Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Dec. 16, 1916, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
NEXT WEEK COMMUNITY CO OPERATION SPECIAL 'ff A Farm and Home Wecl&for Jfrrm. . ABmBmS. -fflj"y : - : FOUNDED 1886 AT RALEIGH, N. C x Vol. XXXI. No. 51. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1916. $1 a Year; 5c. a Copy A SAFE AND SANE CROPPING SYSTEM FOR 19 1 7 If MISLED by the glamor of 20-cent cotton, there is grave danger that many a Southern farmer will stake his all on this one cropfor getting that cotton, compared with other commodities, is not really high-priced ; for getting the need for living at home first of ail ; forgetting the great lesson that soil fer tility must come first in suc cessful farming. By spring, corn will prob ably be selling for $1.50 a bushel, flour at $12 a barrel, hay at $25 to $30 a ton. Cot tonseed meal and acid phos phate are soaring, and potash fertilizers in quantity cannot be had at all; consequently every farmer who expects to get his soil fertility in sacks is going to have to pay dear ly for it. Shoes and leather goods of - all kinds are higher than this generation has ever known; implements, wire fencing and nails are high and apparently going higher. All in all, then, cotton, rel atively, is not -high True, it is now 50 per cent higher than the standard price of re cent years, but practically everything else we eat, wear, or otherwise use is also 50 per cent or more higher. This being true and any man with his eyes open knows that it' true- where is there a parti cle of logic or commonsense in rushing pell-mell into all cotton? - Whether cotton is high or low, for the cotton farmer anywhere in the South we have consistently held that " " there is one and only one sound, safe plan, and that is to pro vide for food, feed and soil fertility first, and then raise what cotton he can on the acreage not devoted to these live-at-home crops. This means 1 A good garden, plenty of Irish and sweet potatoes, cane for syrup, fruit trees, a big bunch of producing hens, some good cows to furnish plenty of milk and butter, plenty of meat hogs, and corn and wheat for bread. 2. A first-class pasture to furnish grazing for the chickens, hogs, cattle and horses, a good acreage m oats followed by peas or beans to J iff m lm WHEN WE MAE COTTON STRICTLY A SURPLUS furnish cheap feed next sum mer and fall, and an abund ance of corn and peas or beans to insure us against having to buy feed another season. 3. A legume crop on every acre every year, to build up our lands and save fertilizer bills. It is of course too late now to put in the winter growing legumes, but it is possible to put in next spring a big acreage of peas, soy' and velvet beans, and pea nuts. Then next fall, let us beghv with crimson clover and use it hereafter as a green manure crop to plow under in the spring for our corn. Such a simple system as this will provide first of all food, feed and fertility, all grown at home. Without these, no country and no people can ever advance very far agri culturally ; with them will come big crops, large net profits, prosperity. Which shall it be for you, Brother Farmer, common sense and a bank account, or all-cotton, big food, feed and fertilizer bills and poverty? DO'T FAIL TO READ Paw Making a Mixed Feed 3 Notes From the Inter national Livestock Show . . . . 3 How to Lay Tile Drains 5 How to Organize cash crop, it is one of the best we can grow Your Farm Loan 1 ... Association . . 6 Use the New Rural Credits Law . ..... . . '. . . . 6 The Livestock Route to Rich Land .... . . ... 7 Organizing Bull Associations . . . . . . . . . . 8 How Latitude Affects the Degree of Boll Weevil Damage 10 Let Demonstration Agents Help Organize Loan Associations 10 The Life of Bill Bluster, Liar ... . . . . . . . .10 Legislation Southern Farmers Should Demand . . . . . 11, Repeal the Crop Lien or Limit the Interest Rate . . . . 11 A Christmas Celebration . . . . ...... . . . 12 Meeting Virginia Farmers' Union . . . v . . . . . 18
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 16, 1916, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75