The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-06-02
FARM NOTES.
Edited by John c. Edgar, Duval, to whom all
communications for this column should be ad-

Edited by John C. Edgar, Duyal, to whom all
| communications for this column should be ad-
dressed.l
PANHANDLE CROPS.
Having just arrived from Wichita
Falls, which place I left yesterday
morning, l will let you know the
status of this section. Everything
looks bad on account OF the drouth
that lasted all spring till about a
month ago, and still everything looks
gloomy. Oats are very short, not over
twelve inches high. Corn looks sickly
and is very poor stand, and seldom
more than two feet high. Wheat is in
a miserable condition, averaging from
~ to Is inches high, headed and rusty.
Harvest will begin in about two
weeks. The most sanguine prophets
do not predict more than half crop
or from eight to fifteen bushels to the
acre, and the quality of the grain is
not expected to be first class. Indeed
it looks as if those depending on Pan
handle wheat will this year hav to
chew some very poor biscuits. sup
pose your small grain will be all bar
vested and though you think your
crops short they are far ahead of any
thing in this St ction. Here there is
not one acre in ten that will cut with
a binder, but will have to be saved
with a header, which only clips of
the heads. These are elevated into an
accom- panying wagon and hauled di-
rect to the thresher or to the barn.
We had tremendous heavy rain last
night and another early this morning,
but by noon the ground will be so dry
there will be no sign of the morning
wetting. Political feeling runs high
in this section and excited crowds Of
Hogg and Clark sympathizers can be
seen on every corner discussing the
good and bad qualities of each uber-
Material aspirant. A. ID. E.
Iowa Park, Tex.
FIELD PEAS.
Although our oat crop will average
much better than that reported in the
Panhandle, it is very short in the
straw for this section of the state.
This deficiency in straw means a re-
duction of winter feed for stock that
must be compensated for or stock are
liable to suffer. This can be done by
following oats with peas. To the
uninitiated this may look very
much like making an unwarranted
demand on the soil-burning the
candle at both ends. But the reduc-
ton of the soils fertility by such a
double annual crop is more apparent
than real. In fact the pea crop will
enrich rather than impoverish. Peas,
like all legumious or food bearing
plants, have tendency to enrich the
soil. They gather and store in theil
roots branches and seeds, a larger per-
centage of the most valuable of all
plant food - nitrogen-than other
crops; and long experience and scien-
tific tests have proved that the poor
est land may be made fertile by the
cultivation thereon of legumious
in higher ATTITUDES is sown in regular
rotation as much for its fertilizing eff
feet as for its value as forage. AS very
few clovers succeed in our climate,
and then only on deep rich land-un-
less melilotus should prove an excep-
tion-we must rely mainly on peas for
the recuperation of fertility via cul-
| tivated crops.
Peas stand in the same relation to
the Southern farmer that clover does
to his compatriot of the North. The
value of peas is not understood and
appreciated as it should, pos
sibly because most of our
lands are so new and naturally
rich as not to show falling off Of fer
tility, but nearly every farmer has
some spot of land that is naturally
poor or has been impoverished by ex-
cessive cropping.
Field peas will make a respectable
crop on land too poor for anything else,
besides leaving it more fertile, and in
course of time rich enough for any
other crop.
They yield heavy supply of valu-
able feed, whether for grazing or hay.
When wanted for grazing, a good plan
is to plant them in the corn rows at
'1aying byn time. They will not in.
terfere with the main crop, and when
the corn has been gathered, stock can
be turned in. If wanted for hay they
should be sown broadcast and plowed
in like oats. This is the very time to
do the work, so they will get a good
start with the June rains. Two
bushels to the acre is about the right
quantity for broadcast sowing. They
may be planted in drills like corn or
cotton and cultivated, but this is only
desirable when it is intended to save
and thresh the peas.
SUBSTITUTE FOR COTTON.
Many substitutes for cotton, as a
money crop, have been suggested and
many are now being tried.
Being experiments. and tried with
out experience or that caretulness and
thoroughness requisite to secure sue
cess, there will be many failures and
return to the service of the old
ruler. This is to be regretted but is
unavoidable. On the other hand
many will find they have handled
for the first time crops vastly more
profitable than cotton, and their sue
cess will lead others to follow in the
same line.
There is no one crop that can be
planted throughout the cotton belt
that will successfully compete with
cotton. The substitute must be some