The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., February 19, 1910, Page 118, Image 2

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

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Professor Massey’s
Editorial Page.
The Right Way to Use Fertilizers.
—
■ WOULD BE GLAD to know that every
reader of The Progressive Farmer and
Gazette has determined to begin this spring
with a systematic rotation of crops on his farm,
and to plan for its permanent building up in fer
tility through good farming.
But the prospect does not seem to be good yet
for any general adoption of farming in place of
growing crops for sale by means of fertilizers, for
my mail is full of letters from farmers asking if
it will pay them to use this, that or the other
fertilizer mixture. It is a puzzle, with the best
endeavors to help people, to advise them what
fertilizer they should use on their land, as it is
impossible for me to know what their particular
60il really needs. Many ask me for special for
mulas for cotton, corn, oats, potatoes, and every
crop they intend to plant, for, as I have often
said, our farmers have gotten the notion that fer
tilizers are sovereign cure-alls for all soil com
plaints, and the greatest expenditure most of them
make every year is for fertilizers. It would be
a different thing if the land was growing better
through this annual fertilization with complete
fertilizers for every crop. But In the majority of
cases it is not doing so, and the same old round
of fertilization is adopted every year at a great
cost, when more than half the cost could be avoid
ed and the land bettered by a different course of
treatment.
I nave hammered at this idea for years, and
will continue to do so in the paper and in personal
replies to the fertilizer gamblers, for it is purely
a gambling game to depend on fertilizers to make
every crop vre grow. They may show a profit in
the immediate crop, but the annual repetition of
the practice leads to the need for more and more
fertilizer, and more and more waste of money
every year that could be saved by farming Instead
of gambling on the chances with fertilizers only.
Yet almost every letter I get from a farmer begins
with the statement that he has a piece of poor
land that he wants to grow a big crop of cotton
or corn on, and wants to know how to mix a fer
tilizer that will insure a large crop on land not
in a condition to make one.
Hence, I often read my correspondents a lecture
In reply to their queries about fertilizers, and try
to show them that they can save money and in
crease the productivity of their land by good farm
ing rather than by using so much fertilizer.
If I were running a cotton farm, I would use
the bulk of my fertilizers on the peas and crimson
clover, and on these no ammoniated goods, but
on many soils only acid phosphate or basic slag,
for I would be sure that with an abundance of
legume forage to feed I could make manure for
my corn and be all the time getting all the nitro
gen needed for the sale crops. Feed the legumes
with what they need and they will feed the cattle
and the soil.
Profitable Corn Crops.
n[D YOU NOTICE the accounts of the splen
did corn crops the hoys made? And espe
cially did you note the fact that one of the
best crops was made without commercial fertilizer
and but $8 worth of manure? The boy who used
1,000 pounds of fertilizer made corn at a cost of
• 1 cents a bushel, while the boy who made corn
with manure made It at a cost of 14| cents a
bushel, or lees than half the cost where fertilizer
was used. Then there Is another point. The
manure added some humus-making material to
the soil, and Its effects on crept for years may
be seen while the residual effect of the fertilizer
that added no humus will be far less. How much
manure was bought for the $8, I do not know, for
the price of manure varies in different localities
Our truckers here, for Instance, use thousands of
tons of New York stable manure that costs $2.7G
per ton at the railroad station. At this price $8
would have added little to the acre. And yet, I
know one farmer who bought last year 8,000 tons
of this manure and made money out of It, while
adding permanent Improvement to his soil.
Another advantage of the manure Is, that It
encourages the growth of grass. Right across the
road from a place I have recently bought Is a
sand ridge, where U Is fully ten feet to any
clay. And yet, on that sand ridge there Is a sod
of Kentucky bluegrass that Kentucky cannot boat,
and no amount of commercial fertilizer could
have ever made It, while the Increase of humus
from stable manure and the growing of crimson
clover have covered that deep sand with a rank
sod.
Is It not far better to Increase our crops through
the growing of forage and feeding It and putting
the manure out to make com for 14| cents a
bushel than to spend our cash for commercial fer
tilizer and make corn at a cost of 60 cents a
bushel as many do? Mr. Batts made a great crop
of corn, but it costs 65 cents a bushel. A farmer
I know made 97| bushels over a whole field at a
cost of less than 10 cents, because through years
of good farming he has stocked his land with hu
mus, and the clover sod gave him the crop with
no fertilizer at all. For years I have been telling
our farmers that It does not pay to grow com
with commercial fertilizers. Not that they cannot
at times show a temporary profit when com Is
very high In price, but that In the long run they
are losing money by so doing, instead of building
up tbelr soil through legume crops and getting
the humus back through feeding these.
Cotton Still Our Best Crop.
■" ■" ■ '* "
IT IS TRUE that cotton, aa it ha* been
grown, ha* been the mean* of reducing the
- fertility of the soil, but the damage ha*
not been due to the crop, but because of bad
fanning. With better farming !t is evident that
cotton should be the greatest and most profitable
money crop that can be made In the South.
When a man makes over two bales of lint per
acre at a cost of $10.96 per acre, as do some men
I know, in a season like the past with cotton now
worth 15 cents per pound. It Is evident that there
are few crops that can compete with cotton for
profit where the farmer farms Intelligently. That
cotton has been, and is being, grown all over the
South at too high a cost is certainly true, and
that the majority of those devoting their exclusive
attention to cotton have made no money u true
Rut this is not the fault of the crop but of the
farming. In the case of the man mentioned, had
cotton been down to the lowest price, say 6 rent*
per pound, he would hare made a fair profit per
acre, while the cropper whose cotton costa 6 or 7
cent* per pound would have been a loser. There
fore. it comes back to the fact that cotton 1* a
very profitable crop where a man farms right, nnd
a bad crop for the man who devotes all his atten
tion and land to cotton and gambles on n little
dose of 2—8—2 fertilizer, and expect* his cotton
to pay for everything else he ne^ds. Rut all over
the South there is now a wave of Interest In better
methods that promises much for the future.
usage Urange Hedges a nuisance.
_ • i
KARS AGO there wa* a grent furor for
planting o*age orange for farm hedge*.
- and In *omo of the best section* whole
neighborhood* were lined with the*e hedge*, and
farmer* thought that they had a permanent fence
that would not cost a great deal for the annual
trimming. For a time all went well. Then It
was found that the roots of the hedge* ran ten
or twelve feet into the field* and no crop* could
be grown anywhere near them. *o that the lo«*
was greater than the co*t of keeping up good
fence*. Then It was found that the plant* would
die out here and there, making gapB in the hedge,
and the farmer* began to tire of the hedge*. Thon
there was a revival of interest In them when a
company with a patent plan of running wire* on
the line of the hedge and cutting dltche* along
side to prevent the roots from running out, ex
ploited the whole oountry and got many to plant
hedge* on their plan, the company promising to
care for the hedge for a fixed price till estab
lished.
When I had charge of the agricultural Interest*
of the Miller School in Virginia, one of thl* com
pany's promoters got the ear of the board of
trustees and persuaded them to plant three miles
of their hedge. In vain I protested that I knew
all about the worthlessness of the hedge, but it
was planted, and I told them that in less than five
years they would be glad to get rid of It. All of
which turned out true. Now it is found that the
osage orange Is the greatest of all harborers of
the San Jose scale, and no matter how carefully
a man sprayB his orchard trees, if he has a hedge
of the osage orange, it will be always furnishing
a fresh supply. In Maryland it haB been ordered
that these hedges muBt be sprayed or destroyed.
And there comes the trouble, for one had aa well
try to kill sassafras and persimmon hushes aa th®
hedges, for every root cut will sprout, and the
hedge will got wider and wider every year if th*
sprouts are allowed to grow, and it takes years
of cutting to clean It up.
Every one who has the worthless thing on hit
land should at once set about Its destruction.
Grub out all signs of roots as far as possible, and
then watch for the sprouts and keep the mower
running along the line of the hedge, for If the
tops are constantly cut off the roots wnl finally
die.
Permanent Pastures in the South.
OFTEN GET LETTERS from Southern
farmers asking for methods for making a
permanent pasture In the South and what
grasses to aow. I usually advise starting with
orchard grass and redtop with Kentucky blue,
grass on the red clay upland, the bluegrass to
form the Qnal sod. Of course, in most places the
Bermuda will finally creep in. but the bluegrass
can be maintained, I am sure, if the pasture has
the proper attention. Simply left as a pasture
and no further attention given. It Is certain that
the field will finally be covered with broomsedge.
You cannot maintain a good pasture constantly
n » M • A 4 i. U MMt. U M A I A .A a — t- I _ _ ii. . a — —
'-* •**»!* imp yui;r
phate out of the land In the formation of their
bony ayatem. and expect the aoil to maintain ila
productiveness. Broomaedge la nature's means In
the South for curing man * waste, and we would
have had a howling wilderness but for the broom*
sedge and the pine tree. But a pasture can be
maintained In the South and broomaedge kept
out If the pasture la treated properly.
When the A. 4 M Collego was started at Ra
leigh. N. C, we had one building on a alight eleva
tion surrounded by a waits of brickbat* and »mall
rocks on aa poor a piece of land as could be found
In the neighborhood. The land was cleaned up
and deeply broken and cowpe** sown and turned
under the following fall and the land prepared
and sown to bluegras* and rye grass for a lawn
and parade ground. Every one there knows that
a beautiful lawn was made One day a man
from Ohio was visiting the college. In a trip look
ing for land, and standing on the lawn, he said
to me: "I have always heard that you could not
grow grass In the South, but thla looks like yon
could." And we certainly can If we give It proper
attention. At the old experiment farm at Ra
leigh. now the poultry department of the station,
there I* on the top of a bar* unahaded hill a sod
over twenty year* old that Is as strong and
springy a* any In Kentucky; and Just auch a sod
can be maintained on any of the red clay hill* of
the South If cared for.
Up In Maryland, not many ml!*# from the city
of Baltimore, there la a section of rough hill* that
were notoriously poor many year* ago. The own
er* went into the grating of cattle, getting thin
cattle from the West In spring and putting them
on the grass and selling to the butcher* In th»
fall. They only used two-year steer* with their
bony system well formed, and the** did not «x
haunt tho land an calm* and younicor cuttle
would. The land carried few at first. but every
spring the sod was dressed over with S00 pound*
of raw bone meal per acre, and every year th*
sod grew denser The land has been unbroken
for more than fifty years, and to-day feeds more
cattle by several time* over than It did at firs*,
growing such a mat of grass that more is trodden
down than Is eaten
Now. I do not believe that there Is an old red.
galled hill in the South that could not be main
tained In sod and Improved In the same way and
the broomsedge kept out by the ranker growth
of the better grasses. Especially if once In sli
or seven years a dressing of lime Is brushed in
with a smoothing harrow, and weeds and rank
tufts of grass from the droppings are mown off
occasionally. You cannot eat your oake and keep
it too, and this 1m truo of a permanent pasture
V)U must feed the sod to keep it improving.
Dressed with bone dust annually and limed once
1n Mix or seven years, wo can maintain a sod on
clay soli In the South. On the lighter, sandy soils
of the coast region llermuda and Texas bluegrass
can be maintained In tho same way, the one for
summer and the other for winter.
Experiments that have been made at the etn
tlonH, and especially at the Ohio Station, show
that the effectiveness of manure !h greatly increas
ed by the addition of even as little a* 40 pounds
of acid phosphate or floats to a ton of manure.