The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1886-05-26

Will no no ndfIll. LII any tN0HO, ohOio
should be no change from dry feed
to green without time for the digest
i've organs to become used to the
change.
THE VALUE OF MANURE.
The commercial value of fertiliz-
ers is safely tested by analysis, but
it's practical value depends upon CIR
cumstances, and the use that will be
made of it. With a poor shittless
farmer manure may have no value
whatever. 1t will make weeds grow
as we'll as crops, and if the weeds
are not suppressed, not only will
they destroy the crop, but their
seeding will more than counteract
any after benefit that the anu
would be to the soil.
DESTROYING MAY BUGS.
The burning of rubbish heaps,
which always occurs after Spring
cleaning, should be done at night,
and when warm weather has entlced
the May bugs to venture out. Many
of these will be attracted by the light
and destroyed. Few like the May
bug in any state, but before he as
sumed his present active condition
he was one of the different families
of white and black grubs so destruct-
i've to Strawberries, corn and cab
bage.
CROss-BREEDING FOWLS.
Cross-bred fowls, where the par
ents on at least one side are pure
bred, are often more valuable for
some purposes than those not inter
mixed. They will usually excel in
hardness and vigor. Every poultry
raiser knows how quickly fowls lett
to themselves will run out. Now is
the time to change this by getting a
rooster or setting Of eggs from some
pure-bred stock. At almost any rea-
sonable price this will prove a good
investment.
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.
All mineral manures should be left
on or very near the surface. They
are bulky, and to pillow them
in is to bury them where roots of
crops will find them so late as to re-
ceive little benefit theretrom. The
decomposition Of barnyard manure
under the turrow gives both warmth
and fertility to the roots. But pot
ash or phosphates buried SO deeply
are either soon washed away or be-
come insOluble and of no value to
crops. Especially is this the Ease in
soils having little vegetable mould.
FATTENfNG HOGS.
1t does not pay to grow hogs,
keeping them with half enough to
eat until a year or more old and
then %tattening them. The feed from
the first should be liberal, and while
growing the difference between that
and fattening must be made by va
riety rather than quantity. Give a
growing pig all it will eat of some
thing hat is bulky rather than nu-
tritious. A clover field, or a run in
the orchard does this, and herein is
the great advantage of these meth
DDS of feeding. With the milk from
a few cows, and a little meal, pigs
will be nearly fat enough to kill at
any time, and a few weeks on corn
will fit them for the butcher.
ABOUT FLOWING.
Flowing is hard work for teams,
but easier for men, and there is no
economy in having too light a team
to be kept constantly at work, as
this makes it still easier for the plow-
man. In land where good long bouts
can be made with burrows a foot in
width, it will require a trife more
than ten miles travel to turn an
acre, or, allowing two miles an hour,
the same could be done between
seven in the morning and noon. Fur
rows are often turned wider than
twelve inches, and it is not uncom-
mon with a brisk team to pillow more
than two acres per day. In ground
free from stones this for the plow-
is easier than following a drag
the same distance. The man who
holds the pillow walks in a smooth
furrow, and is to some extent SUP
by the pillow handles which
he holds.
YES, IT is.