The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1893-10-26
COMMISSIONER NIESBIIT.
HIS MONTHLY TALK WITH THE
GEORGIA FARMERS
On Subjects of General Interest Per-
tanning to the Farm and
Garden--Good Advice.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
ATLANTA, Ga, Oct. 1. 1893.

Ing WOrk, Dut there are other duties be-
longing to this season, which, if differ
emit system were adopted, would be con-
sidered as important and command an
equal share of attention. On most Geor-
gia farms this duty of saving the cotton
takes precedence of and overshadows
every other because Of the large area de-
voted to this crop; because it is regarded
as the only money crop of the south; be-
cause the farmer must hurry to get out
enough to meet his obligations, now ma
turing, and because, if left standing in
the fields beyond certain period, it sus-
tains irreparable injury from wind and
weather. 1t is not, therefore, to be Won
dered at that other duties must lie in
allegiance; that the fall preparation and
fall crops are generally neglected, and
also that mnch cotton is forced on the
market which could otherwise quietly
await favorable prices.
/ LET US CONSIDER =
this question. Suppose every Georgia
farmer had, in the past, made it part
Of his farm economy to sow largely in
the fall of oats, rye and barley, with
enough wheat, where it can be raised,
for home consumption; had, each spring,
put in full crops of corn, peas, sorghum,
potatoes, ground peas, and by this policy
and by concentration in work and fertil-
cation, had not only reduced the area,
but also the cost of cotton production!
We would now witness, in one state at
least, agricultural independence. For,
although the unequal pressure of our
national legislation might fall most
heavily on the business of the farmer he
could bear up against the unjust load,
and while other men and other avoca-
tons might be swept away in the gen
eral destruction, he, being grounded on
the rock of home supplies, could weather
the storm and emerge, if not unframed,
at least with life and limb and strength
to begin the struggle anew.
Because am more and more i'm
pressed with the Importance of this mo-
mentous question would again urge its
careful study. No one knows better
than 1 the difficulties in the way of
changing a cotton farm into one of di-
versified crops. No one more fully un-
derstands the feeling of uncertainty with
which man embarks into new and
untried system after following it's oppo-
site all his life. To one who has been
accustomed to selling hundred bales it
seems like starvation to be reduced to
half or fourth of that amount, and yet,
paradoxical as it may seem, the smaller
amount may be made to represent more
actual cash than the larger. But this
much-to- be desired result cannot be
reached by the old haphazard methods.
Careful study must be given not only to
the plants, their habits and needs, but to
soils and soil conditions; to fertilizers
and their properties; to their elements
available and suited to the lands and the
crops under CIVILIZATIONS; to the system of
blowing, which will best bring to the
surface the elements existing even in our
poorest lands; and last, but not least, the
best and cheapest plan of restoring fer
tslity to lands worn by years and years
of successive cotton and corn culture.
In the history Of our agricultural
country there have been three periods:
First, the strictly pastoral stage, with
only sufficient area under cultivation
to afford bread, the inhabitants depend
ing on focks and herds for sources of
supply. AS the population increased
and a more urgent necessity arose for
larger bread supplies the forests were
felled, and, the lands being fresh and
filed with humus, a moderate appica-
ton of energy caused the yields from all
crops to be abundant. The barns were
filed, cotton was king, the farmers were
independent, and contentment marked
the second era. But population has
wonderfully increased, cultivated lands,
after long series of years in which
everything has been done to deplete,
nothing to build up, have at last re-
belled, and we find ourselves struggling
against the third and perhaps most diff
cult era, in which our lands do not
respond as formerly, and we are COM
PEELED, If we would realize remunerative
returns, to resort to some system of
renovation and rotation. Even in the
grain growing middle and eastern states
the lands show such marked decline
that the farmers have been compelled to
substitute other crops and turn their at
tention to more careful systems of rota-
ton and cultivation. In many instances
the farmers, becoming discouraged, have
emigrated to the newer and more fertile
western lands, where they again subdue
the forests or bring under cultivation
the rolling prairies. In our own section,
comparatively new, there are thousands
Of acres once covered with magnificent
forest growth, which from our prodigal
use of their. resources, and our want of
care in preserving them against destruc-
ton, are practically abandoned, the gull
lies widening and growing deeper with
every shower, and nearly every atom Of
available plant food either leached out
by winter rains or burnt out by our long
summer suns. These bare lands are
"wasting lands" 1t has been proven in
England by careful experiment that
even poor soil without vegetation
loses annually by drainage nitrates
equivalent to 224 nOl1nda ner acre of So