The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., June 11, 1910, Page 414, 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, j
"The Most Valuable Crop of the South."
THUS PROFESSOR BARROW writes of the
cowpea. I have been talking and writing
cowpeas for so many years that it is gratify
ing to me for others to be taking up the advocacy
of the pea crop.
Time and again I have urged that it is not good
farm economy to bury peas as
manure direct, and Professor
Barrow shows well the impor
tance of feeding this valuable
forage and getting its feeding
value before using it as ma
nure. And he well states that
while we can recover but 80
per cent of the manurial value
of the crop, that 80 per cent is
so much more available that it
is really fully as valuable, if
not more so, than the whole crop buried would
be. The South needs more stock feeding and can
grow more feed of a high protein character than
the Northern farmers can. We can raise more
per acre of the best cattle hay than can possibly
be grown in the North, we can grow it at a
smaller cost, and this being true, we should be
able to feed cattle more profitably than the North
ern farmer can.
' And the growing of the crop will have helped
the soil through the nitrogen fixed in the roots
as well as that secured in the forage used; and
as I have said time and again, and as farmers in
other sections have proved to be true, no farmer
in the cotton country, who farms in a good rota
tion, grows plenty of legume forage, and feeds it
and saves the manure with intelligent care, need
ever to buy an ounce of nitrogen in any form in
a fertilizer. This is more true in the Cotton Belt
than elsewhere if the cotton farmer uses the meal
made from his cottonseed instead of selling the
seed to go abroad to feed cattle in Europe and the
North and make other people rich at his expense.
Feed liberally the crops that feed the cattle and
the soil with the plant food they need, and they
will enrich you.
Help Us to Help Yourself and Others.
MR. FRENCH has asked a small favor that I
would like to see all readers respond to.
We want to make The Progressive Farmer
and Gazette, already the leading farm paper in the
South, the leading farm paper of the whole coun
try, so far as being the greatest force in the coun
try for the uplifting of Southern farming is con
cerned. It would take very little effort for every
one of the 100,000 who read and value the paper
to induce one more farmer to take and read it,
and if every one who now reads and values the
paper would do this, there would be 100,000 who
could easily do the same thing, and ere long we
would have half a million readers instead of the
100,000.
Than with auph a olrrnil atlnn what trraat im.
provements could be made In the get-up of the
paper Itself! I get letter after letter from South
ern farmers praising the work we are doing, and
saying that they would not be without the paper
at double the price, and that every Southern
farmer should take it. Now the men who are
feeling in this way about the paper can show their
appreciation in no better way than in aiding us in
Increasing of the number of subscribers. We are
trying to make the paper indispensable to every
wide-awake farmer, and we are doing more than
almost any other paper does in personal corre
spondence with our readers, replying promptly to
their queries and never making them wait a week
or two for an answer in the paper. The replies
printed are but a small part of the replies writ
ten, for many of the queries are of importance
only to the writers and not of general interest.
But they get the replies all the same when a
stamped envelope or a stamp is enclosed for the
reply. Most farmers write few letters and can not
fully realize the amount of labor involved in writ
ing all these thousands of personal letters. But
it is cheerfully done, though they make no show
in the paper, and simply show to each one that we
have a real Interest in trying to help him. When
we spend a dollar’s worth of time and labor in
writing personal letters of information, is it too
much to ask that those who get these replies so
promptly shall feel that they should take some
interest in getting others into the Family who can
be benefited in the same way?
We are trying to help you. Will you not try
to help us help others?
The Farming of Mr. John Crakore.
IT WAS EARLY September, and here and there
over the cotton field the bolls were opening
their snowy fruit. John Crakore sat on his
porch taking his noon rest with his pipe, when his
old neighbor, Jim Mulekin, came up.
"John, I have come over to talk more about this
improved farmin’ you're doin'. We-alls down at
the store have been discussin’ it, an' we hev come
to the conclusion that we-alls have got to go to
farmin’ somewhat in the same way if we are to
make anything.
“They say you made a bumper crap of oats, an'
your corn was something wonderful. Now, I
would like to know how much fertilizer and what
sort you put on the corn and the oats.”
“I did not put any fertilizer on the corn at all;
that is, no fertilizer out of a sack. I had crimson
clover, as you know, on that field last winter,
and all winter lonir. whenever I could haul on
the land with a manure spreader, I spread the
manure made by my horses, cows, and beeves, and
when the clover was perfectly mature, I turned
the whole under and prepared the land for the
corn. Then I cut the corn off at the ground and
cured it in shocks and disked the land fine and
sowed oats in September, using on the oats 300
pounds of acid phosphate. 1 made this year near
ly 70 bushels of oats an acre. My corn now is be
ing treated in the same way, and as we have a
beef club, as you know, I have still some cattle In
the stalls, and now I am cleaning the manure out
and this afternoon will start to spread it between
the cotton rows.”
“Manurin’ cotton when the bolls are beginnin'
to open?” said Jim.
"Well, I do not know that the manure will do
much for the cotton; but it will spoil in a heap,
and I am going to sow crimson clover among that
cotton shortly, and while I can not use the manure
spreader there, I know that if I scatter the manure
between the cotton rows, it will do no harm to the
cotton, aed will certainly help me to get a good
catch of clover. Then next winter the manure
will go on the clover for the corn next spring. You
see my corn this year, and every one says I will
make at least 75 bushels an acre, and In a few
more years of this sort of farming I hope to get
an average of 100 bushels an acre. Then after
the oats you see I have a splendid field of peas for
hay. I put 300 pounds of acid phosphate an 1 25
pounds of muriate of potash an acre on the peas,
f will sow crimson clover after the peas are cut.
and will turn it in spring for cotton and apply 100
pounds an acre of acid phosphate only on the cot
ton land broadcast, and plant on the level, har
row and use the weeder as usual, and the riding
cultivator, and I am working for two bales of cot
ton an acre, and from the lookB of the crop, will
CTCxf aim ACt + thla '*
‘‘I begin to see it.” said Jim. “Me and my old
mule will make about one-third of a bale an acre
this year, and it will take it all to settle up at the
store and pay for the fertilizer. And you ain’t
buyin’ any ready-mixed fertilizer at all?”
“No, I have long ago found out that I can get
all the ammonia I need, and more than 1 would
buy in a mixed fertilizer, by growing the peas
and clover and feeding the pea hay and corn
stover to stock and getting the manure for the
corn. There is nothing like stable manure to
make corn, especially when you have crimson
clover to put it on and turn under. You will see
that my corn is green to the ground, while I saw
yours fired almost to the ears.”
That’s so,’ said Jim, “and I can’t understand
it, for I put some 2—8 2 in the furrow under
that corn.”
“But you have not the stuff under it to hold the
moisture. Your corn is fired in the dry weather
following the heavy early rains, and you have
nothing there but the old dead Bkoleton of saad
and clay, while I have the decaying clover and
manure making humus that will hold moisture.
Then, too, you laid-by your corn with a turning
plow, banking the earth up to it and cutting tho
roots, while I went through as shallow as my two
liorse cultivator would run, and simply left a dust
blanket on the level ground.”
But, said Jim, I thought that the corn would
blow down if the soil wasn’t hilled up to it.”
“It has blown down worse than mine, as you
see, for you weakened it by cutting the roots, and
you covered the brace roots and made them ton
der, while mine .are left tough above the ground
and hold oa hard with their uncut roots.
“Why don't you take the paper and study these
things?" asked John. "That is where I have
learned these improved methods. The man in
these days who fails to study his profession is not •
going to succeed. The whole South Is waking up.
and if you want to keep up with the procession!
you must wake up and go to farming."
"But I ain’t got the money you have."
“I had no more than you when I determined to
do better, and it only takes brains and energy to
do better. You can better afford to go in debt for
horses and implements than for 2 S—2 fertility,
and grow cotton and only corn enough to feed a
mule. And I have seen that solemn old mule of
yours walking along the rows looking as though
he was wondering If there was going to be corn
enough made to keep him alive next winter, if
you must go In debt, go in for things that are go
ing to get you out of the hands of the merchant
and fertilizer man. You are working harder
than necessary if you only knew how to make
your work pay better. I have money because I
planned to nave some coming in at all season* in
stead of depending on the one crop of cotton for
all the money I need. So long as you do that
you will have the same old thing to do erery
spring- go In debt for supplies, and then at the
end take everything you have made to square up.
and go through the same process the next spring.
It is that sort of farming that has kept you poor
and made your land poor, and so long as you keep
spending your money for a little 200 pounds an
acre of a fertilizer that Is one-fourth sand, aad
grow no forage aad feed no stock, make no ma
il re and look to the cotton crop to pay for every
thing else, you will keep poor and your land will
remain poor.
• There's more In the man than In the land. Get
a move ou you. The land Is all right. If the
man does hls duty by It. nnd the land will con
tinue to make poor crops so long as the man falla
to do hia duty by It.
‘ The greatest corn belt is right here in the
South, and many farmers are finding it out. white
men like you are every rear buying the frosted,
rotten Western corn. Get a move on you and
stop talking about ihe miseries of a mwiautr
farmer. Get some sand in your craw "
Shallow Tillage and Moisture.
IN MY HOMK garden I am doing nearly all the
cultivation now with a rake, tnorely breaking
the cruat after every rain; and no matter
how dry it gets. I can kick really moist soil under
the dust blanket with the top of my shoe at any
time. And how things do grow since the weather
has turned warmer. My early corn Is over kne«
high, and I am hoping for roasting ears before the
end of June. I'eas, of course, w«* hnve had since
the first week In May, and have Into ones coming
on. I have often said that the earlier we get to
mato plants out and have them live, the earlier
they will he. I set out my first ones early In
April. They have passed through two frosts by
being covered with earth Since then 1 have set
out from the frame other plants of the same age.
but the ejirly set ones nre twice us large now and
fruiting. These, too. have had the name shallow
lake cultivation, and the moisture has been re
tained and all the weeds In reach of germination
have been killed and I will bring no more up to
sprout.
In fact, I am rather proud of the garden.
<»r I hear people say: "Oo out to see Professor
Massey's garden; there Is nothing like It here”
And they come, and I sell them plants that they
COUJf! oanllv hnvo lvt.,1 Si....a
~ mins it im'w
Klass and Home love f„r the work
I have ordered a largo lot of tho now Sunlight
double-glazed nanlies for tho fall and will keep
i ins garden growiag something to oat nud sell all
next winter If health and strength remain with
me. The shallow cultivation of the garden Is Just
a« good for the cotton held, tho peanut field, or
m com field, and zny peanuts will got tho same
rake work that other things get.
Dr. Butler Is right. Whore Johnson grass has
aken the country, as It has la Oktibbeha County.
Mississippi, It means cattle, and with ticks plentl
u , uitt e cannot be an profitable an they would ba
' 1,10 t,ckH were eradicated and the eattlo men
ree to ship when and where they please.
A M»h1 estimate of the Intelligence of a paper’s
u iscrihers Is the number of itatent medicine ads.
carries. The more Ignorant the constituency
the heavier Is tho advertising.