The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-04-08

Our Washington Correspondent Tells What
Progress is Being Made in the Various
Sections Of the Country.


Correspondence OF The Progressive Farmer.
What was practically the maiden
speech in the Senate of Senator Dol
liver, of Iowa, was delivered one day
last week during >4e discussion of
THE OLEOMARGARINE BILL.
Senator Delivers speech was an
admirable defense of the COW, form
ing picture as he spoke of the pros
porous farms of the Iowans, ''wrapped
in the arms of the rivers Missouri
and the Mississippi" During the
course of his talk, being a believer of
illustration better than description,
he produced from his desk numerous
descriptive signs Of the oleo dealers
and also a package of the much dis
cussed oleomsrgafine This package,
he stated, was marked according to
law, but he challenged any Senator
TO find such label Senator Tillman,
always ready for the fray, accepted,
but after an exhaustive examination
acknowledged his defeat Laugh
ingly, Senator Dolliver showed
snugly tucked away in the very last
fold of the wax wrapper, in small de-
sign, the label marking the package
as oleomargarine. The
PREDoMINANCE OF THE FARM BOY
was emphasized when Mr.. Dolliver
described an incident which occurred
on the late President Mckinley g
Western tour. AS the train was
passing through Iowa early one
morning the President was observed
TO be laughing to himself as he
watched the antics of two boys
warming their feet on the spot where
a cow had been lying during the
night. Gentlemen, said President
Mckinley, lone of the pleasantest
and most delightful recollections of
my boyhood is the solid comfort
which those boys are now having
warming frost t-bitten feet in the
place where the COWS have been
lying. L wonder how many of you
have had similar experience. =" One
after another of the members of the
Cabinet, Governors, Senators and
Representatives, who were of the
party, bore witness TO the same ex-
perienoe, beginning with John Hay,
who did his feet-warming partly in
Ohio and partly in Illinois, and end.
ing with Secretary of Agriculture
Wilson, who warmed his feet in the
heather of Scotland.
The New York Cornell Expert
ment Station has been continuing it's
EXPERIMENTS IN THE CULTURE OF Po
TATOEs
along the same lines as in previous
years and some additional results
have been noted by the Department
of Agriculture. "On soil we'll sup
piled with humus the moisture may
be conserved even through severe
drought, and fair crop of potatoes
produced" says the report. The
great Importance of thorough tillage
has been very clearly brought out in
the experiments, but it has also been
shown that intensive tillage alone is
not sufficient to produce q large
yield of potatoes, as it may be over.
done During a drought only so
much tillage is needed a will keep
the surface mulch loose and thor
oughly dry The drier the surface
layer of soil, the more slowly will
moisture be absorbed by it from the
soil beneath. A practice which has
been deemed wise by the expert
ments is narrowing potato land be
fore the plants appear above ground.
The use of Bordeaux mixture in
nearly every case resulted in an in
creased yield, even when blight was
not prevalent. Pruning potato vines
- one main stem, on the other hand,
was not beneficial.
But the report admits that meth
DDS of procedure which are applicable
during one season, must be modified |
TO meet the requi1 ements of another
the treatment of one soil, which in
that instance is correct, may be
wrong when applied to an
other. Success will be attained only
by thorough familiarity with the
plant and it's habits of growth, and
then conditions must be made to
meet as completely as possible the
of the plant.
GUY e. MITCHELL.
Washington, d. G.