The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1907-10-02
October Farming
HINTS ABOUT MAKING COOP HAY.

puSned with all possible ylgor. The
high prices that have prevailed for the
past few years should stimulate our
farmers to make all the hay possible.
There are thousands of tons of crab
grass in the territory covered by The
Progressive Farmer hat is allowed to
go to waste that could be made into a
fine quality of hay if cut at the right
time and properly cured. Compare
lively few of our farmers cut crab
grass as early as it should be cut to
make good hay. 1t should not be al
lowed to stand until the seed are ripe,
nor should it be allowed to lie in the
sun after it is cut until it is sun-killed
before cooking or stacking. Cut when
the seed are in the milk or dough state,
permitted to take the sun a day, then
cooked and cured in the cock, it makes
hay about equal to timothy hay.
There are other grasses than crab
grass that can be cut this month which
will make fair hay.
GATHERING AND SAVING COTTON.
Cotton picking in the cotton growing
sections will claim pre-eminence this
month. While it is we'll to pick the
cotton as rapidly as is necessary, we
should not do that at the expense of
everything else; and especially do we
advise against the custom of picking
and ginning Immediately. 1t will be
far better to let the cotton lie in bulk
for some time before ginning provided
the seed cotton is dry when
picked. No gin can make it's best turn
out either in quality or quantity on
green cotton. Again, when cotton is
ginned put it under cover. A $50 or
SIS bale Of cotton is too valuable to
leave out to be weather-damaged.
TAKE YOUR EYES TO THE CoRNFIELD.
This is the month to select the seed
corn in the field, provided it has not
already been attended to. 1t has been
fully demonstrated that varieties bear
ing two or more ears to the stalk will
yield more corn per acre than varieties
bearing only one ear to the stalk. At
the Edgecombe Test Farm last year
there was a difference at the rate of
about twenty-nine bushels per acre in
the yield of different varieties of corn,
and the yield at the other Test Farm
of different varieties bore about the
same ratio to each other. These facts
should impress us with the Importance
of seed selection.
In field selection, we advise taking
for an ideal, a strong, vigorous, SYM
metrical stalk, not too high, bearing
two or more good well-shaped ears,
some four or five feet from the ground,
and hat have medium shanks so as to
permit the ears to turn down and shed
the rain. Ne do not advise selecting
ears that stand upright so as to permit
the rain to run in and cause the grain
to rot, neither do we advise the long
shank so often seer in corn. A medium
between the two extremes is best.
Use care in selecting, for if one selects
only a dozen or two stalks In a day and
the stalks so selected are of the ideal
type for planting a seed plat, it will be
time well spent. Make a start on such
a selection this month.
SEEDING SMALL GRAIN.
This is the month for sowing wheat,
oats and rye in a great deal of the
territory occupied by The Progressive
Farmer.
In all these crops thorough prepara-
ton is not meant blowing up the land
and leaving it in a loose condition;
but rather in a fine compact condition,
Land intended for wheat, If fallow
land, should have been broken in July
or August, and narrowed and rolled n
til fine and compact before sowing the
wheat. Of course this does not refer
to stalk land. When one sows wheat
on stalk land the only preparation nee
essary is to 60 over the land with a
cutaway or disc harrow, giving it a
good working with that implement.
We want to get out of the slip-shod
ways that have given many of us an
average yield Of wheat of about eight
bushels per acre, To do this, we must
pursue more intelligent methods of
preparation and seeding. A great
many farmers are not careful enough
about the quality of seed to be planted.
Let us all remember this one truth: the
best seed are none to good, and if we
want big yields we must SOW good
seed.
Again, it is the custom of many
farmers to sow only three pecks of
seed wheat per acre. With this light
seeding it is impossible to make a max
imum crop. The light seeding may
make large plump grains, but not
enough Of them. A bushel and a half
per acre on good land will pay better
than half that quantity.
INCREASE ACREAGE IN OATS N RYE.
The fact that it has been demonstrat-
ed by farmers that oats can be raised
more cheaply than corn should stimu-
late oat growing. With this crop, as
with wheat, the land should be well
prepared, and only good seed should be
used. For oats, SOW two bushels of
seed per acre of some good winter
variety.
Rye is another crop that should re-
ceive more attention than we are