The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1886-05-19
THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH,
SOME sEAs0NABLE SUGGESTIONS FROM
HIGH Authority.
Nhat work the Good Formers Should DO i'm
the Month OF May--An Interesting Article
From MI Intelligent Writcr

lho earth Is now warm enough for
grass and weeds to grow rapidly. They
cannot be permitted to share with the
crops the plant food in the soil; cxtermi-
nation of them is now the order of the
day. How to accomplish this economi-
cally, rapidly and without injury to
young crops is one of the incest problems
the farmer is called upon to solve. In
the recent progress of agriculture. the
old-timc method of running around
young plants with narrow scooter, hav-
ing board nailed to foot and beam ON
one sidc to prevent throwing dirt on the
little plants, first gave way to the sweep.
The latter shaved the surface nicely, and
with It's wing running quito flat threw
very little dirt. Moreover the siding
burrows swept ont the mddlcs at the
same time, great advance over two
siding burrows with scootcrs and subsc-
qucnt breaking of the middlcs with
ShoNciS. But with the incest work of
the sweep, there is still narrow strip
along the line of plants which is undis
turbed, and upon which grass can firmly
fix itself Il" destroy it, the hoe was
called into rcquisition. This involved
heavy expense, unpleasant contact with
labor and great demand for hands to
chop out cotton. Next came broadcast
cultivation with the harrow in the first
stages of the crop, with heel scrnpcs and
cultivators later. This is as far MS we
have advanced; indeed, most farmers
have not yet reached this point, and the
method is not yet, perhaps, fully per
fectcd. But from the very nature of
things we must advance in this direction
machines, implements, horsepower,
must supplant hand labor more and
more. How to chcapcn production is
the problem Of the hour. Our fathers
pushed labor to the utmost in clearing
forests and cultivating virgin soils Since
the war the use of fertilizers has been
developed to great perfection; and now
surroundings demand the most extended
use OF machinery and horse power. All
departments of industry are moving in
this direction, and agriculture cannot lag
behind. Cautiously, wisely, iudiciously
1t must go on.
Our readers will remember the articles
published last year in the Cultivator on
broadcast cultivation with the harrow.
The points which seem to be well set
tied were that obstructious must be re-
movcd-trash III the shape of corn and
cotton stalks cut up or knocked to pieces
and buried by breaking land with large
turn ploughs; beds, if any, to be low
and lcveled down with harrow imncdi
ately after planting; if rain follows plant
ing quickly, harrow as soon as dry
enough, never allowing II crust to form.
AS soon as cotton begins fairly to come
up, run harrow obliqucly across rows
never in the direction of the rows---in
four or five days run obliqucly across
again i'll the opposite direction, so that
these two harowin9s may be ut right
angles to each other In three or four
days harrow again across the last. These
harrowings must begin carly and be re-
peated rapidly to thin out the cotton
which they can do whilst the plants are
very young and tcndcr--whcn still yell
low. When older and tougher they will
be pushed aside often without being de-
stroyed. The cotton now being consid-
erably thinncd, grass and weeds thor
oughly killed, and the surface nicely
pulvcriZcd, the crop is III condition to
be easily cultivated with sweep or scrape
1t is said also that i'll the condition left
by the halrowings IL good hand can chop
to n stand two acres of cotton day.
If tie soil is supplied with humus, and
the land well prepared, cultivation should
he very shallow from the start In hard
soil, disposed to run together after rain,
a deep plowing is perhaps admissible
when the cotton is very young, but not
otherwise. In two experiments made
succcssively i'll 1884 and 1885 at the Ala
bama Experiment Station, to test effects
Of deep and shallow cultivation, there
was difference respectively of 85 and
100 pounds of seed cotton per acre in
favor of shallow cultivation throughout.
The two plats were prepared, manured
and cultivated exactly alike, except that
when the cotton on one plat was about
a foot high it was plowcd deep with a
long scooter and scrapc, as is frequently
done by farmers, and its roots considera-
bly, cut. The scrape should always be
attached behind the foot of the plow,
not in front Of it, and the scooter used
with it should be very short, just long
enough to keep the point of the plow-
foot from striking the bottom of the fur
row. Another interesting experiment
male at the same station illustrates q
point we have often urged, to-wit, the
importance Of pressing or firming seed
in the soil to insure prompt termination.
Cotton was planted in two adjacent rows
on the same day with two different cot
ton planters, one covering the seed in
the usual manner, the other throwing
the dirt into ridge over the seed and
then passing il down on the seed by a
roller rigidly attached to the machinej
weather was dry. Where the roller