The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-06-13
TO GEORGIA FARMERS.
Commissioner Nesbitt's Regular
Letter About the Crops.
THE OOWPEA AS A FERTILIZER.

Tiiier of the soiI-Hints About What to
Do This Month.
The cool weather during the second
and third weeks in May and more es-
pecially the high winds, have some
what retarded progress in working out
the young corn and cotton, but the es-
cape from killing frost enables US to
bear the lesser evil with equanimity;
the more so when we realize the total
destruction of every green and tender
plant farther north. The fruit in high
er ATTITUDES is reported as entirely lost,
and truck gardeners are again bemoan-
ing the destruction Of their hopes.
In Georgia, the fruit and truck crops
are still intact, and while there may be
some loss from falling off of the fruit,
this, owing to the very heavy crop, may
not be considered as altogether a disad
| vantage. Throughout the state the
crops as rule are, if somewhat back.
ward, in good condition, and we are
encouraged by the hope of bountiful
harvest.
Owing to unusul conditions, June has
come upon US almost unawares. It is
III this month that the critical work on
the corn crop must be completed; the
small grain crops harvested; the earlier
planting of various minor crops, pota.
toes, peas, spanish ground peas and for
age crops given proper cultivation, the
cotton Kept clean and the later planted
| crops of the several varieties granted
an encouraging beginning.
The work ON the main aroa i'm
CORN
will be finished up this month. After
this, 1t matters not what our mistakes
In cultivation may have been, they
cannot be remedied, The man who
has given time and care to thorough
preparation has now a comparatively
easy task in 'laying by" his corn crop.
The plants will be growing rapidly,
and whatever blowing is necessary can
be done with shallow pillow, thereby
leaving the roots undisturbed and kill
ing only the grass and weeds which
may have sprung up.
AT this season the corn is punching.
and between this and the tasselling ne.
Rod the last blowing should be given,
unless the hard, dry nature of the land
makes later blowing an absolute ne.
cessity. This should, however, not be
deferred later than the appearance of
the tassels, as any disturbance after
that time means injury to the crop and
diminution in the yield. If the corn
crop is dismissed the last of June in a
clean condition, any subsequent growth
OF weeds Or grass will not materially
injure the forming ears; but as this
growth will inevitably occupy the in
termediate spaces, why not keep it
down by broadcasting peas They take
very little more of the food and moist.
ure than the spontaneous growth would,
and return full measure and more for
everything which they appropriate.
About bushel to the acre broadcast at
the last blowing will distribute the
peas evenly over the land, and thus the
nitrogen and humus, of which most of
our land stands so much in need, and
which the peas furnish in such abun.
dant measure, are more uniformly dis
tr1buted than if single row is planted
In the middles. Some low growing va
riety which will not run up on the
stalks of corn is to be preferred. If the
corn was planted in the water furrow.
and during the cultivation the dirt has
gradually been thrown towards the
stalks, it can now be laid by perfectly
fiat, thus exposing less surface for evap.
grafton; the brace roots will have taken
a deeper hold. and when the peas begin
to shade the ground the crop is left in
the very best condition to resist all the
variations of wind and weather.
PEAS.
This crop as renovator of worn soils.
and as furnishing stock food of the very
highest value, may we'll be termed the
agricultural hope of the south. It is
not exacting in its demands, neither
very nice preparation nor very rich
land is called for. With the help of
little phosphate and potash it will grow
remunerative crop on land which will
scarcely pay for the seed and cultiya.
ton Of any other crop, and besides
leave in the soil residium of nitrogen
and humus, by which other and sue.
ceed1ng crops can be successfully
built up.
There has been issued from the Geor
gia experiment station through the
horticulturist, Mr.. H. N. Starnes. a
most valuable bulletin on fertilizer and
variety tests of cowpeas, No. 81, which
should be in the hands of every intelli-
gent farmer Write to Captain r. J.
Keddlng, Experiment, Spalding county,
for free copy.
From Mr.. Starnes' report we quote
the following, trusting that it may
reach and influence those farmers who
have not received or applied for the
bulletin:
The experiments by Prof, Hellriegel
at Bernberg, Germany, have thrown a
food Of Hg& upon the subject. The
discovery has there been made Of def
mite relation subsisting between certain
heterogeneous and the acquisition of
nitrogen BY legumes. By a series of
carefully planned and skillfully execut-
ed tests with stefilized sand, Prof. He'll
riegel has established almost beyond
question that the rootgalls or tubercles
affecting the roots Of the legums fami-
ly are the product Of microbes or bacte.
ria, through whose fundamentally an d
operation atmospheric nitrogen is &C.
Quired and stored. This function of
the heterogeneous forming the root
gals is beyond dispute, whether these
organisms are bacteria or not. Their
moda Of obtaining and transferring the
nitrogen, however, is ~ yet unrevealed.