The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-02-25
Prof. Mdssey's Views


When and how shall I COW clover
seed on wheatY" Pick . morning In
February when the soil II cracked
sun will soon thaw the soil and cover
the seed. The best thing to us Is .
broadcast seed sower like the C2hoon,
that will SOW a space 1s feet vide As
you walk. Tire Is pounds Of seed an
acre.
Which lis the earliest good t0maso.
and which h best strawberry for
homo use?" The earliest tomato il
the LAngdon Earliana. The best
strawberry for home use or tate mar
ket IL the Chesapeake. 1t Is not early,
but large. sweet and fine. In rack,
zone Of the very early strawberries are
nearly as good, and most Of them run
down very small after the first ripen-
ing.
DON'T mix hardwood ashes with acid
phosphate or any fertilizer that con-
tains ammonia. for the lime in the
ashes will max h phOsphoric acid
less available n will carbonate and
drive on the ammonia In n complete
fertilizer. A man wrote me hat he
mixed hardwood ashes with acid phos-
phate and It gave him very poor re-
suits on corn. The corn simply did
not get II.
MY cowpeas die when about six
inches high. What is the natter"
Ii may be that your soil Is infested
with nCmatodes or microscopic worms.
IL this is the case, you will find the
roots swollen and knotty, and know
Of no cure for them except to cult
vate the Ian perfectly clean a whole
season and allow nothing 10 grow on
IT, and thus Starve them out. Or
IL may be that the soil lacks plant
food that the peas need. Try an ap-
plicatiOn OF acid phosphate aRd pot.
ash, and spread lime On the soil at
the rate OF 1000 pounds an acre.
Don't burn corn stalks in order to
prepare the land. a farmer wrote to
me today asking would be the
difference between turning under a
heavy growth OF dead peayines and
corr stalks and burning them. In n
heavy growth OF pcavines he will have
organic nitrogen enough to be as
valuable as a ton an acre Of a fertilizer
with 3 per cent ammonia and that
would be worth $40 to $12 an acre.
He would lose this in the burning,
and would lose the humus-making
material. and would have left only
h potash n lime hat were in the
growth burned. In many places he
would lose as much as an acre Of
the land wouid sell for.
II a bought some lam IN contra.
Florida on which are pine trees
writes "a correspondent. II want to
II is impossible TO pull the pine stumps
out. What is the best way?' The
iong-leaf pine has a very deep tap
root and Is pretty hard to pull. ] have
successfully cleared them out by dig
eing down alongside tho roots and
starting a fire. The stuInps arc full
of turpentine. and a fire once started
Will burn the stulnpS out. j know Of
no better way to get them out. We
took them all out in the long-leaf
pine section Of North Carolina at q
cost Of So an acre. II would prob.
ably cost more now, as labor is more
expensive.
II notice that You had n~ut-grass
III your "arden and got rid OF it.
am troubled with it and would like
10 know how you got rid Of it?' L
was simply b. not letting il make
shoots above the ground. That mean.
chcnping it off ever day. No plan
can long survive if not allowed t
make leaves above ground. The root
must soon perish. The only way {,
~~N ~ ~ a "a Ii q
keep the garden absolutely clean a!
the season People who raise III
carly garden and then let it run {
weeds will simply be making a wee,
nursery. for there are thousands mor
plants OF nut-grass that come from
fall-ripened seed than from the nuts
and you will never get rid of nut
SIass IL you allow il to grow a day O
two tive choppincs.
II usually use a light applicatio
of stable manure and 200 pounds G
kainit an acre for corn and cotton.
makes corn but the peas make ran
vines and few peas. What is needed ?
The peas need acid phosphate an
in your light soil potash, too. but tn
acid phosphate is the most importan
and they will get far more nitroee
from the air without the stable ma
nure than with it. Acid phosphat
mixed with stable will doubl
nc efficiency of the manure for cor
or cotton: but IL You want to maxi
Lnn 49, 49,. 1~-