The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-01-07
How to Improve a Rundown Farm.

Having promised to give my plan Tor
the Improvement of worn soil and ut
the same time to mako it pay it's way /
will endeavor to redeem my promise TO
the best of my ability, says W f. Mas
sey in Practical Farmer. My idea of a
run down farm is not one that has sim
/ ply been neglected, and the fences and
buildings allowed to get in a ruinous con-
dition. but one where the soil has been
Iobbed of fertility by an exhaustive
/ course of cultivation. until no longer cap
able of returning remunerative crops. Il
1 emily takes a little industry and the bump
/ of order to restore a place that is sim
/ ply out of sorts, but to bring "A farm.
/ which will only make ten bushels of corn
/ per acre, back to a production of fifty
| bushels. and at the same time make it
! pay for the doing of it, requires some
! thing besides industry, though plenty of
/ that is needed, too. In the south we have
/ large areas, formerly fertile, from which
/ the plant food has been carried away by
/ constant cropping and exposure of the soil
to the washings of the winter rains. The
great lack of these lands is humus or de-
/ composed ycGetable matter and hence
of nitrogen. The first effort, then, of the
improver must be to restore this nitrfy
ing humus And just here is where the
great NaluC OF commercial IeHlllZeTS
comes in. Without them the restoration
of these lands would be practically i'm
possible The man, therefore, who says
he would not use commercial fertilizers
simply does not understand the condi-
tons. We can, by the use of legumes,
fix nitrogen in the soil but where are we
to get the potash and phosphoric acid,
which are deficient and without which
the legumes will not grow. We must
do this IN only two ways. We must either
feed stock there, on food grown else
where, or else We must buy the needed
food direct. There is no getting away
from one or the other of these conditions,
unless your land has an Untouched sub
soil. with an inexhaustable store of these
matters to yield up to clover roots, when
they once are enabled to penetrate it.
1t is rarely the case that a farmer Is
so favorably situated as to be able to
make a profit on feeding purchased food
largely, though all darymen are com
PEELED to do so to some extent, and If
there is no cash profit in the feeding,
the farmer had far better be without the
cattle and buy the fertilizers at once.
Many intelligent men have become pre-
JUDGED against commercial fertilizers be-
cause Of the ruinoUs results they have
seen from their Wasteful use by many
farmers, who have made themselves and
their farms poor, by what ] have often
intelligently used, there is no way by
which worn land can be so speedily and
economically restored as by the use of
commercial fertilizers, clover and lime
We will suppose that the man under
taking the Improvement of a worn out
farm has some cash means to start with:
for if he has not, he had better leave this
kind of work to some one else, for there
is nothing. to my knowledge, that will
keep mans nose harder on the grind
stone than worn farm and no money
to begin its Improvement. While it is
easy to make a farm pay for its improve
ment, that is, to return all the outlay
that may be made upon 1t, with interest.
it is necessary that>some outlay be made
Nothing to nothing and still you have
nothing. A man with small means had
better be content with small piece OF
good land, than have a large piece of
poor land presented 10 him Taking an
average odd field farm covered with
broomsedge the first thing ! would do
would be to turn the sod with strong
team and a heavy plow and follow in
each furrow with a subsoil piOw. Do
this late in autumn, that is, as late as, in
the locality, it will do to SOW rye, and at
once sow rye on 1t. ] do not place much
value on rye as a soil improver, but |
would SOW 1t simply to prevent the soil
from washing in the winter, and to as
sist in the feeding of some stock. In
spring / would plOW the rye uHueTf ana
give the land a fair coat of lime, say 80
bushels per acre, and plant in corn The
deep breaking of the red clay and the
buried vegetation. with the lime to en-
courage some nitrification, would at once
show their effects upon this crop. Gull
tiyate the corn well. but shallow, and
fat as possible, and at the last working
sow COW peas at the rate of one bushel
per acre. working them in at the last
cultivation Then SOW a dressing of 800
pounds of acid phosphate and 200 pounds
of muriate Of potash per acre. In late
August Din this latitude) SOW all through
the corn and peas 10 pounds of crimson
clover seed per acre. Let the peas die
down on the land. The corn crop ought
to pay the expenses except the fertilizers.
which are not properly chargeable to it.
Pasture the clover in late winter and