The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-05-08

you save all the grain.
Multiply all this trouble and annoy
ance for one year, by eight or ten
years, and it is no small matter. OF
course, in freshly cleared land it might
be practical to take out the stumps,
but I'm speaking of all the old snags
and stumps that might have been
taken out long ago, and can be taken
out now by a. little attention every
year. I'm practicing what [ am here
preaching, to some extent, because |
find I can get along faster, do better
work where I remove these obstacles
than where do not. *Snags and
small stumps can be taken out in "a
few minutes with a good sharp mat
tock-larger ones take a little nor
time-dig the top soil away, cut off
the side roots, take a good strong
sappling Is or 20 feet long, lay the
large end beside the stump, dull a
log chain around the pole and some of
the strongest roots, hitch a pair of
horses to small end of pole and drive
around in a circle, twisting off the
tap-root. This I have found a good
plan in some cases. A little work and
attention each spring and fall in this
line will clear our farms Of a great
many annoying obstacles. So far,
neatness is profitable.
A great deal Of the above might be
said of rocks. It is almost impossible
to do good narrowing where there are
rocks. They not only break the teeth
of the harrow, but raise it above the
surface Of the ground, thus preventing
the work designed. We often have
in our fields a patch of surface rocks
that could easily be hauled off and
thrown into some wash near by, thus
accomplishing two good ends.
Another thing that presents an I'M
comely appearance on u farms is
hillsides and rolling lands washing
into gullies. [ eve see these washed
away lands and gullies without think
ing, that if proper attention had been
given at the right time, a large per
cent. of them might have been saved.
True, they might not, and did not
stand continual cropping, but if they
had been seeded to clover and the
grasses at that time when they would
have produced them, and this treat
ment had been repeated every few
years, | do think a good per cent. of
them would have been good lands to-
day.
[ merely suggest this for future USE
fulness. We must look ahead; we
must adopt those systems that will
build up and improve, and not wash
away. Take an area Of ten miles,
and just imagine for a moment the
amount of land that is wasted in this
way. Much of these lands cannot
now be reclaimed, but the point is to
keep a keen eye on what we now cul-
~tivate, lest they be in the same CON
dition by the next generation. A lit
tie time spent each spring and fall in
the way of filling in pine brush and
any trash that may be near, cutting
bitches at the right place, and if prac-
tical,' throwing on a little manure and
seeding in clover or peas will not only
be time we'll spent, but will wonder
fully help the looks of our farms and
country.
Another eye-sore is a little piece of
land in the middle of a. field that is
not worked up with the rest This lit
tie piece is not as good as the rest,
and consequently it is used as a con-
venient place to turn at in the field.
I've seen fields with half a dozen or
more such little pieces. This is an
easy job. A few loads Of good ma
nure applied to these places will soon
bring them up, and the whole field
can be cultivated, and not only be
profitable but more pleasing to the eye.
The great question before the farmer
OF to-day is not how to go into the
forest and clear out new land and
make good crops, or how to ditch and
clean up low lands and make fine corn,
but how to take these lands of ours,
that have long since lost their virgin
fertility, improve them, make good
crops on them, and at the same time
do it at a profit. The farmer is often
referred to ante bellum times of
plenty, but seldom referred to ante
bellum soils in their original fertility.
[ am farming land now, that once was
worked under the system of "exaust
the substance and throw away" I
can't do this, [ have nothing to fall
back upon, and of course the work
that lies before me is to take care of,
n improve what [ have. | firmly
h0I1avn that ,,-lo~