Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-12-24
SHORT NOTES OF INTEREST
TO THE FARMING WORLD
If You Are More Successful in
One Branch Than Your
Neighbor Help Him
wINTERING SWEET PoTAroEs.

/ WHITENING SWEET POTATOES.
There is no root crop harder to keep
/ over winter than the sweet potato
says the Farmers Mail and Breeze.
Large quantities of them are usually
kept in crates in rooms or buildings
where the temperature can be control
led. The main requirements are to keep
/ the potatoes dry and not let them
freeze. Only sound tubers. free from
1 bruises, cuts, or injuries of any kind.
should be kept for storage as disease
and rot will quickly spread from any
/ point where the skin is broken If
stored I'm crates, there should be good
ventilation, especially just after dig
/ ging them when they so through a
sweat. Small quantities may be stored
successfully by packing in dry sand
or even road dust Put them in a dry
cellar where they will not freeze. Use
only sound potatoes. free from all in
jury. and see that no moisture gets to
| the sand.
A TONIC FOR PEAS.
Nitrate of soda for peas is probably
the best fertilizer. In this use it may
be termed a tonic" Young peas. es-
pecially, answer quickly to an applica-
ton of soda. sown as soon as the
ground can be worked. the nitrate
should be applied generally, about the
roots and over the leaves; should be
plowed under with a hand plow To
every 100 feet of row one gallon OF
the nitrate should be applied in
this manner until every plant has cen
treated. Peas thus treated will be
more tender and more plentiful tnan
others not treated with nitrate of So
da. Even where the soil is moder-
ately rich, an application of nitrate to
the peas is desirable.
This hint is of value. Cut out and
place In an envelope marked, For
Early Spring study"
CROPS FOR ANIMALS.
| Where animals are kept as a feature
of diversified farming it is a safe prac-
tice to have plenty of fence wire tor
cross fences, so the farm may De Oh
vided into fields. Crops can be pianIed
then for the animals to grave. BY care
/ full attention to the needs of the animals
one with knowledge of crops can
plant a series of grazing crops to sus-
/ tain the animals at a minimum of cost.
In this way animals can be raised
! cheaply and the land can be built up
/ by the manure from the stock and by IA
rotation of crops which the animals
make Indispensable.
RED CLOVER FATAL TO PEACHES.
| Peach growers out in Colorado claim
! that the planting of red clover IN a
peach orchard is fatal to the trees They
say that any man who persists in grow
ing red clover in his pearch orchard for
two consecutive years might as well say
/ goodbye (, his trees. Some folks natur-
ally think the trouble is due ID the
absorption OF moisture through the
clover crop, but this is not so, for the
effect is the same when great quantities
of water are turned in. Trees among
lat. Ia
two inches of growth, and looked spind-
! ling. and so yellow-like that anybody
could see at a glance that they were
sick. Sweet clover, on the other hand,
is all right and has proven the very best
green fertilizer that can be grown in
an orchard, and alfalfa is not so bad in
a grown orchard, but red clover-never.
with a rotation of corn and peas,
oats and vetch, sweet potatoes, rye and
cowpeas. where should 1 practice deep
plowing?" Pillow deeply for the corn,
and only disk the land for the oats
and vetch Pillow shallow and hill light
| ly for sweet potatoes, to prevent their
growing too long. Rye after sweet po
/ tatoes will need only disking and
filming the surface. and in turning it UNI
der for peas. pillow deeply and follow
the peas with clover to be turned under
for corn again.
One fact has been well ascertained.
This is. that where the farmer really
farms his land in a good rotation with
/ legumes and feeds stock, he will sell
dom need to buy nitrogen for staple
crops. and on many lands, will not need
| to buy potash; that he can grow corn
more profitably with crimson clover and
| the homemade manure than with fer
! tilizer, and that, as a rule, he can get
better results on his sale crops by
giving the legume crops a plentiful
supply of phosphoric acid. and on most
sandy soils some potash, and can depend
on the legumes and the manure made
from their feeding for the making of
his cotton and other crops cheaply.
Our farmers need to know that horse
power and machinery are cheaper than
human labor, and that implements that
enable the cultivation of the crops to
be done more rapidly by using two
horses to one man will vastly increase
the productive power of the man. One
mans labor in the south produces less
by far than one mans labor in the north
and west, while the south has the
money crop that should be the most
profitable one in the whole land. The
reason is mainly that the north uses
more horsepower and more effective
and rapid implements. Add this idea
to a good rotation, and cotton farming
will be put on far more profitable
basis.
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