i
00 More a Year Famnniiinig t How to Make It
XVL By Keeping More live Stock to
N TRAVELING OVER The Progressive
Farmer territory, any one familiar with
the best farming sections of this country,
cannot fall to be impressed with our large areas
of waste lands which yield no revenue to their
owners. The total area of the States of North Car
olina, South Carolina, and Georgia is 91,000,
000 acres. Of this vast area, only 63,000,000
acres, or 69 per cent, is classed by the Census Re
port asl "in farms," and of these farms only 24,
000,000 acres, 39 per cent, is classed as improved
lands. That Is about 27 per cent of the total
area of these States is improved land, l The bal
ance, or 73 per cent, is, under present conditions,
of practically no value from an agricultural stand
point.'; j - : m M 1 ! ;
That only 39 per cent of the area included in
our farms is improved land is the most significant
fact brought out by these figures; for in other
words, 61 per cent of even our farms is land yield
ing little or no revenue to the owner. ; It Is ap
parent that if anything can be done to make these
idle lands yield some profit, it should be done.'
The lands which are yielding no agricultural
revenue may be divided into three classes: (1)
Woodlands that are too rough or too wet for cul
tivation. (2) The so-called worn-out lands, and
lands on which all the valuable timber has been
cut or destroyed. (3) Small and irregular areas
or patches in and between the fields spots too
Bret for cultivation, patches that are washed and
gullied ang areas covered with briers, bushes,
pines and other scrubby and worthless growths.
The first class, or the timber lands, will be dis
cussed later In. article No. 42 of this series. It is
believed that these can be made to yield a much
larger revenue than at present. The last class
has already been incidentally referred to in sev
eral articles, but will soon receive special consid
eration in article No. 24 of this series.
the worn-out or turned-out, and the cut-over lands
- are the ones which we desire especially to con
sider in this article.
Why Stock Have Not Paid Us.
IGHT HERE we wish to call attention to
the chief cause of our failure in the past
to make live stock husbandry profitable.
We have procured live stock without first having
made provision for feeding thein; and in this con
nection it cannot be stated too positively that the
majority of our idle lands are now in no condi
tion to, and will not furnish sufficient grazing to
make the live stock business profitable to us. Be
fore we get live stock, to make believe at grazing
Vese lands, they must receive some attention.
pasture is not a piece of poor land with a fence
?-iind It. An aericultural writer recently de-
MhiH a Smithem nastnrft as "a nlace where
'grass does no grow," and, it must be confessed,
the description accurately fits too many so-called
Southern pastures. Much of our idle land can
be made to pay a fair income on its present value
plus the cost of putting it in condition for grow
ing feed for cattle and other live stock to graze.
If any land is so poor, or so wet, that four or
five acres cannot at a moderate cost be put in con
dition to furnish sufficient feed during the entire
aranlnir eaacnn fri o -n animal walarhlnor fiflfl r
1 UXllUj UUUUll 1W1 O.U UUIU-IU Vl(jllllQ uu I.V
1,000 pounds then such land is not suitable for
grazing purposes. By sufficient feed we mean
enough to produce during a six to eight months'
grazing period, a growth of from 150 to 200
pounds on fairly good cattle. To do this there
must be sufficient feed to satisfy the animal with-
Accordlng to the last census each farmer In the
NORTH Atlantic States earned $984 'a year, and each
farmer In the SOUTH Atlantic States only $484 or ex
actly $500 a year less for the average farmer In The
Progressive Farmer's territory than for his brother
farmer Just north of him. The object of these articles
Is to set forth the plans by which we may bring up our
Southern farming to Northern profits, the next four
articles in this series being as follows :
April 29. By Feeding the Products of the Farm to Live
Stock.
May 6. By Learning the Difference Between Scrub
and Good Stock.
May 13. By Learning How to Make a Balanced Ration.
May 20. By Selling Dairy Products.
out too great effort on his part to find it. About
three acres of average land should do this.
A gain of 200 pounds, worth say four cents a
pound, or $8, is not a large return from three
acres of land, but it is at least $4 net, more than
most of our idle lands are now bringing. More
over, it must be remembered that land of a qual
ity that takes three or four acres to support one
steer is not high-priced land. These Idle lands
now have a nominal value only, and the higher
that value, the worse it is for the owner who
makes them yield nothing. The owners of such
Idle lands should certainly do one of two things:
dispose of them for what they will bring, or put
them in condition to yield Interest on their value,
whatever that may be.
If we estimate the steer worth $25, which he
will not be unless of better quality than those we
now have; charge 10 per cent on this amount to
cover interest on investment and insurance against
the Idle Lands.
This Week's Guide Post to "$500
More a Year."
HE CHIEF reason we have failed
to make live stock profitable is
because we have made no pro
visions for feeding them. A pasture
must have grass in it, if it is worth any
thing to the stock.
':
We must enclose our pastures, because
we can not hope to improve either them
or our stock while the latter run at
large, and because we cannot get rid of
the cattle tick or control hog cholera
unless we have fenced fields.
We must depend on Southern grasses
and clovers to make our permanent pas
tures; but there are plenty of these, Ber
muda grass being the most generally
available and the most valuable.
"
Good pastures, once established and
then taken care of, will be become more
valuable and feed more stock year after
year, and by making such pastures tho
lands now unproductive can be made to
add largely to our income.
also be
growing.
able returns
protected from more vigorous and rapid!
plants in oraer to produce the most proSt-
Lands
m
Must be Fenced and Live Stock
Controlled.
HAT the pasture lands must be fenced an
the live stock controlled, must become a:---'
parent to any one giving even casual cor.
sideration to the subject. Even if this were m
necessary in order to protect the pasture and kee
the live stock j where it may receive the persons !
attention necessary, the necessity for the eradica
tion of the cattle tick, the control of hog cholera
and the! prevention of other infectious diseases,
would riake it imperative. In fact, it is beyond
understanding why any ! people in this day an i
stage of agricultural enlightenment will permit
live stock to run at large at any time or season
of the year.
The cattle fever tick, the greatest obstacle to
successful cattle growing, and hog cholera, the
cause of the ; heaviest losses sustained by hog
raisers, cannot, and never will, be controlled un
til cattlej and hogs are controlled; and so far as
the eradication of the cattle tick is concerned, al
lowing tjie cattle to run at large during the win
ter, is practically as bad as allowing them to range
freely at all times. Moreover, cattle running at
large during the winter do much more damage to
winter growing crops and by tramping the land
than the feed gathered is worth..
pasture or Grazing Plants.
IrAl TiSR THESE waste lands have been fenced
UnrJ a?d cleaned up, the next question to be
esj so
solved is the selection of plants to be sow
ed or planted for grazing. It is plainly impossible
to suggest a combination of plants that will best
suit all soils, sections and conditions In our terri
tory; bu in all, except possibly the most northern
part Bermuda is unquestionably the best general
permanent pasture grass available. It has objec
tionable features, the chief of which are, it starts
late I in the spring, is early killed by frost in the
fall and is difficult to eradicate in case the land is
everj desired for cultivation, but it will furnish
more grazing during the hot weather, from May
to September,1: than any other pasture plant that
does; well generally throughout the South. It is
m
loss by death, for the eight months; and add $1
for care of the pasture, we have a total charge
against three acres, or the $8 gross earnings, of
$3.50. This leaves $4.50 net income from three
acres. Four and a half dollars is 10 per cent on
$45, which permits an investment of $15 an acre.
If this land is now worth $5 an acre, we have left
$10 for putting it into condition for growing feed
for live stock.
We Must Keep the Pastures Clean.
HE MOST important point regarding the
preparation of these waste lands for grow
ing grass is the removal of the useless
plants which now occupy them. The space oc
cupied by weeds, briers and bushes cannot be oc
cupied by grass, nor can the plant food used in
the growth of these useless plants go into the
growth of plants that live stock will eat and thrive
on. Our pastures must be cleared up and kept
clean. Cheap or poor, lands which are growing
timber of value should be left to grow that crop,
but lands which are now growing nothing of value
should be made to furnish grazing for live stock
if it can be done and come out even.
The first cost of cleaning up the land for pas
tures, is considerable, and must be regarded in the
nature of a permanent investment, but when once
cleaned up and set in grass, the cost of maintain
ing them clean is small. This small expense, how
ever, is none the less necessary. We are so sure
that cotton and corn, for instance, will not grow
profitably on land occupied by other plants that
we spend large sums on cultivation, to keep down
weeds and grass, but we seem never to have real
ized that grasses and other grazing crops must
essential
y a hot weather grass.
But no one plant should generally be depended
upon forj making a permanent pasture, and when
Bermuda is used a variety of other plants may be
used to furnish grazing early in the spring before
the Bermuda has made sufficient growth. For
this purpose bur clover, white clover; and some
of the eaj-ller-growing cultivated grasses are used.
Where lipe is abundant in the soil, sweet clover
or melildtus is a valuable crop for this purpose,
and where bluegrass will grow, it Is one of the best
of all pasture grasses.
If we roughly divide the soils of our territory
into three large classes (1) clay and loam soils;
(2) alluvial and rich river bottom soils, and (3)
sandy soils, the following plants are suggested as
worthy of a trial for pasture purposes.
Clay and loam soils: Bermuda grass, lespe
dezaj burj clover, white clover, orchard grass, the
brome grasses, rescue grassland, if the soil be
damp, alsike clover, red-top and water grass.
Alluvial and river bottom soils: Bermuda
grass, rye grasses, large water grass, red-top,
lespedezaj alsike clover, bur clover, and white
glover. .
Sandy polls : Bermuda 'grass, rye grasses, car
pet grass lespedeza, and bur clover.
It lis frequently stated that for permanent pas
tures, it is safest and best to depend on the native
plants ofj the locality rather than attempt to in
troduce cultivated or foreign plants. When weeds,
briers and bushes are kept down, the native plants
may yield considerable grazing, but they can
usually be supplemented by others, and from no
permanent pasture in the South should Bermuda
be omitted. - No matter what pasture plants are
used, weeds, briers and bushes must be kept down
if a full crop of feed is expected.