The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1892-01-20
PRACTICAL WORDS TO FARMERS.
Who Should and Should not::Buy Fertili-
zers- Comparative Returns From
Corn and Cotton.
TCarolina Spartan,1

Several farmers last week asked the
Spartan two very important ques-
tions:
"Should We buy guano at the present
price of cotton?"
"What should we raise as ready
money crop"
In reply to the first question we do
not hesitate to say that ifyou have
allowed all your lot and stable manure
to wash away, and could not scrape up
enough to manure an acre well, you
should not buy an ounce of guano. You
are lazy and thriftless and no such men
should buy anything to be paid TO- &
the future. Ifyou are pushing d
ling and getting your fsa '
condition and have piles q
manure, then by all means y!
it with the best article Of guano or acid
phosphate you can buy. A two hun
dred pound sack Of good guano will
give you $50 or $50 additional pounds
of seed cotton to the acre. 1t will about
double the corn yield on upland. When
corn is worth go cents ia bushel one
sack of guano will add about SIS to the
value of the crop. The plan of clearing
new grounds and wearing out the land
in few years and turning it out to
grow up in old field pines will not do
in this day and time. All lands not
subject to wash, should be gradually
improved. This can be done most
rapidly BY a judicious use of CONNER
cial fertilizers. We would advise our
readers to buy good tested kinds and,
with clean culture, get all the benefit
possible from them.
AS to the second question, the money
crop should depend, on the quality of
your land and your. locality. If one is
near the city, or one of the large cotton
mills, vegetables, melons, potatoes,
chickens, butter and milk all bring
ready leash. Those who know how to
raise and market such things can make
mere clear money than they could on
cotton at the present prices. If your
soil is not adapted to cotton, then raise
those products which grow best on it.
But the average farmer, living too far
from towns and factories 10 market
vegetables and the like, can not do
better than to raise cotton even at 6
cents. Take two acres of land that
would raise thirty-two bushels Of corn,
ten bushels of peas and $50 bundles of
fodderI and you would get about
S32 20 for the crop, if you sold corn and
peas at 60 cents busbel. The same two
acres ought to make 1900 pounds OF
seed cotton. That would give yoG 533
pounds of lint and thirty-two bushels
of seed. Putting the cotton at cents
and the seed at Is, you would have
S34.3S. After paying expensesifor gin
ming, bagging and ties there would be
left S32.3S. The nearing of this esti-
mate is that corn at go cents and cot
ton at cents, there is little difference
in the money value. The advantage in
raising cotton is that it is ready sale,
easily transported and not lis5.eto
waste.
Then our advice remains as it has
been for the last ten years, and it IS
this: Raise all thesupplies you possibly
can, 50 that you will have an abund-
ance of corn, neat, syrup, potatoes,
fowls, wheat, milk aud butter, with a
little to spare now anG then to keep the
family on cash basis, then make cot
ton your surplus, or money crop. In
the long run that plan, and no other,
will pay the farmers CT the Piedmont.