The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., 1910-12-24
Notes and Comments.

~ NE OF OUR truck farmers said to me some
i time ago that the great dlfhculty Is that
" when the price OF his products is good. the
railroad takes one-half and when the price is
low they take all The railroads get their share.
no matter what the produce brings. a dairyman
who was milking fifty and selling his milk in
a nearby city told me that with the present high
prices of feed that he has to buy he, in one
month, cleared just S5 cents from the fifty cows,
while the city dealers getting moro than
double what they paid him. Cotton growers are
fortunate in that they get fair part or what the
product sells for at wholesale. But what does
the consumer of cotton goods pay? Compared
with the profit of the manufacturer and the whole
sale dealer, the part that the cotton farmer gets
the present good price looks very small.
II is the pershabe articles like fruit and vegeta-
Dles that pay the farmer small a part of the
consumers money. In these the freight and the
middlemen leave the farmer about SO cents Of the
consumers dollar, and often not that much. Mid
dlemen are of course. necessary in trade. but too
much goes to the middleman and the farmer takes
ali the risk.
BURNING COTTON STALks.-We who have
had no experience with the boil woeyil should
hesitate to condemn any practice that tends to
their destruction. | agree with the Editor that.
as a rule, no organic matter that can be decayed
on the land should be burned. And yet. If, l had
a field badly infested with the Hessian fly,
ould not hesitate to burn over stubble to de-
stroy the pupG. And If those who arc lighting
the boil weevi have found that burning the cot
ton stalks and gathering up the fallen squares Ia
a more efectual way TO check the wcevil, would
hesitate to say that they wrong, and thInA
that would do both burning and plowing "a the
fall. But Mr.. Hathron is very wrong In thinking
that The Progressive Farmer is in any way antag-
onstic 10 the great work that DR.. Knapp and his
men are doing in the South. Not very long ago. la
conversation with DR.. Knapp, he said: You are
one man who writes for tho farm papers with
whom | always agree Evidently he did not
think that antagonistic. No paper In
the South has done to hold up the hands
OF DR.. Knapp and 70 bid him God-speed In his
work than The Progressive Farmer.
THE ROLLER.-Professor Barrow [, right In
advising a more general use OF the roller and yet
think that at times the smooth log roller or n
Shooth roller OF any sort may do harm in "A hiIly
section, for It viii inevitably leave some spots
untouched and the water will gather In these
loose spots and gully start. | years ago dis
earded a smooth roller, and used one made of
tFooNed steel rings working on a common axle
lhese cut into every place and chop the clode
ana pack the soil better than n smooth roller
iheh, alter the roller, the smoothing harrow Is
essential to make the mulch OF soil
DRAINAGE AND HEAITH-Professor Rar-
10" Is flght IN this respect. Drainage has work
ed wonders In sections formerly malarious In
lhF own recollection the Eastern Shore OF Marv
lahd was plagued with malaria. The people ip
baltimore were afraid to come over the Raw for
rear OIL ChillS and fever. Now with haitian ,.at.,