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CONSOLIDATED, 1909, WITH "MODERN FARMING."
yp A Farm and Home Weekly for the Garolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia. P
VcL XXIV. Ho. 19.
RALEIGH, N. C. JUNE 17, 1S33.
Weddy: $1 a Tesi.
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Home-Grown Nitrogen as a Guide Post to " $500 More a Year Farming
I
ITROGEN IS ONE of the things we must have
if we grow crops; and if we are to grow paying
crops, we must have more than most of our soils
now contain. Uur cotton and grams and grasses
all our crops, in fact, except the legumes remove nitro
gen from the soil ; and even more than the crops remove
is washed and leached away.
. This, then, is the problem we are up against : The al
ready deficient quantity of nitrogen in our soils is contin
ually being reduced by the crops we remove and by the
action of the elements. We must not only keep up, we
must increase the supply before we can make the crops we
should. How are we to do this ?
There are two ways : ( 1 ) We can get it in commercial
fertilizers, or (2) we can get it by the growing of legumi
nous crops.
T We have tried the" fertilizer, plan that is, we have
; tried the putting on of 4 to 6 pounds per acre, at a cost of
20 cents or more a pound, to replace that contained in the
crops we took off. In the seed of a cotton crop making
250 pounds of lint to the . acre there will be about 16
pounds of nitrogen. This, at 20 cents, is worth $3.20
much more than the farmer gets for it When he puts on
the land 300 pounds of 8-2-2 goods he ' applies only 6
pounds of - nitrogen, which costs him at least $1.20, and
leaves his land poorer by 1 0 pounds of nitrogen than it
was in the beginning. As Prof. Massey says : " He sells the nitrogen in his cotton seed at about 10 cents a pound and buys, back a
fraction of it in commercial fertilizers at 20 cents.1 Then, if the land is left bare till the next cotton crop is planted, the winter rains
will wash out more nitrogen than the crops remove. The result of this method of trying to supply 'nitrogen is shown in the low
average yields of all staple crops in the South, in the thousands of acres of land abandoned because they will no longer produce
enough to pay for working them, in the low average income and the consequent poverty of Southern farmers.
oThe second way to get this necessary nitrogen, the growing of leguminous crops, is not an untried way. The best farmers depend
largely on it, and there are few who have not tried it at some time or other. But it should be the rule and not the exception. No
Southern farmer should need to buy any nitrogen in commercial fertilizers, except for; special crops or under special conditions where a
quick-acting form is needed. The picture and the letter printed herewith show how this may be done. Crimson clover in the winter
and cowpeas in the summer, these two crops not necessarily following each other, ordinarily they should not would, if properly used,
in five years enable the farmers in the South to grow better crops than they now do without spending one cent for nitrogen, where now
$25,000,000 is expended. j - j
It is only a question of whether the farmer will let nitrogen impoverish him or make it help enrich him. Can any one conceive of
any good reason for buying at 20 cents per pound what he can get for nothing -can . even get paid for taking ? For the legumes not
only supply nitrogen, they make the finest feed for all sorts of stock ; and if one-third the land planted in cotton were each year devoted
to leguminous crops, in five years, there would not only be more bales of cotton made at a much smaller cost per bale, but there would
also be more and better live stock in the South, better crops of all kinds, f ewer bills to pay formfeed and "supplies," more money com
ing in and less going out, richer farmers and a more prosperous country. J
The most prosperous farmers of the South, almost without exception, get their nitrogen byl growing legumes; the poorest ones get
theirs from the fertilizer bag. One way leads to poverty, the other leads to prosperity ; and it is for each man to choose which path
he will travel.
This Is a photograph of my clover field containing 9 acres. I used one and a half bush
els of crimson clover seed. It made a beautiful field of clover, cutting about two tons of
hay to the acre.. - The soU is not unusually; rich. Just a medium rich, grey land, such as will
bring a fair crop, of corn, whesftor oats. The hay Is very superior to common meadow
hay, and Is not hard to take care , of. This patch will give me all the hay I need with some
to spare. I shall sow In peas after the clover as there will be ample time for a full crop,
either for turning or picking.
Elon Coxxxge. N. C.
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HENRY' BAULD1NG.
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Index to This Issue.
Bur Clover Conditions of Successful Growth .... ..... ......... 5
Crimson Clover and Co wpeas v W. C. Crook . . . . .... . . 4
Cowpeas or .Alfalfa, W. F. Massey ... .......... 3
Curing - Cowpea Hay, W, P. Massey 3
Canning for the Family, Mrs. W. N. Hutt ....................... 6
Care of the Summer Pig, A. L. French . . ... . ... . . . . . ....... . . . . 10
Celery How to Blanch and! Kesp It, Chas. M. Scherer 15
500 More a Year Farming; By Growing Your Own Nitrogen 2
Get Rid oftthe Stumpa. . . . . . . I . . V: 8
Home Canning in Glass' Jars, Sincere 7
How to Make Good Butter fat Home. Felix Williams. . . ....... ... 10
How to Feed Fowls , in a Yard, Uncle Jo . . ...........;....... . 14
How a Home Canning Outfit Pays, J. L. Duckworth V14
The Exact Facts About the Hoeiworm . ........................ . 8
"What's the News?" ..... i. . ... I 9
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