The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-09-10
Farm Miscellany.


nessee Farmers Convention at Knox
vile last year, Secretary Wilson, of
the United States Department of
Agriculture advised the farmers of
the South to quit raising wheat, for
the reason that they could not COM
pete with the Western wheat-grow-
ing sections.
From the Secretary's point of
view, his advice was good, but IN
fortunately our conditions are such
that we cannot adopt his suggestion.
Our soil, climate and other environ
ments compel the Southern farmers,
especially those in Tennessee and
other border States, to grow wheat.
It comes in the regular rotation of
crops, as it has done since the settling
up of the country, and will continue
to do so until we we find a suitable
substitute for it. In extenuation, I
would say that improved implements
and the changed methods of hand
ling the crops of corn and COW peas,
which usually precede the wheat,
have very much reduced the cost of
growing the latter. Formerly, the
expense, in the way of wear and
tear to man, beast and machinery, of
reducing in midsummer a clover sod
that had lain for hay or pasture, or
both, for several years, and getting
the land down TO a good seed-bed
for wheat, together with the cost of
seeding and harvesting, amounted to
from $8 to 81 per acre, whereas
now we can produce nearly as much
on the same land at the expense of
about SIS per acre, and some times
for even less than this.
My neighbor, Mr. Mayfeld, asserts
that he can grow a bushel of wheat
as cheaply as he can a bushel of corn.
Last year, from a field of 80 acres,
he raised 492 bushels of wheat. A
strict account with the field showed
the total expense, including labor,
seed, fertilizer, teams, harvesting
and threshing, from start to finish,
was S141.SO, or $4.72 per acre. The
yield-a fraction over Is bushels per
acre-was light, but the post of pro-
ducing was also light. This crop
followed a heavy growth of ensilage
corn, taken off in September, and
the wheat sown in October. Ii is
true, as Secretary Wilson states,
that our lands are less generous in
yield and are rougher, and hence
more expensive to cultivate, than
the Western lands; but our hired
labor is cheap, and much Of the
smaller farmers wheat is raised by
the labor of himself and children,
who most likely would not other
wise be earning any wages at all.
Heretofore the crop rotation of the
farmers who heard or read the Sec
retary's address has been-oorn one
or two years, then wheat for one or
two years, followed by clover for
hay or pasture, TO remain from one
TO three years, and so on. In re
cent years, clover has been so unre-
liable that COW peas-a crop which
this section has grown, in one way
and another, for rs years-have been
substituted to a great extent for
both hay and renovating purposes.
Our present crop rotation is about
as follows: The land is put to corn
for grain, with the COW peas planted
in the same rows with the corn. This
combined crop, after the usual Guilt
walton, is cut with a corn harvester
and set in shocks, TO be hauled to the
barn and run through a husker and
shredder, or the ears plucked and the
dry provender fed whole through the
winter. If the farmer Ia a stockman
and has silos, the land will probably
be narrowed and sown to rye for
winter pasture as soon as the corn is
put in the shock, and turned in the
spring for a crop of ensilage corn
and peas, grown somewhat thicker
than last years grain crop As soon
as the ensilage crop is off, She land
is doubled over with II disc harrow
and the wheat drilled without any
further preparation. Close on the
heels Of tho binder that is harvest
ing this wheat crop in June, come
the turning plows and burrows pre-
pairing the ground for COW peas, to
be used for hay, ensilage or pasture.
In this way, we get two crops from
the field in the same year. After
the peas are off, another crop of