Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-10-08

has done his duty. A kind Providence
often comes to the rescue and allows a
yield of three or four bushels to the
acre, which, on account ofits smallness,
convinces the farmer that this is not a
good country for wheat.
The reader who thinks the picture
has been overdrawn should ask some
of the gentlemen named above, or
any other wheat raiser who usually
gets an average of from 10 bushels to
the acre upward. We are satisfied
that these gentlemen will sustain us,
for it is from several of them princi-
pally that we got our information, and
they will also very probably sustain
us in what follows in contrast to the
above as the proper method of growing
wheat.
Catawba and Lincoln counties, of
North Carolina, have the reputation OF
being among the finest wheat produc-
ing counties of the south. The far
mers up there, generally speaking, are
prosperous, progressive, up-to-date
folks, who study their business and
make a success of it. A few days ago
we had the opportunity to talk with a
well-known and successful wheat rails
er from Lincoln county. He has made
money growing wheat, and he is still
in the business.
In the course of the conversation he
said: ave are decidedly of opinion
up our way that there is more money
in raising wheat, one year with an
other, than in raising cotton, even
though the price of wheat is as low
as 80 or 60 cents a bushel. Maybe
you all can do better; but up our way
we do not figure that We can raise cot
ton pro6tably at less than 7 cents a
pound. Including seed, work, rent,
fertilizers, etc., it costs from So to 81
per acre to raise wheat. We general
ly raise from Is to 20 bushels to the
acre, which leaves fair margin OF
profit. The same land planted in COT
ton will cost from SS to SO per acre
to prepare, fertilize, cultivate, pick,
gin and sell, and the yield will not be
more than 800 or $50 pounds of lint. D"
We asked our friend to give an &C.
count of the Catawba and Lincoln
county methods of wheat growing, and
he answered about as follows:
"The farmers up our way generally
follow about the same methods. Prep.
aration for seeding usually commences
from about the middle to the last OF
September. We plow every foot ol
the land carefully and closely with a
two-horse plow, letting it run to a
depth of from three to five inches, ac-
cording to the character of the soil.
Then we follow with a disk harrow
until the soil is pulverized thoroughly
from top to bottom. Next we soak
the seed in a solution of bluestone,
and begin to put them in the ground.
This we do with a drill, putting in
from three pecks to bushel to the
acre, along with $50 to 200 pounds
of ammoniated fertilizer. After that,
we leave things alone until sometime
between the last of March and the
middle of April, when we drag the
crop lightly with tooth harrow, and
we are done until the crop is ready
for the binder"
"Why do you use two-horse turn
ing plow in preparing your land ?"
"Because we can do better work
with less labor. One man and two
horses, with modern plow, can do
better work and more of it than can
two men and two horses, using such
plows as I am told are used by ma
iority of farmers down this way in
preparing wheat land"
"After you have plowed your land
in such superior manner, what is
the necessity for narrowing it p
"Experience has taught US that
whether land, rich or poor, is to be
sowed or planted, the more thorough
the pulverzation, the more satisfactory
the yield. No other harrow pulverizes
as thoroughly as the disk and at as
small a cost, or leaves the land in
better shape for the drill"
"What are the special advantages
of the drill ?"
"They are quite numerous-s nu-
merous that not one farmer in ten up
our way would pretend to put in his
wheat in any other manner. In the
first place it saves seed and fertilizer,
and in the second place the manner
in which it deposits seed at the bot
tom of the furrow lessons the danger
of their being spewed out and killed by
~ &C fhn ;pta ~