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- I HOW TO JUDGE A HORSE Page 3) COTTON SPECIAL NEXT WEEK. ' fTitle Jlegistered In U. S. Patent Office.) A farm and Home Weekly for the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia. Vol. XXIII. No. 6. RALEIGH, N. C, MARCH 19, 1908. Weekly: $1 a Tear. WHAT ABOUT YOUR CROP ROTATION THIS YEAR ? What kind of a rotation should you adopt? That will depend on each man's condi tions. In many cases in the South the one crop system has largely grown up out of the di versity of conditions on the farm,! A man has good upland suited to cotton, and fertile low lands that makes good corn, and he does not see how he can make.a rotation that will suit both. ; In fact, in many cases this is impracticable, and it would be wise to adopt a rota tion especially for the upland, arranged to develop it in the production of cotton. "But," says one, "it takes all ray uplands to make the cotton I want." But if by a rotation ef crops and better farming you can get as much cotton from eue-fourth of the land as you do from the whole, and can be at "the same time getting valu able crops from the remainder, and have it all increasing in productiveness, with less ex pense in the purchase of fertil izers, would it not be wise to do so? The change from, an area nf land making 100 pounds of lint; per acre to one making from 500. to 1,000 cannot be made all at once, but It can be done with nearly all the upland w cotton soils of the South. Try an extra preparation of half j the land you commonly have been putting in cotton af ter cotton, and put peas on the re mainder and mow them forhay to feed t.o stock. Sow crimson clover on the pea stubble and turn it in the spring for cotton, and put the piece In cotton this year in peas and Hover, and even with this alterna tion in crops you will soon see a great increase and you can make the cotton with only acid phosphate and.; potash using no nitrogen, for the peas and clover will furnish - th.it j ThefL after you get as much cot ton from liaif the land as you did from all of it, divide it into thirds 'and introduce a winter grain crop, eithr oats or wheat and follow thorp with clover to turn for cotton, and make a three-year rotation, of 'fir-it year) cotton, with (second year) oats following the. cotton, and P'vis following the oats and cut for hayj then the barn-yard manure spread broadcast on the stubble dur ing the winter and (third year) put i-n corn, among which peas are sown andthe ueas left on the ground, with crimson clover sown among them to h .turned for cotton in the spring, and with acid phosphate and potash P.plied to the cotton. ' It would not be long till the third makes as much cotton as the whole, Ji)d the corn and small grain will or thrown in. ' Then on the low-land where you j 1 Courtesy Uateman MfR. Co. HOW ONE IMPROVED MACHINE HELPS THE FARMER. Marking the next row. opening the furrow, distributing the fertilizer, mixing it with the soil, sowing pea seed, and covering all in one operation. have been planting corn continuous ly and getting smaller crops than the land should bring, breed the corn to a more compact stature, and plant it closer. Sow alsike clover in the corn and the next season mow it once and the following year turn the sod for corn, using a different corn for the low-ground from what you plant on the upland, for the prolific dent varieties that suit the upland are not so well suited to the low-land. Grow there rather a large eared corn like the. Hprse Tooth or Holt's Strawberry, and select seed from the ears nearest the ground, and try to get more stalks on the ground than you have been growing, for you cannot make a big crop without plants enough to make it. Your lowland will stand this sort of a rotation and will rapidly improve in production, and finally, with the corn of upland and lowland you will have corn not only for feeding and fattening hogs, but will have corn to sell to your neighbors who do not farm in a rotation. But where the farmer has land of uniform character and all suited to cotton and small grains lie could make, as his land improves, a long er rotation for the whole by sowing crimson clover in his cotton, and on this clover spreading during the winter all his manure broadcast, and plant to corn. Follow the corn with wheat after cutting and shocking it. and after the corn is shucked and the stover hauled off, the shock rows can be put in oats. Follow oats and wheat with peas for hay, and disc the stubble fine for wheat again, using acid phosphate and potash on the wheat. Follow this wheat again with peas, and sow crimson clover on the pea stubble and turn this for cotton in the spring. One farmer Ih. South Carolina wrote me some years ago that one crop of crimson clover turned down for cotton made him 1,100 pounds, while the old stalk land alongside where there was no clover, made 500 pounds of seed cotton with a complete fertilizer. Of eourse these are merely sug gestions, for, as I have heretofore said, no one can lay down hard and fast rules by which, every man shall manage his land. But what I wish especially to impress is the import ance of producing forage for do mestic animals and the raising of manure through the peas and clover, and the increase of the humus in your land through a rotation in which the legume crops come fre quently on the land. Variations can of course be made as every thoughful farmer studies his soil, gradually working into the rotation that in his particular case seems to give the best results. Then, after getting one-third or one-fourth of your land into a condition to make as much cotton as all of it makes now, do not be tempted to run it down again by planting a greater area in cotton because you imagine that there is money in doing so, but year after year stick to the regular course, and you will not only grow your own supplies, but supplies for other people who imagine that they cannot afford to grow anything but cotton. But the man up outside the Cotton' Belt may say: "1 cannot improve my land with peas and clover and make good tobacco." Well, if it Is true that you can not (and I do not believe that it Is), why keep your land and yourself poor trying to grow to bacco for the trust? The upper section of the Piedmont country, of North Carolina will make as heavy crops of wheat as any lana in the country if properly farm ed, and I had rajther make big crops of wheat and corn and feed fat cattle than bother with a crop like tobacco if it will not allow me to grow these in per fection. There are hundreds of tobacco farmers who are losing more in the other crops than the tobacco makes up for them, and a three-year rotation of corn, wheat and clover would enrich their land and themselves bet ter than the tobacco and with far less labor. Think over these things. WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THIS WEEK'S PAPER. Page. Big Profits in Hay Growing. . ... 2 Cleared $600 on Forage and Cat tie, J. Hr Moore ............ 13 Cater to the Buyer's Eye. ..... 16 Flowers for the Farm Home, Mrs. Pamela C. Reade. . ..... 8 Feeding Your Milch Cow. ..... 13 Gardening Page 17 Good Tools an Inspiration, M. F. Berry 4 Hedges for Beauty and Use, Paul Hoffman 9 How to Judge a Horse, Sidney Johnson . 3 Make Your Own Fertilizer Tests, 11 Neighbors Gladly Buy Grades, W. A. Wallace . . 12 Plowing Why, When, and How J. P. - Keller. ... .......... ... 15 Parable of Mr. Bigman 5 Some Things You Ought to Know About Fertilizers, C. B. Wil liams .... .... . . r 7 The Corn Train Institutes ...... 6 When Cotton Should be Planted , Shallow, and Wliy. . . 2 Value of Two-Horse Plowing, W. B. F. Lewis. 2 Five reasons why we plow you will find a helpful discussion on page 15.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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March 19, 1908, edition 1
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