The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-13
Practical Experience.


There is vast deal of ink and paper
called into requisition in these days, giving
minute and extensive Instructions to farm
ers. says Jackson county, Fla, correspon-
dent of the Florida Agrieulturist. have
made forty-four successive, and may add
without Boosting, successful crops, and my
judgment is that the man who succeeds
best has least to tell about it to others. This
is because so much depends on seasons and
circumstances; and they vary so much and
so often that a man must depend upon his
Judgment, experience and observation to
meet the circumstances. There are some
facts so we'll established, however, that it
does not come amiss to state them for the
benefit of beginners. One of these estab-
lished facts is that field peas must not be
planted over two years on the same land if
fruit is wanted. They can be planted on the
same land till they will produce nothing but
vines, and to my mind vines are not the
crop farmer should sow peas to make. 1t
may answer for men who only want the
vines in an orchard or orange grove, but
the fruit is what the farmer wants, and
leave bllH Vlll6S W 10 Jul Cu uLoCi Wltu u
plow after the frost has killed them, not be-
fore they are dead. A piece Of new land,
say twenty acres, may be planted in corn,
ten of which to be planted in peas with the
corn, the other ten without peas. The corn
on each ten acres the first year will be
equally good, and the pea crop fine-the
peas are clear profit on one ten acres over
the other. Pursue the same plan the sec
ond year, putting the same ten acres in corn
and peas, the other ten in corn only. The
difference in the corn will be marked, and
the pea crop may possibly make up the diff
ference in the yield of the corn grown with
them, against the better yield and better
corn without the peas. Go on the third year
the same way, and without heavy fertiliz-
ing you will have neither corn nor peas to
speak of, with fertilizer you may make corn
and vines. These things know by actual
test, so that though pea vines may be good
renovator of worn out soils, they will not
afford food for their own production. Some
years ago there was so much going the
rounds of the papers about summer plow-
ing in of green crops on land, that | con-
cluded to try an experiment. 1 had fifty
acres left out of cultivation for crab
grass pasture, and when the grass and weeds
were at their best, in July, begun by plow-
ing them in, few acres each month, ex-
tending the process Through the remainder
of the year and into January, carefully
marking each months portion. Now for
results; The field was planted in corn, and
treated exactly alike in cultivation. Their Q
was no difference in the yield in that broken
in December and January, but from De-
cember back to July the crop grew poorer
according to the months regularly, that
broken in July being the poorest. was
satisfied with that one trial, and from that
time on no land of mine was broken before
January. In the eastern and southern por-
tons of the state where the seasons are a
month in advance of ours, it may be best to
begin sooner, but here in Jackson county, to
begin with the year is early enough. Ihave
always cultivated our ordinary pine lands,
and in my forty-four years farming never
made but two short crops, and even then l
was able to pay out and have something
over.