The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., January 22, 1910, Page 38, Image 2

About The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
Professor Massey’s
Editorial Page.
The Great Need of Southern Soils
and How to Supply It.
DLONG AGO BECAME convinced that any
farmer whose money crop is either cotton
or wheat need never buy nitrogen in any
form if he farms right in a short rotation and
uses the legume crops wisely. The Southern pa
pers are always full of advice to the farmer to di
versify his crops and grow his “supplies.” The
writers in these papers have a very dim idea of
what they mean by diversification. Mere diversi
fication and the growing of a variety of crops is
not what is needed. It is a rotaUon properly plan
ned for the increased production in an economical
manner of his staple crop. Feed for his stock, of
course, every farmer should produce in abudance.
but there is no need for his growing a little of
everything his climate and soil may produce.
While the cotton farmer should not be a one-crop
farmer, he should be a specialist in the sense that
all his farming should be directed to the increase
of the productiveness of his land in cotton, and
his rotation of crops should be planned with that
end in view.
If he plans a short rotation in which the peas
come in often on his land, he can avoid the pur
chase of ammonia or nitrogen in a fertilizer, and
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cattle with theBe. But there will still be a waste
of the mineral matters from his soil. This will
be smaller with the cotton farmer than any one
else if nothing but cotton is sold from his land,
but there will, nevertheless, be a waste of phos
phorus and potassium that must be made good.
Shall he restore these simply for the production
of a sale crop of cotton, or shall he use them
more wisely to increase the growth of the pea
crop and thus get more forage, and more nitrogen
fixed in the soil? It seems to me that the best
use of fertilizers, the true use of them, is to thus
increase the crop that feeds soil and stock, and
in the end will do more towards the Increase of
the productiveness of his soil rather than to use
them on the sale crop direct.
Jt
The legume crops, like the cowpea, are greedy
consumers of phosphoric acid and potash, and
their growth as forage and their work as nitro
gen-gathers is greatly increased by a liberal use
of these on the crof>. The result will be, that the
farmer has a larger amount of forage to feed,
makes more profit from the cattle and has a
larger amount of manure for his money crop.
| Save half the cost of the commercial fertilizer by
k leaving out the ammonia and then put on the pea
V crop phosphoric acid and potash equal in value to
the complete fertilizer that would have been used
Jl
In short, the great need of the cotton farmer Is
cotton grown at less cost, and the cost can be les
sened most by the production of legume forage
and the feeding of it with the corn crop on the
farm. Growing abundance of the best forage and
corn and feeding It to live stock, abandoning
the purchase of the low grade complete mixtures
and depending on the phosphoric acid and potash
to make the forage, will do more to cheapen the
cost of the cotton crop than anything that can
be done. The cotton farms need nitrogen, but
they need it in humus-making materials like peas
and stable manure, and it can be gotten in this
way without cost. Growing forage and feeding
cattle and hogs Is just as profitable to the cotton
farmer as to any other class, and live stock lie at
the very foundation of all rational soil improve
:incnt, no matter wlmt the money crop may he.
When Ignorance is Not Bliss.
wrTJVj ALLACE’S FARMER says well that: “The
'W! m0Bt h°I)e,eB8 ignorance is that in which
* the persons are ignorant of their ignor
ance. There Is great hope for the farmer who
realizes that he is ignorant of the best methods
and is anxious to learn; but the man who
thinks he knows it all. and that farming is
simply hard work and trusting to luck is hope
less. The first class come out to the institutes,
write letters of Inquiry to the farm papers, read
the bulletins and in various ways try to improve.
The latter class never go to the Institutes, for they
know it all now. They take no farm papers, read
no farm books nor bulletins, because they do not
believe in book farming, and they go on in the
old, hopeless way saying that farming does not
pay. Of course, their sort does not and never will
pay, but is the shortest road to poverty of farm
and farmer. And their sons, grown up in such
surroundings, come to consider farming as only
drudgery, and they escape from the farm as soon
as possible and go to running street cars and dig
ging trenches in the cities. How we are to reach
and help men who do not want help. Is the most
difficult problem in the South to-day. How are we
to wake up men to the great possibilities of good
farming who stubbornly refuse to believe there is
any better way than their own? How are we to
help men to independence who are satisfied to be
long to the merchant and the fertilizer man?
The problem is a hard one to solve.
Prize Acres and Paying Crops.
T^TJT IS INTERESTING, of course, to know
how much corn can be made on an acre of
land regardless of expense, but 1 do not
think that even Mr. Batts would care to treat his
whole crop as he treated the prize acre. Still the
fact remains lhat whenever there is a prize for
the largest yield per acre it is always made in
the South, and with the Southern prolific corn.
But what is more to the point, and more en
couraging than a big crop of corn on a single
acre, is an account like the following which 1 have
just received from eastern North Carolina:
I nave read witn mucn pleasure Mr
Batts's report in The Progressive Farmer and
Gazette of how he made 226 2-3 bushel# of
corn on one acre. But it appears to me that
that 226 bushels of corn cost him entirely too
much to make.
"I have made over three thousand bushel#
of corn this year on about seventy-five acre#
at a cost of less than 20 cent# per bushel on
land that four years ago didn't average more
than seven or eight bushel# per acre. I don't
believe there is a single acre on my farm thl*
year but ha# made over 30 bushel* of corn,
and this, too, without commercial fertilizer 1
have on some of my land# averaged as high
as 65 bushels per acre with 150 pound# 16
per cent acid and 25 pound* sulphate of pot
ash per acre, which is the largest amount of
commercial fertilizer I have used to corn.
“My motto is to make the very biggest
crop possible w ith the least. expense, and at
the same time make my land morn fertile,
and I absolutely know 1 can add to the fer
tility of my soil every year and never use
any commercial fertilizer unless It i# a little
acid and potash. On two acre# thl# year I
have made five bale# of cotton, averaging
565 pound# per bale. For these five bales 1
got 14} cents per pound and sold all the seed
from the five bale# for $2 per bushel. The
two acres netted about six hundred dollar#,
for I only used about 4 00 pound# fertilizer to
the acre. I only planted -8 acre# to cotton
this time, but have gotten 29 bale# from the
18 acres. The two acre# Just spoken of will
nearly pay expenses of my entire crop.
* * I lifjl'p tiAAti f n r m I ri n> otilo I . I
” ”’n ” ■* ■/ ' i»» n, it tl'l
what little buccpmb I have worked out along
this line, I muat attribute to my clone adher
ence to the principles you are constantly ad
vocating. Kor myself, 1 want to thnnk you
out of the fullness of my h«*art for what you
and your laborH have done for me.**
ThlH Ih the sort of letter that encourages us In
our efforts to Improve Southern farming, for It Is
the making of profitable crops that we need In the
South, the making of good crops at the minimum
of coBt, and the permanent Improvement of the
land while making them. One friend writes that
he would like to have that acre of Mr. Ilatts's
to plant strawberries on this spring. He thinks
that he would make more than the corn made
with no more fertilizer. It would, of course, be
Interesting to know what the residual .-ff.*ct of the
heavy manuring Mr. Matts made will be on the
succeeding crops, and I hope be will test It.
We feel safe In saying that practically every
farm In the South should have a permanent pas
ture enclosed with a good fence. We have In Mer
muda one of the best pasture grasses in the
world, and we might as well get some profit out
of It as to spend all our time fighting It In the
cotton and corn fields.
The South's Need for Greenhouses.
y^n\ AM TRYING some of the double Sunlight
hot-bed sashes and they seem all right, and
tS'J will save a great deal of work In covering
the frames in cold weather. If our lettuce grow
ers would use them they would find that In the
long run they are far cheaper and better than cot
ton cloth and steam.
But what Is yet to he the great development
in trucking In the upper South Is the use of glass
in heated green-houses for winter forcing of to
matoes, cucumbers, and other things. Fortunes
are being made In the North on small areas of
land In this work, under condition of climate far
worse than ours. Up along the I.ake region at
Cleveland and Augusta, Ohio, and nt Irondequoit.
New York, hundreds of acres are covered with
green-houses heated by steam for growing lettuce
mainly, while we can grow as good In glass-cov
ered cold frames.
Then with the more tender plants like tomatoes
and cucumbers wo have the wonderful advantage,
not only In a m4l«1er climate, but In the winter
sunshine that counts for mere than fire heat with
the dark cloudy weather of the l,nke region and
New England At Arlington. Mass . one grower
has arc lights stretched over his lettuce houses to
help out the deficient sunlight In lecturing to
the gardeners at Cleveland Ohio last winter I told
them that If the South ever enters Into the busi
ness of winter forcing In green-hous** they would
be beaten out of the business 01a««-covered let
tuce frames will be a start, for we do not need the
green-hout'e* for this crop, and when a man once
gets to using glass he soon wants a green house,
and, once started, the business Is certain to ex
tend. ,
I saw at 0‘eveJand a place,on land worth |2.0d0
an acre, or more, where a man formerly a school
tearher ha* six acre* In green house*, one of which
cover* two acres, and all the house* at the time of
my visit were planted In lettuce, that would be
followed by tomatoes and cucumber# later This
man has made a fortune on hi# little place of
eleven acres, and burn# f 4,000 worth of coal every
winter.
At Ashtabula. Ohio, l|opktn« and Dunbar have
about "0 green-houses In their vegetable busi
ness. and at lrondequolt. N Y.. there are 200 es
tablishments growing winter vegetable# under
glass, and a large number at Orand Rapid*. Mich .
where Eugene |>avls originated the Orand Rapid#
lettuce, the loose curly lettuce that sell# In the
West but not In the East, where heading lettuce
la demanded The Orand Rapid* lettuce sell# by
the pound, and l# really better than head lettuce
At Arlington and other place# around Itoston
they grow head lettuce In their green house*, and
cucumber# and tomatoes, too. and down at l*lne
hurst, N C . there |# an Arlington man growing
the finest of cucumber# In heated hou«e* and the
finest of lettuce, too. In frame# and house*, and
Is growing them at a small part of the cost that
ho grew them In Massachusetts Some day th#
South may wake up to a knowledge of the great
advantage they have there for this sort of winter
work.
Notes and Comments.
EHE EDITOR l# right In aaylng that the mak
ing of 160 bushels of corn or more on a
single acre by extra fertilisation and a
prolific corn la valuable aa showing a hat la possi
ble to be done, but It Is far more Important to
show how to make 60 to 75 bushel* of corn per
acre on the whole of a man's field by good farming
and less expenditure.
TIIK STOCK FEED l im it.—Dr liutler's ar
ticle about Stork medicine swindles goes to the
point. \\ hen 1 was chief editor of n farm paper
1 kicked against the stock feed advertisements,
but the owner said: *'We cannot afford to drop
them, for they pay 13.000 a year.*' The Progres
sive Farmer and Gaxette could easily get that,
too, If It was disposed to look after the $3,000 lu
Htead of looking after the real Interests of the
farmers who read the paper. We nro trying to
make a paper that will help the farmers and not
swindle them.
"You need five drugs.” said a foolish physician
to a patient: "water, food, air, sleep, and exer
cise." Hut the patient sought another doctor, and
the foolish physician died poor.