Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1911-02-01
DO WORK OF TWO.
Farmers Must Meet Increased
Price of Labor by Making
Each Days Work Count
For More.

Messrs. Editors: One of the most
important problems that confront
the farmer of today is that of ad-
justing our system to meet the high
and increasing price of labor. The
same man that only a few years ago
was thankful for the opportunity to
work for so cents and dinner, f"
now requires from 81 to s1.25 per
day. Then what is the solution?
Simply to make this man accomplish
as much in a day as he formerly
did in two. If one man can take
two good mules and do as much in
a day as two men formerly did
with the same two mules, then we
have saved the wages of one man.
This, claim, is entirely practical
through the use of better farm i'm
plements.
Take, for instance, the prepara-
ton of the soil. Instead of using
one little mule and a pony plow and
turning a furrow from 4 to inches
wide, it is just as easy for the same
man to take good team, say three
good mules, and a good disk plow
and turn from 8 to 10 inches. Be,
sides, the work is better when fin
ished. In December / saw a gen
tlemen in Montgomery county break
ing a field that ihad been cultivated
in corn last year. Owing to the
rainy season it had grown up in
grass and weeds so that it would
have choked an ordinary turning
plow, yet he was probably breaking
10 inches at the time, and SO COM
pletely was he doing his work that
you could scarcely tell by looking
behind him what had been planted
there last season. In buying these
plows, hngasse-sasress4ss : ssIe7ze1fidI1es
disk they. tiesyS.se can can find, as they have an
idea that the draft is lighter. This
is mistake. For breaking the
same depth, say from 6 to 8 inches
deep, the larger disk will pull light
er and give much less trouble, as Il 1t
will not have to run its full depth
and in this way choking or drag,
oinp will be avoided. / should
never advise any one to buy less
than 24-inch disk, and 26-inch
disk is still better. ;,
In cultivating the crop we should
and in the future must, use imple
ments that will enable us to ge'
over the ground rapidly in order te
be able to cultivate often. ln~mJ
opinion, there is no more effective
implement for the rapid cultivation
of Young crops than the harrow. The
use of this implement should be be
gun in some cases even before tn
corn or cotton is up, as the surface
is often packed so hard by heav'
rains that many of the young plant
are unable to break through. b.
running the section harrow dag
onally across the rows this crust |
broken and the plants may come u
readily. This can be done YER
rapidly, as we harrow a strip elgh
feet wide at a time. Then after tn
) plants are up more young grass ca
: he killed with this harrow tina
> with two or three single plows
3 the same time. 1t requires som
: nerve on the part of the farmer
I use this harrow on his cotton G
corn, as it looks like he is Splayin
) havoc with it at the time, but it WI
f be all right in the end.
i An extensive cotton planter mao
e the statement last year that he save
e by actual count in labor S242
: cultivating his crop the first TIN II
l. with the section harrow, and LETT
g in better condition than if it hs
a been cultivated the old way. !
Sc course, it requires some judgeme
and common sense to set the lee
IL at the proper angle according to t
s. nature of the soil. When the CIR
ID is too large to admit of the use
the section harrow, we should,
all means, use good 2-horse cul
vator that will cultivate who
~ row at once. The best corn tina
a a ever made, taking the fertility
~ ~ the land into consideration, was c
tb ly cultivated four times after 1T "
ha bo planted. 1 went over it thorough
nd nd once with a section harrow, tw
with Avery's Comet walking Gu
~ vator, and one furrow in the mid
be with large short sweep.
" 1 do not think any farmer is pr
or erly equipped for making a crop
WI W.T. til he has good team, a large a
,re m harrow, good combination pa
- er and a 2-horse cultivator. IL
Wilson in Progressive Farmer.