The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-06-17

1t Is u NO man In the our state
has been more successful with clover
than has Mr.. Mangum.
If you will talk to a majority of the
farmers of Wake county they will tell
you that this is not a wheat country;
that it will not pay as far east as Raj
eigh, yet Mr.. Mangum has made an
average as 80 bushels to the acre for
a number of years on some of his best
improved land. Last year he made
600 bushels on Is acres. This year
the wheat crop in all sections of the
State is said to be a failure, yet Mr..
Mangum's crop will average at least
Is bushels to the acre. One field of
Z or 8 acres viii III was cut some
days ago, will make, judging from
the quality of grain and number OF
shocks, at least 20 bushels per
c Here is more indisputable
proof that land in a high
state of cultivation will seldom,
if ever, fail to make a fair crop. The
season of 1888 was dry in this
try. Mr.. Mangum made a splendid
crop of everything. Last year was
wet and crops were a disastrous fail.
ure, vet Mr.. Mangum made a very
fair crop.
We have told how he made good
crops. We will tell how be saves the
land. He began ditching during the
war. He has about II or IA spirit
levels on his farm used for ditching,
and of late years for locating terraces.
Five years ago he abandoned ditching
and adopted the terrace system.
HOW HE MAKES A TERRACE.
He locates a terrace as you would
a ditch, with level, and gives a fall of
about one and a half inches to every
Is feet. The location can be marked
with any ordinary plow. OF course
the sleeper the land the more terraces
you need. Then he begins by listing
on the line marked out with a heavy
Oliver chilled pillow; this makes a ridge
from 10 to l5 inches high.
That is all very simple after you
know how. The next and most i'm
portant thing is to locate your corr or
cotton rows. He gives them one inch
fall to every l 3 feet. If this is properly
done your land is safe. The water in
the rows runs slowly into the terraces
and if your land is plowed deep the
land will absorb a heavy rainfall.
But no matter how hard it rains, the
water will go out of the field so grad
ually that there is no loss. In five
years Mr. Mangum has not had a
break in his land, and there has been
some heavy rains. We lay down the
proposition that a fall of rain twice as
great as has been in the past five
years will not damage Mr.. Mangum's
fields to the amount of a dollar. This
seems incredible, but they are there to
show for themselves, AM an examina-
ton will convince the most incredul-
Gus. He hauls a load of rock and
places at the mouth of every terrace
where the decent is made into
roads to prevent washing. He runs
the rows in all manner of directionsin
order to get the proper fall, In n
field a row is run in a spiral form and
is a little over three miles long. 1t
has a fall of one inch to 13 feet the
entire distance. We examined these
fields just after a hard rain and found
that every drop of water had remained
in the field. But an unusually heavy
rain would do no harm. Not an ounce
of soil would be carried out by the
water.
1t requires particular work to local
the terraces and rows, but the en-
bankment is easily made with a pillow
and they get stronger every year.
Everything grows we'll in the terrace
or on the embankment, so you lose no
space as with a ditch. In planting
corn, Mr.. Mangum leaves two stalks
on either side of the embankment,
but cotton, wheat or clover can be
planted just as if there was no terrace.
Mr.. Mangum runs his mower and
reaper over the terraces, which could
not be done with bitches owing to the
danger of breaking the machinery.
Another great advantage is you pillow
AMI hoe over the terrace and weeds
and grass cannot grow as they do on
the banks of bitches. That alone is a
very strong argument in favor of the
terrace.
Mr.. Mangum thinks that cotton
should only be worked one time with
the hoe. He chops it to one stalk
from ten to fifteen inches apart and
cultivates with plow thereafter. He
puts the best hands next to the row
and the inferior hands in the middle
when blowing cotton or cor
We hope that our readers "a get
some ideas from TIL imperfect account
of this farm. We wish every farmer
in this country could come and see
Mr.. Mangum. He could tell you
more and show you nor about how
to farm in a dav than manv learn in a