The morning news., 1889-03-11
Improved culture Of Cotton.

The ordinary yield of cotton, says the
american AgricuLturist, is not sufficient
to pay the grower his expenses and the
common wages of laborer. The census
reports gives the average yield per acre in
Georgia as 1877 pounds; South Carolina, 140
pounds Alabama, $50 pounds; and the high
est, in Louisiana, 800 pounds. AS bale, or
$50 pounds, per acre Is not uncommon with
good farmers, ard the best culture produces
1,C00 pounds, it is evident that the lowest
yield must be much below the average. In
deed, many fields produce no more than
fifty pounds per acre, and some wretched
patches may be found, without going far to
find them, upon which as little as fifteen to
twenty-five pounds per acre only is grown.
What a waste of labor and of land. and Of
possible wealth to the community
Cotton is a crop that exhausts the land
and requires rich soil or well manurged
one to yield its best, and its cest as yet, no
knows; but I,500 pounds of lint per acre
has been grown by well-known farmer in
Georgia. 1t requires nitrogen and phos-
phoric acid, but it gets only the latter,
which alone is as useless for the crop as food
would be to man without water. Plants
must have every element they require, or
they cannot grow, and the rule among the
cotton planters is to use phosphate" only.
This results in a starved crop and loss of
labor. 1t has been found that stable or
yard manure, or rich compost in wuich
this forms part, is the best. food for the
cotton plant, and the best place to put this
q H. -
A good compost is made Of pen or yard
manure, black soil from the woods, or a
swamp, OF from bitches, with cotton seed
and phosphate. Only the cheapest fertili-
zers can be used for this crop, on account of
its low price, and the cheapest is made at
home Southern farmers waste millions of
dollars worth of manure every year by
turning their cattle out in the woods and
leaving their hogs to run on the roads.
Pork can be made in the south for cents
a pound by feeding corn, sweet potatoes,
peas and bran, but millions Of pounds are
purchased at 10 to Is cents pound. And
all the manure which the hogs would make
If kept up and fed would be worth as much
for the cotton crop as all the phosphate"
which is bought. To produce profitable
crops Of cotton a thorough change is need
ed. Long ago in these columns souther IN
farmers were told of the benefits Of diversi-
fled crops; of growing clover, grass, peas
and other fodder crops and breeding stock
and manure; and now we urge a better
culture Of the leading southern crop, not
that twice as much cotton NAV be grown
and the market value deprecated, but that
the present crop may be grown on one
third of the land at third of the cost for
the culture, and the spare land be put into
corn, millet and clover, and then the clover
turned under for co ton. A rotation of
crops is Indispensable for profitable culture
Of the soil, and under this system al excel
lent rotation would come in. One enthu-
siastic aud progressive farmer in the south
says he is not going to stop until he grows
five bales of cotton to the acre. He has
grown three bales and will grow five be-
yond doubt, but VIC dare say he will not
stop trying for more, even then.