The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1893-10-26
cover it with Japan clover.

81
grow easily without care or atteng. g..
and, besides beneitting the land, VIII
furnish pasture for stock.
am aware this
UPBUILDING
is slow and tedious work, and that we
can only work on limited area each
year, but the era of exhaustion is upon
us and we must meet it successfully or
go to the wall. A beginning has already
been made. On many farms the fields
OF COW peas, that hope of Georgia farm
ers, are now ready for the reaper and
| attes. the effort that is being made to re-
turn to the soil some of the fertility that
we have so ruthlessly destroyed. But
we must broaden the foundation, and
there is much work that can be done on
southern farm at this season, not SO
much with view to present returns as
to laying solid basis for future opera
tons. The oat crop throughout the
state ought to be in the ground by the
middle of this month, as later sowings
are always liable to winter killing. Rye
and barley can be sown much later, and,
wherever possible, heavy seedlings of
these should be put in. These green
crops not only contribute a large quota
to the food supply for man and beast,
but feed the land also and put it in bet
ter condition for the coming summer
crops. The bulk of the
WHEAT
crop will be sown in the next few weeks.
AS have advised before, even in those
sections where wheat is not paying
money, crop, each farmer should sow
enough to supply his family. and this.
with the improvement to his land, will
reconcile him to the work. The follow
ing ON wheat, which I quote from a
valued exchange, so clearly and forcibly
treats of this subject that l feel it can
not be improved upon:
What farmers need to learn in wheat
growing districts is the great value of a
regular rotation in which a leguminous
crop immediately precedes the wheat
Instead of putting wheat in roughly on
corn ground with sprinkling of fertil-
izer to make a crop and leave the land
worse off, how much better it would be
to SOW the annual winter growing Grim
son clover, with the same amount of fer
tilizer, among the corn in August Or
September; let it be pastured whenever
fit to be trodden in winter, and in May
plow it under and SOW the land in COW
peas broadcast. The result would be a
big crop of pea vine hay for stock and
manure making, and preparation for a
wheat crop far more certain than the
VIGOROUSLY uncertain corn-ground
cure the pea vines as hay. run them
through the cutter when in full pod, and
make the best ensilage that can be made
for cows. With plenty of ensilage,
clover hay and wheat straw, and plenty
of good stock to eat them, the road to
big wheat crops, rich land and indepen-
dence is open, and farm enriched will
always enrich the farmer as fast as a
rundown farm will run him down."
Another subject very little understood
and therefore very little practiced at the
south is
FALL FLOWING.
1t is contended by many southern ag-
riculturists that the advantages to be
gained by deep blowing of land are not
for our section. Their idea is that as we
do not have the heavy freezes of more
northern latitudes, which were to disin-
tegrate the land, the benefits to us are
not commensurate with the labor, and
that from the packing heavy winter
rains much of our work has to be gone
over in the spring. This is, in a meas
ure, true, and if this disintegration were
the only advantage their position would
be we'll taken. But there are other and
equally strong reasons for deep fall plow-
ing, more especially on our stiff red
lands, which are only in rare instances
thoroughly worked. Among these rea-
sons in favor of deep fall blowing are
the following: The loosening, turning
and airation of the subsoil; the proven
ton of washing; the storing of moisture
from the winter rains, which, falling on
unplowed land, pass off, carrying with
them much Of the top soil; the bringing
to the surface of the mineral elements,
which are stored in sufficient quantities
in all our lands, and for which, in the
form Of commercial phosphates and pot
ash, we each year pay out large sums.
These locked up stores, to become avail
able, must be brought 10 the surface
and there combined with vegetable mat
ter and fall under the direct action of
the rains, the frosts and the atmosphere.
BY this deep fall blowing we open the
door through which nature yields up
these treasures. JEFF Wilborn, high au-
thority in such matters, says that by
deep blowing Of red clay lands as early
as possible in fall and winter and then
cultivating in peas, to supply the neces-
sary nitrogen, heavy crops can be made
and the land improved each year. He
has "proved his faith by his works" and
certainly his eminent success should en-
courage others to try the same plan, be-
ing assured that it is not an empty
theory.
Let me urge this plan upon the atten-
ton of our farmers. Let each one try a
small area as an experiment, doing the
work thoroughly, and, having once salts
fed himself as to its utility and prach-
cality, let him appropriate the minerals
dormant in his soil and thus avoid these
heavy obligations for fertilizers, which
are now Fastening his cotton on the mar
ket. l do not mean that he can dis
pense altogether with the use of COM
mercial fertilizers, for in conjunction
with green crops they are an important
adjunct in this work of renovation, but
/ do say that the man who is able to do
this fall blowing, following it with le-
guminous crops, will attain to surpris-
ing results and at far less cost.
CUT THE GRASS
which all ovnr tho state now cnvarc tho