The Bossier banner., 1890-02-20
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.
JEFF wELBoRN's WAY.

VINO are skept1cal about our hands hoe
ing five to six acres of cotton to stand,
per day, each, This year we had 120
acres in cotton which We have cultivated
with our own hands and hired labor.
When it was time to hoe it out the first
time, we put in three Mitchell cotton
serapes, following one myself. Directly
behind them my brother went in with
two negro boys, one only fifteen years
old, with hoes three hoes only and two
hours behind the hoes three negroes fol-
lowed with double shovel stocks and two
twelve-inch solid sweeps on them, dirt
ing up, or rather blowing the whole row.
Behind these three sweeps not
green thing was seen, except the
one, two, and occasionally three stalks
OF cotton. All signs of scraper or
hoe were hid from view. We went across
this 100 acres with scrapes and hoes in
less than eight days. The sweeps had
to be helped out by other sweeps, their
work being slower. The three hoe hands
did not only keep up, but did it without
the loss of much sweat. My brother had
to look after the hands, and would often
be out an hour or more; so we lost more
or less time each day. At no time dur
ing the hoeing out was single hand
hurried up; on the contrary, it required
an effort to keep down their propensity
to race. My brother is an expert with
the hoe, and claims to be with the plow.
The land we had in cotton this year was
partly in cotton, corn and oats last year.
Naturally this red, sandy soil is the
foulest of all classes of soil. What we
have accomplished this year, in rainy
seasons, we can and will do in other
seasons. Nothing is guess-work when
we have Nature for our teacher and do
our work on scientific principles.
For more than twenty years l have
centered every thought on corn, cotton
and cow peas, and not on general farm
ing. have not read or thought about
much else, and my mode is almost the
opposite of that in general practice. l
improve cotton simply for earliness. To
do this must have cluster variety, so
much abused because it is so much fast
er than the ordinary farmer, that it will
load up before he gets through tearing
up the roots, the consequence Of which
is that the squares will dry up on the
stalk mot shed off. The cause of the
drying up of the squares on the stalks,
instead of shedding, as all late, long
limb kinds do, is the same as a tree
deadened during blooming or cut
down with the bloom on the stems.
When the process is slow they shed. So
with the cluster cotton. We deaden it
while under headway fruiting. My corn
improvement is one ear per stalk, with
large cob and deep, soft grain, instead
of two or more ears per stalk with small
cob and finty grain. l was severely
criticised at first but read the bulletins
from the experiment stations in Kan
sas, Missouri and Tennessee, the corn
states of the world now, and see the re-
suit. They support each other in show
ing the largest cared varieties, max
ing from one-third to double what the
early flint varieties do with two or more
ears per stalk. The soft grain will feed
much farther.
have stuck to the bunch pea almost
single handed for number of years, as
have to the cluster cotton. On rich
land the running pea, or long-limbed
cotton, will make immense vines or
stalks, if the season is the least wet, to
the detriment of the fruit.
have also condemned the theory that
the poorer the land the closer the rows
in cotton. On the contrary, have held
that the richer the land the better able
it is to carry extra stalks; in other
words, the thicker the cotton should
stand on the land to gather up the ex-
cess of plant-food and convert it into
lint cotton, in the three to four months
between the cold spring and droughts
and worms Of August. OF course, for
this purpose, we must have a close, com
pact, rapid-fruiting variety, and plant
early on very fat ridges. The slow fruit
ing is the cause of excessive stalk
growth.
have also condemned deep spring
blowing, but advocate fall blowing.
turning under all the trash. I have
ridiculed the idea of plants feeding
through their tap roots or other roots
below where the air can enter the soil.
Va V@AAhS AA AOou OnrOugn the pores in
the leaves. I have exhibited all the
sympathy in my soul for the man that
makes practice of cutting out crab
grass with hoe, or cultivating a crop
just enough to keep the grass from tax
ing it The horse is eight times as
strong IS l am, and / can kill eight
times as much grass, and make eight
times as much crop with his muscle
combined with mine, than can with
my muscle alone.
By deep breaking in the fall and win
ter, with thorough surface preparation
in the spring, almost every cotton seed
planted will germinate quickly and
grow on fast. By selecting the best-ma-
tured bolls from the thriftiest well-uro-
portioned stalks of an early, fast-growinp
variety, and the soil in the best condi- |
ton possible, we need not plant more
than peck Of seed per acre. / planted
fifty acres with ten bushels this year
and got good stand. With this thin
stand 1t is not necessary to thin out
until the cotton is from six to eigbt
inches high. We harrow of, if possible
just before it comes up. AS soon as IL is
well up go around it with a double