The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-04-25
CROPS
IND GARDEN SASS
INDUCES
in BucoIic. Prose and
Fruit Diet

-.eia1 To News and Observer
.raansboro. \. c., April 22.-Therc
80 more hope expressed by farmers
Ii. his week in attendance (com-
,,f-,rv, as Jurors at court, about the
Dro.pects for a good crop than has
aap heard in several weeks. 1t then
hootad like preparations for planting
coro etc. would soon be possible,
.;,oe the deluge Of Friday and Sat
,,re3av follow ng q series of rains for
r. past two weeks. The lands had
|dred out sutfic emily by Sunday. Mon
b. ana Tuesdays sunshine ana
zhreeIas TO make ploughing possible, If
|not expedient, and they were buoyed
tty hope and confidence. But TO-DAY
Fin same men are disheartened, if
|rof aovncast. Beginning with what
promised TO be an April shower
a.ril this morning. There has been
> -teadS doWnpour of rain all day,
making tie already saturated land
tn..h colder and Wetter and thereby
delaying for at least half i week the
/ ,nurh needed warmth of the ground,
/ ana preparation of the soil for the
/ pro ected crops.
rtv gardeners are equally discour
aged for what with late old snaps,
vet aud cold soil, they were banking
~, = mighty effort this week to set
treasured transplanting plants ana
SOW seeds hat should have been soWn
a month ago. The best gardeners OF
i}r.-asbor0. however, SOW but few
seeds low. finding that for a city gar
den II small area and perfect tillage
aud drainage, it is cheaper and better
10 buy their plants from TODD, who,
with Guilford ~pioneerage instinct, has
mad it Il speciality on his farm to
eater % this modern of
seml-agricultural luxury and genuine
pleasure. No ~up-tO-date gardener
her now soWs pepper, beets, toma-
foes. cabbage, onions etc. They wait
until all Danger of frost is over;
phone Todd get their sets for less
than seed would have cost two months
before. set them out and have done
with trouble and expense.
For instance: Five cents worth Of
pepper plants, bought and set out at
the right time, with proper culture
and attention. will make all the pepper
any family can use for pickles green
serE &c during the seaso and for
StufiiIlg in the fall. SO with other
~transplanted vegetables. Thus, Green's
boro people have learned that it is
foolish to SOW five cents worth of SEED
10 get s. hundred plants n spend two
months time working the ground,
with a million seeds when you only
need five or ten cents worth Of plants
already grown by experts for the same
purpose.
Some intensive gardeners have also
learned that o only is labor saved,
bur the yield is greatly increased and
the cost decreased by planting
plank between the rows, thus
preserving moisture to the root
all through the hot dry sum-
mer, and eliminating ploughing OF
keeping grass down altogether. Sew
eral years ago this writer told how
by growing only crops that went eight
feet in the air, he increased the yield
of his eighth of an acre to one acre.
He has since then, not only learned
by irr cation and wire and plank,
straw and fertilizer, to raise still big
ger crops without sweat or hard mus
cular Effort or mussing up his pants
The day Of the extensive farmer fol-
any crop has passed, it seems, Oh ac-
count Of the impOSsibility to get
enough dependable labor at justify.
able wages to take r. Of it, dur ne
one or the other Of it's various crucial
stages. The ideal extensive crops
are wheat, oats, cotton and hay. AnG
yet every farmer, in any section Of the
country the world over, where these
crops are specialties, know hat to-
day there are periods of their growth
preparation of harvesting blood!
angles in their career when al
profits are lost by the need of extra
oelp that cannot be obtained some.
times at any price.
\ S~elf-Satisfied farmer. amid tn
prevailing gloom, is Mr.. G. d. Ben
bow, G~reenSboro's main pusher, bu
d farmer Of large acreage, who use
n9th capital and rains in farming
w years 6 he planted 40 acres Q
MS South Buffalo farm in alfalfa. H
Aao been out West to buy Mexican
ponies and noted the Alfalfa lord
there, Last year he made five hi,
cuttings from his alfalfa. Last Sep
tember he sowed % acres more i
"ttalia. This spring he %ploughed III
Sad MS meadows, being devoted to rails
ihS cheap, n~o-account native meadow