The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1914-02-14


for corn. Would you advise blowing now
or waiting later, on n mellow, ioany
coil, well covered with wirc-grass and
not cultivated last year? I am a sub
scriber to The Times Dispatch"
Here where l live there are about
1000 acres planted to cantaloupes
every spring. Our growers here uni
vcrsally prefer Burrelrs Eden Gem
ana get the seed grown at Rocky Ford
Colorado. The melons are shipped In
crates called forty-fives, as they car
ry forty-five of the medium sized mel
ons- The large ones. called Jumbos,
are shipped in the same crates, but
FEWER In number, and sometimes the
Jumboes bring the best price Spread
your ashes and chaff on the cornfcld
Ashes arc not best for potatoes as
they Will tend to sweeten the ground
WIN the lime they carry. and this VIII
help the scab fungus. Use the fertili-
ger mixture i have several times adj
vtsed. and use 1t not less than 1000
pounds an acre. There should have
neen crimson clover on tho land to go
IN corn, and then you could have wait
ed till 1t was in bloom, and If you had
scwn cowpeas on the land last sum
mer you could have smothered out
most OF the wiregrass, and then have
sown the clover. Then tho clover and
pea roots and dead wire-grass would
nave given you heavier crop OF corn.
As II is. the sooner you plow the wire
grass tho better.
Getting an Expert.
Where shall l apply to get an ex-
part to como here and look at my or
chard In Isle OF Wight County? NIv
pear orchard tx being cultivated too
closely, as l contend with my tenant
farmer. I read your writings daily
and consider, az an old newspaper man,
that they arc one of the most attrac-
tive features In The Times Dispatch
l am filing them regularly and Will
profit by them?''
l have no doubt that IL you write
TO tho director of the Virginia Expert
ment Station at Blacksburg, Va he
VIII send you an expert, you paying
his expenses, of course. 4 near or
chard is best In grass, and tho grass
Kept mown and used rs n mulch under
the trees Where pear trees arc Gull
tivated and manfred the rapid growth
Is always more liable to blight. 1 once
had two plantations of pears. One was
In a plot used as truck patch, and
was highly MANFRED and cultivated
and the trees blighted badly. Right
next this plot / had more pear treas
that were kept In sod and kept NOV n
like lawn. and there was hardly any
blight among them. In the same va
rieties or pears. There are some pears
that are naturally more resistant to
blight than others. / have never had
the Scckel. Reurre DAnjou or the Su-
perflne blight to any extent, while the
Bartlett Easter Bcurrc and the Inv
romeo all blighted badly In tho Guilt
waited ground, while I'm the sod they
were comparatively free from blight
Madaline, a good summer pear. blight
ed in the cultivated ground, but never
In the sod, and the Same was true OF
other varieties. Here, and In Della
ware, 1t Is now common to plant the
kieffer along the roadsides, where
they arc allowed to stand In sod, and
these trees generally flourish. while
have seen cultivated orchards of ISief-
fer blighting badly. The trees IN sod
make less sappy growth, and tho
blight always starts at the tip OF the
rank growing shoots.
Trucking.
l am daily getting letters from
farmers In Virginia and North Caro-
lima, as sell as further South, asking
about planting and cultivating early
irish potatoes. English peas, peppers
and all sorts OF crops Then there is
another class who have been attracted
by the good prices tobacco paid last
year. and they want To try tobacco
and want to know all about fertiliz
ing, cultivating and curing tobacco,
without knowing what sort of tobacco
their soil Is suited to, and OF course,
cannot tell them.
Now. as TO trucking. the chances OF
success are always against the man
who simply takes up some vegetable
crop as Il part of his farming. He does
not realize tho way that the regular
market gardeners manure their land
that Is already in high state of Gull
tivation, and he tries to grow truck
on land that is not In high condition
and uses too little manure and ferti-
liZer. and the result is nm Inferior crop
of inferior products And lie is hundi-
capped. too, by being alone and being
obliged to ship to the commission
merchants, some OF whom will deal
fairly and some Of whom Will cheat
him. The usual result with these semi
truckers Is that ono season satisfies
them, and they lose money instead OF
making any, and what they grow only
dopregses the market for others. In
the great trucking sections the growers
are now completely organized and
control the sale Of their products, and
on account of the size OF the busl-
ness, can command better freight
rates. while the man off to himself can
not do This. Thcn tho growing of
vegetable crops for market is an en-
tirely distinct business from that OF
the grain farmer, and il demands spc ;
clal skill and training and larger cap
ital, so that the man who simply tries
to grow a few vegetable crops as u
side issue III his farming rarely makes
the vegetable profitable Then as 10
growing tobacco The man who has
never grown tobacco and knows moth
ing about the special soil conditions
suited to the different kinds nor the
different methods of curing will be apt
10 grow IL nondescrjpt sort Of Il pro-
duct that will bring no profit. He had
better go very slow and try TO ind out
what kind of tobacco his soil viii best
produce, and after several upsuccess-
full efforts he may succeed. But as n
rule. ! find that the men who are al
ways wanting to try some crop they
know nothing about are the men who
have not been farming we'll with their
old crops, and they con,d do far bet-
ter by going to farming we'll with the
crops they have been accustomed to
than to be trying new crops and do
ing them no better II as we'll as the
old ones, Certain cultures settle in
certain localities because OF some spc-
cial adaptablity of tho soil and eli
mate to such crops and tho growers
! there become skiliful In growing them
and then Somo nowsUaper man tells