The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-05-07
ESSAY ON GRASS CULTURE,
And the Accumulation and Management
ofStable and Barnyard Manure, &c,
Before the Orange County
Alliance.
No. l.
IBy James Norwood

Once seeGed, and a stand obtained,
the work is done for four or i've
vears-at least, the only expense then
being harvesting. .
With the mower and horse-rake 1t
can be cut, cured and housed at a cost
of from 5 cents to Is cents per 100
pounds, varying according to the
weather. When l first took the farm
I am now on, l bought hay to winter
the stock then on it. | have more
than doubled the number of stock.
We all know of the disastrous drought
of '88; yet the lst Of April, '89, l
have wintered Is horses, % head OF
cattle and AZ sheep, and sold over
100, 900 pounds of hay at from IS
to $I.15 per 100 pounds. All OF it
sold and delivered on the farm and in
HilIsboro except one, $4,000 pounds,
shipped to Raleigh. Zone party in
Raleigh would have taken the entire
crop.
It is impossible for the average
farmer to have grass without stock,
or stock without grass; therefore,
both must start in their infancy and
be brought up together.
First, keep no more stock than you
can properly and proftably support,
and let this be of the most improved
and fashionably bred.
/ killed lambs last September, drop
ped in February, that weighed Is to
l6 pounds per quarter-say so pounds
at 9 cents, $40; and G. NJ. Parks
paid me SO cents for the pelt, making
$500 for the lamb.
Their dams were native ewes l
bought in Orange at $3.50 each; their
sire was an imported Hampshire
Down buck 1 paid $40 for and the
freight on him. This buck I clipped
April the 18th. He himself weighed
on that day 22l pounds, and his fleece
weighed 81 pounds; it had been on
siderably lessened by briars. I have
SO lambs by him this season, and think
them the finest ever on my farm. If
he had never before rendered me any
service, and was to die to-day, in this
lot of lambs he has doubly paid for
himself.
You will say, "Oh, but your sheep
ARE well fed" What are they fed
on Grass |! l have fed my sheep
but two days this entire winter; that
was during two days of sno in Feb
ruary.
Summer before last, owing to i'll
health, 1 had to quit work for awhile,
and thought best to sell off about one
half of my stock.
At that time I sold on my farm mo
expense of sending off to market)
z of my raising colts for So, 100 cash,
and at the time considered that l
was making a forced sale.
l have done little as to mich COWS,
but there is money in raising them to
sell.
With me it has seemed impossible
to get a good miFkman, and F have
no "dairy maid" (some people call
them wives). Notwithstanding, in
season, fifteen hounds (properly come
frst) all hands at work, and all the
little negroes on the farm, have all of
the clabber and buttermilk they can
consume, and the pigs get the balance.
I sell a good quantity of new milk at
80 cents per gallon, besides a bounti-
full supply of cream and butter for
family consumption, and through the
summer months sell about 500 worth
of butter per month, getting at Dur
ham 80 cents and at Hillsboro 25
cents per pound. Country butter sells
at Is cents in Hillsboro at that time.
IN GRAss CULTURE.
The first thing to be considered is
the manure heap. The best friend of
the manure heap is a
A LUCERNE LOT.
q have about 20 years experience
with lucerne; have now but two acres,
but this will feed all of my stock a
good season; [ use it exclusively for
soiling, or feeding green, and will add
ITO my lot half an acre every fall. The
half acre set apart for this purpose is
broken in early winter with a two
horse turning pillow, running a sub-soil
pillow in the furrow behind it as deep
a a good double team will pull it. In
the spring heavily manure, pillow in
with two-horse pillow. ATTACH log
chain to double trees, as is the custom
in turning green crops, to pull them
in the furrow; every farmer under
stands this, running sub-soil in the
furrow behind it as before, and use
as a truck patch. Irish potatoes,
roasting ears, squashes, melons, &C.,
&C., anything that will come off by
When it is cleaned off and broken
with a two horse turning pillow, run.
: ming the sub,soil in the furrow be-
( hind the pillow as deep as the team can
) possibly pull it and narrowed. Then
lEhoouilu mannred (Wnen saY