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Secretary Wilson Says we Can Make Southern
PROF, M ASSEY'S
Editorial Page.
Lands Worth $100! an Acre.
Notable Message From Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson to our Jrogressive Farmer
Readers In Six or Seven Years by Stock Raising,'! Legume Growing and Good Farming
Southern Farmers Can Blake Their Farms Worth $100 'an Acre.
Prof. Massey will personally answer
Inquiries on Agricultural subjects
sent by our readers. .
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Farm Work for April.
HERE will certainly be no lack of work this
month on the farm. In traveling recently
through ; the South Atlantic States from
Florida to Virginia I noticed that too much work
has already been done. There is too much land
in preparation for hoed cropsi and far too much
area prepared for cotton. It pains one to see the
whole country apparently plowed and much of it
bedded for cotton, with hardly a green winter
cover crop anywhere
I passed depot after depot piled high with sacks
of fertilizers for these fields that are so hungry for
humus-making materialfertilizers bought on
credit and to be paid for out of the cotton crop.
But the mischief is again done, and I suppose
that the majority of the cotton farmers will Again
dribble 200 pounds per acre of 28 2 fertilizer
to get a crop of cotton, which belongs - to the
supply company after it is made. You can, at
least, stop that 2 8 2, and either mix or buy a
higher grade fertilizer and use it more liberally.
CRIMSON CLOVER IS STORING UP NITROGEN
NOW.
But there may be and certainly are exceptions
to this general bareness of the farms, and the man
who now has a crop of crimson clover on his land
can let it bloom and turn it , down with the cer
tainty that the clover has given him twenty times
the nitrogen that he would get in his little dribble
nt 9. . 9. ' anil that onlv acid DhosDhate and
potash will be needed to make more cotton than
will be made by those who have long since bedded
their old dead soil for cotton.
Turning under the clover well, prepare the soil
broadcast, for the roots of cotton and corn run. far
and wide across the rows. One of the best cotton
growers in South Carolina told me some years ago
that he nut his manure down a furrow In the
middles and only the fertilizer in the rows, and
that the plants of cotton got the manure just at
fruiting . time. I would say put all on broadcast
and let the roots be finding it all the time.
Then do not put the cottonseed in too deeply.
If you use the smoothing harrow and the weeder
as soon as a crust forms and after the cotton Is
uu. you will have no sore shinned plants chafing
against the crust; and with the weeder goingcross-
wise the rows, you will have Jess chopping to do.
STOP SO MUCH HAND WORK.
Now is the time to determine that you will not
waste human labor by running plows four times
in the rows, but will sit on the cultivator while
a pair of mules works both sides of the row at
once, doing it far better than any plow or sweep
can do it.
With all the complaint about the scarcity of la
bor, the cotton farmers, as a rule, are using more
human labor than is needed; because of the lack
of the proper implements for saving the labor.
Good laree Dlows. eood harrows, good two-horse
cultivators, all save human labor, and mule power
is far cheaper than a darkey at the end or a lioe.
TWO COTTON FD3LDS A CONTRAST.
Then look to the seed you use both of cotton
and corn. Do not plant aottonseed from a gin
Where all sorts of cotton are ginned and thus get a
mixture of early and late, tall and busny, and tnen
"think that you have some variety of Improved
fntt'niv
Last, summer I saw a field of beautiful green
cotton, every "plant of the same uniform character
,t,h ,0ht. and richt across tne roaa was a neia
where the cotton had a yellow cast, was long-legged,
short-legged, bushy and slim, and all sorts
of character. The one field was irum
wt, hv a man who feeds stock and has
manure. The other was the old style cropper's
. nv flflM -nrnmisfid over a bale per cre
11.. waiim lnckv to make a nair
bale, but one had gained a little J??l
manure, while the other was planted with poor
SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE JAMES WILSON, who
has just been reappointed by President Taft, has not bnlj
sfifln the usefulness of the Deoartment double in the
welve rich years of his service as Secretary, but he has don
especially notable work in the South. Perhaps no other section
of the country, in fact, is getting quite so. much from) the De
partment now as the Cotton Belt The South, too, appreciates
this and the South Carolina Farmers' Union and other agricul
tural organizations urged upon President Taft the importance
of continuing Mr. Wilson In office and not without effect, so it
is generally believed. When in Washington City a fewjdays ago
Sdltnr-ln-nhief Poe. of The Progressive Farmer, called on
'
he Secretary and found Lira deeply interested in all Southern
questions. J.
"The Southern farmer," he declared, "is making ver gratify
ng progress. He is going forward, and we are anxious to have
the Department co-operate as fully as possible . in jjthe 'good
work. - ' - . - n ;
"About the biggest need of the South, in my opinion, is to
get rid of the cattle tick so that there will be nothing in the way
of stock raisin tr. You can handle cattle more cheaply tnan we
of the North. In the first place, you have so much mildeif winters;
in my home State of Iowa, for example, tnere was seven incnes
of snow on the ground last week, and all the stock must be fed
at so much heavier expense than in the soutn. 'men mere is
your cottonseed, that magnificent cattle teea. reea it tp your cauie, ana you win eventuauy uukj
half your present acreage ana grow more cwuu uiaa yuu uuw gnw uu uw wuuw
The Southern tanner snouia man it a r uio uc ver iu auj uuu . 6c mc uiuugeu awo wm
his farm. Let! the lint alone be sold on, ana wise iarpiing.wiii mane ana Keep your ianas leruie
forever. - if - u ;-j v fJ W U .
"ThA rniHne lands of the South ought to grow more sheep. Put some woven wire 24 to 30
inches high around the pastures and not even dogs can .bother them. And hogs, of course, can be
grown with you everywhere: there should be plenty or- tnem. ,.
"Your cowpea is a great advantage, ana snouid De muca more largely utilized tnan it aireaay is
in building up the land. Better drainage also holds out much promise for the soutn. Tiling
will give life to many an acre now sour, soggy and unprofitable. I should also like to see farmers
give attention to utilizing rocky, steep or untillable' lands of any kind in growing wood. Wood and
lumber are bound to become Increasingly valuable with the rapid exhaustion of our virgin forests,
and few lines of endeavor will pay better than judicious forestry work. Put your abandoned fields
to growing timber. . 'H
AT,nthan nhCA nt trriniiitiiral work in the South that Interests me especially is the new in
terest in dairying. Wherever the people set about organizing a central dairy, the Department of Ag-
riculture will send a man down to help about tne Dunning, Duymg tne outnc ana geiung me wurn
started. Our Dairy Division Is at the service 01 your j people.
v "That the South ought to raise its own colts lnsteadf of sending to Missouri for mules goes witn
.,f c.rimf naro mn!n vnn ojlb. raise what you need far cheaner than we in the North. With
your mild winters, longer growing seasons, and greater variety of crops, you can beat us every
time. . - ! . .z .
"Yes, the South is making progress, and It has a great. future there is no douDt aoout it ana
it is going to make astonishing progress In thesenext Jten years. With proper attention to stock
raising and legume growing you can bring up your lands i to make two bales of cotton per acre,
and wherever land will do that, every acre of it is easily worth $100. That ought to be your aim.
"I believe it absolutely, and I have no hesitation in saying it: With good farming in six or
seven years' time you can make your Southern lands jjworth $100 an acre. It ought to be done,
and the Department of Agriculture is here to co-operate with the Southern farmer in every possi-
ble way in bringing about tnat result.
'' " ' " a mam m
seed, and on land merely galvanizea witn ier-
tilizer.
Both soils were of the general type of red up
land clay loam, but the field that had hAd manure
was mellow and the soil worked fine, while the
other, that had been bedded early, while the soil
was too wet probably, was cloddy. The roots of
the cotton could not get what plant food the clods
contained, and the hot air penetrated Into the
soil and the crop suffered. The mellow bed re
tained the moisture and the plants were green,
while In the cloddy field they were yellow and
shedding.
MAKING GRAIN: OATS, CX)RN, AND WHEAT.
The corn field, too, should have had a sod to
turn under, and if plenty of forage had been made
and fed, there would be . manure for. the "corn.
If you have a field of oats or wheat that does
not .grow oft as well as you would wish, give it a
dressing of 100 pounds per acre of nitrate of soda
when the leaves are dry. Then follow the grain
crop with peas and get feed to make manure.
J
KEEP PLANTING IN THE GARDEN.
You should have started the garden ere this to
get an early supply of vegetables. Any surplus of
vegetables you may have can always be sold, profit
ably in ' the nearest town or factory village. It
pays well to treat the garden liberally. But do
not stop with a single planting in the spring.
Keep up a succession of crops as fast as one falls.
A few rows of snaps should be planted as soon
as tte previous planting is well up, and this kept
up iill late August will give you a constant supply.
Onion seed should have been sown earlier, but
sets now planted will give you. good ones. Succes
sion cabbages can be set now and wjjl make fine
heads by June. Let the boys have a patch of
cantaloupes, and let them have all they can make
out;' of It. : .
1ME CHEAPEST WAY TO MAKE PORK.
Xou can ralse boss cheaply with plenty of green
food and a series of three or four lots. Last fall
you could have sown one lot in rape and one in
crimson clover and in the spring after the rape is
oto.n vnn nnnld nut that lot in early peas, and
after the clover is eaten, put that lot in sweet po
tatoes, in the meantime putting peas on a third lot
later than the first patch and of a later variety.
The pigs can go on the early peas soon after the
clofer Is eaten, and by the time they have done
thl lot.' the later neas will be ready for them, and
then the swet potatoes, till time to harden them
off on corn. Any one with a good stock of hogs
can contrive a series of lots that will furnish feed
in constant succession through the year, "and can
make cheap pork for home use and for those who
buy! "supplies."
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