Oklahoma Farmer (Guthrie, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 18, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 31, 1904 Page: 2 of 16
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OKLAHOMA FARMER, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1904.
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ANY PROBLEM Of COMMO* IITEKST I* C£NIRAL AGRICULTURE WILL BE DISCUSSED IN THIS DEPARTMENT IF ADDRESSED TO THE FARMER.
County Institutes.
The secretary of the board of agricul-
ture save out the following complete and
corrected list ofthe dates of the annual
meetings of the county farmers Insti-
tutes for this year. The date for Beaver
county Is not Included for the rfa®°"
no organization has been effected aa yet
'"Day 'countv Ygrand), Monday and Tues-
d°Woodwanfl^c ounty* (Woodward) Wed -
nesday and Thursday. November 16-17.
Woods county (Alva), Friday and Sat-
urday. November 18-19. ,
Garfield county (Enid), Moni^iy and
Tuesday, November 21-22.
Grnfit county (Pond Creek), Rrlday and
Saturday, November 25-26.
Kay county (Newkirk), Monday aijd
Tuesday. November 28-29.
Noble county (Perry), Wednesday and
ThPUar^
^"payne^county"1('stillwater), Monday and
^^fngflsher ^county6 "(Kingfisher), Wed-
nesdav (ind Thursday. Deccmbt r 7
Canadian county (El lleno). Frldo>- and
"SSS' SSSVA. Monday and
Tsas ?„ic;sbTAsa;!.iw.dn-,.d.
"%oTr^.yDTHm.fc!W™. .nd
xsa-JSSTfR&ri- "?"> -
TSj?h'inS,".o.b;fy,'"rAl.n.n., City).
Wednesday and Thursday, December 21-
22 • *
Logar* county (Guthrie), Friday and
8^U^a>proDbeaCbei"b«ehat3a2 number of local
Institute meetings may b# held In can
college will be represented at every meeu
ing, If possible.
Sow Cowpeas After NN heat.
A trip throufch several state in the
winter wheat belt recently showed that
most farmers allowed their wheat stub-
ble field to lie bare after the crop was
harvested in early summerunUlthe
new crop was planted fn iitumn. rhis
has been the plan followed from time
immemorial, but it is not the best
plan, as experiments have proved. The
Missouri Experiment station bas dem-
onsu-ated that after the harvesting o
the wheat crop in June it* soil can
atoti'e be fittcfl as a seed bed and
cowpeas planted. This crop makeh a #
quick growth, and as is general >
known, it belongs to the family of
legumes, which have power to take .
nitrogen from the air and add to the
soil a Planted in June, the vine wiU
soon cover the soil, malting good pwK
turage for hogs, if desired or the vines
can go to maturitf and be harvested
as hay. .
« Cowpea vine hay is of the very high-
est value as a feeding ration, being
equal ii^1 value to the best alfalfa bay.
®It is especially goid for dairy cattle..
After the hay cr( p is r< rtfoved the
ground can be disetd and wheat plant-
ed again. Thus two crops can be
grown in one season, and the soil
will be better for the growing of the
crop of peas. This plan has been tried
by the Missouri experiment station ana
found to be entirely practicable. t
is believed, too, that the late plant-,
ing of the wheat will lessen the injury
from Hessian fly.
Illinois growers have tried the plan
also, and one grower told the writer
that his wheat crop following cow-
peas was greatly benefitted ®by this
cover crop, whiato protected the soil
during the hot summer, and which
added fertility.
When asked why they do not try
this plan some farmers say they can
not afford to buy the cowpea seed ■
which frequently costs asemUch as ?2.o0
per bushel. But this expenditure • is
Justified. When the seed is drilled
but three pecks of seed are required
per acre, and the hay crop will be
worth more than "the seed will cost,
and the soil will be enriched at the
same time.
Some of the potato growers in the
Kaw valley, west of Kansas City, dig
their potatoes early—in fact most of
the potatdts grown there are dug
early—and then plant cowpeas. They
get food crops of potatoes, secure a
fine crop of splendid hay, and in au-
tumn their soil is in better condition
athan when the season opened in the
spring.
Southern farmers can not get along
without® cowpeas, and when they can
be grown as a catch-crop in the north-
ern state it is really remarkable that
more of them are not grown in this
way. Cowpeas, it should be said for
the benefit of those not acquainted
with the plant, are not" peas,'but beans.
Therefore, they require a warm soil,
and can not be planted until all dan-
ger from frost is past. The first frost
in fall will kill them, 8f course, so
tli^t their season is short.
Bacteria in Soil.
A Bacterium is sifch a small thing
that the human eye cannot detect it.
It takes the microscope to 2>ring out
®this minute form of life. Ht takes
some thousands of bacteria to do th?
work that is done, in a single turbercle
on®the root of a leguminous plant.
Nevertheless, small* as they are, bac-
teria are of immense®importance to
the farmer and often the success or
failure of a crop will depend on the
Cotton Boll Weevil in Texas.
('By Prof. W. I. Spillman, Agrostologist
U. S. Department of Agriculture.)
It is an ill wind that blows nobody
good. This trite saying has never been
better illustrated than in the influence
whirti the cotton boll weevil has had
^ipon agriculture in the great state of
Texas. A few years ago the Texas
farmer was simply a cotton grower.
He usually grew enough corn to feed
his mules and to furnish cornbread
for the family, and sometimes grew a
small patch of sweet potatoes. .He
argued that he could grow cotton and
sfell it any buy vegetables, meat and
seel it and buybouhagrotse u.EBdogd
•butter cheaper than he could produce'
tnem at home. He might have been
right in this, but the fact is that his
family weig; without most of these lux-
uries for the ^sim'ple reason that it
took cold, hard cash to get them. The
cotton boll weevil came along and put
a stop to cotton growing, or at least
gafe it a severe sheck, and for a while
it Joked as if the cotton crop would
uave®to be abandoned. This caused
great hardship in many localities and
many#a farmei*went hungry. ,
Now this is all cnanged. Texas is
shipping ^ihousands of carloads of
onions, Reaches, tomatoes, cantaloupes,
water-melons and strawberries to the
northern cities and they are getting
good®prices.. Of course they had diffi-
culties in marketing their products
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For Soil
Stirring,, ,
iL
selling is all done by one man, and
when the local buyers combine on him,
as they did on June 7 oJim
he quietly sells by wire .and has no
trouble in disposing of everything a.
lop prices' one of the leading spirits
in this organization is Mr. J. ™-
Fletcher, editor of the local paper, who
has for years preached diversified
farming to the farmers of Cass coffnty.
Mr. Fletcher is the eftnuent secretary
of the association.
Cass county is a fair example o
what is going on all over Texas to-
day. There is hardly a parallel in the
history of agriculture in America of
the wonderful development that nas
taken place in Texas during the last
four years, largely as the result ol the
invasion of the cotton boll weevil
There is possftly some danger tnai
Texas farmers may develop truck farm- •
ing somewhat too exclusively, but it
has already been shown that rexas
soil and climate are eminently adapted
to live stock farming, and in fact
there are many fine live stock farms
in the state. The department of ag-
riculture, in conjunction "svitli. the I ex-
as Agricultural Experiment station, is
ifbing all it can to encourage live®
stock farming. We are organizing six-
een so-called "diversification" farms
in that state, "on nearly all of which
we are encouraging live stoek farm-
ing. With fa$>ra/ble seasons and on
good soil, of which •there is a laTge
area in Texas, Btrmuda pastures will
support fjom one to three head of
stock an acre from May to the last
of OctOber, while alfalfa, «eow peas,
s#rghum. kffir corn and dwarf milo
maize furnish a great abundance of
winter feed. There Is little^ doubt
that the future of Texas agriculture is
* assured on a premanent and profitable
basis.*
A two row cultivator is an excellent thing for tearing up rotted clover
sod in the spring in. ground in which corn is to be planted. A 1 £nns>l
vania farmer uses this instilment to great, advantage. After go'ng#Over t e
ground with the cultivator he discs and harrows®it and is then ready lor
the planter. ®
••
$1000 REWARD!
1 positively guarantee my
- MEV€R-FAILINO
ERGO-KOl-O COMPOUND.
LADIES
kind of gacteria there is in a soil.
The kind of soil and its physcial
structure als% hava a great deal to
do with the abundance of bacteria.
It has been found that a soil that is
rich in humus, that is, has much
vegetable matter in it, is better suit-
ed for the development of bacteria
than soil that' has in it very little
humus.. It has previously been be-
lieved that the only advantages in
naving the humus was that it was a
source of nitrogen «and that It also
held moisture and kept the ground
from drying out. The third good
quality must now be added, that of
making bacterial life more abundant
Whether this connection between the
humus in the soil, and the bacteria i?
important because the humus fur-
nishes food for the bacteria or
whether it is important because the
humus keeps the ground light and
moist and lets the air work through
it easily, we do not know. Both
are reasonable suppositions. We are
sure to understand more about them
in the not distant future. It is now
certain that we can introduce new
kinds of bacteria into soils and that
we can by doing this greatly increase
the productive capacity of the farms
until they learned the secret of success,
which thdy found in organization.
In the beginning of this great truck-
ing industrf a farmer sent a carload
of potatoes to a certain city. He fol-
lowed up these_ potatoes without noti-
fying his commission man, and was
present when- the car arrived. He
watched the merchant sell the pota-
toes. Which he did directly from the
car; in fact a conversation with the
merchant in which he was told that
that' it was«the®finest car of potaoes
they had ever had. The next day
he came around again and showed
them a telegram from them to him,
forwarded from his home town, stat-
ing that the car had been received and
that half of the potatoes were spoiled,
and that' they would have to draw
.on hi'm for part of the freight. Of
course the firm was glad to settle
on any terms he might dictate. Ex-
periences of this kind are rare now.
On June 7®and 8 the writer saw
twenty-eight carloads of potatoes load-
. ed at Atlanta, Tex., every one of
which was. sold for spot cash on the
tracks before they left Atlanta. Ten
'buyers were present ready to take all
the potatoes offered. On these two
days potatoes sold for $1 a bushel.
The Atlanta Truck Growers' Asso-
ciation has done some things which
are worthy of imitation. They grade
their potatoes and guarantee that ev-
ery car is according to invoice. The
The most obstinate
and disfiguring *kin f-
— feotion yields speedily and
y pennanently to tne hailing, cooling.
Bcotliing, yet powerful influences or
HEISKELL'S
OINTMENT
T's.'d in connection with IIEIRKEL1/S Snap,
it never fails to rare Pimples. Ulcers. Tetter,
K«-/em a,Erysipelas, Ringworm and every sort
of skin alTeetlon. At druggists. Soap, 26c.
Ointment, fioe. Send for book of testimonials.
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To Stop Soil Washing.
(By J. H. Hall, Connecticut.)
Where orchards are on hillsides and
the #oil washes badly, my treatment
will be something like I have given
tlfiit part of this orchard which was
cultivated thts season. In this peach
orchard,ffor instance, I have cultivat-
ed every alternate section between tree
rows. The strip not cultivated was
left iiL crimson clover. The cvlftivator
was kept going in the other section
until the first of August, then the
clover was'cut in the^mulched section,*
and we ran a harrow across the or-
chard, dragging the clover seed wbich
had ripened in the uncultivated sec-
tion over to the plowed soil, thus
seeding it to clover. Now, we have a
food stand, which will be a foot high
before winter, and which will grow all
winter long when ground is pot frozen.
Now, if my soil were inclined to
wash badly I would seed the space be-
tween two® rows to clover. Then I
would cultivate the next section, «eeil
the next, and®so on, alternating the
seeded sections with the cultivated sec-
tions across the orchard. In this way
one side of each tree in the" orchard
would be cultivated this season. Next
year I would cultivate the sections
which were seeded to clover this year,
and seed to clover those which were
cultivated this season. By handling
an orchard in-this $ay there would be
little danger ®of washing off soil, and
while it would not be thorough culti-
vation, it would b§ the next best
thing, and would work fairly well.
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Greer, Frank H. Oklahoma Farmer (Guthrie, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 18, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 31, 1904, newspaper, August 31, 1904; Guthrie, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc88014/m1/2/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.