Agriculture for Beginners Part 21

Oats are muscle-builders rather than fat-formers. Hence they are a valuable ration for work animals, dairy cows, and breeding-stock.

SECTION XLIII. RYE

Rye has the power of gathering its food from a wider area than most other plants. Of course, then, it is a fine crop for poor land, and farmers often plant it only on worn land. However, it is too good a cereal to be treated in so ungenerous a fas.h.i.+on. As a cover-crop for poor land it adds much humus to the soil and makes capital grazing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 208. RYE READY FOR CUTTING]

There are two types of rye--the winter and the spring. The winter type is chiefly grown in this country. Rye seeds should be bought as near home as possible, for this plant thrives best when the new crop grows under the same conditions as the seed crop.

Rye will grow on almost any soil that is drained. Soils that are too sandy for wheat will generally yield good crops of rye. Clay soils, however, are not adapted to the plant nor to the grazing for which the plant is generally sowed. For winter rye the land should be broken from four to six inches. Harrows should follow the plows until the land is well pulverized. In some cold prairie lands, however, rye is put in with a grain-drill before a plow removes the stubble from the land. The purpose of planting in this way is to let the stubble protect the young plants from cold, driving winds.

Rye should go into the ground earlier than wheat. In cold, bleak climates, as well as on poor land, the seeding should be early. The young plant needs to get rooted and topped before cold weather sets in.

The only danger in very early planting is that leaf-rust sometimes attacks the forward crop. Of course the earlier the rye is ready for fall and winter pasturage, the better. If a drill is used for planting, a seeding of from three to four pecks to the acre should give a good stand. In case the seeds are to be sowed broadcast, a bushel or a bushel and a half for every acre is needed. The seed should be covered as wheat seed is and the ground rolled.

Rye is generally used as a grazing or as a soiling crop. Therefore its value will depend largely on its vigorous growth in stems and leaves. To get this growth, liberal amounts of nitrogenous fertilizer will have to be applied unless the land is very rich. Put barnyard manure on the land just after the first breaking and disk the manure into the soil. Acid phosphate and kainite added to the manure may pay handsomely. A spring top-dressing of nitrate of soda is usually helpful.

Rye has a stiff straw and does not fall, or "lodge," so badly as some of the other cereals. As soon as rye that is meant for thres.h.i.+ng is cut, it should be put up in shocks until it is thoroughly dry. Begin the cutting when the kernels are in a tough dough state. The grain should never stand long in the shocks.

SECTION XLIV. BARLEY

Barley is one of the oldest crops known to man. The old historian Pliny says that barley was the first food of mankind. Modern man however prefers wheat and corn and potatoes to barley, and as a food this ancient crop is in America turned over to the lower animals. Brewers use barley extensively in making malt liquors. Barley grows in nearly all sections of our country, but a few states--namely, Minnesota, California, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North and South Dakota--are seeding large areas to this crop.

For malting purposes the barley raised on rather light, friable, porous soil is best. Soils of this kind are likely to produce a medium yield of bright grain. Fertile loamy and clay soils make generally a heavier yield of barley, but the grain is dark and fit only to be fed to stock.

Barley is a shallow feeder, and can reach only such plant food as is found in the top soil, so its food should always be put within reach by a thorough breaking, harrowing, and mellowing of the soil, and by fertilizing if the soil is poor. Barley has been successfully raised both by irrigation and by dry-farming methods. It requires a better-prepared soil than the other grain crops; it makes fine yields when it follows some crop that has received a heavy dressing of manure.

Capital yields are produced after alfalfa or after root crops. This crop usually matures within a hundred days from its seeding.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 209. BARLEY]

When the crop is to be sold to the brewers, a grain rich in starch should be secured. Barley intended for malting should be fertilized to this end. Many experiments have shown that a fertilizer which contains much potash will produce starchy barley. If the barley be intended for stock, you should breed so as to get protein in the grain and in the stalk. Hence barley which is to be fed should be fertilized with mixtures containing nitrogen and phosphoric acid. Young barley plants are more likely to be hurt by cold than either wheat or oats. Hence barley ought not to be seeded until all danger from frost is over. The seeds should be covered deeper than the seeds of wheat or of oats. Four inches is perhaps an average depth for covering. But the covering will vary with the time of planting, with the kind of ground, with the climate, and with the nature of the season. Fewer seeds will be needed if the barley is planted by means of a drill.

Like other cereals, barley should not be grown continuously on the same land. It should take its place in a well-planned rotation. It may profitably follow potatoes or other hoed crops, but it should not come first after wheat, oats, or rye.

Barley should be harvested as soon as most of its kernels have reached the hard dough state. It is more likely to shatter its grain than are other cereals, and it should therefore be handled with care. It must also be watched to prevent its sprouting in the shocks. Be sure to put few bundles in the shock and to cap the shock securely enough to keep out dew and rain. If possible the barley should be threshed directly from the shock, as much handling will occasion a serious loss from shattering.

SECTION XLV. SUGAR PLANTS

In the United States there are three sources from which sugar is obtained; namely, the sugar-maple, the sugar-beet, and the sugar-cane.

In the early days of our country considerable quant.i.ties of maple sirup and maple sugar were made. This was the first source of sugar. Then sugar-cane began to be grown. Later the sugar-beet was introduced.

=Maple Products.= In many states sirup and sugar are still made from maple sap. In the spring when the sap is flowing freely maple trees are tapped and spouts are inserted. Through these spouts the sap flows into vessels set to catch it. The sap is boiled in evaporating-pans, and made into either sirup or sugar. Four gallons of sap yield about one pound of sugar. A single tree yields from two to six pounds of sugar in a season.

The sap cannot be kept long after it is collected. Practice and skill are needed to produce an attractive and palatable grade of sirup or of sugar.

=Sugar-Beets.= The sugar-beet is a comparatively new root crop in America. The amount of sugar that can be obtained from beets varies from twelve to twenty per cent. The richness in sugar depends somewhat on the variety grown and on the soil and the climate.

So far most of our sugar-beet seeds have been brought over from Europe.

Some of our planters are now, however, gaining the skill and the knowledge needed to grow these seeds. It is of course important to grow seeds that will produce beets containing much sugar.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 210. CATCHING MAPLE SAP]

These beets do well in a great variety of soils if the land is rich, well prepared, and well drained, and has a porous subsoil.

Beets cannot grow to a large size in hard land. Hence deep plowing is very necessary for this crop. The soil should be loose enough for the whole body of the beet to remain underground. Some growers prefer spring plowing and some fall plowing, but all agree that the land should not be turned less than eight or ten inches. The subsoil, however, should not be turned up too much at the first deep plowing.

Too much care cannot be taken to make the seed-bed firm and mellow and to have it free from clods. If the soil is dry at planting-time and there is likelihood of high winds, the seed-bed may be rolled with profit. Experienced growers use from ten to twelve pounds of seeds to an acre. It is better to use too many rather than too few seeds, for it is easy to thin out the plants, but rather difficult to transplant them.

The seeds are usually drilled in rows about twenty inches apart. Of course, if the soil is rather warm and moist at planting-time, fewer seeds will be needed than when germination is likely to be slow.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 211. SUGAR-BEET]

A good rotation should always be planned for this beet. A very successful one is as follows: for the first year, corn heavily fertilized with stable manure; for the second year, sugar-beets; for the third year, oats or barley; for the fourth year, clover; then go back again to corn. In addition to keeping the soil fertile, there are two gains from this rotation: first, the clean cultivation of the corn crop just ahead of the beets destroys many of the weed seeds; second, the beets must be protected from too much nitrogen in the soil, for an excess of nitrogen makes a beet too large to be rich in sugar. The manure, heavily applied to the corn, will leave enough nitrogen and other plant food in the soil to make a good crop of beets and avoid any danger of an excess.

When the outside leaves of the beet take on a yellow tinge and drop to the ground, the beets are ripe. The mature beets are richer in sugar than the immature, therefore they should not be harvested too soon. They may remain in the ground without injury for some time after they are ripe. Cold weather does not injure the roots unless it is accompanied by freezing and thawing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 212. SUGAR-BEETS ON THE WAY TO A FACTORY]

The beets are harvested by sugar-beet pullers or by hand. If the roots are to be gathered by hand they are usually loosened by plowing on each side of them. If the roots are stored they should be put in long, narrow piles and covered with straw and earth to protect them from frost. A ventilator placed at the top of the pile will enable the heat and moisture to escape. If the beets get too warm they will ferment and some of their sugar will be lost.

=Sugar-Cane.= Sugar-cane is grown along the Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic coast. In Mississippi, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, northern Louisiana, and in northern Texas it is generally made into sirup. In southern Louisiana and southern Texas the cane is usually crushed for sugar or for mola.s.ses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 213. STALK OF SUGAR-CANE _A-B_, joints of cane showing roots; _B-C_, stem; _C-D_, leaves]

The sugar-cane is a huge gra.s.s. The stalk, which is round, is from one to two inches in thickness.

The stalks vary in color. Some are white, some yellow, some green, some red, some purple, and some black, while others are a mixture of two or three of these colors. As shown in Fig. 214 the stalk has joints at distances of from two to six inches. These joints are called nodes, and the sections between the nodes are known as internodes. The internodes ripen from the roots upward, and as each ripens it casts its leaves. The stalk, when ready for harvesting, has only a few leaves on the top.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 214. STICK OF SUGAR-CANE _A_, buds, or eyes; _C_, nodes; _D_, internodes; _X_, semi-transparent dots in rows]

Under each leaf and on alternate sides of the cane a bud, or "eye,"

forms. From this eye the cane is usually propagated; for, while in tropical countries the cane forms seeds, yet these seeds are rarely fertile. When the cane is ripe it is stripped of leaves, topped, and cut at the ground with a knife. The sugar is contained in solution in the pith of the cane.

Cane requires an enormous amount of water for its best growth, and where the rainfall is not great enough, the plants are irrigated. It requires from seventy-five to one hundred gallons of water to make a pound of sugar. Cane does best where there is a rainfall of two inches a week. At the same time a well-drained soil is necessary to make vigorous canes.

The soils suited to this plant are those which contain large amounts of fertilizing material and which can hold much water. In southern Louisiana alluvial loams and loamy clay soils are cultivated. In Georgia, Alabama, and Florida light, sandy soils, when properly fertilized and worked, make good crops.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 215. PLANTING SUGAR-CANE]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 216. LOADING SUGAR-CANE]

Cane is usually planted in rows from five to six feet apart. A trench is opened in the center of the row with a plow and in this open furrow is placed a continuous line of stalks which are carefully covered with plow, cultivator, or hoe. From one to three continuous lines of stalks are placed in the furrow. From two to six tons of seed cane are needed for an acre. In favorable weather the cane soon sprouts and cultivation begins. Cane should be cultivated at short intervals until the plants are large enough to shade the soil. In Louisiana one planting of cane usually gives two crops. The first is called plant cane; the second is known as first-year stubble, or ratoon. Sometimes second-year stubble is grown.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 217. A COMMON TYPE OF SIRUP FACTORY]

In Louisiana large quant.i.ties of tankage, cotton-seed meal, and acid phosphate are used to fertilize cane-fields. Each country has its own time for planting and harvesting. In Louisiana, for example, canes are planted from October to April. In the United States cane is harvested each year because of frost, but in tropical countries the stalks are permitted to grow from fifteen to twenty-four months.

On many farms a small mill, the rollers of which are turned by horses, is used for crus.h.i.+ng the juice out of the cane. The juice is then evaporated in a kettle or pan. This equipment is very cheap and can easily be operated by a small family. While these mills rarely extract more than one half of the juice in the cane, the sirup made by them is very palatable and usually commands a good price. Costly machinery which saves most of the juice is used in the large commercial sugar houses.