The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-10-30
Notes for the Farm.

We have one inquiry this week about
sowing the Hairy Veteh. 1t is now
rather late for the sowing, which should
have been done a month ago, and by
the time this is printed it will be entirely
too late for this season. So we will de-
fer anything in regard to vetch sowing
till another season. One thing we would
like to call the attention of all our farm
ers to; in many parts of the State the
Chinch bug has been very troublesome
the past summer. The bugs winter over
under dead grass and leaves and in the
broomsedge clumps and under brush and
trash of all kinds Now if you want to
next summer the fall and winter are the
times to attack them. Clean up the
fields, burn all the dead grass and brush
around the head rows, and all the dead
leaves under the trees that may be
around the fields, and burn any broom
sedge field that you may unfortunately
have. If every one will attend to this
winter cleaning and burning there will
be few chinch bugs left next spring, but
if you leave the turn rows and the sides
of the public and private roads full of
grass and trash you will be wintering
over a host for next summers work.
Every farmer has time to clean up his
premises in winter, and fire is the best
means for fighting the chinch bug.
The sweet potato crop will now be of
interest to those who have them There
is little difficulty in keeping sweet pota-
toes in winter If you start right. AS
soon as the first frost has nipped the
vines, and it has done so we suppose in
some parts of the State, though ours are
still untouched the vines should be
gotten off at once even if you cannot dig
Immediately, for If the dead vines are
left on the hills they will communicate a
rot to the tubers. Try to dig in dry and
sunny weather Do not throw the pota-
toes into piles and bruise them but let
them lie along the rows and sun during
the day. Gather them up in baskets or
boxes and handle them as carefully as
eggs. Have dry and we'll drained spot
for the banks. Place a layer of pine
straw foot or more thick on the ground.
On this pile the potatoes in concal heaps
not over 20 bushels in a heap. Now
cover the heaps thickly with pine straw
that Is perfectly dry. The pine straw
should have been gathered in dry spell
and kept under cover. Now build a
rough shed or shelter over the heaps.
and let them remain till the weather be-
gins to get cold. They will go through
a sweat when first put away, and If COW
cred with earth at first will have the
sweat held to them and make them wet
and rot but the thick layer Of pine straw
will be porous and will let off the stream
and the potatoes will dry off, This drying
off is the most important thing in the
keeping of the potatoes. When this is
over you can pile the earth thickly over
the heaps and being under shelter, the
earth will keep dry and dry earth will
keep out great deal more cold than wet
earth. Any one who has fiued tobacco
barn vacant has the best of places to
keep the potatoes. Make Slated shelves
in the barn and pile the potatoes not over
a foot thick, then put on for few days
a heat like killing heat for tobacco till
the potatoes are we'll dried off from the
sweat, and then during the winter see
that the house does not get below 45
to so degrees temperature. In very cold
nights it may be necessary to put little
fire in the furnace, just enough to keep
out the cold. Where the potatoes are
grown on a large scale a long narrow
potato house should be built, with
shelves on each side and walls doubled
and packed with sawdust and ventila-
tor above. Then with a furnace at one
end and fue running through, you can
keep the potatoes till they come again.
/ gave plans for such house years ago
tosa gentleman in South Carolina. l met
him a year ago in August and he said
that the house had been such a perfect
success that at that time he was feeding
sweet potatoes to his pigs from the pre-
vious years crop. The sweet potato
crop could be made a source of abundant
revenue to the farmers of a large part of
the State if they would only take the
needed pains to keep them we'll. One of
these days some one will start the bust
ness of drying the potatoes and pulveriz-
ing them and packing in papers like the
Northern folks now treat corn starch and
a great business could be made in the
South of these dessicated potatoes, and
the many ways in which the dried product
can be used in cooking will make the ar
ticle popular one in the market There
is a greater opening in the South for an
enterprise of this sort than for the or
binary canning factories. for a sweet
potato factory could get an abundant
supply in most parts of the State to run
through a long season, and when once
the dried and pulverized article is brought
to the attention of buyers and recipes
for the preparation Of the delicious dishes
that can be made from them, not for
getting the pies, there will be a demand
for the goods equal to that now for the
Northern article of corn starch. Who
will be first to take advantage of the
opportunity?
Hundreds in Pursuit Of Murderer.