The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-05-01

NOTES OF THE FARM. +;
By w F. MASSEY, of A. & M. College.
.s~


I prairies produced the crop in such
| large quantities that the price Went
down 10 such low figures that the
New York growers dropped the crop
and it has for years been grown
mainly by farmers in Illinois and
Kansas. and even there the culture
! has been great lN restricted OF late
wears Now ne scarcity OF good stock
! has run the price up to Il very high
! figure. The western men are plant
! ing more largely than ever, and we
! the old growers in the Mohawk Valley
| have been tempted by the high price
! to 90 into broom corn again.
The result is pretty certain to be a
very large crop, and Il slump in price
next fall that viii make the South
ern man who goes into broom corn
| wish that he had cent cotton on
| his land. We have few lands that can
| compete with the west in this crop
under normal conditions. and the
present high price is simply owing
to the unprottable prices that drove
growers out Of the business. We uni
,I1nly advise our friends To let broom
corn alone and stick to the crops
they know omething about. \ new
hand at a new crop seldom makes
sorghum can grow broom corn. it re-
quires special skill in the handling
and curing Of the crop, and that is
only acquired by experience. IT. is
very much like man going into to-
bacco who has never grown or cured
any. Mess he GETS an expert to
handle his crop he will be pretty sure
TO make q failure, if not in crop. at
least in the curing. The same is true
of the broom corn crop. so we advise
those who have been writing about
going into broom corn to let it alone.
There viii doubtless be some who
will not heed this advice and who
are going to try broom corn. We
hope they will not be disappointed.
| but fear that the> Will be- L is not
J new crops that we geed. but good
farming with the old ones
! We wish TO thank the sereyal read
/ ers Of this paper who have written
! letters of encouragement without ask
/ ing questions to be answered here.
/ Letters Of appreciation that are
/ prompted simply by desire to thank
one who is trying to serve the inter
ests of the farmer, are pleasing and
! all the more so when they are not
| prompted by a desire to ask more
4 Not that we object to their asking
! questions. for we consider this one OF
! the WAYS in which we can do the
most good. and we are always ready
| to answer if we can. But the more
! one studies the compIeN question OF
! farm Improvement and economy the
! more he becomes convinced that none
/ OF us know all about it yet. and pro-
/ badly never will.
But the Experiment Stations were
/ founded by the general government
! Tor the purpose Of enabling me to
investigate every problem that needs
! solution III agriculture and chemiStrv
! ana then IN every practicable way to
/ disseminate among the tOilerS on the
/ farms the facts obtained in these in
/ designations. We must investigate i'm
/ order that we may learn. And this, is
/ the main reason why an experiment
! farm can never be Il model farm. Far
. merS often come to the experiment
fafm evidently expecting TO find a
( model, while the very nature of the
work fOrbids this. Failures are often
/ more instructive than successes. and
! IN questioning the soil there will Of
| ten be failures 10 get results that
! have been figured out beforehand and
/ these are often the most valuable of
/ the iactS that we learn i'm an eXDeri-
! ment. We test 4 new crop or a new
| plant, and hnd that it is a failure
/ III our soil and climate after tryino
all the means we can devise for its
| success. This failure teaches us inst
as much as we would have learned
/ by success Not perhaps what we
| wished to learn. but Il valuable fact
nevertheless. Certain methods Of
culture may be Theoretically best. We
! try them and find that the theory will
not work out in practice. and have
learned another fact by failure.
On the other hand some new plant
or crop may be tried that proves
success and introduces a new indus
try to our people. And so failures
ana successes are always to be found
side by side in an experiment farm.
and all together 90 to make model
farming on such a farm impossible.
The visitor to such Il farm too can
always learn more than he could if
all was Il model. The neatnesS and
care may all be model but the mat
terS transacted there are for study
and reflection and not for show. And
as the years 90 by the sum of our
Knowledge increases though we NAV
never live long enough to learn all
there IS to learn.