The Springdale news., 1889-12-20
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.
Seasonable Suggestions.

E zephyrs, its cool mornings. with its glories of departed summer and its wealth of harvests ripe for the garner, IS always eXacting and frequently con- hicting in it's demands on the skill, judgment and industry of the farmer. The urgency of the cotton harvest has many time defeated the purpose of the farmer to SOW larger area in oats. While we press the importance of rapidly housing the fast-opening cot ton, at the same time there are other things that may not be neglected or postponed to "conyenient season.
 SOWING OATS AFTER COTTON.
 We repeat our previous suggestions about sowing oats in the cotton-ield. Among the various plans and condi- tions to save time, to insure protection against winter killing. and bounte- ous yield at harvest time, there is none that has given us better re- suits than the plan of sowing oats in drills in the cotton field. One who has never seen such work done in the cotton fields is apt to think that great loss of cotton and damage to the stalks would result. But there is no difficulty and no loss worth mentioning. All that Is re- quired is to put cotton pickers enough in the field to gather the cotton-row by row-as fast as the blows are to blow in the grain Let the oats be sown either broadcast and plowed in with scooter and scrape. sweep double shovel or cultivator, as may be found to do the work most satisfactorily. We have more than once adopted the simple plan of laying of two farfows in each middle or TOW of cotton with a small scooter, drilling the seed oats by means of guano trumpet and then GOV cring the two rows at one trip by using q scooter and wide-wihg sweep. i machine for drilling in small grain in the cotton fields, that will do the work in a satisfactory manner, would be worth a great deal 10 the South ern cotton farmer. The cotton field is just the place to SOW oats, for several reasons; The cotton field has been under clean culture since spring and is usually pretty bare and naked, and is exposed to the danger of washing and teaching rains of winter and spring. The soil needs d crop of growing grain to bind it together by means of it's countless roots and root i lets. Another reason is found in the fact that the great bulk of commercial fertilizers used in the South Is applied to cotton, and considerable percent age of the fertilizers so applied to the cotton crop remains in the soil ready for the use of the closely following sma1l=grain crop. Another reason is tse fact that the alI-sammer blowing and hoeing of the cotton is an eXcel- ent preparation forrhe small grain.
 In regard to drilling in the oats, there is no doubt that drilled oats stand the winter better than when sown and plowed and narrowed to a level surface The aim should be to sow early enough for the plants to get firm hold of the soil, the roots being interlaced and matted so as to prevent heaviug or "spcwing out the individ- ual plants.
 GRASS.
 We have already given timely ex- hortations on this subject and recur to it now only in the way of a reminder We are glad to note that the Gommis- sioner of Agriculture of Georgia, Hon. J. T. Henderson, is distributing seeds of several of the leading varieties of grass to the farmers of his State. This is move in the right direction.
 1t should be remembered that good grass can not be produced on poor soil. Indeed with one or two exceptions. the really valuable cultivated grasses will not even live through a single season on poor and unthrifty soil. But it does not require a heavy application of manure to start the young grass off vigorously. and it is easy to add more in the form of top-dressing in the spring The cotton field is also an ex- celent place for sowing grass for the same reasons that have just been given in the case of oats.
 WHEAT.
 We were taken to task" two years ago for advising Southern farmers not to sow wheat simply for the sake of diversity Of crops, or because flour is an indispensable article of food Of course we were flying into the very face of the threadbare advice to ''di- versify your crops; plant and pro- duce every thing needed for home con- sumption, etc. Such rule is entire- ly too broad, in one sense. and yet narrow or hidebound. The farmer should not attempt to blindly follow such an unqualified rale, but he should be governed by his right reason and sound common sense. The time was when the farmers Of Middle and even of Southwest Georgia found 1t more or less desirable and eXpedient to sow wheat, Those were the days of high frpirhtS and hiph prices and before the