Southern world : journal of industry for the farm, home and workshop. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1882-18??, March 01, 1882, Image 5

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

THE SOUTHERN WORLD, FEBRUARY 15, 1882. 5 grass and white clover in quantities given below. If you have a piece of cane bottom, fence it and the adjacent hills in for a permanent pasture for your stock. As soon as spring opens plant Cattail millet and forage corn on rich or highly manured land, to be fed green during the summer, if needed, and if not, to be cut and cured for winter. Plant at once five or ten acres in Bermuda gross. J. 8. N. A., Marietta: “My heifers are scouring, what should be done for them 7 “I have a field which I wisli to get in grass next fall, how shall I treat it until theu?” Answer: Give the heifers parched corn- meul and salt, with good hay; withhold brnn, cotton seed meal and green food till re lieved. It will not be necessary to give any medicine. Sow your field in oats, and manure them well. Cut them when fully in blossom and cure os hay—break the land at onco and sow in Held peas—when a few pods ripen cut and cure for hay. Prepare t he land in September, broadcast the bone meal or superphosphate and harrow in well, sow the mixture recommended for “K” on the freshly harrowed land and roll. J. S. N. CRASS ON FRESH LAND. K., Atlanta, Ga.: “I have some fresh land from which the timber has been cut and grubbed, and the land well plowed ; I wish to get it set in grass. Will it do to sow tliib spring?” Answer : Yes; harrow well and sow eight pounds red clover, four pounds white clover and one bushel of orchard grass perucreand roll in as early as possible. J. 8. N. Tobacco Culture. From the Plant-bed to the Curing-house. Inquiry answered. Mr. P. H. C. Nott, Lexington, Kentucky: “I have some rich land, part freshly cleared and part cleared for three years. I desire to cultivate sixty acres of this land in tobacco. I have had no experience in its cultivation, so please tell ntc through the columns of the Southern World the essential points to be considered by a novice in the business.” Our correspondent has asked questions which would require quite a book to answer fully, but we will comply with his request and give him the material points most needed by him at the beginning of the en terprise. SECURING THE PLANTS. While it would have been better to have burned the beds for the plunts last fall, it is not yet too late to burn them and secure plunts in time for this season’s planting. No time should be lost, however, in taking this most important initiatory step. The location of the beds is important, as upon a judicious selection of soil and ex posure depends the success of the work. A southern or southeastern exposure is to be secured if possible, near n stream where water may bo readily supplied in case of drought. The proper exposure, however, is of more importance than proximity to water, os it is of the utmost importance to have early plants. The soil selected for the beds should be virgin and dark in color as a dark colored soil will absorb heat and advance the plants. It is important that the soil be dry when burned; certainly dry enough to be plowed, hut the dryer the better. The proper soil and exposure haviugbeen selected, rake off all leaves and trash from strips four feet in width and on these collect hard wood to the depth of four feet, seasoned wood is best, and burn on the ground. When the burning is complete, chop the ground thoroughly every four or six inches with an old axe or the axe end of a mattock and cross it in the same way; rake out all sticks and stones, being careful not to bring up the subsoil. If the bed is burned in the fall, the best time for it, leave in this con- dition until the first of January following; if burned now, prepare and plant at once. One heaping table spoonful will sow one hun dred square yards. The seed are so extremely small that it is necessary to mix them with sand, ashes, gu ano or plaster in order to bow with regular ity. The seed should be thoroughly incorpo rated with whatever material is used before sowing. Tramp in the seed with the feet, or pack the soil with a hand-roller—one may be readily improvised for the purpose. The seed should not be raked in, as ’there is great danger of covering them too deep. When the seed are sown and tramped or rolled in, cover the bed thickly with leafless brush as follows, commencing at one end of the bed, rest the large ends of the brush out side of the bed, let the but ends of the next layer rest on the brush ends of this and so continue till the whole bed is covered. Let these remain until the whole bed is covered with plants, and until all danger of frost has passed. The brush will serve the double purpose of protecting the beds from frosts and freezes, and of retaining sufficient moisture to insure the healthy growth of the plants. It is of the utmost importance in the cli mate of Kentucky, to have plants early, as such plants make the heaviest tobacco, which ripens under the influence of the heavy dews and cool nights of September, Further south it is not so important, so far as the ripening of the tobacco is concerned, ns the seasons are sufficiently long to ripen later plantings. It is important, however, in any locality, to secure early plants, on account of the difficulty of getting them to live if transplanted later than the first of June. PREPARATION OP THE SOIL. While the plants are growing in the bed the land should be thoroughly prepared for their reception by deep plowing, heavy manuring, if necessary, and perfect pulveri zation. To secure a warm and perfectly pulverized bed for the reception of the plants the land should be listed and checked 3feet each way. If manure is necessary, it should be applied under the checks in quantities pro portionate to suit the strength of the mate rial used, remembering that the tobacco plant is a gross feeder, and will bear high manuring. After the lund has been listed and checked and the tops knocked off and pressed with the hoe, it is ready for the re ception ofthe plants. If the flea beetle attacks the plants in the bed, dust them with plaster of parts. This will benefit the plants and make the fleas uncomfortable. A sprinkling of peruvlan guano, a highly nnunoniated superphosphate, or nitrate of soda in weak solution, will hasten the growth of the plants. Unless the plants are excessively thick in the beds, they should be allowed to attain good size before transplanting. They should not be used on old land until the leaves are ns large os those of the dogwood. Smaller plants may be used on fresh land. 1IOW TO TRANSPLANT. The plants should be. drawn from the bed, one at a time, and carefully placed in bas kets or in the body of a wagon for removal to the field as soon after a rain as the soil will admit of stirring. New ground may be planted immediately after a rain, but old land should not, lest it cakes around the plant when dry and injure it. An expert man can transplant 3,000 to 4,000 per day, if he has the endurance to stoop and plant for a whole day. The leaves of the plant should be drawn together over the bud and the plant set so that the bud will just reach the surface of the ground. The soil should be well pressed against the roots of the plant, using care to leave no hollow space below it. Plants are often lost by the carelessness of the laborer in pressing the earth to the upper part of the root, leav ing its lower extremity dangling In the hole made by the dibble. If the plant bed is not well moistened by rain to the depth of the roots of the plants it should be thoroughly wet by artificial means beforo drawing the plants. CULTIVATION. Little need be said on this subject, further than to urge the importance of early and rapid culture—killing the grass before it takes hold upon the soil, and keeping an open, loose bed for the roots of the plant. After the leaves of the plants attain suffi cient size to risk being broken, the use of the plow must be abandoned. In the lost plowing a “stretcher," a foot in length, may be used instead of the singletree. PBIMINO AND TOPPINO. When the plants attain a height of ten inches, some of the bottom leaves may be pulled off or “primed” to facilitate cultiva tion. When the plant has as many as ten or twelve leaves more than six inches from the ground, prime to that height and pinch out the seed bud, leaving ten or twelve leaves to the stalk, if heavy tobacco is desired. Care must be used in topping not to injure the small leaves next to those removed, asa very slight injury at that Btage of their growth will develop into a fatal defect In tne leaf, probably classing it with the “lugs.” After the plants are topped they develop very rapidly, and soon require WORMING AND SUCKRRING, which tax the vigilance of the tobacco grower to the utmost. The least neglect or relaxation of effort in combatting the worms and exterminating suckers is fatal to both the quantity and quality of the crop, as worm-eaten leaves must go with the “lugs” and the suckers if allowed to grow, will so drain the vitality of the plant as to materially lighten the weight of the leaves. The moth which deposits the egg which produces the worm, may be seen between sunset and dusk flying around the flowers of the common stramonium or Jamestown weed, and may be destroyed in numbers, by placing just before their fading hour, a few drops of a solution of cobalt in the flowers of the weed; an ounce of cobalt to one pint and a half of water to which a little syrup is added. As a few drops is sufficient for each flower the solution may be bottled and kept for daily use. Turkeys may bo trained to catch the worms, and have been found im portant auxiliaries in exterminating tbe pest. If a few worms are caught and thrown to them when figpt introduced, they soon learn to look for them and become expert in catching them. There are usually two principal cropsof the worms during the growing season—one early theotherln August. The egg is deposited and by the moth (sphinx Corolina) on the leaf of the tobacco. This hatches under favorable circumstances, in about twenty-four hours, when it cats a hole through the leaf and passes underneath, where it continues its work of destruction. There is an ichneumon fly which deposits its egg just under the skin of the worm where its larvic hatch and subsist upon the juices of the worm un til its time for transformation comes, when it emerges and spins a beautiful white, silky cocoon upon the back of the worm. As many as a dozen of these little friends are often found on one worm, which ceases to grow and feeds but little after the larviu of the ichneumon commences its work. These little friends, however, are not sufficiently numerous to render us material service. The suckers, which appear above the leaves, must be pulled off as fast os they put forth or the value of the tobacco will be seriously impaired by the diversion of sap from the leaves to the suckers. The two processes of worming and sucker- ing may be done at the same time and should receive attention once a week, until both are destroyed. If they are neglected, all the previous care, labor and expense, lmvo been expended in vain. The harvesting and curing of the tobacco will be noticed in a future number of the Southern World if our correspondent so wishes. J. S. N. £ur$ J'toch |lepHrtmmt. The Ntock haw In South Carolina. Hartwell (0a.) Bun. Editors Sun : I have been told, by rela tives and friends in your county, that we could not raise hogs under the “No Fence” law. To prove to the contrary, I wish to lay before them some statistics of hogs slaugh tered in this vicinity, which carry their own logic with them: J. W. Sherard killed 5, about 15 months old, average net weight 250 pounds. Or. J. H. Reid, one 10 months old, 320 pounds net. S. P. Pruit, one 11 months old, 308 pounds net. W. D. Hatton, one 12 months old, 300 pounds net. D. J. Sherard, ten, averaging 250 pounds net. Two of them weighing 800—not fancy fed. 0. M. Sherard, one 11 months old, 218 pounds net. Berry Holland, ten 12 months old, 300 pounds net, each. J. W. Stewart, one 12 months old, 300 pounds net. Mahy others had very fine hogs, the par ticulars of which I am not acquainted with. If any of my Georgia friends can make a better showing, I would be pleased to hear from them through The Sun. I am much pleased with the change, and would not return to the old system for any reasonable sum. True, the people have made many blun ders in trying to acquire a knowledge of the best methods to use under the stock law, but these errors ore being corrected very fast. We have yet, in my judgment, to learn to raise all the feed we possibly can, and keep all the stock we can feed well housed. The pile of home-made fertilizers would then be quite an item to the farmer, which any man might well be proud of, and which would be equivalent to cash in hand. The law is yet in its infancy with us, but as time progresses I expect Its developments to exceed the most sanguine supporter’s anticipations. Some may ask If many did aotfail to raise such hogs os above mentioned. Oh, yes; but what is done by one can be done by an other under the like circumstances; so that is no argument against the system. It was not so much the result of high feeding os Improved breeding, which cannot be so well effected when they are allowed to run at large. The cost of fencing land is very heavy, especially with yellow pine. Let us see: To fence a Held of ten acres will take 4,000 rails, which, to make and put up, will cost $40, and will consume 40good pines. These trees would make 400 feet of lumber each, or a total of 10,000 feet. Subtract half for the saw, and you have 8,000 feet for your part, half of which would puy for the hauling, leaving you 4,000 feet clear. This added to the $40 for making fence would run it up to $80 per ten acres, which is more than the worth of the land. John G. McCurry. Moffnttsville, S. C. LIVE STOCK NOTES. American Merino sheep are being sent to Australia. Seventy-five thousand dollars has been of fered for Foxhull in England. It is said that in this country the demand for Ilercfords is largely in excess of the sup ply. The Kansus City Commercial Indicator, says that, “reports from ranges in different portions of the west are all to the effect that cattle are wintering finely.” The wool growers of Kansas metat Topeka recently. It was authoritatively stated du ring the meeting that in Kansas “sheep have increased in two years two hundred-fold, and the 1882 clip will not fall short of 10,000,- 000 pounds. Mr. Clark Pettit, Salem, New Jersey, has recently imported, direct from Portugal, a very fine specimen, a boar, of the Jersey red breed of hogs. Mr. Pettit believes that this animal can readily be made to attain a gross weight of 1200 pounds. Mr. J. T. Norris, of Rock Mills township, Anderson county, 8. C., has a cow for which he refused $200 cash. He sold in one year $100 worth of butter and milk from the one cow, besides usi ng a great, deal of her produco for family purposes; and the cow Is not thorough bred, either. The San Antonio (Texas) Express says that the post year was a very profitable one for the West Texas wool growers. Tho weather was favorable for the sheep, and no epidemic was among them. Indeed, the losses were below the average of good years. The spring season was a brilliant one, and tho prices paid for wool exceeded those paid in any other Texas market. The fall season was also favorable, although the prices paid were about three to five cents below those paid during the spring season. There has been a recommendation of the goat us a protection to the sheep going the rounds. A New Jersey man who has tried this is opposed to it, observing that he “once owned a beautiful Angora buck and ewe, and as the buck was the ‘best man’ in the neighborhood, I trained the pair to range with my sheep for the latter’s protection. This buck could jump any fence in the country, and could climb any tree growing in the corner of a rail fence by first getting on the fence and then into tho tree. In quite a short time every wether I had was as good a jumper as the Angora buck, and had I not converted them into mutton I would have dad a valuable flock of sheep ruined. KfU the dogs, but keep the sheep and goats sepa rate here us well as hereafter.” The Chicago Breeder’s Gazette says that “in a certain Iowa town there isa stock farm which may be worthy of more than a pass ing notice, since it shows how little, more than careful, intelligent management, is needed to make a profitable business of stock growing. In this place are five acres, of which one and a quarter are occupied by the bouse, the garden, and by fruit trees and shrubbery. On the other three and three quarter acres stands an ordinary village barn and inclosures, in which over a hundred young pigs were frisking about their dams. The latter were all pure-bred Yorkshires, Berkshircs and Jersey Reds, and most, if not all, of the breeding animals were winners at the fairs in Iowa and other States. The food throughout the summer consisted largely of a mash made of heavy bran, with but little corn. The pigs from this stock sold for prices ranging from $30 to $35 per pair. The total outlay for food was $650,50 and the total In come, above tbe amount paid for food, $1,- 025.”