The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., March 02, 1912, Image 1

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

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H SOME^SWINDLES
|Vol. XXVII. No. 9. _SAXURDAY, MARCH 2, 1912. Weekly : $1 a Year.
Rational Ways of Reducing Your Fertilizer Bill.
THERE is much talk this spring about reducing the amount of
fertilizers used on the crop as well as the acreage planted to
cotton, and farmers in some sections are being asked, we under
stand, to pledge themselves to use only so much fertilizer per acre
on their cotton.
who has his land in the condition it should be can yet his phosphoric
acid in the cheap form; the man whose land lacks vegetable matter
must pay twice what he should for his supply of this element.
3. Millions of dollars are literally wasted each year in the pur
chase of an over-supply of one element as compared with the supply
-1 of the others. For examnle. the farmer I
Now, The Progressive Farmer be
lieves that Southern farmers are spend
ing for fertilizers each year several
millions of dollars which they could
save; but we do not believe that any
such scheme of reduction as this is wise.
On the contrary we regard it as little
less than positively foolish. Reduce
i the cotton acreage by all means—we
have been urging this for years—and
then farm each acre planted juSt as well
as possible. This is the only business
like thing to do. What the farmer is
interested in is not so much an increase
in the price of cotton as an increase in
the profits from cotton. To reduce the
cotton acreage will increase the profits
by increasing the price; but to make a
small yield to the acre will almost
surely decrease the profits by increas
ing the coSt of production.
^ e believe, then, in liberal fertiliza
tion of all crops on which fertilizers
pay a profit; but we also believe that
Southern farmers can get much greater
| returns for a smaller investment in fer
DOES SPRAYING PAY?
SPRAYED UNSPRAYED 1
fe ' Average Yield. Per Tree Average Yield Per Tree
•/ • * * '' •'• *v
j. Merchantable Fruit Merchantable Frtiit
{ Salable \ Salable
:^ix. „ ,Oncs Twos Cull* ii'Cull*# ’ Ones two* Cult* Cull*
on the red-day soils of the Piedmont or
on the alluvial lands of the Mississippi
Valley gets almost! no increase of most
crops for the potash he buys, yet he j
goes on year after year paying $1.50 to ]
$2.50 for potash in every ton of fertil- |
izer he uses. On the sandy soils of the
Coastal Plain, more potash is needed
for practically every crop than is sup
plied in any of the mixtures commonly
used. On another page a correspond
ent recommends the use of a high
grade fertilizer—at least! 8-5-5—always,
and this illustrates the common faith in
formulas and the common failure to
recognize the fad that the man who
wishes to get his money’s worth when
buying fertilizers must! know something
of his soil as well as of his crop and the
fertilizer. To buy 8-5-5 fertilizer for
cotton in some sections would be broad
casting, not nickels, but dollars.
Three ways, then, by which the fer
tilizer bill of the South could be re
duced without at all reducing the yields
r.f anvcrnn arf (!) Mv irrowinfr more
We have a great deal to sav about spraying in this issue, and lest any
reader should conclude it is a small matter, or one of doubtful profit, we wish
to show right here just how spraying pays.
This illustration, reproduced by courtesy of the Kansas Experiment Sta
tion, shows the average yield of fruit from 7fi trees, part of which were sprayed
and part left unsprayed.
It seems to us that this picture is a sufficient answer to any question as to
whether or not it pays to spray. If other proof is required, read the expe
riences on page 30 of those who have tried it.
—« muu me,? die 11UW maKJLUg. 11
is the purpose of this article briefly to point out three ways in which
this can be done.
h 1 here is no reason why Southern farmers, with the splendid
list of summer and winter legumes at their command, should continue
to buy nitrogen for their corn and cotton crops. They pay 20 cents a
Pound for this element in commercial fertilizers when the legumes
''/mhl take it from the air for them and pay them for the privilege,
ut they have been so wedded to the “money crop” idea that they
a'o refused to give their legumes a chance to do it. As a corres
pondent says elsewhere in this issue, the man who uses nitrogen out
ot the fertilizer bag for staple crops is literally broadcasting nickels.
course, the quickly available forms of nitrogen will always be
needed for special crops and special conditions; but the farmer who
ashuv nitrogen to grow a crop of corn or cotton has been doing
*omc P°or farming, and if he is not working toward the point where
K "ill not have to buy, he is still doing poor farming.
-• Southern farmers buy each year hundreds of thousands of
°ns of acid phosphate and other “available” forms of phosphoric
” " hen a rational system of soil improvement would enable them
j Phosphoric acid in the form of ground phosphate rock tor
ess than half what they now pay. Now, let no man suppose that we
'ise him to buy ground rock instead of acid phosphate. A e do
' ""less his soil is richly supplied with humus or unless he is giving
tlj31 /essing of stable manure. On the thin, dry, humus-hungrv soils
Phosphate will pay better. But here is the point: The man
I legumes so as to get nitrogen from the air instead of the fertilizer bag;
(2) by filling the soil with humus so as to get phosphoric acid in a
cheap instead of a high priced form, and (3) by taking the trouble to
find out what elements of plant food are really needed for the crop
and then buying these and these only.
FEATURES OF THIS ISSUE.
A TENNESSEE CREAMERY—One Founded on a Business Basis UA
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SPRAYERS—Special Uses of Each Kind 1 i
FARM WORK FOR MARCH—Prof. Massey’s Suggestion and the
“Ten Things to Do". t
GET READY FOR SUMMER—There Are a Lot of Things the
Housekeeper Can Do Now. IS
GROUND LIMESTONE OR BURNED LIME?—Which to Use and
Why . :t
REDUCING THE COTTON ACREAGE — Throe Plans Recom
mended . X
SOME SWINDLES AND WHY WE EIGHT THEM — The Pro
gressive Farmer’s Advertising Policy . 5
THE MOST COMMON DISEASE — How to Guard Against and
Cure It .
THE "STOCK FOOD” FRAUD—Something About the Real Value
of These Nostrums. U2
THREE SPRAYING EXPERIENCES—All Show That the Work
Pays . •*<>
TWO SCALE INSECTS—The San .lose anti the Oyster-Shell. UN
WHAT TO IX) WITH COTTONSEED—Feed It if You Can; if
Not, Sell and Buy the Fertilizers You Need . 12