THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER THIRTY YEARS OLD-PAGE 19
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and Florida.
GH, N.G.
Vol. XXXI. No. 9.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1916.
: $1 aYear ; 5c. a Copy
Don
r
Let Any
Muddy Water
Leave
Your
Farm
nHE farmer who let's r
muddy water run off
his farm is a poor
farmer. Muddy water
means water freighted with
the cream of our soils,
with expensive plant foods ;
muddy water pouringdown
our creeks and rivers
means that somewhere
soils are gullying, washing
and wasting, and farmers
are becoming poorer and
poorer year after year.
Let's stop this waste.
Let's henceforth see to it
that all waters leaving our
farms are clear and clean,
and not carrying ith them
plant foods that have cost
us hard work and hard
cash. Of course the excess
rainfall must be gotten rid
of, but let's make it SQ
through the soil, rather
than over it; instead of let
ting it rob us, let's make
it work for us.
Don't ever think this
matter of muddy water is
not important ; for, in " ;
truth, it is so very important that the farmer,who neglects it is on the
road to failure. Soil maintenance and soil building lie at the very
foundation of successful. farmingr and the man who fails to look to
them, as his first, biggest and ever-present job, had better seek, an
other calling.
Muddy water asd land washing away rtilly aean the same thing,
tnd the longer we study the problem the
greater faith have we in winter cover
crops of crimson clover, vetch, rye, or
oats as a means of solving it. Since the
December rains began all cotton fields
unprotected by a carpet of green have
been wasting their very best plant food
elements. Tons and tons of nitrogen, at
$500 a ton, have gone, lost to our fields
forever.' On the other hand, the fields
protected by cover crops have not only
held their fertility for the summer crops,
hut where covered with the clovers or
vetches, have been enriched with g reat
quantities of nitrogen from the air, ;
"Let's make the South a land of painted
farm houses" has long been a Progressive
Farmer slogan; now we propose another:
A carpet of winter reen for every
Southern farm." Our choice above all
15 cr"Bson clover, because it is not only
legume, a nitroffen-ffatherer. but it is
A.
PLOWING UNDER A COVER CROP OF RYE ON THE GEORGIA' EXPERIMENT STATION
Pate
3
. , DON'T FAIL TO READ-
Harrowing Wheat and Sowing Lespedeza
Soil Analysis Not a Safe Guide to Fertilizer
Requirements . .
What a Well Managed Orchard and Garden
Will Do for You . . . . . .
.Hie Modern Threshing Machine! . . . . .
A F'ine Example of "Get-together" . . .
Sov Beans for Southern Farmeri . . .
The King of the Corn and His Reign of Mercy 11
Consolidated Churches as Well as Schools
Fertilizing the Tobacco Crop this Year . .
Making Pork at Four Cents a Pound . .
Need for Courage in Leadership . . .
The Rural Credits Problem Again
The Girl Who Must ? Earn Her Own Living :
Clerking . . ; . . . . .... .
Present Financial System Rotten ... .
Why We Hare 25 Hens Instead of 100 . .
soil and climatic conditions. Next comes vetch, which is a legume
and also does well nearly all over the South. But if neither vetch
nor clover are grown, rye, preferably Abruzzi, is an excellent winter
cover and grazing crop, making a very considerable winter and early
spring growth. If none of the above can be planted, ordinary oats,
planted in September or October, will, even if plowed under in
March, be worth several dollars an acre
in keeping the land ' covered and pro
tected from the winter rains.
: So really there is a wide list from which
a choice may be made so wide, indeed,
that there is simplyv no excuse for our
leaving our fields . in their sifameful
nakedness. If you can't plant clover or
vetch, plant rye; if you can't plant rye,
plant oats. And don't just plant patches;
plant acres, fields, your whole farm.
Paint the winter landscape green ; change
it from an ugly brown to a bright emerald
that will be the talk of the county. Pro
gressive farmers ; everywhere are doing
this, and finding it the road, to wealth,
and you too, can do as well.
"A carpet of green, in winter for every
Southern farm" won't ' you help us
. make i this ideal come true by seeing to
it that there is one on your fields
hereafter?
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also well adapted to a wide range of