Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1909-07-14
Southern Agriic cultural ! Topiics.
Modern Methods That Are Helpful to
Farmer, Fruit Grower and Stockman.
HInts About Flowing and Cultivation.

Hints About Flowing and Cultivation.
In turning clover or any green.
crop do not aim to flop it completely
over, but edge up the furrows. No
matter If the clover is not all hidden.
If 1t Is turned under fiat there Is dam
ger that the layer of vegetation will
cut OF the rise of the capillary moist
ure and the crop may suffer In dry
weather.
Hence, I would edge up the fur
rows even If there is a good deal Oh
trash left on top. 1t will do no harm
there. Then determine once for all
that you will turn the turning plow
out of the field entirely after the crop
is planted. Harrow well before it
comes up. Then use the weeder both
ways and destroy the weeds when
small and save hoeing. There is no
neeo for hoe or plow in the cognield
If you work it right.
Cultivate perfectly level and shall
low and do not make burrows around
the hill to fill With water and start
gull:es when they break over. Above
all, see that the plowing is deep and
that a bed of loose soil is made to re-
tain the water and not let it rsn
down hill. If all our hills on the
Piedmont country were plowed and
subsoiled foot or more in ALL! there
would never be any need for terrace
If when the land was broken there
was always some dead vegetation to
turn under to hold the soil together.
It is shallow plowing and the lack
of humus-making material that have
made terraces necessary. The good
farmer will soon be able to dispense
with them, as he will dispense with
the purchase of nitrogen for his crops.
Good plowing and shallow and level
cultivation will go long way toward
that getting of $500 more a year
from the SOIL In fact, believe that
with the great awakening in farming
in the South we are going to have
several times that $500 on Southern
farms.
Then, too, do not be beguiled into
stunting your crops of corn or cotton.
Stunting the growth of plant can
never do any good. What the crop
needs is plant food in the soil and
good, clean cultivation and no tearing
OF the roots with a plow or sweep
stock. Level and shallow cultivation
is just as important with the cotton
crop, too, as with the corn crop, for
the roots of both run far and wide
across the rows
Then do not walk four times
through every row, but get a two
horse cultivator and ride through
once and leave the row better culti-
ysted. Save the human labor wher-
ever you can. The weeder will save
as much in the cotton crop as in the
corn field. Run both ways, it will
break the crust and kill the little
weeds and you will only have to hoe
to a stand. The hoe has been we'll
called the most expensive tool on the
farm, for every hoe needs man, and
one man with weeder can do more
than ten men v 'th hoes.
In one section where the farmers
have pretty well aba .doned the ridg-
ing up of their corn in laying by I
found the same men hilling up their
tobacco. which needed 1t no more
than the corn. When you cannot get
close to the tobacco with mule, a
garden rake will clean it faster and
better than a hoe If the weeds were
not allowed to get a strong start.
More mule work and less hand
work should be the aim of every
Southern farmer, making machines
take the place of human hands.-Pro-
fessor Massey.
Must Have Pastures Growing Things.
If the South is to have pastures
that will produce sufficient feed for
live stock to make the business profit
able, there are a few errors common
among US which must be avoided.
We have often insisted on the ne,
cessity for the pastures being real
pastures. That is, that the growth
of other than forage plants be pre-
vented, and that forage plants of
known value be planted and made to
grow. Otherwise we shall have no
pasture. But something more is nee
essary to success. After we have
gone to the expense of clearing up old
fields and putting in forage plants, it
should be plain to any one that these
plants should be allowed to get a
start and make some considerable
growth before being grazed, and that
at no time should more stock be
put on a pasture than the regular
growth of forage will amply feed.
We generally put twice as many AMI
mails on pasture as it will Craze
properly. 1t is also a fact that our
pastures are usually overrun with
weeds, briers and bushes, while grsos
is scarce The reason is not difficult
to find. Nothing is done to keep
down the weed, while the grass and
other forage plants are kept eaten
close to the ground, The forage
plants don't get a fair chance. They
are not only prevented from making
a,vigorous growth by being eaten off
close to the ground, but they are
smothered by the weeds and other
useless plants. Under such condi-