The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-09-18

CONDITIONS as an East Carolina Trucker Sees

INTENSIVE VS.. EXTENSIVE FARMING.
Conditions as an East Carolina Trucker Sees
Them.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer ?
The farmers about here r reaiiz-
ing as never before the Importance
of concentrating more on a small
area, end viii not follow the extern
sive plan much longer. a. clE
There are some plain facts con-
fronting the farmers here that have
past the theoretical stage, and are
real conditions, not theories.
Labor is poor and is becoming
more so each year. 1t is a general
complaint that hired labor is becom-
ing more and more unreliable, and
this year morethan ever before. The
promise of a majority of the floating
African laborers to come and work q
day or week is as unreliable as any
thing. If he can't help it, he will
come, otherwise he will not.
By concentrating Our crops~on
fewer acres we will not be dependent
on so much unreliable help. This
year we have been confronted with
a drouth in Craven county that has
not been equalled in more than forty
years, though some, sections have
suffered very little, for rains have
been most unevenly distributed.
Where there has been small plots
thoroughly. subsoiled and fertilized
even ln-the dryect sections and where
thorough cultivation was done, there
are not such signal failures. All
these facts show us plainly that a
few acres thoroughly prepared and
carefully titled will give much bet
ter results than the. old extensive
plan. .....t. u
SUBSIDIZED a small lot for Irish pO-
tatoes. The whole depth of blowing
was about Is inches, 9 inches with
turn pillow and 6 inches subsoiled in
each furrow, subsoil following turn
pillow. My potato rows ran across
this plot, a small piece of which was
not SUBSIDIZED, but treated, except
subsoiling, just as the other. 1t be-
ing a dry year the ends not sub
soiled failed. A neighbor walking
over the patch with me noted the
difference and thought it was a diff
ferent kind of potato, so different
was the growth, last of May. When
dug, about the middle of June, those
SUBSIDIZED yielded 80 per cent. more
good potatoes than the others.
And it is true with most of our
crops. Thorough preparation insures
a degree of success never attained on
those large areas carelessly prepared:
Another Illustration of subsoiling:
I SUBSIDIZED o~ne-fourth of an acre for
early beets and planted the same day
a neighbor did, and 1 had marketed
nearly all my crop when he began to-
market his. My preparation of soil
was the only advantage 1 had I'VE
him.
Another point of advantage In
thorough preparation is the rapid
growth and maturity of a crop which
can be removed and another put en-
the same land.
7 have gathered q crop of good
corn from a plat where spring tur-
nips grew and pigs are now eating
the ripe peas from saidpiece Of land.
Turnips are now up and growing
where. early canteloupes grew, and
my two COWS foraged a month on
one acre of peas, which ere 1 have
planted this week in fall potatoes
with no fertilizer except what vines
the COWS left on the ground And
this treatment generally makes from
20 to 80 barrels of potatoes with no
additional fertilizer.
Brother farmers, The Progressive
HOW To MAKEMONEY.