: : : : Established 1840. THE Sixty-Third Year. Southern Planter A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO : S0 ' I a rot K K-pc(90Q Practical and Progressive Agricultuic, . -orticulture, Trucking, Live Stock and the Fireside. OFFICE : 28 NORTH NINTH STREET, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. THE SOUTHERN PLANTER PUBLISHING COMPANY. Proprietors. J. P. JACKSON, Editor and General Manager. Vol. 63. SEPTEMBER, 1902. No. 9. CONTENTS. FARM MANAGEMENT Preventing and Curing Texas Fever 523 Some Recent Records and Sales of Guernsey Editorial—Work for the Month 503 Cattle 524 " Seeding 505 Wheat Combination Sale of Shorthorns, Polled Angus Humus the Great Renovator of the Soil.. 507 and Herefords in Virginia 524 Wheat Crop at Drewry's Bluff, Va 508 Selecting a Ram 525 Dekol Curing Pea-Vine Hay 508 2d Butter Boy 3d 525 Feeding Hogs Indoors 525 Are Our Farms Becoming Impoverished? 509 Complete and Incomplete Fertilizers 510 THE P0DLTRY YARD The Cost of Wheat Production in the South 511 The Breeding of the Pekin Duck—The Care and Marketing of Ducklings How to Farm Clay Soils— An Old English Author- 526 Preservation of Eggi 527 ity on Clays 512 Some Timely Hints 527 Grass Seeding and Hay Production' 513 Poultry Keeping Profitable 527 Enquirer's Column (Detail Index, page 535) 515 One Cause of Failure in Poultry Keeping 528 TRUCKING, GARDEN AND ORCHARD THE HORSE: Editorial—Work for the Month 517 Online, 2:04, Dead 529 Notes A Word of Encouragement to Country Gardeners.. 517 529 Strawberry Culture—Late Summer Work 518 MISCELLANEOUS Pruning Orchards 518 Editorial—Cement Floors for Stables and Barns.... 531 How to Raise a Good Crop of Strawberries Next Agricultural Statistics of Virginia and North Car- Spring from Plants Set This Fall 519 olina _ 531 Pear Blight 520 Virginia as a Home for the Farmer 532 The Dewberry 520 The Labor Situation in Germany 533 Apples and Pears Cracking 520 Alfalfa 534 Editorial— Air-Curing Tobacco 534 STOCK AND DAIRY : LIVE How to Cure the New Crop of Tobacco 534 Editorial—Making Hog Meat in the South 521 An Uneven Apple Crop 534 Sale of Shorthorns at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada- 522 Publisher's Notes 535 Alfalfa— Stomach Worms in Sheep 522 Roughness for Wintering Steers 521 advertisements 536 SUBSCRIPTION, 50c. 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WORK FOR THE MONTH. whole, are yet very varied in different sections | even of Since the month of August came in up to this the same county. Sweet potatoes promise an excellent writing (21st August) nearly the whole of the South- crop in Tidewater and on the Eastern Shore. Peanuts ern States have received good and much needed rains have improved considerably since the rains. Abund- without being subjected to floods. The temperature ant crops of forage plants are being harvested—peas, has, however, been in most sections much below nor- Soy beans and sorghum having made a great growth mal. In Middle Virginia, the second week in August since the rains. Corn for the silo is making a fine was the coldest ever known at this season of the year. crop. The fruit crop, with the exception of pears and Notwithstanding this, crops have made good progress, grapes, is comparatively a failure in this State and the ground being warm when the rain fell on it, and North Carolina. Water melons and canteloupes have thus in a condition to push on the growth when the been and still are very plentiful. The melon crop in needed moisture was supplied. The indications now Tidewater Virginia has now become quite an impor- are that we shall have an average crop of corn through tant factor in the agricultural economy of that section, out the country grown on the largest acreage ever several hundred thousand melons having this year planted to that crop. In the Southern States, where been shipped from thence to New York and other about one-third of the total crop is grown, the yield Northern markets. will be shortened by the unfavorable weather we had The work of preparing the land for at and just after planting time, but the acreage is the seeding of the crop should larger than usual, and hence we shall have probably wheat have attention. In this issue about the average supply. This shortening of the will be found an article dealing fully with this subject, yield by a cold and backward spring emphasizes what to which we refer our readers. we have so often said as to not being in too great a hurry to plant corn in cold wet land. Far better The land for the winter oat crop should be got ready to give the land more cultivation and plant a little and the crop be sown in this and the following month. later when the soil is warmed, and when the growth As a rule, the seeding of winter oats is delayed much can be continuous from planting to maturity. Corn too long, and as a consequence, much of it is killed once set back, especially when this set-back occurs out during the winter. One of the best farmers in soon after planting, rarely makes a good crop, how- the middle section of Virginia, who always made a ever propitious the season may be. Cotton and great crop of winter oats, told us some years ago that tobacco, whilst promising to be average' crops on the after thirty years' experience in growing it he always 504 THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. [September found that he made the best crop when sown in Sep as they mature. Do not allow the cow-peas to stand tember. We have known him to make seventy five until all the leaves and most of the peas are on the bushels to the acre year after year. He plowed deeply, ground. Cut when the first pods are turning yellow prepared a fine seed bed, and covered the oats deep. and cure, as advised in our last issue, or try the method advised In the winter he usually top dressed the crop with in this issue by Mr. Blacknall. Sorghum makes the nicest feed farm- yard manure, and rarely suffered from winter when cut when the seed is just care forming or little before this time. If killing. There is no reason whatever (except the a allowed to ma- ture the seed of the is lessness of farmers in seeding the crop late and put much nutriment removed from such poor the stalk and leaves and etored in the seed. Millet ting it on the poorest land dh the farm) why should cut yields of this crop should be made as are common in be when in bloom and before seed forms. it cer- The seed is injurious to most horses and to the South. If it is worth growing at all, and many cat- straw are valuable tle. If Kaffir corn or sorghum is allowed to stand until tainly is, as both the grain and the opportunity to the seed matures it should be threshed out before the as feed, it is worth while to give it an poor, it a dressing of fodder is fed to stock and be ground into meal for do its best. If the land is give feed. If fed on the stalk very much of it will be wasted acid phosphate, eay, 300 or 400 lbs. to the acre. Do by passing through the animals undigested. not sow poor, light seed. There are several new varie to valuable. ties now being offered which promise be Rape and turnips may still be sown for pasturage, In Tennessee, the Culberson oat made seventy three though it is getting late for them to make much growth bushels to the acre, seeded October 3d. It matured unh ss the fall is a fine one. If the winter is not a se- earlier by fully two weeks than any other variety. vere one rape will stand through it and make good pasturage again in the spring. In some sections of this State winter barley is now being grown, and promises to become a popular crop. grazing. It When filling the silo do not hurry the work. Cut It makes good winter and spring should half a day and fill half a day. In this way the silo be sown during September or early in October. At will hold much more, and better, sweeter silage will be the Tennessee Station, seeded on September 17th, it made. Cover the silage with coarse marsh grass or made a yield of thirty bushels to the acre, and it has made on good land in that State seventy one bushels with cut straw and chaff to the depth of a foot or eigh- teen inches. Water this well and pack solid and it to the acre.