The Lexington advertiser., 1942-04-30

Board, pointed out this week in discus
sing the big increase in peanut acreage
Mississippi farmers are asked to make.
There a tremendous need for peanut
oil for the machine of war, and it's up
to the farmers to produce it. The hills
counties of the state have lot Of land
we'll suited to the growing of peanuts.
And farm records of growers in Ala
bama and Georgia who have been pro-
ducing peanuts for many years show
that it required less labor to grow an
acre Of peanuts than it takes for cotton.
Poultrymen who turn their new crop
of pullets into a poultry yard occupied
last season by flock Of old hens will be
inviting an outbreak of disease unless
they plow the yard or disinfect the soil,
says /. w. Carson, County Agent.
When it is possible, contaminated sur
face soil should be plower under, a good
seedbed prepared, and grass, legume,
or small-grain crop planted. Otherwise,
young birds may pick up disease when
they scratch and peck at filthy surface
soil.
With some poultry arrangements, how
ever, plowing the poultry run is not al
ways practical. But considerable protec-
| tion from disease can be afforded young
| birds if the contaminated surface soil is
thoroughly soaked with strong disin-
fectant. good disinfectant for this pur-
pose can be made by dissolving pound
of commercial lye and 21s POUNDS OF
water-slacked lime in 5l2 gallons of wa.
ter. About one-half gallon to a gallon
of this solution is used per square yard
of soil, depending upon the absorbent
quality of the ground.
| If soil is to be disinfected in this way
Mr.. Carson reminds poultrymen that ii
! is important all refuse material be re-
moved from the surface of the soil such
as planks and old sacks, and these also
disinfected or burned
After summarizing 5000 questionnaires
| on "Food for Freedom" secured by the
various agricultural workers in the coun-
tv, two big jobs are presenting them
selves for 1912.
These questionnaires show that the
5000 families filling out questionnaires
slaughtered for home use 6,9S8 hogs, but
these same families lost AZ percent or
2,942 hogs.
The sweet potato situation offers prac-
tically the same problem in that this
number of farmers lost 29,239 bushels OF
sweet potatoes last fall which represent
ed 33 percent of the quantity harvested
1 If the people of Holmes County can
prevent the losses of hogs from diseases
and the loss of sweet potatoes from rot
ting. the farmer of the county will be
many dollars better off than they were al
the end of 194l.
Assuming that the 5000 farm fami-
lies are approximately half OF the farm
ers in the county and estimating that the
hogs lost, weighed an average Oh iot
pounds each, we have loss of approx
matelv $1,000 per hog or 100000.
At 81 90 per bushel for sweet potatoes
and using the same basis Tor figuring
the total loss for the county as in the
above paragraph, approximately S6o,oo.
worth of sweet potatoes were lost las'
wear by Holmes County farmers.
If every farm operator would take the
respon sibility of seeing to 1T that all o.
the hogs on his farm are properly vacci
mated and that the sweet potato crops
are harvested before frost, more thar
s1o, 600 worth of food would be saved
in 1912.
Cattle can be wintered on silage cheap
er than any other feed. Several live
stockmen in Holmes County use sor
|, phum siIage and pit silos. Farm labol
Is used in building the pit silos whici
makes it unnecessary to spenc none!
for silage.
The farmer who is going to have cat
tle to carry through the winter shoui'
make his plans now to plant his sor
obum. and should be very careful II
the purchase of sorghum seed. Purchas
the variety of sorghum that will produc
a bio tonnage per acre. Buy your see
i from reliable sources. To get the profi
table tonnage per acre it will be neces
sarv to cultivate the crop two or thre
times.