The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-04-30
Farm Miscellany.
A RUF-DOWN FARM PROBLEM.

Some times I am very much puz-
zled by apparently simple problems
that arise in every day life, and at
such times 1 wonder how farmers
who have received no scientific train
ing whatever along agricultural
lines, and who read next to nothing
about their vocation, manage TO hold
their W as long as they do. Evi-
IDENTIFY in many cases it has been the
naturally great fertility of the soil
that has kept them up; but it is
plain that we have reached the time
when the farmer must understand at
least the rudiments of scientific agri-
culture to hold his own in the strug-
gle for existence. Only a few days
ago a gray-haired old man stated
some of his troubles to me and asked
what he had best do. Thirty one
years ago he bought eighty acres of
good prairie land. from this land
he has raised sufficient grain to pay
for it, build a fairly comfortable
house, a good little barn, sheds for
hogs, ETC., and to live. Now he finds
himself old and failing, his boys
gone to make their way in the world,
the once rich soil impoverished and
incapable of producing half the yield
| of grain it formerly did, and that
lnly with three times the amount of
tillage formerly required.
"You see," said the old man,
pathetioally, elf I were to put the
lana in grass a few years, as many
advise, 1 would have no means of
making a Living. The hay 1 would
get from it would not keep lis, and
the stock 1 must have. We must
have corn for feed, and something to
sell to buy n~ecessaries. I cannot
work like l used to, and my boys are
gone. Last year l rented part of
the land for corn, but got next to
nothing from it. The tenant made a
tizzle of raising a crop. 1 am in debt
about $3.50, and have no money t.
buy anything with, so whatever you
advise you must not call for money"
The fact is the poor old man has,
like many another, farmed himself
almost into the poor house. What a
splendid soil he had at the outset
Cropped ~thirty-one years continu-
Ous.y withOutrest or fertilizer shows
plainly what a bank of wealth he
had to draw upon. 1 couldn't resist
asking him if he supposed that 1T
would be possible TO restore In one
or two years a soil that he had spent
t~hirty-One years in impoverishing.
But the poor old man didn't know
any better. He does not understand
the use of fertilizers, and nitrogen,
potash and phosphoric acid would be
Greek to him. He is not able to &C
quire and assimilate knowledge like
"a young man, but he is willing TO
accept advice and follow it as he un-
derstands it. He has followed the
rut that many others are following,
but be has lived long enough to learn
that his methods have been wrong.
and he seeks to be helped out.
l explained to him that his soil is
deficient in humus, which is simply
decayed vegetable matter, and, con-
sequently is run together, and in Ii
manner resembles cement. 1t is
hard to break up, and bakes quickly
after a rain. There still is consider
able fertility in it, but it is locked
up. Owing to the fneness of it's
texture, due wholly to a lack of hu-
mus, the roots of the plants cannot
force themselves through it to gather
up this fertility. What it needs
most of all is humus. And in getting
humus into it nitrogen can be gotten
into it 1T the same time. This is
what we need. 1 advised him to
seed ten r to clover, sowing quite
twice as much seed as is usually
done. l would plow very shallow
as early in spring as possible, har-
row Immediately, and SOY the clover
seed with about three pecks of oats
to the acre. As soon as the oats
headed, cut them, weeds and all,
with a mower set rather high, and
cure for hay. This will give the
clover a chance to make sufficient
growth to resist drought in late
summer. The following year the
entire crop may be turned under
when in bloom and an early-matur-