The Opelousas courier., 1895-08-10
fARMERA PLANTER
COTTON

,n.y iast letter l referred IN III.
resto or.ance OF leguminous crops in The
ooratlon of our land SO as tn maLs
81 nun crops possible, and snoLe
~ "e Importance of the Southern cow
Pea In starting this imnrovsmsut W"
cron =. ne past five years another
s @Sp mas been introduced to our arm.
notlce that promises to be n.
e. aid and ally of the low nea
hoat ~ southern farmer that has rat
;ne zen tested. This is the annual crow.
ans clover, now known as crimson
liver: There Is no plant thai. Ats in
so well with the COW pea AZ - foraaa
CROW NO south or as a renovating
~ nave been urging the merits
- clover upon the cotton farmers
o.' ie south for several years and not
my on h cotton farmers. but, on ali
% ~ farmers alike. Mr., r. p. Me-
ana,ly' OF Saxon, N. c., writes that he
.ieo crlmson clover three wears aoo
out u grew only nine inches hiob and
W., discarded 1t. But recently he
was induced to give it another
.ri s with the help of 500 pounds of
hai1lt per acre narrowed in with the
seett' n now he reports a wonderful
grs>Sth a thick as the hair on a
oofss back" This shows that his soil
neeoed the help of the potash in the
halnlt to enable it to gather nitrogen
a y. nun 1he great advantage to the
o'U farmer IN the crimson clover
crop is thai he can sow it all through
ms COTTON field after the cultivation
- over IN August and will have a
green pasture all winter in place of a
uare SOIL washing away all through
'he winter rains, and will have a
growth to plow under for corn in the
spring that will insure him a GOOD
crop Then as l have said, it fits in
wen with the cow pea crop, for as
soon as the peas are cut for hav. he
can sow the clover seed on the land
after stirring it with a cutaway har-
row, n can pasture it until time to
put the land in order for cotton.
MI. William Choice, of S~partanburg.
:. e., writes that he had an OUTLYING
farm that he tried to sell as he had
more land than he needed, but falling
TO DO so, he asked my advice how to
treat it, as the land had been badly
rus down under the old one-crop
planting system. advised him to use
literally potash salts and dissolved
phosphate rock, and SOW it down in
crimson clover. He prepared in Au-
gust a large field and did as directed.
The results have been he says more
than satisfactory. I'm April follow
ing h clover was in full bloom, and
made q large crop of hay. which was
OH IN time to plant cotton. Planted
on h clover sod without any other
manure, and the young cotton now
shows that rich rank growth which is
a fair harbinger of a good crop. This
goes to show that a proper rotation.
with crimson clover as the basis
of recuperation, will make the farm
rich and at the same time give paying
crops" Here then we see the effect of
one well-fetilized crop Of crimson
clover, the hay from which fully paid
all the expense of the fertilizers in
giving the promise of a good crop
without further fertilization. No bills
for complete fertilizers at a high price
to be paid for out of that cotton.
This shows what I have been for
years insisting upon, hat the true
way to fertilize for our sale crops is to
use the cheaper forms Of mineral plant i
food to grow = heavy crop Of the
plants that are going to capture for us
the nitrogen that costs SO much in
a complete fertilizer and thus
not only get a heavy forage
crop to feed for the making of
. profit out Of stock, and to make
our pile larger, but thus fix
nitrogen in the land for the succeeding
crop of cotton or corn. This is in effect
not only getting the fertilizer free for
the cotton crop, but the making of a
profit in doing SO, and at the same time
have the satisfaction to know that our
soil is actually being improved by the
process. It. has been well said that
''the coming farmer Of the south will
be a legume farmer" Cow peas and
crimson clover, with a liberal use of
the cheap potash and phosphate, lie at
the very foundation of all rational
improvement in the south. By
their aid the land need never, either in
summer or winter, be left to the vast
ing of rains and sun by lying bare,
but between every hoed crop may be
with a growth to yield
profit while it gathers fertility
for the land and food for the sale crops.
But it must not be assumed that these
will bring all the elements of
to a soil that has been ex-
hausted by long tillage and exposure
to the teaching effects of rain and sun.
IF you want the best results from the
action of leguminous crops, you must
feed them. They will gather nitro
yen for you free, but they can not get
The potash and phosphoric acid that
The crops of former years have taken
rom the soil, and without these are
yiven them they a not get the nitro
rem they would with a we~ll-developed
and you will not only lose the
lay crop they would give but
he effect on the soil for subse-
,uent crops. Nothing from nothing
md nothing remains. It will pay far
better to put a liberal dressing OF the
heap mineral fertilizers on the pea
md clover crops than to put the same
money value in a high-grade fertilizer
the cotton crop direct, and not only
,av better in the cotton crop, but in
he permanent improvements the soil.
Iaving these two crops then as shee.
,nchors in our efforts to grow cotton
heaply, we will take up in u next
he various rotation. OF crops that
nay be practiced with Gotten as the
oney o or, In other words, the