The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1893-02-16
COMMISSIONER NESBI1'T
His Monthly Talk with the Farmers
Of Georgia.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
ATLANTA, GA, Feb. /, 1898.
The Late Cold Spell.

DU1dlYSlS
farm work, and it is only where a great
deal of energy and determination have
been brought to the front that ANYTHING
has been accomplished in the field. A
little cleaning up, repairs on fences, the
cutting away of briars and bushes in the
old fence rows, is, in most cases, all
that has been attempted. The Their
lIometer registered as low as six degrees
and never higher than fourteen for
several days, and it was this uniform
cold, with the snow which followed.
that saved the oat crop. Had it alter
mated between freezing and thawing for
same period, the damage would have
been irreparable. l am informed that
IN some localities, more especially lower
Georgia. the cat cF<ao has succumbed
and where this
CROP HAS BEEN KILLED,
! would advise the re-seeding of the
same land just as soon as the weather
permits Of out door work. 1t has been
TOO much our practice in the past to put
this land in cotton.
DON'T BE TEMPTED
to do this. If this land was fertilized
IN the fall, put on little more plant
food and put your oat seed in the first
opportunity, and | don't think you will
have cause to regret your action.
nave never seen farmer who permitted
the land on which cotton had been
killed to go implanted, and I have vet
TO see the man who replanted it in any
crop but cotton.
The plows must now be moving every
favorable moment, but
DON'T PLOW YOUR LAND WHEN IT is
TOO WET
The little time gained by this plan is
far unbalanced by the injury to the
land, for II there is much clay this
becomes mortar, and so compacted that
1t requires years of subsequent intelli-
gent work to counterfeit the injury.
Too many tenants and hired men are
Ignorant of or Indifferent to the harm
done, and hence this mistaken plan is
often followed.
The heavy freezes have DESTROYED
much insect life, and will render our
land more pliable and easily broken by
the pillow.
THE COMPOST HEAPS
should be pushed forward with vigor.
Try a compost Of stable manure, acid
phosphate and potash. This puts your
land in fine mechanical condition and
gives plant food well adapted to our
soils and standard crops. For this pur-
pose there is nothing better than the
formula prepared by the late Mr.. Tur-
man, which give i'll full elsewhere in
this report. In planning for your crops
DON'T-GO ON THE IDEA
| that it is the number of acres rather
than the preparation and condition of
| the land which marks the successful
l IL. -
| lands it seems almost natural that we
have fallen into this error. But let us
| realize that it is an error and resolve to
| follow better methods. In the last fifty
| years agriculture has made vast strides
and it is IN those older countries where
advanced, scientific methods have been
| practiced that a marked degree has
been attained, and our own state. COM
| paratively young and fresh, has to
depend to a large extent on outside
assistance for the food to support our
| population.
OUR CHIEF CROP
all goes to swell the profits of other in
/ dustries, leaving us nothing but a hard
living. The consequent dissatisfaction
is causing many farmers to seek en-
ployment in other lines Of business. To
trace the evils of such a state of feeling
we need only study agricultural his
tory in England, Her farming popula-
ton is 30 per cent. of the whole, and in
1890 she imported four hundred millions
of breadstutfs. Her laboring popula-
ton is poorly housed, underpaid, discon-
tented. The average farm is 800 acres,
and IN the last sixty years she has lost
o,5OO,O0O Of her population by imigra-
ton. :
In France, on the contrary, you find
an energetic, painstaking. frugal peo-
pie cultlvating and owning their small
farms. Her rural population is rs per
cent. of the whole. In 1890 she exported
one hundred and thirty-five millions Of
food products, and in sixty years she
has lost only 100000 people by imigra-
t1on. Her farms average ten acres, but
there are four millions of farmers who
make an independent living on farms of
two acres each. Her people are indie
pendent and hopeful for the future. In
England the farmers have, in the last
century, lost by the enclosure acts
100000 acres of land, while in France
! nearly the same number of acres have
been gained by the working people. In
our own state we see our people bur-
dened with
A sUPERABUNDANCE OF LAND
and undivided as to the best method for
managing it in order to make it pay
even moderate interest. | under
stand and appreciate the difficulties,
which this condition brings-and l, in
common with many others, know that
the man who expects TO realize profit
or to pay off debts, by stretching his
credit to make few more bales of cot
ton, literally futures" to be dug out
of the ground these to be exchanged
for meat and meal and fertilizers to
run" a few more shiftless laborers, is
making a grave mistake. We admit
that this 'old beaten track" has landed
us any where but in prosperity. We
know that the financial policy of the
government has Disseminated against
the farmers, but we must also acknowl-
edge that after seeing our carefully ma
tured plans end in ignominious failure,
or like Dead Sea fruit turn to ashes on
our lips-it is the part of wisdom to try
different methods. We have watched
these fruitless efforts year after year,
and it is folly to go on compromising
our mistakes. Let us direct our atten-
fion chjaHv m c1cb