The farmer and mechanic., 1910-09-27

Men owning more IdnU LIdIl li1CS
can cultivate we'll had better let the
remainder grow upon pine thickets
than to keep up the system of crop
ring bv tenants and putting a lot
=. weak cotton on the marke; 70
depress the price they will get Tor
their own; and the tenants, as rule
would be better off working for wages
We need more farmers and fewer crop
pers.
Winter Oats.
It is perfectly possible and practl-
cable to make Oat crops Of 70 DUSnelS
an acre by good farming. L have
known that many bushels made per
acre and a crop of two tons an acre
of peavine hay made on the same
land after the oats were cut. But It
was not done in the rude and laoorl-
Gus method of open furroWs which
so many are practicinS. but by early
brea king, complete fining and com
pacting of the soil and drilling at a
uniform depth. Winter killing Il
largely due to sowing on loose and
badly prepared soil. Winter grain,
either wheat or oats, demands careful
preparation and early ploWIng fol-
lowed by much narrowing and tramp
ing of the soil by teams. one OF
the best wheat growers | know uses
the same machine they use in dry
farming in the arid West, a packer
that goes over the land after har-
rowing and packs the soil down to
retain moisture while the surface 1s
made perfectly fine. That man sell
dom makes less than AZ bushels OF
wheat an acre and often more, ana
his grain is SO good and we'll screened
that it is all sold for seed at fancy
prices. And, as DR.. Butler says, use
the disk drill that will further press
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termination.
Garden Troubles.
Potato beetles are as fond of egg
plants as of potatoes. L pick them
off Of these by hand and look on
the under sides of the leaves for the
orange-colored patches of egg and
crush them. Elephants are affected
bv the fusarium blight. On fifty
plants today / found only one small
sound fruit. Everything has rotted.
We have got to go to spraying al
most everything in the garden. My
fall cabbages and Bussels sprouts are
all dead to a plant from the black
rot You do not have this disease
yet in the South. II swept over my
cabbageS like fire and destroyed every
head The Brussels sprouts were
just making their little heads on the
stalks, but all at once they went, too.
We have some compensatiOnS, for we
do not have the bacterial wilt in to-
matoes here that you have in the
South and we can beat you with to-
matoes But We do have a leaf blight
that cuts the crop short if not spray
ed
The Cattle Tick.
Tenant croppers and the cattle tick
are the bane of Southern agriculture.
The one ruins the land and the other
keeps down a profita bic cattle indus
try. Study what DR.. Butler says about
getting rid of the ticks. County after
county in North Carolipa was clear
ed of them while DR.. Butler was State
veterinarian, and he knows we'll that
any section can be cleared of them.
Then, when croppers and ticks are
both abolished and q modern system
of farm rental is established, the
South can get rich with cattle on
a tn ,usand hills and make great cot
ton crops in spite of the boil Weevil.
The Cotton Wilt Fungus.
Now that it has been found that by
breeding from plants that resist the
wilt in the cotton fields We can get a
resistant character in the progeny, it
would seem that method might be
applied to the tomato in the South, by
selecting seed from plants that sur
ViVe while those around them sue
cumb to the bacterial blight. It is
we'll worth trying by the horticul-
turists of the Southern stations, for
this bacterial blight is the great
enemy of tomato growing in the
South. Fortunately, [ do not have
to contend with it where [ now live
and hope it may never set here where
every farmer grows a field Of to-
matOes for the Gamers.
POrcupineS are seriously damagino
the LodgepOle pine forests of the east
ern slope of the Sierra Nevada noun
tains. The animals girdle the trees
in order to obtain the inner bark upon |
which he feeds and often destroys
several trees in single night.
FOR DEVELOPMENT
OF MEXICAN AGRICULTJRE !