The Tupelo journal., 1906-01-05
TURNIPS AND A
A North Carolina Farmers Plan OF
Getting Plants With
out Burning Beds.

One of the most valuable agricul-
turaI addresses which we have found
for quite a long time is Mr.. w. A.
Petree's talk on Successful Tobacco
Raising" before the recent Stokes coun-
ty farmers convention, from which the
following is an extract:
Il am aware that our farmers have
been in the practice of burning their
tobacco plant-beds, and they have
wasted thousands of dollars worth OF
wood, and done thousands of dollars
worth of hard labor to prepare and
burn the wood, when it all might have
been saved had they just thought a
little and practiced a different method.
Burning does not add M single par
ticle of plant food to the soil, only that
which is in the ashes. and l have seen
farmers even push the ashes off the
land before they worked it up ready to
SOW their seed. If we want u plant
beds to have ashes, we can supply them
in other ways than by wasting our wood
to burn the land. Then, / am sure
that the burning of the land, especial
ly if it is burned hard, drives off
large quantities, if not all, the nitro
gen that is in the soil, and this neces-
states our having to manure more
heavily in order to get a good crop OF
plants.
"All the good that l can see the
burning does is to kill the weed and
grass seed in the land, but this can be
done much more cheaply than by
burning the land. So, if you will par
don me for referring to my own meth
DDS, will tell you how l have been
making tobacco plants for the last few
years. But fist, l will have to tell
you how l make turnips, because the
preparation of my tobacco plant land
begins with, and is included in the
preparation of the land for my turnips.
"Just as soon as I can after harvest
I go into my stubble field and select
a place, neither too wet nor dry for
tobacco plants. | always select a place
that lies TO the south or southeast, and
having selected the place, / give it a
good coat of manure, and turn it under
just about as deep as | can with a
one-horse turning pillow. Then | let it
lie eight or ten days, till the weed and
grass seed in the manure and land be-
gin tt sprout and come up, then | take
a long bull-tongue pillow and pillow the
land thoroughly twice, crossing the
first blowing with the second. This
kills all the young weeds and grass
and thoroughly mixes the manure
with the soil. Then I let it lie a few
days longer, or till more weeds and
grass begin to come up, then ! Guilt
vate the surface Of the land thoroughly.
This kills all the weeds and grass,
mellows up the land, breaks up the
capillaries of the surface Of the land
and shuts off the evaporation Of mois-
ture from the soil and holds it in store
for the turnings. / keep up this sur
face culture as often as it is necessary
to keep the grass killed, and the land
stirred on top to conserve the moisture
in the soil till the time comes to sow
the turnip seed. Then / get everything
in readiness and watch out for a rain,
and when I see the rain coming, | mix
my turnip seed with a liberal guam
tity of some good fertilizer rich in
potash, and SOW them down on the
land and rake or harrow<them in light
", and when the rain comes the seed
spr0ut and come right on up, and the