The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-31
Talks With Farmers.
WE in Practical Farner
Erroneous Protection.

y y
bounties for the killing of crows. one
rabbit will do more harm to the
farmer in one winter than forty crows
will in a year, and while the crows 40
eat a great many insects the rapplt
never eats any, Rabbits need no pro-
lection, for their prolific nature Will
keep UP the stock in any event. ana
in States where there is no law pro-
tecting them they are really more
abundant than where they nave the
care of the game Wardens. Inc crow
does some mischief, but great zeal
of good. The rabbit does a great deal
of mischief and no good that anyone
has ever been able to discover
Office of Experiment Stations.
The great growth of the Depart
ment of Agriculture is well shown by
the bulky reports that are issued. not
only as the general Year Book, but by
the different divisions. The report or
the Office of Experiment Stations is
volume as bulky as the Year BOOK OF
the entire department being over foU
pages. 1t constitutes one or tne very
best of reference books for all VINO
are interested in the work of the EX-
pertinent Stations in the various
States and erritories. for the work or
investigation has been extended 10 our
new possessions, and there are sla-
lions in Porto Rico, Hawai- ana III
the Philippines and Alaska under the
direct care of the office in Washlng-
ton. The report opens with sum-
mary of statistics of the statlons,
which shows that while the natlonal
government contributed lasl year
$72O,000 for the support or the eX-
pertinent stations, the various states
individuals and communities, and the
sales from the stations footed up
$7O7237.73. The appropriation Tor
Alaska and the outlying insular pos
sessions was in addition to the above.
There are 1877 persons employed IN
stations Investigations and admins
tration. The stations published 5 II
annual reports and bulletins, Wnlch
were sent to over half million peo-
pie Many stations also supplement
their bulletins with press bulletins for
insertion in the current newspapers
A very thoughtful chapter is devoted
to the Needs of the Stations.
chapter that every station ofhcer
should study. The stations have GER
tainlv demonstrated their value to the
farming community, and they could
be of vastly more value if they were
better endowed. The present appro-
priation of $4,000 to each station is
insufficient for good work, when the
salaries of the staff needed are taken
+, out. 1t is to be hoped that the meas
ure that has been introduced in Con-
gress for doubling this appropriation
will pass, and that the stations VIII
have the fullest opportunity to DO
good work. The report at hand gives
a complete resume of the work OF
each station and its income. and there
is also an interesting chapter on
Farmers Institutes in the various
States by Prof. John Hamilton. the
Farmers Institute expert of the de-
partment We suppose the book can
be had from congressman.
Institute Notes No. 1.
/ am attending a series of Summer
Institutes and hope to make some
notes by the way that may be of in
terest if not of value to our readers.
Yesterday we struck another of the
clan of talking men. He loudly pro-
claimed that. he had driven 60 miles
across the country for the pure pur-
pose of learning something at the
Institute. But it soon became evident
that his main purpose was TO snow
how much he knew, and his inter-
ruptions finally became nuisance &c
speakers and audience alike. Then we
told the audience of the man at a
meeting in Tennessee who did not like
COW peas but preferred clover, and
who subsidized when we asked him
why he did not grow clover, and we
said hat we often met these talkative
men, who, like the Tennessee man,
did not grow any clover after all his
advocacy of it. And our talkatlve
friend of the presen occasion who
had made the impression that he was
an extensive dairyman, was asked
how many COWS he kept. In a hesi-
tating way he replied: "Only two.
That settled our dairy expert and he
subsidized. 1t is always best when one
of this class gets to be annoying, to
show him UP to the audience and to
see how much experience he has had
r1arr% Ef lfcy n n
speaker
The man who asks intelligent ques-
lions in an Institute and who evil
IDENTIFY wants to get something he can
carry away that will be of value to
him is always a welcome listener at
an Institute talk, but the man who,
under the guise of asking questions
simply tries to let people know that
he knows it all is a nuisance and
needs to be sat down on heavily. Ihe
meeting yesterday was among the
blood-red clay hills. where under the
shallow blowing of the past many
gullies have formed, and we earnestly
endeavored to show that deep plowing
and subsoiling followed by level and
shallow cultivation. were more I'M
pOrtant in preventing washing or the
land than all the terraces that could
be made if the old shallow ploWlng
is to be continued. But the red clay
on more than one stubble field we
saw young clover blooming well above
the stubble and standing thickll on
the ground. Therefore we told the far
mers that if clover throve in that way
on their lands they should stick to
clover and use peas as a catch crop
and among thin clover. And wherever
red clover is a certain crop, North
or South. we have given the same adj
vice, though we know so well the
great value of the Southern COW pea
and what it can accomplish for those
who live where they can no longer de-
pend on clover in the Middle States
or in those parts of the South where
it has never been a. success.
These audiences are particularly in
terested in the matter of winter cover
crops for the cotton and corn fields,
and it is becoming common to SOW at
least rye, while the more observant
and studious are using crimson clover,
hairy vetch and burr clover. This
last seems to promise to be one of the
most valuable crops for the improve
ment of the SOIL though of little
value as a hay crop. When Southern
farmers fully realize how much they
lose in their rainy winters from leav-
ing the soil bare after a hoed crop,