The Van Buren press., 1895-09-14
FARMER AND PLANTER.
CATCH the SUNSHINE.
Il 10 One ef ths Essentials 70 Successful
Farming.

Il IL One of the Essentials 70 buccessfui
Farming.
Sunshine is such potent factor In
the growth of crops that all farmers
should give 1t a good opportunity to
rightly do its work. 1t is an Item IN
the weather reports about crop pros
poets. Family physicians prescribe 1t
for many human diseases Stockmen
and dairymen are learning to let the
sun shine on their stock. Its health
full influence upon vegetation is more
obvious than upon animal life, A
sprout growing from potato in dark
cellar will point toward window Civ
ing even faint light. There could be
no vegetable or animal life on the
globe without sunshine. And still 1t
sometimes happens that crop re-
ceives too much sunshine.
It is the work of good farmer that
he shall SO select his crops. his ground
and seasons. then so cultivate that
each crop shall receive the amount OF
sunshine, heat and moisture that its
nature calls for Where the surface
of farm is hil1y or even undulatihg
he can select the southern slopes, the
rocky and sandy soils for those crops
needing the most sunshine, and the
northern slopes, the clay and colder
lands for those needing less.
OF course I have studied the wants
of crops in my own latitude (southern
Kentucky more than any other. This
is not far from the center Of the corn
belt of North America. But this lat
itude is nearer the southern edge OF
the best climate for wheat, oats, to-
bacco and Irish potatoes Hence these
crops usually grow best on the north
ern slopes, while sorghum, sweet pota-
toes, field peas, all the melon and vine
crops grow better here ON the southern
slopes.
I would prefer to plant the apple
orchard and most OF the other fruit
crops on the northern slopes. 1t be-
comes q farmer to exercise his best
Judgment when he comes to decide
how much ground surface shall be
given to each tree, plant or vine.
Where apple trees are expected to
grow large they need forty feet Of
space. Where the large varieties of
corn are grown for grain they need
about eight square feet of ground; that
Is, stalks from two and half to three
feet apart. 1t requires more nerve
than most men have to pull up enough
young corn to give what is left the
space it needs. Farmers are learning
to give corn more space when they
grow it for ensilage or dry provender
than when they were sowing 1t few
years ago. Experience has taught
them that sunshine should come to
the soil all around each plant. But
what is sunshine? Is there any.
thing in it more than light and heat?
And how does 1t do its work to make
crops grow? The modern scientist
tells us that sunshine is wave-motion
OF the all-pervading ether. That ether
is that substantial something that oc-
cupies in constant quantity every
square inch of space in the Inverse. It
occupies all the interstellar distances
and is equally in all solid substances.
| These ETHEREAL waves are set in motion
by the great heat of the sun. When
these waves come to the earth we call
them sunshine. When they strike the
earth some of them penetrate solid sub
stances, and some of them are reflected.
1t is from these phenomina that we
have the seven colors. The heat waves
that come with sunshine are absorbed
and then radiated. But the how Of
these ETHEREAL waves Of light and heat
penetrating plants, their roots and the
soil around their roots makes the crops
to grow lies beyond the ken Of human
understanding. And SO we had as well
confess that there are many things ir
the secrets of nature "that have moi
been dreamed of in our philosophy. "
N. B. Dudley, in Farmers Home Jour
| nal