The Opelousas courier., 1882-12-09

shape OF drOppings from the animals
This will come in time. 1t is one OF the
results of the intensive system OF farm
ing. The more manure we need for
compost, the more sheep and cattle we'll
need. The more stock W. have, the
more cotton seed cake we'll need. The
more cotton seed cake we feed to u
stock at home, the richer our lands will
be. We waste millions of dollars annu-
allyafrom the failure to pen our stock at
night. There is no excuse forany Geor-
gian staying poor or starving his land.
"With his cotton seed and stable ma
nure saved and composted with decayed
leaves, fine straw, ETC., any farmer can
become rich if he wants to, and double
the value of his land in three years.
Chow much compost should be used
to the acre p
at is hard to use too much. In
France the average is 10000 pounds to
the acre. A Georgia farmer will hardly
average 100 pounds to the acre. ] will
average 10000 pounds next year.
Nothing pays so WELL"
Chow do you scatter so much to the
acre p
"'Simplest thing in the world.
start a two-horse wagon through the
field. | put eight negroes with half
busllel baskets, without handles, under
their arms III the track of each wagon.
They sift tile compost out of the basket
as they walk along, and have their baS-
kets filled from the wagon. | have
changed the position of my cotton rows
four inches to the right every year, so
that the compost would be thrown in
new strips every yea. In this way |
have fertilized my whole field, instead
of enriehing the same rows year after
year. | shall hereafter broadcast it,"
"Iour whole secret then is cheap and
intelligent manure, and plenty of itg
ayes. have shown you the money
profit in manure. I've shown you the
added value it gives to land. There
are many other advantages. You make
your crop quicker and with less dan
ger. / made last year-mark this
forty seven bales on sixy-five acres in
three months and five days. 1t was
| planted June 5, and the caterpillar fin
ished it OH September 10. | showed
the agricultural society 4 stalk five feet
high with l26 hollis by actual count on
it. The seed from which this plant
grew was planted just ii~fty-nine days
before. Cotton grown this way can be
| picked with half the cost and time Of
ordinary cotton. On my cotton land
this year | raised one hundred bushels
of oats to the acre, and after cleaning
off the stubbie"I planted the cotton, one
| Cto1I IF ,El1,h .j,Du-,I tir onn1,o,
ton"
"Of course, in your five years of
study you have discovered other i'm
~provemeIts in cotton planting ?8
"Certain1y. One is not to drop the
cotton seed in ii continuous row, but
simply to put a few seed in the hill
where you want a plant. BY strewing
the seed in a sprinkled row there is a
great waste. A cotton seed is like an
egg. When the chick is born there is
nothing but the shell left. When the
seed has sprouted there Is nothing but
the shell left. The fertilizing power of
this seed is lost. Worse than this. 1t
draws from the soil for the elements
that make it grow. 1t is left to deplete
the soil in this way for two weeks at
least, and is then chopped down, leav-
ing only one out of twenty plants 10
grow the fruitage. My plan is to plant
four or five seed in a hill. The hills to
stand in four feet squares. OF these |
| would let two plants to the hill grow to
perfection. 1t takes from two to four
bushels of seed to plant an acre in the
old way. BY my plan a peck to the
acre is enough, and the soil is not drawn
to support a multitude of surplus plants
for two or three weeks"
"Is planting in four foot squares bet
ter than the old way?"
eyes, cotton is a sun plant and needs
room for its roots. When cramped in
IL or 10 inches it cannot attain its per-
feet growth. My aim Is to put the
plants two together in four foot squares,
and average Is to $50 bolls to the plant.
This will give me a pound of seed cot
ton to the plant, or three bales to the
acre."
What about hoeing Your cotton q
81 eve touch it with Il hoe. The
growth of cotton comes from the spread
ing tilaments that reach out from the
root and feed it. II these are destroyed
the growth stops till they are restored.
| am satisfied that three hoeings lost
me eighteen days of growth, or six days
each. | run u shallow pillow along the
cotton rows, and never go deep enough
to cut the roots. But these are mere
details in which men may differ. The
main thing is the intensive system of
manuring and the outstanding all the
droppings and wastage of the farm for
compost. | can take any 100 acres of
land in Georgia, and at a nominal cost
can bring it's production from a sixth of
a bale to three bales an acre in five
years. Any mar q do it,"
"Is your system getting many follow
ers ?n
any tenants are adopting the inten-
sive plan, and are very much encour-
aged. Some few nelghbors are using
my formula. / have sent out, I sup
pose, 500 formulas for composing.
The speech | made before the agricul-
tural association created more excite
ment than anything for years. The
members did not relish my statement,
| saw plainly. They sent Mr.. E. C.
Grier, the secretary, to Milledgeyille to
see my crops and verify my statements.
He is to-day the most enthusiastic man
in Georgia oyer the system I am work
ing on
"You understand" added Mr.. Fur
MAJ in conclusion, "tlat | have no
possible interest in this matter outside
of my crops. | have no receipt to sell,
10 ,nlnenho4oa No fapar cao1 ~ y Io,5