The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-18
Notes for the Farm.

MUGS lUl tHt Tdllll.
Did you have chinch bugs last summer
Then now is the time to stop them, or
| at Least make them scarcer the coming
season. The mature bugs winter over
| in trash piles around the fields where
they were last summer and under old
logs and rotted rails. Now is the time
| to destroy them. Burn all the trash piles,
clean up the fence rows and burn all
| rubbish of every kind, and you will have
fewer of the pests this summer. Then
when you see that the bugs are in the
small grain or grass, start to head them
they will not cross a line of gas tar, and
barrel of gas tar will make a line of
| 800 rods or more. Then If a strip is
plowed alongside the corn and kept dusty
by constant dragging of brush or a log
of wood to make dusty trench they can
| not cross this. If rain lays the dust then
stir it up again as soon as possible.
There is little that can be done after the
bugs get in the corn, and the wise Guilt
vator will take time by the forelock and
keep the pests down.
THE ASH OF PLANTS.
The Experiment Station Record of
Tollens, Germany has an interesting ar
ticle on the variations of the ash eie-
mentS in plants under various conditions.
One of the curious facts shown Is that
plants supplied with phOsphOric acid and
potash take up less lime from the soil
than they do when no fertilizer is used
In general, the plants seemed to take up
what was most ,plentifully present in an
available form. 1t we'll states that 1t
Is still uncertain to what extent the
analysis of the plant may be a guide to
the fertilization of the soil for that
plant. The fact lis, that at all the Ex-
pertinent Stations there has been too
much study of the special food needs of
particular plants and not study enough
of economical methods in agriculture. The
Stations have done sc much in this fer
tilizer business that farmers have grown
to think that for every crop grown all
they need is formula for a fertilizer,
when they should be more anxious to
learn how to produce crops in the most
economical and business-like manner.
FARMING AS AN INVESTMENT.
The Agriculturist says that it costs
500 to raise COW to three years of
age on the great Briarcliff farms in New
York, where the calves are fed on whole
milk that retails for ten cents per quart.
Briarcliff cows must be of extra quality
to warrant such cost, and Briarcliff milk
must be sold to wealthy patrons to be
worth so much. We suppose that it sells
at this price because BriarcIiff has made
reputation for the purity and cleanli-
ness of it's milk. 1t also shows the value
of advertising on the farm, for there is
not farm in the United States that has
been more abundantly advertised than
this one. The fact that this great farm,
or farms, with millionaire behind them,
can afford to raise cows at such a cost.
and sell milk at such a price, shows
the great opportunity there is for the in
vestment of capital on the farm in good
farming and stock raising, for it is gen
profit and not merely as a show place.
When men of means in all parts of the
country come to have faith in the soil
good farming, the percentage OF all our
crops will be greatly increased. Good
farming and stock raising now make a
better rate of interest on capital invest
ed than capitalists are accustomed to
realize on stocks and bonds. The great
amount of capital now seeking invest
ment, and the general low rate of inter-
est should attract more business men to
the farms as place for profitable invet-
ment of money In no part of the
country is, there better prospect for capt.
tai invested in good farming than In the
cotton belt OF the South! With means
for the cash culture Of the cotton. the
miserable tenant cropping system of the
South could be broken UP, and the ten
ants would be better off working for cash
wages. With good farming with cation
on a cash basis there is, great profit In
the crop even at low prices. This would
of. course mean farming with stock and
good rotation OF crops, and an utter
abandonment Of, the planting system and
the gambling In fertilizers on the chances
of the crop on worn out land, There Is
wealth for the men who will Invest
money in good cotton farming. and there
is nothing the South needs more than
well arranged and systematic work along
this line, Cotton. more than any other
money crop In this country. Ia grown by
men without capital, who are supported
in the making of the crop at an enor-
NOUS percentage to cover possible losses.
These troopers cannot produce the crop
at low prices, while for the cash, farmer
who farmed we'll there has been some
margin even at the lowest price of late
years. Talking with a good farmer in
Virginia at an Institute few days since,
he remarked that he knew of no business
that now pays a better percentage on
the capital invested than good farming.
while he could not seeehow~ the men
around him who were making twenty
bushels of wheat per acre could make
living This was a city business man
who has gone into farming And. as a
rule, have found that the most SUCCESS
full farmers in. the country are the buSi-