audiance.
The Southern Farm is a farmer’s
paper. It is a paper for the fathers,
the mothers, the small children, and
the grown up boys and girls. Eight
pages of each issue are devoted ex
clusively to farm news. The balance
is given up to household matters,
literary features, stories of adventure
and topics of general interest. Every
department of The Farm is carefully
edited by experts in their particular
lines, and no better paper is publish
ed anywhere. It was founded by
tlenry W. Grady and is published by
Southerners who know what the
Southern readers demand. From the
first to the last page of each issue the
paper is one of which any section may
well be proud. It remains for the
Southern people to show their appre
ciation of such a venture by patro
nizing it, which they can do at a
smaller expense than similar papers
in others sections will cost them.
In this issue we start “Between
Midnight and Dawn,” a continued
story of absorbing interest. No bet
ter serial has ever been written. It
charms the attention of the reader at
the outset, and holds it completely
throughout. As we do not keep back
numbers, it will be well to get your
friends to subscribe at once so
as to get the first chapters of this
magnificent serial. You should also
be careful to send in your own re
newals in time, so as not to miss a
single number. Our club rate with
the Weekly Constitution of $1.25 for
both Southern Farm and Constitu
tion one year should assist you great
ly in getting us a new subscriber. All
you have got to do is to find a
man who takes the Constitution. Tell
him to add twenty-five cents extra
and let you send the amount to us and
he can get both the Southern Farm
and The Constitution. Almost any
man you meet who wants the Con
stitution for a year will not hesitate
to pay twenty-five cents extra for the
Southern Farm, and in addition to
receiving both papers he will
be entitled to one guess at our
green coffee contest. If you can use
sample copies to advantage, let us
know and we will send them to you.
If you will get us up a club of five sub
scribers we will send you The South
ern Farm one year free. Our price
for The Farm alone in clubs of five is
75 cents each. There is no reduction
on the clubbing price of $1.25 for the
Constitution and Southern Farm, no
matter how many subscribers are sent
at one time, as this price is less than
the actual cost of the papers.
We will be exceedingly grateful to
you if you will get us up a club of five,
but we only ask you for one new sub
scriber. Won’t you get it for us?
We will allow you one guess at our
green coffee contest for every new
subscriber sent in, and will also allow
the subscriber one guess.
In Cuba, etiquette requires that a re
quest from one smoker to another for a
light must always be honored.
SPINACH AS A SOUTHERN UROP.
1 see mention of spinach as a good
crop for “greens.” Will you please
tell me if it would probably pay to
grow it in Chatham county to supply
a local market and ship any surplus.
A. B. M.
Spinach stands at the bead of the list
of salad plants —those used for greens.
All cultivated tastes demand it in the
early spring. It is easily grown in
the South, but whether you could mar
ket it to advantage we cannot say.
For the early spring crop it is sown
like turnips in October and as late as
November. On rich land it yields
cutting very soon after the cold
weather has past. Get fresh seed and
sow in 2or 2% feet drills and push
the crop by frequent shallow cultiva
tion.
There is nothing superior to it as a
boiled dish in spring.
PECAN PLANTING.
PJease answer through your col
umns when would be the best time to
plant pecans, and would you plant
seeds or small plants.
I want to plant 100 acres and want
all the information I can get.
W. T. U.
Coldwater, Miss.
During the past twelve months we
have had much to say about pecans,
but our correspondent may be a new
subscriber.
Our advice to W. T. U. is to buy
fresh seeds of the Thin Shell variety
and ofter soaking the seeds 12 or 15
days, plant three or four in a hill 40x
40 feet apart and a year later thin to
one plant, leaving the strongest
plants.
Put stakes about the plants and con
tinue to 4 plant some crop on the land.
Cotton, peas or clover, and let the land
accumulate all the vegetable matter it
can during the next 10 years.
Another Interesting Question
That will come before the Farmers’
Club for discussion this winter will be
the one of How To Maintain, if not
increase, the fertility of our soils while
taking one money crop from them an
nually.
A farmers’capital consists primarily
of his land. Just in proportion to its
condition of fertility may he expect to
orosper. His land is his bank. If
there is no deposit in it he cannot ex
pect to draw on it. It will be ad
mitted by every one who has consid
ered the matter that no people in the
world have been more reckless and
regardless of the well-being of their
soil than our Southern farmers have
been. How few of them have exhib
ited anything like a reasonable regard
for preventing its deterioration from
year to year. Its humus was allowed
to become exhausted and much of it
was allowed to remain bare and un
protected a good part of the year. It
became gullied and worn out with
very little effort to protect it. Most
of this land ceased long ago to pro
duce well-paying crops of corn, or cot
ton, or oats.
It is late to call a halt to the de
structive methods that have been fol
lowed in this respect, but it is better
late than never. It will be harder to
bring back the land to a good state of
fertility than it would have been some
years ago before it had run down so
low.
A few good crops of vegetable mat
ter converted into humus will soon
put the land in condition to make
more profitable crops. Peas, clover,
of several kinds, grass along with a
fair amount of stock must he the
means employed to do this.
What have you to say in regard
to it?
WEED FOR NAME.
Editor Southern Farm :
I enclose a specimen of a plant that
I would like to know the name of. It
came up in my pasture of Bermuda
and now covers the ground pretty
freely. Does it injure the pasture
and if so how can I destroy it?
* * *
The weed you send is what is known
as “Horse Weed,” (Erigeron Cana
densis.)
It will not do much damage to the
Bermuda, but it does not look nice—
that is all.
Editor Southern Farm:
I enclose a sample of grass that I
would be glad to know the name of.
It has appeared in my pine woods and
I notice it in some places in the Ber-
muda pasture. Will you be so kind as
to tell me the name of the grass or
weed. Is it valuable at all?
The plant you send is Japan clover
(or Lespedeza as it is commonly call
ed). It is a genuine clover and a very
nutritious food, in fact it will improve
your land and furnish excellent pas
ture.
AN ACRE OF COTTON BROAD
CAST.
A correspondent at Seguin, Texas,
expresses his intention of making an
experiment with broadcast sown cot
ton after the plan suggested in our
issue of October 15th (Ist and 2nd col
umn, Ist page). C. F. asks for further
suggestions in reference to such a
venture.
As we intimated in our editorial of
that date, we had an additional sug
gestion to make to anyone who would
undertake an expt riment in that di
rection, and it is this:
At the first harrowing of the cotton,
just preceding the harrowing apply
100 pounds of nitrate of soda mixed
with 200 pounds of fine bone dust. The
increased crop of cotton will probably
pay for this the first year, but if it
does not, a full return will be gotten
for it the following year, it matters
not what may be planted on the land,
but especially so if sweet potatoes are
grown on it.
With the above fertilizing even me
dium land will probably give surpris
ing results.
Try it next spring.
WEED FOR NAME—SID A BHOM
BIFOLIA.
I enclose a sample of weed growing
here. It is relished by all stock and
looks when growing like small plum
bushes. I want to know what it is and
all you can tell about it. C. D. H.
Mcßean, Ga.
The plants sent is known botanical
ly as Sida Rhom Difolia. It has no
common name. We should be glad to
have you say whether it can be made
into hay with profit, and how dense a
sward does it make.
We shall be glad to receive speci
mens of grains that are being used in
the several sections of the South.
TEN OCTOBERS (RAINFALL).
For the past 10 years the rainfall for
October was as follows (at Milledge
ville, Ga.)
1884 >69 inches.
1885 480 “
1886 .00 “
1887 533 “
1888 616 “
1889 165 “
1890 559 “
1891 .31 “
1892 .29 “
1893 110 “
Total. 25 92 “
Average for 10 years. 2.59 “
October usually is dry but now and
then we have a wet October.
Rid Clover In November.
Sowing Red Clover in Ware county.
A correspondent asks if Red clover
sown on oats the last of November in
Ware county would be likely to suc
ceed.
If the winter should be severe it is
quite likely the clover plants would
be heaved out in January. If the
clover is not sown on the oats or by
itself in September or early October,
it is safer to wait until February,
though November sowings do now and
then succeed, but only rarely.
Members of the Southern Farm
Club are reminded that the work of
the year is about closed up and they
have plenty of time to write us about
the experiences of the year. We have
a number of practical, intelligent
readers who have given us suggestions
of value during the past twelve
months. We hope they will put us
under further obligations. We would
be glad if every subscriber to the
Farm who is engaged in farming
would become a member of the club.
It costs nothing.
Dr. Nansen, who has sailed from Chris
tiana for the purpose of finding the north
pole, has with him a phonograph, into
which his wife has sung all his favorite
songs, and in whieh the little baby he has
left as her only comfort has also uplifted
his voice in a less musical manner.