The gold leaf., 1894-11-15
ABOUT FARMING.
How to Improve WOrn-Out Land and
Make Money on the Farm.

CHARLOTTE, n. c., Nov. 5.
COrresponcn Neus and Observer.
| have long insisted that the great
" clean culture crops of the South
cotton and tobacco-were fatal alike
to land improvement and to safe
money making. With these expensive
crops immense sums have been realized
in grass, but the bulk of the proceeds
has gone to labor, to the merchant, to
the middleman, and to almost every
body else except the farmer himself.
In this way he has helped to add a
seeming prosperity to our section by
building up towns and factories, and
by somewhat diversifying our indus
trial interests and pursuits. But the
inevitable result of these costly "Clean
culture crops was o. to encourage
the use Of expensive, stimulating,
bought fertilizers, rather than steady
improvement of the land by home
made manurcs and solution Of other
crops. This added enormously to the
cotton and tobacco growers, led to a
fall in prices, and SO defeated the
unnatural greed of both landlord and
tenant. a. So again it induced
every landowner and shiftless rover,
who could raise an old mule, to try
his hand on the " great money crop"
and We would see the worst agriculture
in the civilized world. But now 90,
worst of all, with cotton and tobacco
both lower than ever before known,
the clean culture" farmer wakes up
to find nearly all his best lands literally
worsted and worn, and often his
richest soils all gone-generally to the
sea. And then there is usually no
alternative but to resort to the very
method he should have adopted thirty
years ago, and SO we'll indicated in
the letter of Mr. Mel .aurne, copied
from the Southern Planter, Of Rich
mond, Va, as follows:
IMPROVING POOR LAND.
Editor Southern Planter:
L
years, and have read with much in
terest the articles on How to improve
our WOrn-out Lands Now, Mr..
Editor, | have the good fortune to own
one of these old worn-out East Nir-
ginia farms for nearly thirty years,
and, although [ have read your articles
on how to improve them, and tried
fS
good portion of iU is yet poor. l will,
however, say that whilst, when | first
commenced farming, made from three
to four bushels of wheat for one sOwn,
yet | have made for some years now,
| from eight to twelve, and have some
times made as much as twenty for one.
| When | first commenced farming, l
made about fifty or sixty bushels Of
wheat on the farm a few years ago l
made about 800 bushels. Now my
farm is much improved, probably more
SO than almost any farm i'll the COM
munity, and by far more than any
| farm of like size.
| will give you my way of improving
land for what it is worth. First, make
and save, under sheds, all the home
made manure you can, and apply on
the surface in the fall and winter.
Second, use all the good fertilizer you
can reasonably afford to pay for ;
subsoil all you can, and do all the fall
blowing you can. Third, always follow
your tertilized land with grass or
clover. Red clover is my favorite, yet
| sow sapling, German clover, timothy,
herds grass, and orchard grass.
Another good course is, have all of the
bushes and weeds cleaned off ditch
banks and put on the poor places :;
don't allow them to be burnt. Another
good course is to SOW all the peas you
can. 1t is the cheapest way to raise
your meat, besides being Of much
value to your land and, lastly, don t
let your stock run on your grass fields
except in the late fall and winter.
am not in the habit of writing, and
have written these lines hastily, but if
you choose to publish, in whole or in
part, they may do some good. | am
deeply interested in farming, and in
improving poor land. l started at the
end of the war with only one horse,
worked hard and economized, bought
young cattle, etc. | now have about
1900 acres of land, plenty of mules
and stock, and l have no fault to find
with hard times, Wall street or the
goldbugs. M. MCLAURINE.
The success of Mr.. McLaurne
shows that clear money can be made
raising grain, grass and stock and
with fair acreage in cotton only as
a side or extra crop, l know from my
own experience of ten years that North
Carolina farming can be easily made
to pay. Any other policy is full Of
risk and amounts to farm gambling.
RUFUS BARRINGER.