Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1895-09-19
FARMER ANDPLANTER.
CATCH THE SUNSHINE.
~ u One Of the Essentials to Successful
Farming.

- -
Farming.
Sunshine ls such potent factor In
we growth OF crops that all farmers
should give 1t n good opportunity to
rightly do Its work. IL Is an item in
the weather reports about crop pros
poets Family physicians prescribe II
Tor many human diseases Stockmen
and dairymen are learning TO let the
sun shine on their stock. It's health
ful 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 n faint light There could he
no vegetable or animal life on the
globe without sunshine. And still II
sometimes happens that crop re-
ceivcs too much sunshine.
IL 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 hilly or even undulating
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.
Or course | 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.
would prefer TO plant the apple
orchard and most of the other frui,
crops on the northern slopes. 1t be-
comes farmer to exercise his hes,
Judgment when he comes to decide
how much ground surface shall b.
given to each tree, plant or vine
Where apple trees are expected t.
grow large they need forty feet o.
space. Where the large varieties O
corn are grown for gram they nect
about eight square feet of ground; thai
Is, stalks from two and half to tire,
feet apart. 1t requires more nerv,
than most men have to pull up enough
young corn to give what is left tn,
space it needs. Farmers are learning
to give corn more space when the,
grow it for ensilage or dry provende
than when they were sowing 1t few
years ago. Experience has laugh
them that sunshine should come t,
the soil all around each plant. Blu
what is sunshine? Is there any
thing in it more than light and heat
| And how does 1t do its work to maxi
crops grow? The modern scientis
tells us that sunshine is wave motion
of the all-pervading ether. That ethe
is that substantial something that oc
cupies in constant quantity ever,
square inCH VI space Ill Jle INVERSE.
occupies all the interstelar distance
and is equally in all solid substances
These ETHEREAL waves are set In motto
by the great heat of the sun. Whe
these waves come to the earth we cal
them sunshine. When they strike tn
earthsome of them penetrate solid sub
stances, and some of them are reflected
1t is from these phenomena that W
have the seven colors. The heat wave
that come with sunshine are absorbe
and then radiated. But the how c
these ETHEREAL waves of light and hea
penetrating plants, their roots and tn
soil around their roots makes the crop
TO grow lies beyond the ken of huma
understanding. And so we had as WEI
confess that there are many things
the secrets of nature i'that have nc
been dreamed of in our philosophy. ~
N. b. Dudley, in Farmers Home Joul
| r,al