The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-12-07
Progressive Earmer.)
FARM AND GARDEN WORK FOR
DECEMBER.

Now is the time when a ma who
has a Darn full Of forage and plenty
of corn and cottonseed meal can
watch his beeves expanding in girth,
or his cows, just fresh fox the winter,
filing big buckets Of milk, and all
the while providing him with material
for making bigger crops.
But how many Of our cotton farm
ers are doing anything OF the sort!
Some years | was lecturlnS TO
an audience of me ii Il OF the
best cotton sections Of North caro-
lima. and ] urged them to give more
attention to the wi of forage
and the feeding OF cattle. When L
was through, one farmer, or rather
large cotton rover said: That
may be all right, but | do not want to
he restored with them
This explains the disinclinatiOn to
feed cattle in the South. Men do not
want to be pestered with them they
had rather poster with a crop len
in the spring than to have something
10 bring them cash and leave them
manure for the next seasons crop.
freed Some Stock With Your Corn
and Forage.
No doubt dairying IS q business
hat demands constant work and
care every day in the year. but here
d man has a near market Tor his mix
The money comes in daily, too, While
The feeding OF beeves means waiting
III they are fat for our money.
But it is far more profitable to
turn your hay, corn slower or Stage
and some corn and cottonseed meal
INTO beef and pork than to sell the
grain and the hay, even if the feed
ing only returns YOU the market
price of the forage, for that of itself
means a profit. and then you have the
manure for further profit, and what
that amounts TO is hard to estimate,
;4- 81 = a. 49, 49, ~
pt once.
U.-Find Out What Dairy Cows Are
Cheating You.
Il you are feeding silage taS you
should be- watch the different ami
mails and see how they feed, for You
aanl.ot feed every n in II same
way. If o are running a butter
Hairy, YOU should have "a Babcock
test machine, and if one COW is giving
you gallons of 5 per cent milk o
do not ant to spend the same
amount of feed or another cow that
is giving you a smaller amount Of two
and a half per cent milk. You need
to weed out the boarding cows that
are eating their heads off. And YOU
cannot keep up with the barn rob-
berS unless YOU poster a good deal.
A lazy ma has no business running
i: dairy. IN Tact, I do not know where
he Is needed on the farm.
II.-EcIi the Grain Fields and Spread
the Manurc
l found oVer twenty years ago that
it pays to run a futed steel roller
owe the winter grain in the fall be-
fore the soil gets wet. / had such q
roller made Of a series of steel rings
with a deep grove in each, and all
set or a common axle loosely. 1t is
made at Charlottesville, Va. 1t
presses the earth to the plants and
leaves ridges like the wheat drill
leaves, and the grain grows far better
for the packing.
If You are making manure fast, get
it out fast as possible, nd spread it
where some liant viii get the benefit
OF ii, and do not cave it to waste IN
the barn yard. 1t Will help the crim~
son clover that YOU are going to turn ,
under for corn in the spring, and the
more the clover is helped the more 1t
viii help the corn. l assume tina a
the leaders Of The Progressive Farm
CT are now growing crimson lover
ana not letting the land lie bare III
winter. If Iou are still planting in
the old h~aphazard way, I fear that
We have done you little good.
Your Business Tliesc Win
ter Nights.
TGcse nights are now long and the
IabOTS or the day are not SO exhaustive
,s III summer. Hence you need not
so to bed SO early, but can have time
10 read, and the farmer who ,iucs
rot have some standard works on the
different branches Of his profession,
and does not take at least one farm
paper, IS goin" to get left in the com
petition for better farming that IS
coming in the South. He is going Il
lose al the chances for making that
additional $500 a year We have been
talking about, and in fact, is not go
ing to be any better farmer next year
thar. last. The winter, then, is large
]y a time for study and planning for
the future; and the man who loafs
ut the Village store talking politics is
not going to improve in his farming