The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., June 11, 1910, Page 416, Image 4

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

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$500 More a Year farming: How to Get It
BY PLANTING THE OAT AND WHEAT LAND IN
LEGUMES.
Because Prices of Cowpeas and Soy Beans for Seed Are High
is Only One More Reason Why We Should Raise Our Own
Seed for Next Year—We Cannot Afford to Keep on Working
Poor Land.
Tait Butler.
T NO PREVIOUS time in the
history of Southern agricul
ture has there been such a gen
eral and intense interest in the grow
ing of legumes. This is chiefly due
to a better knowledge of agriculture
and two important characteristics
possessed by this class of plants:
First, they gather nitrogen, the most
expensive plant food deficient in our
soils, from the air and, second, they
are among the most valuable and
nutritious of all our forage plants.
It seems to me these two facts have
not been fully appreciated or there
would be five times the legumes
grown that have ever yet been pro
duced in this country. Our soils are
«/\1 tr 1 nnr t n Vtn m nn ♦ n n /I
nearly all of them lack nitrogen to
an equal extent. Here is a class of
plants that supply humus, and nitro
gen gathered from the air, to our
soils; and at the same time furnish
forage rich in those food elements
necessary for the growing of young
animals, the production of milk, and
the feeding of our work stock. Af
ter all that has been said in The
Progressive Farmer and Gazette
about the importance of growing
more legumes it may appear to some
entirely needless to repeat the ad
monition to plant the oat and wheat
stubble to some legume, but the
high price of seed, the pressure of
other work and the inclination to do
as little as convenient, which is al
ways present in the human make-up,
will, we fear, result in many an oat
and wheat stubble field being left to
grow up in weeds instead of being
sowed to cowpeas or soy beans.
Why You Can Afford to Buy Peas
to Sow.
Is the price of cowpeas so high
that any farmer can not afford to
buy them? There are two reasons
why this is not true. First, one-half
bushel of cowpeas, costing $1.50, will
plant one acre in drills 30 inches
apart, and this acre of average land
will produce 8 to 10 bushels of peas,
probably, and a ton of hay almost
certainly. In case only the ton of
hay is secured, will be secured at
a cost of not to exceed $6 or $8 at
the outside figure, and will contain
$1 0 worth of fertilizer; while the
stubble and roots will also contain
plant foods worth $2 or $3 addition
al. If all this be left on the ground
to be plowed under as soon as ma
ture, or to be pastured, the cost of
producing the crop will not exceed
$6 per acre including cost of seed
and all labor. If the crop be plowed
under there will be at least a profit
of 100 per cent in the value of the
nitrogen added to the soil. In addi
tion, the beneficial effects upon the
mechanical condition of the soil,
from the plowing in of needed or
ganic or vegetable matter, will large
ly increase the yield of the succeed
ing crop, independent of the benefit
to be derived from -the nitrogen
added.
When It May Pay to Plow Under a
Crop.
As a general rule we do not ap
prove of any crop that is suitable
for feeding being plowed under; but
on many Southern soils of medium
or low productive capacity, due to
lack of humus, an investment of $G
or $8 per acre for vegetable matter
to plow under, will frequently pay
handsome profits in increased yields
of succeeding crops. In such case it
should be looked upon as an invest
ment of a more or less permanent
nature and not as a general farm
practice to be followed every year.
While at the Tennessee Experi
ment Station recently I saw them
plowing under a tremendously heavy
crop of green barley and vetch, and
while there may be some doubt of
the wisdom of plowing under that
amount of feed on laud sufficiently
fertile to produce two tons or better
of barley and vetch hay per acre,
there is no doubt of the improve
ment which such a practice would
make in the crop yields on practi
cally all our Southern soils. It will
never pay to take five or ten years’
time, growing medium to light crops
during the first half of the period,
to imurove our soils. The total
crop production for the period may
be much increased by plowing under
at the start a crop of peas or other
humus-forming material, thereby
doubling the yields for the remain
ing years of the period.
Have Your Own Peas to Plant Next
Year.
Another reason you can pay even
$3 a bushel for cowpeas, rather than
fail to plant every acre possible, is
that if seed are high we should pro
duce them and reap the benefit of
the high price. Peas are a farm
product and every farmer should re
joice at their high value and seek
to profit thereby. Cowpeas are the
most popular summer legume in the
South and, everything considered,
probably justly so; but there is an
other which may also be planted
after oats and wheat which deserves
more attention than it has yet re
ceived. The seed of this legume is
also high-priced, but it yields about
Hmihlo tho non n 1 I ir J X...
---.7
cowpeas; from a third to a half of
a bushel will plant an acre in 30
inch rows; and the yield of hay will
be about as great as from cowpeas
We refer, of course, to soy beans,
the seed of which are this year only
from 50c. to $1 a bushel lower in
price than are cowpeas, and as stated
the yield of seed is usually twice
as great.
Put Legumes on Every Available
Acre.
With these two summer legumes,
both of which readily mature after
a crop of small grain; there is abso
lutely no need of any scarcity of feed
yji ui a single acre or poor sol I in
the whole South. At the Tennessee
Experiment Station a rotation of
barley and peas, and barley and soy
beans, the crops fed to steers and
the manure returned to the land, has
made the soil immensely rich; while
at the same time growing crops
which produced around 500 pounds
to 700 pounds of gain on beef cattle,
per acre. We hope that no reader
of The Progressive Farmer and Ga
zette will listen to or be influenced
by the do-nothing argument that it
will not pay to sow every acre of oat
and wheat stubble to cowpeas or soy
beans, because of the high price of
seed. When hogs are high in price,
every Southern farmer takeB more
interest in producing his own meat
supply; why not apply the same prin
cipal to the growing of cowpeas and
soy beans and at the same time in
crease the fertility of the soil and
reap a profit, either through the
selling of seed at a high price or by
letteing the hogs gather them and
selling the hogs at a profit.
It will pay to buy cowpeas and
soy bean seed at from $2.50 to $•!
a bushel, to sow after oats and
wheat, if for no other purpose than
to grow a crop to plow under to sup
ply humus to our impoverished soils.
Methods of Planting Cow pen* After
Oats.
A correspondent in Marlon County.
Alabama, asks whether cowpeas after
oats should be sown broadcast or
planted in drills and cultivated.
There is no one best method of
planting cowpeas after oats, Cten
erally I prefer to plow the land flush
and then either drill In the cowpeas.
or, if they are sown broadcast, to
cover them with a solid disk harrow
or other implement doing the same
character or worn, lor example, an
Acme harrow.
However, in the rush of work it is
sometimes best merely to plow in the
seed with plows run shallow. In this
case harrowing should bo prompt
and thorough, so mat clods may not
prevent your getting a good stand
Of course, the chief advantage of
sowing cowpeas broadcast and plow
ing them in, as compared with any
other method, is the saving of time
and the fact that this work can to
done soon after rain, while the fields
of cotton and corn nre too wet to be
cultivated.
With fair seasons and on fair land
the yield of cowpea hay is usually
a little better from broadcast sowing
than from planting in drills far
enough apart for cultivation. Hov.
ever, since drilling and cultivating
so greatly economizes seed. It will
be a favorite method tills year, when
seed are high and scarce If th<
cowpeas thus drilled are to be cut
for hay, it is important in cultivating
not to form any ridges, or to throw
as little' soil to the plants in cultiva
tion as possible. The largest yields
of seed are made by drilling and
cultivating cowpeas.
In many cases, or on most grades
of land where cowpeas are needed,
it will be profitable to use at least
200 pounds of acid phosphate per
acre. This may be placed In Imme
lliofrt esxitnnt •..1st. > t ■
-- —..nun iuc ur ii iua>
be harrowed In after the seed ar<
sown, especially If you desire to get
the seed In promptly after a rain
without waiting to put In the for
tlllzer. this case you will, of
course, not wait long to apply tin
fertilizer; otherwise the seed will
havo sprouted. J. F DUOGAK.
Alabama Experiment Station.
Improved Implements Fay.
Messrs. Editors: In the last few
years I have bought |300 worth of
farm and labor-saving tools. First
I bought a mowing machine, and
every farmer should have one 1
then bought a McCormick self bind
er for wheat and oats. I should
have to stop sowing grain If I had t,
depend on hand labor to harvest It
I then bought a Roderick i^an two
hfirun elillt... ...in
-r. '•uiuuigr. intH |R n
line plow, easy to operate and doe.
line work. One man can do as much
work as two men and two horses,
and it is done better. Next 1 bought n
disk two-horse harrow. This is an ex
cel lent tool for putting In small grain
and ordering land. This Is a tongue
less disk, which I greatly prefer to on.
with a tongue. Seeing so much said
about manure spreaders I decided t<
try one, I wrote to Win. Galloway ol
Waterloo, Iowa. He soon replied
and made mo a special ofTor. that
could take his spreader and use It \\
months, and then, if I was not satig
fled, I could return it at his expPnge
It gives entire satisfaction; ^
simple in construction, pulls easily
and spreads manure very evenly j
have a pair of mules weighing about
1,000 pounds each that handle It with
ease. It tv a 60-bushel wagon-bo*
spreader.
For all these implements I consld
er the money well spent, but the
manure spreader i think the nioet
valuable. You make your manure go
Just twice as far and do the game
good. W. S. WRIGHT,
W A f)_2'bu Pound Uoliwii M—,.
W Hn 1 UL/ l%lo Iri.h Potato p»arf^
T. F. BURKS..Flo# Bluff?'Ark.
COWPEAS FOR SALE
Naw Kra. fcl *>; Whippoorwill, H.SQ, f. %, k
Canton. Mammotb Sot Boon a. imparted fa.
Manchuria. I? V) a bu«hrt. All prrfactjy Mate
and purr and abaolutrly frra of waarit.
Apply to
MISSISSIPPI STATE BANK
r antnn .... M ia a i.aL *
N. L. WILLET SEED CO.,
August*. Gi.
6.000 Bushols Planting Cotton Soois
All Leading Kinds- -High Grade.
FORAGE SEEDS - Large amount*—
Cow pc a*. Velvet llran* Soy Betas,
Peanuts, etc.
Mexican June Seed Cora For
Sale
Selected and tiubbed $3 00 per bush*
el. Will mature planted as late la
July lat.
il. A BEATTIE. : SttrkvUlc. Mia*.
■•KM taw Swd Cwa fm Ml
It 71 par bu.hai. f. a. h I Aka l‘wtlilw<» U
J. B. ERWIN. WaddUl F. O, U.
IMPROVED
Mexican June Corn
Wa haw Improved Iha qutlHf at our raw to tka
flaoa where It will pnduc* two larv* aara to Wa
•talk, and aarh aar inraflar from elm to MW
Humthni iriaina. Hrllrt plant NOW. bat W*
matura if plantod aa lata aa Jnljr JMk
Win atand aar drouabt W'aavila will not baWar
IL Evarjr prala uniform and perfect. Wa b(W
Ihla corn put up In on# half l>u«hel aarka and W®
dallvar lhant to dapot for It Ut) aarh.
Hojr tba BENT, plant tha llENT and gwt AHEAD.
Evorjr (rain ruarantmi to c va»a up
Tucker t Buford, • Pickens, Miss.
I