The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1898-08-05
Agriculture.

1T one crop has been made to yield
a profit, the next in rotation will
more easily be made to do so. Land
can be so Used that every crop will
yield a margin of profit, and still
leave the soil richer at the close Of a
course of rotation than twas at the
beginning.
The greatest amount of nourish-
ment for feeding purposes is in stalk
and grain when corn is cut Just as
the ear begins to glaze. Such early
cutting would be but to waste it, of
course, save when for immediate
use or for the silo.
There is a disguised blessing in a
crop OF weeds, in that they often
compel the careless farmer to Guilt
vate his crops when otherwise he
would let them go; but weeds are
robbers of moisture and plant food,
make farm look hideous, and add
to the cost of every growing crop.
1t is wisdom to keep down the weeds
not only among the crops, but along
the fence rows, where cultivation
is impossible; and then two or three
weeks after we have ceased cultiva-
ton of the corn and potatoes it pays
to cut down close to the ground any.
weeds which may have started up.
When we are counting costs and
profits it is worth considering the
worth of a good pillow team. Plow
teams are of all sorts. Manage in
some way to have good one ready
for next season..
Land which lies exposed to the
sun until August or September can
not be so effectively narrowed at
intervals as the weeds start, and
this will make just such a seed bed
as wheat needs.
Straw only contains a small
amount of plant food, but, If proper
ly used as an absorbent, it provides
one of the best manures. 1t is a
poor way to let it rot down in the
stack. .'rs"
Flowing should be so deep that all
moisture will be readily absorbed
and stored for use when needed
at the surface. Capillary action
will do the distributing of it.
Improvement in the quality of
beets and in the processes of manu-
facture has been so great that in
Germany the root will yield 10 per
cent. of its weight in sugar. There
are untold millions for this country
in the sugar beet.
t The luXuriant growth of grass in
May can be as effectually killed by
blowing under as when the sod is
broken in August. Cabbage can be
grown on such ground without ma
nure. The previous growth is con-
sumed about as fast as it decays,
and there is no waste.
It is very doubtful whether smut
can attack stalk of corn which has
received no injury which will allow
the sap to eXude on. which the spores
can fasten; but eXuding sap becomes
at once breeding place for spores
tof smut, which, on infected ground
are always flying through the air.
The term "clean culture" covers
the whole period from blowing time
to blowing time again, and is moi
merely the keeping, of the ground
clean while the crops are CROWN"
Especially if weeds appear on early
plowed ground it should be gone
over with the harrow now and then
for it is much easier to kill weeds
while they are young than aftel
they have usurped the ground.
Perhaps your soil is not as nearly
exhausted as you have thought
Possibly the poor fields are due t.
slovenly cultivation or the super
abundance of weeds. The resources
OF nature are not often easily eX
hausted. Next time prepare tn
ground thoroughly, select the seeC
more carefully, plant il with exact
; ness, till it persistently, as long a
the crop will permit, and thus max,
trial whether the soil is not better
than you thought. Be very sur
there are resources hidden Their,
J which you have never brought out
The science of husbandry lies in tn
finding and developing of them.