The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1895-07-03
FARMER AAN,D PIL ILANIER
The Question OF Maxim, cotton a Paying
Crop olsitcrcd.

al
cert Of action among farmers Tor the
purpose OF decreasing the area planted
to cotton this year, in order that
smaller crop may be put on the mar
kets Of the world. But a little redcc-
tion will show the litter impos>lbllity
Of etfecting the desired purpose in this
way. Human nature is very selfish,
and if there was Il prospect OF d gener-
al agreement there arc thousands VINO
would al once imagine that now was
the time 70 plant heavily to take adj
vantage of the prospective rise, and
the whole thing would be defeated.
The low price Of cotton is itself
working the cure. There IS no
need for any concert OF action,
Tor the men who haze been using three
or four acres of land to grow bale OF
cotton can not grow it in this way any
longer and live. Cotton as sole crop
is done forever just as wheat as sole
crop is in the north. The man who
makes anything from cotton hereafter
must be a farmer, and not mere
planter, gambling on the chance OF so
much fertilizer giving him so much
cotton. He must learn how to accu-
mulate fertility in his soil while get
ting increasing crops from it, and must
learn the fact that the only way to rest
land is to keep it at work between sale
crops, growing peas and crimson clover
to teed stock for raising manure for the
corn and cotton, SO that the old time
practice Of drlbbling a little fertilizer
in the furrow, for immediate effect,
can be forever abandoned, and a gen
erous broadcasting Of the manure for
the benefit of the soil take its place.
Of course the change can not be made
all at once, but 1t behooves all farmers
whose interests are in the cotton crop,
and with whom as u matter of neces-
sity the cotton crop must be the money
crop, to begin to take measures tc
make it really money crop, the sur
plus crop. but not the sole depend
ence for paying all the expenses
of the farm. Farms IL
the south have heretofore been
called plantations, because they have
been merely planting places for cotton.
But the farming era has set in, and the
men who would succeed must learn the
methods of modern farming. Hundreds
write to me asking for information III
regard to the culture OF all sorts of
crops with which they are totally un-
familiar, with the intention to substi
tute them for the cotton crop, which
they say 10 longer pays. Any crop
put in the same place that cotton has
occupied in the south would soon be
as bad as cotton, and the chances for
success with crops with which
the growers are entirely unfa-
miliar are very doubtful at al
times. Any single sale crop is a
curse to any country. be it cot
ton, wheat, tobacco, peanuts, fruit, or
anything else. Cotton can not be
longer grown under the old practices,
and it behooves all who are in the
proper cotton country, the fiat, plain
country of the south, to realize that
while no crop is better suited to their
conditions as a special crop, it must no
longer lie the sole crop. The fact that
land can be brought up to a high state
of fertility by "a proper rotation of
crops, and the use Of the cheaper forms
OF mineral fertilizers. phosphoric acid
and potash, without the purchase
OF tie expensive nitrogen, has
been abundantly proved, where the
leguminous crops, like peas aud
clover, have been grown between the
sale crops. Now is the time TO begin
to get our lands into such u proper ro-
tation. The southern field or COW
pea will do more for the lands
of the southern coast plain than any
plant yet discovered, as by its growth
the farmer is enabled to get free from
the air the nitrogen which is 50 costly
when purchased in (; commercial fer
tilizer. Cotton needs for its growth a
we'll balanced fertilizer in which pot
ssh has prominent place, with d
proper percentage of the other ele-
ments Of plant food TO enable the
plant to use the potash economically.
On land where no peas or other legum-
inous crop has been grown it will be
necessary to use u complete fertil-
izer, but if we have previously grown
crop Of peas or clover on the land by
the aid OF mineral fertilizers, there
will be no need to buy the costly nitro
gen for the cotton crop. But it will
not DO to assume that because the peas
or clover viii help the land in the mat
ter of nitrogen that it will keep the
land perennially fertile. The peas are
themselves greedy consumers of potash
and phosphoric acid, and these being
supplied to them they will get the rest.
And we need not fear that any amount
of these mineral fertilizers that we
may add to the soil will be wasted, for
the Soil will hold on to everything but
the nitrogen till some plant calls for
it. Therefore, if we want to start our
land in the proper rotation for the
growth of the cotton crop, it is essen
tial that we start with the pea crop
and supply it with the essentials Of its
growth. Let US start then this spring
and SOW the peas broadcast not less