The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1891-03-04
FARMER NDPLANTER.
REcLAIMING POOR LAND.

1t May DO Very Wei as a Ineory, but 10
Very Unsatisfactory in Practice.
Bringing poor land to a high state OF
fertility is most laudable object, but
for man who has means, to invest in
such land because it is cheap" or.
rather, low-priced, as compared with
first-class land and the prices it COM
mands, is an error have often observed
practiced, and to impress this fact on
the minds of your readers and show the
Importance of having land rich, or else
highly fortified, is the object of this
letter.
] am well aware that many of your
readers are ready to say: "Oh, this is
the same old haelSneyed theme of every
ones making his land rich before rails
ing or planting his crop and no one but
book-farming theorist would write
such stuff; it makes me tired" but I'll
see what he's got to say, anyway"
Thanks, kind reader, and ] commence
by saying that in thirty years practical
experience on the farm | claim to be
'boss hoe hand" and something OF
Gladstone in my fondness for telling
trees. and | will say right here that
all my profits have been grown on
good land, or that fairly good, with
plenty of special fertilizer Cor the crop.
| will further state | have grown very
weary waiting till could make red hill
sides rich by growing clover" In
fact, have wasted a good many first
class clover seed sowing them on these
red hill sides, and have become thor
oughly persuaded that it's rather
mythical hallucination that one can in
u ''few years time grow crops of clover
and peas, etc, and make land rich"
have not seen such results in riding
over this county, or elsewhere, nor do
| know of a single poor farm that is
not dear at $40 per acre as compared
with good one at $50 per acre. have
noticed the results of crops on these two
kinds of farms, and noted the conditions
of those share troopers who worked the
same, and every thing is in favor of the
investor in the good farm, and also in
the condition of his cropper, who hasan
abundance and is happy, while the man
equally Industrious and painstaking on
the poor land has scant living, and
feels that there is nothing but ''hard
times" in store for him while the owner
of the poor farm complains that repairs
on buildings, taxes and fences consume
every dollar of his rents, especially in
the country remote from the advantages
of the city's large supply of stable ma
nure.
Well, having told of the disadvan-
tages and appropriateness of owning
poor land and of working it, for have
been both owner and worker of both
kinds, / will try and give some sugges-
tions to help those who are SO unfort-
innate as to own only land of moderate
fertility, such as will make from fifteen
to twenty bushels of corn per acre. To
those whose lands will not make fifteen
bushels, would suggest, if they have
no means and no credit to buy fertiliz-
ers, by all means use every power to
manufacture compost heaps of all
available material, and make very pro-
ooSbiNC loi oiiO uioV yCeti "Ide lblo
can be thus made, and borrow
the money to improve the rest of
the plowed crop Gf necessary to
mortgage the land), by use of special
fertilizers; but by no means overcrop
yourself, which is easily done with land
whose productive capacity is thus in
creased, and where weeds and grass
will start SO readily and grow so fast
on land thus enriched.
I have in mind an experiment tried
in 1881 in using special fertilizers in the
hill on a crop of tobacco, and it is SO
striking will relate it, as showing how
a special fertilizer costing 50 per acre
allowed me to make a net profit on
land of $50 per acre (the lands natural
capacity was only twenty bushels of
corn per acre., but by the use of ito
bacco grower l realized S65 per acre
for the tobacco, when it's cost was only
$50 to produce it, and | left out the fer
tilizer on 100 hills, and cut. cured and
stripped, weighed and valued it, and
compared its value with like number
that was fertilized, and was fully con-
vinced would only have gotten cost of
production $3.50 per acre) for the tobac-
co had / not used the fertilizer.
don't know of any thing more inn
portant for our farmers to test than the
use of special fertilizers for their crops.
BY carefully noting results and trying
to find out the exact benefit one receives
by the use of fertilizers as compared
with similar land where not used, he is
led to act for himself, from his own ex-
Ierience, and not another's theories,
which may not apply to his particular
soil. So work rich land, or use special
fertilizers.-W. E. Embry, in Southern
Farm.
GARDENING