The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-01-22
HARRY FARMERS TALKS.

y
mer has had some bitter experience
on this crop in following the example
Of farmers of 80 or 40 years ago who
did not have any bugs or blight Or
scab to contend with. But for sew
eral years he has had nice potatoes
by the following plan:
Break the land good and deep,
then harrow we'll. Lay off rows 3
or 81 feet apart with a shovel or
turn plOw so as to make a furrow 5
or inches deep. In this furrow
SOW some good ammoniated fertilizer
at the rate of 300 pounds to the acre
then rake in a little soil on this fer
tilizer. Now you are ready to drop
the potatoes. If there has been any
trouble with scabby potatoes, as
soon as you cut them, take about
one-half pound flower of sulphur to
the bushel of potatoes and mix it
thoroughly with the cut potatoes.
Then drop one piece to the hill about
small amount of soil on the potatoes,
just enough to hide them, then put
more fertilizer abOut-about as much
as used at first with some fowl house
manure Or cotton seed meal {but
never use stable manure.) Now
throw one furrow on the row and
your potatoes are planted. prefer
running the rows east and west and
have the furrow run on the north
side of the rows so that it will pro-
tect the young potato plants from
the cold winds in the spring. AS
soon as the potatoes are seen along
the rows stir the soil so as to break
the crust. Then keep the top of the
soil loose by stirring after each rain
until the potatoes bloom, then hill
lightly so as to protect the young
tubers from the sun. l have had
good success with potatoes worked
this way. The yield may not be so
large as where heavy applications of
stable manure is used, but the quail
ity of the potatoes will be much
higher. 1 use second crop for seed,
generally of my own raising.
Now is a good time to plan for
your chicken crop. If your hens
have not laid well this winter there
is cause for it. If you fed them
properly the fault is in the breed.
Some chickens like the Game do not
lay like the Leghorns and Plymouth
Rocks. For eggs in the winter raise
your hens in the spring. Chickens
Matched the last of February or first
of March will lay all through the
winter, beginning in September,
when eggs are scarce. Old hens do
not lay in the fall because that is the
moulting season and they can t make
eggs and feathers at the same time.
How few farmers take an agricul-
tural paper One in twenty is about
the ratio. About two out of five
who take and read one try to i'm
prove. These are sad figures for me
to write, but it is true. Twenty
years ago the number did not exceed
One-fOurth of what it is today, so
you see that we are improving
slowly. I only wish that copy of
The Progressive Farmer or other
good farm paper could enter the
homes of every farmer in the State.
In ten years we would have one of
the richest States in the Union. In
my own neighborhoOd, we have kept
a Farmers Alliance alive and have
saved thousands of dollars and you
can see an Improvement in the homes
of all those membe who have been
faithful. Politics has given US
| trouble, but we have tried to keep
our brethren together, although the
membership was composed of men
of every political party. And if you
could induce the farmers to join the
Alliance or Grange, and get them to
reading more, it would help greatly
and build up the agriculture of the
South. The man who tries to keep
farmers from organizing is the farm
ers' worst enemy.
''Plow deep while sluggards sleep,
| You'll have corn to sell and keep"
From now till spring is a good
time to subsoil or plow very deep
where the land is not too wet. If
you have never tried it, do so this
spring on small place and note the
difference. If you have no subsOil
plow, you can use any sort of plow