The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., July 16, 1910, Page 494, Image 2

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

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Professor Massey’s
Editorial Page.
A Big Drainage Proposition That Pays.
LAST WEEK I was on a farm in the Dismal
Swamp in Virginia that would be an educa
tion to any of our Southern farmers to visit.
This is the great 6,000-acre farm that the late
A. W. Lindsay cut out of the swamp along the
east side of the canal. The locks in the canal
keep the water up 22 feet above tide, and the
drainage is towards the Eliza
beth River eastward. Mr. Lind
say divided the great tract in
to rectangles of about 80 acres
by great ditches, and there is
plenty of fall towards the river
for good drainage.
The farm coming into posses
sion of his son, Mr. Frank Lind
say, a manufacturer in Ports
mouth, but the most enthusias
Professor Massey, tic of farmers, he determined
to make the drainage more complete, and to sink
the water down so that he can grow alfalfa on
that rich soil, as rich as the Delta of the Mis
sissippi or the Yazoo.
He bought a steam dredge and set it up in a
corn field ditch and pumped in water enough to
Uoat it and then cut his canal down-grade, the
water ionowing, or course, tie nas now cut over
seven miles, and is down to a tide-water marsh
where he is straightening the channel of the creek
to Elizabeth River to give him a short cut to
tow his loaded barges to Norfolk.
The whole canal will be ten miles long, 30 feet
wide, and .starting seven feet deep at the upper
end, is over 15 feet deep at the lower end. In
the upper reaches where I went the water is sim
ply trickling down in a little stream 15 feet below
the surface where once there was a morass on
high land. Ten feet below the surface the dredge
cut through a bed of sea shells two feet thick,
and these rotten shells will make a fine applica
tion to the black soil. At the lower end the wa
ter is eight feet deep in the canal, and Mr. Lind
say intends to put in a lock so that he can take
barges up into the farm to load, and can, if
needed, back up the water in a dry time and irri
gate the land completely.
He has 2,200 acres in corn this summer that
will make 75 bushels an acre. There are also
300 acres in Irish potatoes now being shipped,
and I saw them digging potatoes that will run
from 85 to 100 barrels an acre. He estimates
his potato crop at 20,000 barrels. He has 125
hands on his pay-roll, and keeps a school for the
white and one for the black children, and hauls
the white children to school and back in wagon.
Talk about bonanza farming In the West, here is
a bonanza farm right near the seaport at Nor
folk, and there are millions of acres of these
Ewamp lands all over the South waiting for some
one with energy to open them up—land, too, that
an Illinois black prairie can not equal in fertility.
Drainage is unquestionably one of the big prob
^emB all over our territory.
rhe Weekly Papers and Fraudulent
Advertising.
THERE IS NO BETTER evidence of the new
spirit that is abroad in the South than the
active support the county papers are giving
to the colleges ofr agriculture and the experiment
stations, and the interest these papers are taking
in getting matter of agricultural interest for their
columns. The county papers can help greatly by
wise selections of Buch matter, avoiding the sen
sational fakes as a matter of course.
But one of the most unfortunate things con
nected with the weekly county papers is the fact
that most of them seem to think that filling their
pages with ads of patent medicines is necessary
for their existence.
In our town two weekly papers publish columns
of local news items in short paragraphs, but each
alternate paragraph is a puff of soma nostrum
worked right in the columns that people are sure
to read. In fact, many of these weekly papers
get most of their living from the patent medicine
fraud and can not be induced to drop the business
The county paper and the church paper are relied
upon by the makers of these nostrums more than
are any other sheets.
But they have more excuse for the practice than
the dailies in the great cities which could afford
to cut out the patent medicines, but will not do it,
but publish columns of these and whiskey ads sim
ply because they are profitable. There is some
hope of shaming the religious weeklies out of the
practice, but the great dailies, and weeklies like
Harper’s Weekly, seem hopeless.
Intercultural Fertilization.
I AM GETTING daily letters from farmers all
over the South, asking when, during the
growth of a crop, it is best to apply a second
or third application of commercial fertilizers.
Now, I do not believe in the value of these second
and third applications so far as the phosphoric
acid and potash used are concerned. I believe
that the time for the use of all of these that are
needed is before planting the crop. Phosphoric
acid and potash do not wash or leach from the
soil as nitrogen in the form of a nitrate does.
The soil will hold on to them for years till used
up by plants, and I can get better results from
these by being liberal enough with the ftrst appli
cation so that no more will be needed.
But with nitrogen the case is different, epeclal
ly where the nitrogen applied at the start was in
the form of nitrate of soda, which rapidly leaches
from the soil, and which is always better and
more profitably applied during the growth of the
cron.
But I have also (or many years argued that no
cotton or grain farmer needs to buy nitrogen
if he farms right. With a short rotation of
crops, the growing of an abundance of legume for
age and the feeding of it to stock, and using the
manure on the land, the farmer can maintain and
increase the productivity of his acreB without
spending a cent for nitrogen.
This is especially true with the cotton farmer
who wisely exchanges his seed for meal and hulls,
and feeds the meal with his roughage. The
wheat growers of eastern Maryland have long
since found that this is true, and the ma
jority of them have not bought ammonia in a fer
tilizer for many years, and during that time have
seen their crops doubled and trebled over what
they were when using a complete fertilizer and
depending on it alone.
I am heartily in favor of the liberal use of fer
tilizers, far more liberal than the cotton farmers
la general use. I know that the men who have
for years been dribbling 200 pounds of 2—8 2
per acre have wasted their money and impover
ished their soil, and that If they had dropped the
first “2" and doubled the money spent for the other
plant foods, there would have been more profit,
provided they had the help of their cottonseed
meal and the legume forage.
I have consistently opposed the growing of the
corn crop wdth the use of the complete commer
cial fertilizers, knowing well that the best prepa
ration for the corn crop Is a clover sod on which
the farm manure has been spread in winter.
And I also know that it Is the phosphoric acid
and potash that make the cotton fiber rather than
the nitrogen, and having plenty of nitrogen be
coming available through the whole growth of the
crop from clover and peas, and the residue of
the manure used, there will be ‘‘weed*’ enough
»huuui cijJiMu auuiin u i 111 me lcriiiifctjr,
for the main use of the nitrogen is to maintain
the vital activity of the plant.
But where the farmer Is merely growing cot
ton and gambling on the chances with fertilizers
alone, it may be of value to him to use nitrate of
soda during the growth of the crop, provided he
has used an abundance of phosphoric acid and
potash at the start. If he haB used only 200
pounds of 2 8 2 at the start, then he might add
more phosphate and potash with the nitrate and
risk results. But this is not farming. It is
merely growing cotton with the aid of fertilizers,
and the man who farms right can afford to use
phosphoric acid and potash far more liberally,
and never needs to spend a cent for ammonia or
nitrogen in any form.
Go to work and determine to have a farmers* in
stitute at your place and make arrangements for
it. Then go to the institute prepared to get out
of it all that you can. Have plenty of questions
that you intend to ask the speakers. It does not
matter if the speakers make no set BpeecheB, if
you will ask questions enough to keep them reply
ing. I once started to make an address, and the
farmers pitched in with questions that took up
my entire time, and I made no speech; but all
the same, they got what they wanted, and that
was better than anyone’s set speech.
Short Extracts from Answers to Corre"
spondents.
A CORRESPONDENT asks about planting a
second crop of potatoes on land where
one good crop has been grown this season.
It would be better to plant the potatoes in anoth
er piece of ground, but they can be planted, If
necessary, oh the same land. Cut them in halves
and put In a sort of windrow and cover thickly
with straw or pine leaves till they show signs of
sprouting, and then plant in deep furrows and
cover lightly at first and then gradually work the
soil to them till level.
• • •
It is usually too early to sow crimson clover at
laying-by of cotton, and the sowing should be
made about the time of the first or second picking
The seed will usually germinate then without
preparation. Here the practice is to go through
tlie corn in August with a light one-horse harrow
and sow at once after the light stirring of the
soil. Where peas have been sown In the corn
you can let them grow and mature till the leaves
begin to fall and then sow the clover seed among
them, or can cut the corn and shock it and mow
the peas for hay and then lightly disk the stub
bie and sow the clover seed at any time in Sep
tember.
• • •
There is nothing that can be done for the red
spider on cotton that would not cost a good deal
Spraying with strong soapsuds is about the best
thing, and dusting over with flowers of sulphur Is
nlso Rood. But in the cotton field these are cost
ly remedies. If the weather turns wet. they will
not do much damage, but In dry weather they
flourish. Spraying even with clear water will
help destroy them, for they can not stun ! damp
nc-ss. But even that Is a laborious and costly
Job.
• • •
You can apply nitrate of soda to cotton at any
time during the growth of the crop if the plants
need help. If the land makes a strong weed. I do
not think that the application will be needed, as
the effect of nitrate Is mainly to encourage
growth, the cotton being made by the phosphoric
arid and potash.
• • •
With heavy fertilization you can plant late
cabbage seed and set the plants in late August
and grow a good crop.
• • •
The clearing of limber at any season will have
no effort on the fertility of the solL
• • •
To get a crop of vetch and rye. the best time
to bow Is in late August.
Why Peas Fail to Bear.
"WO FARMERS In South Carolina write that
they can not make peaH for seed. The vines
grow rankly, but finally die before reading
heavily. They have been growing peas for years,
and on their other crops have used a great deal
of cottonseed meal and nltrnte of aoda. and one
of them thinks that it Is an excess of nitrogen
that causes the deuth of the peas.
I think not, and unless they have the regular
pea wilt, I am satl-fled that It Is the deficiency of
phosphoric acid and potash, especially potash,
that causes the failure of the peas. There Is no
crop grown on the farm that takes these foods
away from the soil more rapidly than pens If they
are removed from the land and no return made.
Peas will get nitrogen from the ulr, but they must
be kept supplied with phosphoric add and potash,
und much of the so'l of eastern South Carolina Is
especially deficient in potash
I alklng with a friend yesterday, 1 said that
the present price of $10 per bushel for crimson
clover seed would seem prohibitive to most farm
ers. ‘■Yes.’* said he. "It Is awfully high, but still,
at. $10 a bushel It Is the cheapest fertilizer I imn
buy for my corn crop, and I shall sow It as
usual. And he Is right. The men who stand
l>a<k from using peas, soy beans and crimson
elovor because of the high prices prevailing are
going to lose In the end. Two and n half dollars
in ci inisoii clover seed will put as much nitrogen
In the soil as a whole ton of 2 8 2 costing,
say $2 0, and the man who falls to sow clover seed
ho.'.iuse of the high price, will break up a rotation
and lose money in the end.