The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-13
|E NENI NI)aan1aa!V a1a!V VIEN[lt9eEFAR ARNER }|E
rRor ! r pucGAR or THE ALABAMA rssTITuTE

for the main crop in any section as 1t i is always doubtful how far they are likely to succeed the first year. They should be tested experimentally on an acre or two the first year and seed be sown of a variety which is known to do well in the section for the main crop. Sow an early maturing variety as this is more apt to escape damage from rust than the later ripening ones. Both Fulcaster and Fultz are early maturing varieties and though they are not the largest yielding varieties as shown in the tests published in this issue, yet both stand we'll in comparison with the others, and both are known to do well in the South. Fulcaster we regard az one of the best varieties of wheat grown and have known some most ex- cellent yields made of 1t in this State. Tn recent issues we have fully discuss ed the question of the fertilizer to use on the wheat crop and to these issues refer our readers Phosphoric acid and nitrogen are the main requirements of the crop, but we are strongly of the opinion that the best time to apply the nitrogen is in the spring after the crop has commenced to make growth and that 1t should then be applied as a trop dressing after narrowing the crop. in the form of nitrate of soda, say
  to the acre. If bone be applied either alone or in connection with acid phos- phate to supply the phosphoric acid needed by the crops, this will give a suficiency of hitrogen to start the growth and if the crop be sown on a pea or clover fallow these will give
 an abundant supply of nitrogen for the fall growth. After seeding the wheat see that sufficient water furrows are opened across the fields to ensure quick drainage from the surface of all heavy rainfails. wheat is very susceptible to injury from water standing on It. Southern Planter.
 Hairy vetch.
 In pamphlet issued some years ago | from our Experiment Station at Au- burn Ala, Mir. J. F. Duggur advocated | the use of hairy vetch as winter cover crop in connection with cotton. Had | his advice been carried out, am con l vinced the results-would have been most gratifying. But there were great difI1culties in the way. viz: the high cost of the hairy vetch seed. say $5 or s6 per bushel, besides which they were often badly adulterated with dead seeds, so that not more than % to 33 per cent. grew, thus bringing the actual cost up to $f5 or even $20 per bushel. Added to this was the fact
 
 too late for fall, or rather late summer sowinEs And as a half bushel or
 three pecks of seed are required to sow
 one acre. 1t will be seen that hairy
 vetch was a costly plant to use as q winter cover crop.
 Some five or six years ago, Mr. Bell
 wood told the readers of The Planter
 of crop of hairy vetch he raised which was very successful No doubt the crop was inoculated by the partridge
 pea, which is such common weed all through east Virginia. But Mir. Bell , wood seemed to think that the seed his , crop produced was inferior to the seed }, he sowed-<that is my recollection of . what he said But according to my observation and experience, hairy vetch , grown here will beat any imported from Europe in sprouting.
 . There is no race suicide about 1t. . Four years ago let lot of 1t go to ] seed Git certainly was beautiful sight . when in b1oom): since then. whenever r that land is stirred, it never fails to show a good stand of hairy vetch; this , | too, notwithstanding about three-quart- CTS of an acre of 1t has been enclosed . and used /as a vegetable and truck , garden for two years, and positively , not one vetch plant was allowed to ? ripen seed on it. Cold weather alone 5 | can keep 1t from sprouting and it is
 l be it wet or dry. In fact, it stands heat as well as the best. I don't think l hairy vetch Is a suitable plant to use in a rotation with wheat. But I am . convinced that 1t may be real boon to 5 the cotton farmer in the way Indicated T by Mir. Duggur because it can not harm . cotton. Get the land once stocked r with the seed and allow it to go to seed every few years and 1t will occupy the
 soil in the fall and winter after cotton is picked and thus add to the vegetable ] matter in the land and its stock of . nitrogen. to say nothing of the fact t that it would stop the washing of hill sides and the teaching of nitric acid
 | from naked land during our saturatinR
 winter rains. In word 1t would go
 far to both prevent and cure the causes which make our run-out fields what they are.
 I would ask the readers of The Plant ' CT why some of them do not take nr I the raising of hairy vetch for seed. am sure it can be made pay at far e less price than it can be bought fol . now. Besides the homegrown seed | could be put on the market in July when cotton planters would need 1t to Il SOW in cotton at laying-by time. From my recollection Of the way partridge y peas grew on the 'low-grounds' ol y Gloucester County, Virginia the hairy
 
 e are closely related plants and inoculatt y one another
 y I believe there is a good opening here . for enterprise, and were young again - I would try it in a minute. A few s years ago I threshed out lot of hatry e vetch by tramping with horses. e sowed it in the chaff. But 1t was al n nice seed as ever saw; maybe trin' t smaller than European raised. but yoI e know wheat and other plaints do no ' grow such plump seed in this climate ,, vet they vegetate just as well.--Josnus 5 Franklin in Southern Planter.
 e TO PREVENT sTINKING SMUT IN WHEAT.
 l, Director c. D. Smith, of the MAehi@ah ExperIment Station, Writes on tne Hest Methods of Treating seea: The usual prevalence Of stnklne ,,,,,t in Inc wheat crop calls for extra