The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., October 29, 1910, Page 735, Image 3

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

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
-“WHAT I AM DOING TOR BETTER CROPS NEXT YEAR”—
A CilXID ROTATION PLANNED.
Messrs. Editors: The question of
what to do In the interest of better
crops next year, and for that matter,
all the noxt years to follow, is one
worthy of earnest thought, and es
pecially so with us who are face to
face with a boll weevil invasion.
I began to prepare for next
year last year. In other words, I
laid the foundation for a complete
tbree-yenr rotation. After alloting a
sufficiently large area for pastures,
permanent and otherwise, the re
maining lnnd will be divided into
three fields of equal size and rotated
as follows:
Cotton, followed by a fall seeding
ef oats.
Cowpeas after oats are off. This
psa hay wilt be saved and the land
seeded to crimson clover or wheat,
to be turned under in the spring.
Corn planted flat with a check-row
planter. At silking and tasseling
time about one and a half bushels of
peas will be planted broadcast in the
corn and worked in with 30-inch
heel-sweeps running not over two
Inches deep. The peas will be put
down in this manner and In such
quantities to form a complete cover
ing for the ground, preventing unde
sirable growths and preserving the
soil moisture. The corn will be gath
ered from the stalks and the husked
ears hauled to the barn, then cattle
and hogs in sufficient numbers will
be turned in to clean the peas and
wasted corn.
I-ater the cattle will be fed on pea
hay, cottonseed meal and some corn,
while pasturing the other two fields
during favorable weather, when the
pastured-off corn field will be deeply
broken and slightly ridged up for
cotton.
I realise that this will not be con
sidered the best farm practice by
some authorities, but my immediate
object Is to rapidly build up a badly
depleted soil and the above plan Is
the result of extensive reading, ma
ture deliberation and excellent ad
vice. Of course, this complete scheme
ennnot be put into immediate effoct
for several reasons, but I will tell
you what I am tloing lowarus
I am disking up the pea Helds pre
paratory to seeding them with wheat
this year. I am also trying a small
piece of crimson clover so that If It
succeeds It can be used, in the future,
to turn under for corn.
The cotton Held will be planted In
wheat to be turned under next spring
before planting peas. This In order
to get humus in the soil as fast as
possible. I am only planting a small
amount of oats in one of the pas
tures as I already have an abund
ance of feed for what stock there Is
at present on the place. Cotton
picking Is much further behind hand
this year than It will be. In the future
for two reasons. Hereafter the
number of acres to the hand will be
considerably reduced and the weevil
will no doubt do a little reducing on
his own account. I am, however,
rushing the picking and hope to be
able to destroy the stalks early in
November.
Unfortunately a severe windstorm
blew the corn about so badly that
peas could not be planted, and the
cotton will have to be fertilized with
commercial nitrogen next spring.
This corn Held was broken to a depth
of six Inches last winter with disk
gangs and will be plowed at least
three Inches deeper next month with
the same plows. In January or Feb
ruary I Intend laying-off this In 6-foot
rows, raising a 4- or 6-Inch bed. After
the beds are settled they will be kept
well harrowed with light smoothing
harrows, se that advantage can be
taken of the first favorable weather
late in March to get the seed in the
ground. I intend using between 50
and 100 pounds of nitrate of soda to
the acre to start the young plants
off rapidly. After that the harrows
will be kept going until the cotton Is
too large for such cultivation.
I have both the seed cotton and
the seed corn ready for next spring.
The cotton seed is from a Triumph
seed patch, which is, by the way,
more worth while than anything else
on the place. The seed corn is field
Belected Mosby.
1 have run the levels for the ditch;
that ditch that is going to make pos
sible the draining of every acre, and
that was not dug at first because it
Involved bo much labor and expense.
It Is as good as a certainty now, be
cause 1 have promised myself that
I would not attempt another crop
without it.
Last winter and spring, after flat
breaking the land I took advantage
of the heavy rains to note the places
where water stood, and as soon as
It was dry enough, ran through them
with a two-horse grader, working
the excavated earth back into the
fields so that both the planters and
cultivators could cross the shallow
drains. Of course, the drains have
filled up more or less, but cleaning
them will now be a small matter.
I also made an attempt to remove
every stump, sprout and root from
the fields and while many wagon
toads were hauled out, yet the plows
found many others, so I am also hav
ing the mattox sharpened “to prepare
for better crops next year.”
BRADNER J. MOORE.
Inverness, Miss.
Editorial uonuoroi.—iir. muure a
methods may not be the beet—the ab
solute ••beet'* is hard to attain, and
circumstances will always govern
methods; but his program “looks
good" to us. J list how much winter
pasturing ho can or should do on the
Reids he cultivating is uncer
tain. but "better lands, more easi
ly worked." Is a good Ideal to have
In view.
PREPARATION FOR A TOMATO
CROP.
Messrs. Editors: As you are prob
ably aware, this section is known for
its production of tomatoes, and it is >
about this crop that I wish to tell
you.
I have a corner of about an acre
upon which was grown a crop of
oata, sown last February. I cut
about 3,000 pounds of fine oat hay
and immediately plowed the land and
planted in cowpeas. The peas were
sown In drills about 2 4 Inches apart,
and worked out with a fertilizer drill,
sowing 600 pounds of acid phosphate.
After this, to keep the ground as
level as possible, I ran a 14-tooth
cultivator In the rows, which left a
tine dust mulch around the peas.
They made a fine* growth, cutting
about two tons of fine hay. After
the peas were off the ground, I disk
ed the plot and drilled In 1 bushel of
rye and 1 peck of hairy vetch. Upon
this I expect to distribute the accum
ulation of manure, as well as pas
ture the plot awhile, turning under
for green manure in spring in time
to plant the acre in my tomato crop.
By the above method I expect to
cut out the use of commercial fer
tilizers, which keep down the profits
as well as hurt our lands.
PHIL. B. JONES.
Humboldt, Tenn.
Editorial Comment.—We fear Mr.
Jones is making a mistake in cutting
out the commercial fertilizers on his
---1
tomato crop. By getting his soil in
such good condition by the use of
cover crops and manure, he is just
preparing it so that he can make fer
tilizers pay and enable them to help
build up his land.
MAKING MANURE FOR NEXT
YEAR’S CROP.
Messrs. Editors: We are clean
ing out ditches, cutting some old
ones deeper, and digging new ones to
better drain our farm; digging up old
hedgerows and old ditch banks to
compost with stable manure for next
crop.
We are saving hay to feed to cattle
with cottonseed meal this winter to
make manure to compost with hedge
row and old ditch bank. It beats
guano all to pieces, but guano pays
much better when used with such
compost than when used by itself.
Good compost makes fine crops.
We are sowing rye in our cotton
middles for poultry, as a cover crop
for protection of land in winter, and
for grazing in early spring, also for
the good it does the next year’s crop.
We are saving all the cowpea seed
we can.
We get our cottonseed meal by ex
changing cotton seed for it. We sell
the cotton, but put the seed back on
the land after feeding the meal to
cattle. We get a double profit from
the seed in that way.
A. W. COOPER.
Jacksonville, N. C.
Editorial Comment.—Mr. Cooper
is certainly on the right track in ex
changing his cottonseed for meal,
feeding this to cattle and saving the
manure; but we doubt if he can make
that composting business pay. The
best way to handle manure is to put
it on the land as made. Composting,
for most crops, is a mere waste of
labor.
AN EXCELLENT PROGRAM.
Messrs. Editors: I see that you
are asking your readers to write and
tell what they are doing now to help
with our next year’s crop.
First, I am growing a good crop of
fall potatoes. From this crop I ex
pect to select seed for my spring
crop.
I am now selecting seed corn for
my next year’s crop. I am saving
lots of seed peas. I have my cold
frame ready to plant seed for my
spring cabbage plants. I have begun
to prepare hog lots for rape, and I
expect to start my fall plowing as
soon as I get my hay in. I have hogs
enough for my meat and some to sell.
I have increased my herd for another
year, and the best of all, I am read
ng and trying to follow the instrne
;ions of the best farm paper printed,
file Progressive Farmer and Gazette.
W. J. COBB.
Foster, Miss.
I think The Progressive Farmer
and Gazette is one of the best farm
papers I have ever read.—W. Pear
son, Duncanville, Ala.
A John Deere
-.Book
—Just ®ut
A Farmer Can
Get it Free
P' interested in farming, get our FREE II
book called " BETTER FARMING.” I
It tells all about— ||
Alfalfa Making Hap ||
Dairying'' ^ Fighting Frost. ||
Seed Wheat Silas 1
Com Crops Cultivation i
Stock Feeding Cotton Crops' "|
Art of Plowing Soil Fertility I
Boll Weevil Gasolene Engines ||
Controlling Weeds Adjusting Plows “
B Hired Help
Costs Big Money
Your land is high priced and hired help expensive.
There is only one way to make big money—use lm*
plements that cut down the cost of your crops. Isn't
it true that when you break something on a plow it
is nearly always a cast part? Wherever strain comes
on a John Deere Plow there you will find steel—tool
steel. Take any plow that hat bad hard work for
five years, put it along side of a John Deere which
has been in service that long—and see the difference.
Then there is no paint to cover up poor material.
You can see the wear and the defects. The John
Deere will be solid, staunch and ready for the hard*
est job. The n you begin to know that quality counts.
You can take pride in owning a John Deere
athe standard plow of the world for
two generations..
*• mceweiu.
We will send you the ffrpage, ill us*
trated book free if yo^ write and ask for
Package No. 3
Mention the package number sure, then
you will get exactly the right stuff
IDEERE& COMPANY. MOUNL
■
■
Steel Wheels-n
That’s Sol Hired hands are
Jf getting scarcer every day;
Jfl [Mbut LOW DOWN STEEL
UHL 1 t/ WHEELS will help to take
mj[\A ¥ JH their place. Then, too, the
;k sUel w'leel
Ffi l^yiwrwi like it does the best of hired
11 I help. More brain and less
VI muscle nowadays. Ca ta
il \ l ft jW logue free to you.
WI Whavana metal WHEEL CO.
Box 66, Havana, IU._
I Western'Plow Attachment
Greatly Improved—Patented
Makes a SULKY PLOW of any
Walking Plow.
Plowman ridca.
handles plow by
levers and haa ab
solute control how
ever hard the ground.
Saves horsea; fits right
or left hand, wood or ,
steel beam plows. New
model haa greatly Im
proved lever adjustment.
Simple to h andle. _
WEITEM IMPIEW ENT CO.. ruPartlt-M_
THE McKAY FAMOUS SULKY STALK CUTTER
STEEL ROLLER-BEARING ■—
Best by actual test. “Tasting the
pudding is the proof thereof.” Put
our machine to field test with others
and if ours does not prove itself the
best we will pay expense of making
the test. A square deal is all we ask.
Don’t delay. Write us at once, we
have something to tell you.
The Jno. A. McKay Manufacturing Co„
DUNN, N. O.
! * ,