The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-08-04
Notes for the Farm.

writes that the chinch bugs are now in.
Testing his corn, and he wants to know
| what to do to check them. 1t is very
difficult to successfully first insects of
any Kind after they have appeared in
force on crops. An ounce of prevention
is worth here many pounds of cure.
| Farmers should study the habits of in
sects and take measures for preventing
rather than driving them after they are
in possession. The full grown chinch
bugs pass the winter Secreted in rub
bish piles around the fields and come
out In the spring to lay their eggs an
the grass and small grain during April
or sometimes earlier. The eggs hatch
into minute yellowish forms that begin
at once to eat on the roots of the plant
and at the surface of the ground or just
| below. The small bugs feed and grow
jrapidly and pass through several mouths
until they become dark in color, and are
| fully grown before wheat harvest Az
| ter the wheat or other small grain is
cut they are forced to migrate and it
is then that they begin on the corn. In
/ travelling from the wheat stubble to
the corn they always go on foot and
never fly. Now is the time to check
| their advance. Run V shaped burrows
around the corn field on their line of
march and keep the sides loose and
dusty by dragging log through it &C.
| casionally. They can crawl on a smooth
surface, but not on dusty or loose one.
/ Then when they are collected in the
1 furrow, sprinkle them with kerosene.
/ When they have just gotten foot hold
/ in the corn they may be stopped by cut
ting down the rows infested and springl-
| ing the mwith kerosene. But the best
way to check the increase of the chinch
| bug sto clean up the whole premises
4 and burn in the winter all rubbish and
| brush around the fields. Millions may
be destroyed in this way, and if every
| farmer would regularly clean up and
| burn all rubbish around his fields there
would be little trouble from these bugs
! but if allowed to harbor during the
/ winter, there will always be plenty to
1 breed in the spring.
| From Forsyth county: lam con-
slant reader of your letters in the
| Christian Advocate, and find them
very helpful. May you long continue
| the good work you are doing for the
farmers of the State. l notice that you
advise the sowing of Turf Oats in the
| fall. There has long existed the opin-
| ion that winter oats are very exhaust
; i've to the soil. Is there any truth in
this belief? Do oats exhaust the soil
more than wheatb What is your opin-
! ion of the johnson grass? Some look
upon it as an unmitigated pest, and
some regard it as the best hay grass
| grown Does it exhaust or improve the
| soil 2"
A crop of winter oats will not exhaust
| the soil as much as leaving the ground
| bare of green growth in winter. In our
climate we have more rain than hard
| freezing in winter and the process or
nitrification or the change of organic
nitrogen that may be in the soil to
| soluble nitrate, goes on all winter. II
| there is no green growth on the land
/ this soluble nitrate is washed away and
| lost but If there are green plants ION
| the land they get and keep the nitrogen
| that may be in the soil to soluble nj
| trate, which goes on all winter If there
| is no green growth on the land this
! soluble nitrate is washed away and lost,
but if there are green plants on the
| land, they get and keep the nitrogen
| that would otherwise be lost Oats need
and take more nitrogen from the soil
| than wheat, but so far as the mineral
matters are concerned they are not any
more exhaustive than wheat Any crop
tends to exhaust the soil of plant food,
and the wise farmer is the who who so
| contrives his cropping as to restore the
| loss as far as possible and little more
than restore it by keeping the soil inn
proving while getting increased crops.
/ Properly used in short rotation and
always followed by peas on which the
minteral fertilizers are used, the winter
oats crop may be made one of the means
| for building up the fertility of the land
instead of eXhausting it. All this talk
! about exhaustive crops comes from MEL
who try to grow one crop continuously
on the land and neglect the recuperatiVe
crops and the judicious use of fertilizing
! matters in the right place for the build
! ing up of the soil. If farmer whose
| interest lies in wheat in your section
will adopt a four year or a three year
rotation he need not fear the oats In
such rotation / would use all my ma
| nure broadcast on the corn and follow
! that with the fall oats without fertilizer
and the oats with peas on which 300
pounds per acre of acid phosphate and
potash are used. Would cut the peas
for hay and disk the stubble fine and
|
phosphate simply on the wheat.
would at once follow the wheat with
peas, and cut them again and sow Grim
son clover on the pea stubble in Sep
TENDER, and during the winter get out
again the increased pile of manure
had made from feeding pea hay and
fodder and spread it on the clover and
turn all under in the spring for corn.
In two or three rounds of this you will
find that the oats are becoming an i'm
portant crop when you can make seven
ty-five bushels per acre. and in few
years you will need no fertilizer except
the acid phosphate and potash on the
peas, and you need not stop to argue
with any man as to the exhaustive, ma
ture of oats or any other crop. oats are
not near so exhaustive as corn and yet
you will not allow that to cause you to
stop growing corn. Now as to Johnson
Grass, both opinions are nearly right.
There is no doubt that it is very val
liable hay grass But the man who in
| PRODUCES it into a section where 1t is
not now should be regarded as public
enemy. If this grass cauld be kept in
bounds it would be of immense value.
But unfortunately it cannot, and ance
/