The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1911-01-26
JANUARY CROP MAKING.

Crops-Some Common Wastes
and Mistakes.
As / sit and watch a steady
downpour of rain, / I'm wonder
ing how many of our farmers real
lie that right now is being laid
the foundation of those bales of
cotton and big yields of corn that
they are dreaming of making this
year.
The man who realizes that his
crop of next summer will large
ly depend upon the amount of
moisture that his soil stores up
from these winter rains, will al
ready have seen to it that his soil
is in the very best condition to re-
tain as much of this rain as pos
sible. If preparations for the stor-
ing of winter rain have not yet
been made, it is not necessarily too
late to, in part, remedy this neg
ect. Of course, the thing to do is to
loosen up the soil by blowing so
that more of this water can be
absorbed. When that soil becomes
compact a very large proportion
Of the winter rain runs off and is
lost, but in escaping over the sur
face it carries with it much of the
finer soil, often washing the fields
into gullies and thus depriving
the coming crop of both moisture
and plant food.
Some Cautions About Winter
Flowing.
We frequently have some wealth
er in January in which blowing
can be done so it behooves the
careful farmer to watch for these
chances and to turn all of the dirt
possible. 1t is too late to use any
cover crop, so if blowing is done
from now until spring it is best
to place the burrows on edge and
leave it in this rough state so all
the water and cold possible can
find ready entrance to the soil.
There is another benefit from this
winter blowing that must not be
lost sight of. Remember that most
of the insects that will annoy our
crops next year have made for
themselves snug waterproof and
fr~ost-proof homes in the soils of
our fields. 1t we break those soils
now many of these insects will
be brought up to the surface and
the next two months of cold and
wet weather will kill large mum
bers of them.
But by all means be careful in
doing this blowing to see that
your soil is not too wet. Flowing
wet soil destroys the granular con-
dition thereof and puts it very
much In the condition of mud that
has been prepared for the making
of brick roads. 1t breaks down
the granular condition and ce-
ments it together in such a way
that neither water nor air can we'll
enter it and, of curse this "kills"
any soil. While this injury is not
as great with sandy as with clay
soils, yet the difference is only
one of degrees. Put it in your pipe
and smoke it-plowing any ag-
ricultural soil wet will injure it.
Some have an idea that this in
jury is nullifed if there is a rain
after the soil is plowed wet. I'm
der these circumstances the dam
age is no doubt lessened but not.
done away with. A safe rule is to
avoid wet blowing as much as
possible.
Plan for the Years Work.
When a general begins a war
he first plans his campaign. The
good farmer will use these months
of comparative leisure to plan his
campaign for the coming year. Go
over your farm carefully and plan
just what crops you wish to plant.
The crops and the quantities of
each can only be determined by
your past experience and by your
needs and market facilities. Re
member that the first thing is to
see that you Pmnees as
nearly as po~n~ ~ ~. Aecessi-
ties of life for your se1I and your
live stock. Having determined
just what plants will best do this
and how many acres are needed
for this purpose, go over your
fields and select the land that In
the past proved best adapted to
produce a given crop and do what
you can to put In the best condi-
ton for this crop. After planning
this, then see what is left for a
money" crop. There is no crop
that answers this purpose in the
South so we'll az cotton nrovidnd