The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-18
THE FARM AND THE GARDEN.
MATTERS OF INTEREST To AGRI-
CULTURIsP AND HOUSEWIFE.

Farm Notes for December-FOrage
CrOps-Onts From Spring Sowing.
The Problem of Soil Improvement.
Interesting Facts About Vegeta-
bIes-A Premium Corn CrOp-The
Growth of the south.
With the exception Of a day or two dur
ing the past two weeks the fine weather
has continued up to the middle of the
month. The weather has certainly
given the farmer and gardener the
best opportunities for doing any
and everything that should have
been done during the time If We
can believe everything we have seen in
the various newspapers there has been a
wholesale sowing Of small grain during
the pa1t two months. We only hope every
word Of this is true. Corn, as raised in the
South. is a very expensive food for ami
mails and there is no reason why the bulk
of such food should not consist of oats
even if the average yield should not be
over eight or ten bushels to the acre.
Considering the hasty inexpensive way
In which oats are grown In the South
anything much over that need not be ex-
pected. And yet it is easy enough TO make
two to three times that yield per acre and
on land too that will make no more than
one hundred pounds of lint cotton or eight
bushels Of corn.
oats should be sown much earlier than
the majority of our farmers generally SOW.
rom the first of October until the 10th of
November is the proper time to SOW oats
IL.
reeds to sow this grain at that time and
on land that has been properly prepared
and proper quantity of seed used to
make any fair land produce twenty to
twenty-five bushels of grain per acre
Nine farmers out of twelve use too little
seen and on land too poorly prepared to
make such a crop usually. FAN sown oats
DO not require deep blowing of the land
tut they do require a finely pulVeriZed
surface SOIL made so by narrowing, and
the narrowing in Of the seed should be fol-
lowed by a good rolling. This done in due
time in october and using sixty to seventy
five pounds of seed per acre there Is no
reason why any fair land should not turn
out twenty-five bushels of oats.
oats are crop easily wasted in the
feeding, and there are not many farmers
who make the crop go as far as 1t should
In being fed out to animals. More than
half of the crop is usually wasted one way
or another
AS il is the only purpose for which oats
should be grown in this section-stock
food-the grain should never be allowed
10 get dead ripe in the field, but should
be cut just as soon as the stems begin to
turn yellow at the surface of the ground
or just as soon as the milk forms in
the grains. Cut and cured at this, the
proper stage, the grain will not shatter
Out and the straw will be much more pal
atable to stock
Only enough for seed should be threshed
out. To feed oats economically to stock
IN the sheaf they should be cut up, and
1t will pay any farmer to have a cutter
proporuoned to the number of stock he
keeps. Oats thus cut up and sprinkled
slightly with salt or salt water will be
ea1en up clean by horses or cattle. We
are not surprised that oats are not a sat
isfactory crop to many farmers when We
realize how wastefully the crop is treated
from first to last,
In recent years We have seen some very
hne crops of oats from spring sowings
that is, from sowings made the latter part
OF January, and during the month of Feb
ruary, and even as late as March Is, and
when all the requirements are fully met
there is no reason whatever why such
soWings should not produce satisfactory
crops The requirements are, land rich
enough to make a crop, the land well pre-
pared by good blowing, and, if necessary
a good narrowing; giving the latter for
The purpose of covering the seed ard then
rolling the land. The trouble is so few
of our farmers have a harrow and roller,
which are implements almost indispensa-
bic in the satisfactory culture of small
grain. On light, sandy soil a harrow is
not SO necessary as a roller. Such soil
plowed at the proper time with shovel or
scooter never become cloddy, and is suff1-
GENTLY pulverized without the harrow, but
ii does need almost invariably a refrm-
ing of the soil, so as to press il firmly
about the seed, thereby securing prompt
termination and growth. A good start
off and prompt one, while there is plen-
ty of moisture in the soil, is half the
work with such spring sowings.
For forage crop spring sown oaIs are
much to be preferred to German mllet
so-called, and yet good many farmers
appear to think they are doing a good
thing when they sow an acre or two of
1t in the spring. 1t is about the poorest
thing Southern farmer can make use
of in our opinion.