The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-03-13
NOTES OF THE FARMo
Bv w. F. MASSEY, of A. & NJ. College.


( small fires all over the ground. Then
after the burning scatter the ashes as
widely as possible. AS a rule / avoid the
burning of anything on the land that can
be plowed under to decay slowly in the
soil One reason for the thin soil in our
piney woods of the long leaf pine sec
ton is the constant annual burning of
the forest, destroying all the humus
that has been accommodating in the woods.
But of course cannot plOw under
dead trees and hence the best thing is to
burn them in as few spots possible. I
would plow the land at once thorough
ly as conditions will allow. After plow
ing, if possible l would apply a good
dressing of, say % to 80 bushels of fresh
ly slaked lime per acre and plant the
field in corn. Cut the off at the
ground as soon we'll glazed and cure
in shocks. Replow and harrow the land
and seed to wheat. using on the wheat
dressing Of acid phosphate alone at rate
of 300 pounds per acre and seed to COM
mon red clover. Or what l consider bet
ter, cut the wheat and SOW on the land
peas at rate of bushel per acre and
NOW them for hay when we'll podded..
Then SOW Crimson clover seed on the pea
Stubble the last of August. and when that
is just in bloom in the spring NOV it
for hay. You will thus get more forage
than you would get from the red clover.
If you have the manure at hand spread
q coat of manure on the clover stubble
| in the spring and put in corn again This
/ time | would follow with wheat and red
clover and let the clover stand a year.
cutting only the first crop and pasturing
the second growth. or let it lie and plow
the following spring for corn after having
dressed it with manure BY this treat
ment you will be preserving and even in
creaSing the humuS that the pines have
accumulated, and the land will be getting
better instead of running down again.
Always aim to keep land covered with
green growth of some kind in winter to
prevent the teaching away of fertility
Our cotton fields have lost more by Win
ter washing off the bare ground than the
crop has taken from them, and the same
is true Of fields all over the State.
There was a notion among the older
class Of farmers that a field should be
rested by allowing it to lie a year with
no crop on it. The resting then consisted
in letting the soil grow mass of weeds
and wild grasses. In what way this was
resting it is hard to say. But the plan
was not altogether bad, for though the
land gained little by the weeds it was
kept from wasting. We do better than
this, however, by keeping the land cover
ed with a more useful growth than the
wild weeds that are going to fill the soil
with seeds to give us future brow sweat
, ings. We can keep the land covered
with crops that will enable us to feed
cattle, and which while doing this will
, be getting for from the air nitrogen
, that forms the most expensive part of a
, bought fertilizer. Peas and clover will do
this for us, and will enable us to make
money out of stock instead of growing
a crop Of weeds to exhaust the soil with
little return in the shape of added ferti-
lity.
Just as | was about to close this / re-
. ceived a letter from a farmer in the up
land clay country Of the cotton section
who says that he has been farming as
near as possible by our directions, and
that he likes the plan more every year
, He is breaking his land for cotton and
corn with four horses, two to the turn
, ing plow and two in the same furrow
with a subsoil plOw breaking the LAND
deep and enabling it TO store moisture
: for the coming summer. He says that he
, is going to use three horses abreast as
soon as he can afford the team. His
farm is now all laid off with the Man
. gum terraces which he says we told hin
. how to make, and his neighbors are al
copying them as the greatest improve
. ment yet devised to prevent land from
washing. More than this he says thai
), with the deep preparation he has made
he proposes to use no fertilizers what
;, ever as he is feeding cattle and ha:
. manure spreader and makes 200 loads
: of manure which is thoroughly and even
: ly spread by the machine. Here and there
we strike a in the South who i:
= boldly getting out of the ruts. Thousand:
of our farmers in the upland red ella,
: country are annually scratching over
!, rich farm to work very poor one, neve
:. realizing that right below the point 0
:, their little one mule plow lies un
= touched and fertile soil that only await
= to be aerated to bring it's fertility int
9 use. Our red clay hills are all soil dowI
,. to the bed rock, and they contain an al
. most nexhaustible supply of minera
elements of food if you will only let tn
= plant get at them. The deeper thes
. red hills are broken the less they viii
wash and the more of the winter raj
= they will hold on to for the plants i
- summer. We congratulate our friend O
!, his escape from the ruts. Who is tn
next?