The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-09-19

we nave no OdLo III cdlc, dHc On
abundance beside to feed our stock
upon, we will cry out against farm
ing as a profession. We have time
and again assured our readers
there can be grown no such cheap
stock food on any and all the farms
of South Carolina. Two weeks ago
we published an experiment show
ing that red oats cost Us about
eighteen cents per bushel to CRIB
them. Yesterday a neighbor drove
up to our gate, his buggy drawn by
a beautiful mule, Off mules can be
called beautiful and said to us,
"'your oats cost you too much; l
don't think mine cost me fifteen
cents per bushel." That is enough;
we need not say anything more
here about red oats, further than to
advise every farmer IN the State
who has a cotton field to SOW a few
acres as above, if it be simply as an
experiment.
Before Us is a postal card, as fol-
lows ''Can "you give me any IN
formation as to the planting and
culture of Barley as a green forage
"crop%" We reply, if you have a
rich acre of alluvial upland, or a
we'll manured cowpen, break up
thoroughly and well, %pulyerize the
surface, and then SOW two bushels
of barley on it this month, and
plough in with narrow shoyels,
scooters OF bull-tongues. If No
vember is not too cold, that barley
may be cut as green food by De-
cember, and will surely be ready
before any other growth in the
spring. As soon as it is high
enough to grasp in the left hand
and cut below with a ase knife, it
NAV be cut and fed, and if the
spring is seasonable it may be cut
three times, or twice surely, and
then 90 to seed and produce more
bushels of grain than the same acre
would of wheat not touched till
ready to harvest. Poor land will
not grow barley, nor have we sue
ceeded with it on sandy land. 1t
should never be grazed or pastured,
but cut and fed green. 1t will shed
the hair, increase the flesh or emil
ven the spirits Of any work animal
more than any other grain.
Now is the time to begin to turn
over the land for the small grain
crop, or for the cultivated crop of
next year. If your lana has a coat
of weeds on it, hitch two mules to
Il turning plough and bury, if pos
sible, every vestige of vegetable
matter; keep stock off of it, and it
will make no matter how complete
ly your land is turned upside down,
even though it be red clay. An
excellent opportunity is now offered
our Anderson farmers to expert
ment in this way as they have nc
fences, and will not be troubled by
rambling stock on their ploughed
land all winter. Turn your land
deep and close now, and let us
know the result next year.
If you have peas sown as a fer
~tilizer, gather just enough to save
seed for the same land next year:
and turn under the balance as soor
as the earliest pods are picked off
Sow this land in oats and drag the
land, leaving the surface smooth
and even. The reapers next sum
mer will tell you why this SHOULD
be done.
If any half acre of any kind 0
land, sandy, gray or red, be mad
rich, thoroughly rich, and wei
ploughed, and then sown in ry
using three pecks of seed If broa,
cast, or a half bushel if sown in tn
drill, there car be harvested from
it before next June perhaps MOI
green forage than will be furnishe,
by any other grain. 1t is not a
5 valuable as barley, but is a mos
welcome food to any kind of herb
vorous animal in the winter o
l spring. Rye sown now on fai
average land will make a good ca.
. pasture at a time when other ca.
food is very scarce.
/, Early cor Will be harvested tn.
e month. We advise cribbing in til
P shuck. 1t is then better protecte
1 against rats, and when the ostle.
I whether he be ''master or man,
S has to shuck the corn as fed,
It will be more than apt to count til
s ears as he feeds them. When hou.
e ing, sprinkle salt Owe every WACO
y load of corn; it will make the shucb
:. more palatable to stock during IL
T winter. Bottom fodder will |
IL pulled this month, and we only s;
e of it, cure as well as possible al
q house it if practicable; any crC
II worth saving is worth taking Il
I. best care of.