Browse Items: 37

Nature's Garden for Victory and Peace

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Since the article appeared in the Alabama Journal, Tuesday, February 10, 1942, by Mr. W. T, Maynor, captioned “Don’t Worry If War Causes Shortage of Green Vegetables, Weeds Are Good To Eat” the large number of letters that continue to come in asking for more information makes us feel that here is an opportunity to render a service much needed at…

How to Build Up and Maintain the Virgin Fertility of Our Soils

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Origin of Scientific Agriculture

One is not only surprised but astonished to learn that less than a century and a half ago, agriculture was without a scientific working basis. Credit goes to the great German chemist, Justus von Liebig for starting this revolutionary movement. The following four laws which form the foundation of modern…

Can Live Stock Be Raised Profitably in Alabama?

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I am confident that no other time has been more favorable than the present for every farmer in Alabama to think seriously and constructively along this line, asking himself the following questions. (I feel equally sure that with the facts before him he will have little or no trouble in deciding what course to take.)

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

No.…

The Raising of Hogs: One of the Best Ways to Fill the Empty Dinner Pail

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With sugar cured hams selling for 26 cents per pound, bacon sliced selling for 36 cents per pound, lard selling for 19 cents per pound, and unsmoked white meat selling for 23 cents per pound, it does not require the wisdom of a philosopher to see that the bulk mass of dinner pails must remain only partially filled or entirely empty in so far as the…

How to Make and Save Money on the Farm

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Foreword

Bulletin No. 39 from the Alabama Experiment Station located at Tuskegee Institute under the direction of Dr. George W. Carver, is being issued at a very opportune time. The problem of farm management is becoming more and more serious every year. It is not that there is any falling off in production; in fact there has been a great…

How the Farmer Can Save His Sweet Potatoes and Ways of Preparing It for the Table

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There are but few if any of our staple farm crops, receiving more attention than the sweet potato, and indeed rightfully so. The splendid service it rendered during the great World War in the saving of wheat flour, will not soon be forgotten. The 99 different and attractive products (to date) made from it, are sufficient to convince the most…

How to Make Sweet Potato Flour, Starch, Sugar, Bread and Mock Cocoanut

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SWEET POTATO FLOUR

There are several grades of this product and quite as many ways to manufacture them. Each one of these flours or meals (as most millers insist upon calling them) has a particular character of its own and is therefore adapted to certain uses the other products are not.

These Sweet Potato flours are generally speaking of…

How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table

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But few people realize what an important vegetable the tomato is. While it is true that chemical analysis does not place it very high in the nutritive scale, if viewed from this angle alone its real value will be greatly underestimated.

For the reasons which follow, every normal person should make the tomato a very prominent part of the weekly…

How to Grow the Cow Pea and 40 Ways of Preparing It as a Table Delicacy

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Among the many rich blessings especially given to the South, there are but few, if any, that stand out more prominently than the cow pea, for the following reasons:

1. It is a legume (pod-bearing plant), and brings fertility to the soil. In this it has but few equals, and still fewer superiors.

2. As a food for man and beast the peas are…

43 Ways to Save the Wild Plum Crop

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Nature endows or blesses each State or section with an indigenous flora and fauna best suited to that particular soil and climatic conditions.

Applying the above to Alabama, Macon and adjoining counties have been unusually blessed in the quantity, variety and quality of its wild plums. They vary in size from a half to one inch in diameter, and…

Three Delicous [sic] Meals Every Day for the Farmer

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As we learn more about ourselves and the relation of food to our well being, we cannot but agree with those who have made it a study that ‘the prosperity of the nation depends upon the health and morals of its citizens, and the health and morals of a people depend mainly upon the food they eat, and the homes in which they live.’

As a rule, we…

How to Grow the Peanut: And 105 Ways of Preparing It for Human Consumption

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Of all the money crops grown by Macon County farmers, perhaps there are none more promising than the peanut in its several varieties and their almost limitless possibilities.

Of the many good things in their favor, the following stand out as most prominent:

1. Like all other members of the pod-bearing family, they enrich the soil.

2. They…

Alfalfa: The King of All Fodder Plants, Successfully Grown in Macon County, Ala.

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For many years we have been testing in one way or another almost every variety of legume that seemed in the least promising, with the view to finding one or more that would succeed in this section and give us a permanent pasture without having to prepare and re-seed the ground each year.

Alfalfa has really gone beyond the high standard set by…

When, What, and How to Can and Preserve Fruits and Vegetables in the Home

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There is without doubt no activity connected with the farm or garden of greater importance than the canning and preserving of fruits and vegetables. The following are some of the strongest arguments in its favor:

1. It is the easiest, cheapest, quickest, and best method yet devised by which we can have plenty of good, wholesome fruits and…

A New and Prolific Variety of Cotton

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Sixteen years ago the Experiment Station undertook the production of a type of cotton that would possess the following characteristics:

1. A longer and finer staple.

2. A more prolific variety.

3. A disease resistant variety.

4. A cotton that produces well on light, sandy soils.

5. An early maturing variety that would escape…

Study of the Soils of Macon County, Alabama, and Their Adaptability to Certain Crops

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LOCATION AND BOUNDARIES

Macon County, “the garden-spot of Alabama,” lies near the eastern boundary of the State, about 135 miles north of the Florida-Alabama line. It has an area of 621 square miles, embodying 397,440 acres. It is 34 miles in extent from east to west, and 24 3/4 miles from north to south. The northern and western boundary lines…

Pickling and Curing of Meat in Hot Weather

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Many and varied are the methods of curing and otherwise preserving meat in the fall and winter months when the weather is cold enough to insure success.

All the methods examined were successful and some of superior merit, but the notion of killing and preserving meat in hot weather had scarcely been given a thought; “impossible” seemed to have…

Poultry Raising in Macon County, Alabama

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Of all the get-rich-quick schemes there is probably none more productive of delusion than that of poultry raising on paper. And yet, with the proper facilities and applied intelligence, possibly more handsome returns can be had from poultry than any other industry in proportion to the amount of capital invested and the readiness with which results…

White and Color Washing with Native Clays from Macon County, Alabama

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Of the many attractive features of our beautiful county, I think there is possibly none that elicit such universal admiration and praise as the vast deposits of multi-colored clays, ranging from snow-white, through many gradations, to the richest Sienna and Indian reds on the one hand, and from the deepest yellow ochre to the palest cream tintings…

Cotton Growing for Rural Schools

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There is doubtless no plant more interesting to the casual observer, or more useful economically and more wonderful to the searcher for truth than the cotton plant. It forms the principal products of eight great states of this Union. It also has an ancient history. It is said to have been grown and manufactured into clothing over 2,500 years ago.…

Some Possibilities of the Cow Pea in Macon County, Alabama

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The cow pea is rightfully looked upon by many as the poor man’s bank or mortgage-lifter. I think I am safe in the assertion that there is no crop grown in the South which possesses so many good qualities and is so easily grown as the cow pea.

It is a matter of much regret that every colored farmer in Macon County does not plant at least three…

Nature Study and Gardening for Rural Schools

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Since the publication of Teachers’ Leaflet No. 2, Nature Study and Children’s Gardens, the work has not only grown in a satisfactory manner, but has advanced far beyond the most sanguine hopes of its promoters — indeed the 1,500 copies of this leaflet which was published in 1904 have been exhausted without satisfying the increasing demand.

The…

Possibilities of the Sweet Potato in Macon County, Alabama

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If there is one crop more than another, that Macon County can produce year by year and with almost unerring certainty, it is the sweet potato crop.

Now what is true of Macon County is true of the adjoining counties, and is more or less true of the entire South.

HISTORY

It is said that the early navigators of the sixteenth century…

Some Ornamental Plants of Macon County, Alabama

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There is probably no section of our country that furnishes more really beautiful and useful ornamental plants than this section of Alabama; indeed the landscape gardener and florist, alike can find flowers of rare beauty and fragrance, foliage unsurpassed in richness, and fruits, berries and other forms of seed capsules possessing a richness of…

Increasing the Yield of Corn

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When we consider that Alabama alone cultivated, in 1907, 2,961,000 acres in corn with an average of only 15 1-2 bushels to the acre, it at once becomes apparent that something must be done to bring up this unfortunately low yield per acre. It is further accentuated from the fact that within the last ten years the average has never been higher than…

How to Make Cotton Growing Pay

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Two years of cotton experimentation have come and gone since the issue of Bulletin 7 of this station, on Cotton Growing on Sandy Upland Soils; in that bulletin we took the position that every acre in Alabama capable of growing cotton , could and should be made to produce a bale of cotton to the acre.

The bulletin further shows that the above…

How to Cook Cow Peas

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Since the publication of this bulletin the applications for it have steadily increased until the output of 1,500 has been exhausted and the demand unsupplied; and with this apology it was thought wise to republish it.

The popularity of the cow pea is increasing from every point of view from year to year. Someone has wisely said that as a crop,…

Saving the Wild Plum Crop

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Nature endows or blesses each state or section with an indigenous flora and fauna best suited to that particular soil and climatic conditions.

Applying the above to Alabama, Macon and adjoining counties have been unusually blessed in the quantity, variety and quality of its wild plums.
They vary in size from a half to one inch in diameter, and…

Saving the Sweet Potato Crop

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Of the many vexing problems with which the Southern farmer must deal, there are probably none more troublesome than the saving of his sweet potato crop.

Some years, all methods, from the simplest to the most complex, seem to succeed. Probably the very next year just the reverse is true, and all spoil, leaving in many instances hardly enough for…

Successful Yields of Small Grain

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This bulletin, also, is a continuation of 6 and 7 and endeavors to thwart the very prevalent idea that small grain cannot be profitably raised in this section.

THE CAUSE

It is just as applicable to apply the cause and effect rule to every operation of the farm as to the various branches of mathematics, there being no cause without an effect…

Cotton Growing on Sandy Upland Soils

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This bulletin, in some degree is a continuation of No.6, on Soil Building, and emphasizes rather emphatically the possibilities of such soils in the production of cotton.

We have maintained that every acre of land in Alabama capable of being grown in cotton, could and should be made to produce at least one bale to the acre. The experiment…

How to Build Up Worn Out Soils

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The subject of soil improvement through natural agencies has been one of much concern to both ancient and modern agriculturists.

The ancient Egyptian knew that if he let his land lie idle, (rested) as he termed it, he was able to produce a much better crop, and that crop would be in quantity and quality, all other things being equal,…

Cow Peas

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Every year the demand for an increased quantity and better quality of nutritious forage for animals, and a wider range of food stuffs for man has suggested a basis for some very careful and interesting study. Experiment Stations, as well as individuals, have devoted much time and means to this line of investigation. Plants of many different genera,…

Some Cercosporae of Macon County, Alabama

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The wide distribution and the economic importance of the Cercospora in this county has prompted the writing of this paper. This list by no means represents all of the species of this county, as no special effort has been made to collect Cercospora only. These collections were made while passing to and from other duties. With few exceptions, the…

Fertilizer Experiments on Cotton

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The cotton fertilizer experiments made in 1898 are a continuation of a series of fertilizer soil tests commenced in 1897. The soil of the experimental field, a part of the station farm, is a light and sandy upland, with yellow clay subsoil.

The soil selected is excellently adapted for experimental purposes, having formed part of an old field…

Experiments With Sweet Potatoes

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In summing up and drawing conclusions from this experiment, I think it quite safe to conclude that, with the proper management, 500 bushels of sweet potatoes can be produced on one acre of our ordinary potato soils ; since 266 bushels were produced under the following trying conditions:

First — Abnormally poor soil, physically, mechanically and…

Feeding Acorns

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In this beautiful Southland of ours, with so many natural resources, and the repeated failures of the North, East and West to supply the ever-increasing demand for pork, dairy products, etc., has led us to turn much of our attention in this direction.

The great quantity of acorns produced in our oak forests, which have been hitherto practically…