St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1895-05-18
FARMER AND PLAN TER.
RAISING COTTON.
The Question of Making Cotton Paying
Crop Considered.

The Question OF Making Cotton Paying /
Crop Considered.
We hear d great deal said about con-
cert of action among farmers for the
purpose of decreasing the area planted
to cotton this year. in order that q
smaller crop may be put on the mar
kets of the world. But a little refec-
tion will show the utter impossibility
of effecting the desired purpose in this
way. Human nature is very selfish,
and il there was prospect OF gener-
al agreement there are thousands who
would at once imagine that now was
the time to 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,
| for the men who have been using three
or four acres of land to grow a bale of
i cotton can not & TOW way any
longer and live. Cotton as a sole crop
is done forever just as wheat as a sole
crop is in the north. The man who
makes anything from cotton hereafter
must be a farmer, and not o 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 workcbetween sale
/ crops, growing peas and crimson clover
/ to feed stock for raising manure Tor the
corn and cotton, so that the old time
/ practice of dribbling a little fertilizer
in the furrow,. for immediate effect.
can be forever abandoned, and a gem
/ 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 al farmers
i whose interests are in the cotton crop,
/ and with whom as a matter of neces-
sity the cotton crop Inustsbe the money
crop, to begin to take measures to-
i make it really money crop, the sur
i plus crop, but not the sole depend
ence for paying all the expenses
: Of the farm. Farms in
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 in
j regard to the culture of all sorts Of
crops with which they are totally I'M
familiar, with the intention to substi-
tute them for the cotton crop, which
they say no 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 unfae
miliar are very doubtful at all
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,
i 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 q special crop, it must no
longer be the sole crop. The fact that
land can be brought up to 4 high state
q of fertility by q proper rotation OF
crops, and the use Of the cheaper forms
q of mineral fertilizers. phosphoric acid
and potash, without the purchase
of the expensive nitrogen, has
been abundantly sprovedss where the
leguminous crops, like peas and
4 clover, have been grown between the
sale crops. Now is the time to begin
). to get cur lands into such proper ro-
L f.<xlx n
pea will do more for the lands
of the southern coast plain than any
2 plant yet discovered, as by its growth
i 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 d
well balanced fertilizer in which pot
ssh has prominent place, with a
q proper percentage of the other ele-
ments Of plant food to enable the
plant to use the potash ecouomically
j On land where no peas on other legum.
inous crop has been grown it will be
necessary to use q complete fertil-
izer, but if we have previously grown
a 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 vii
i not do to assume that because the peas
or clover will help the land in the mat
ter of nitrogen that it will keep tho
land perennially fertile. The peas are
i | 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 Wa
may add to the soil viii be wasted, fol
.s the soil viii hold on to every thing bui
) the nitrogen till some plant calls fol
! it. Therefore, If we want TO start oul
land in the proper rotation for ths
! growth of the cotton crop, it is essen
0 tial that we start with the pea erol
!. and supply it with the essentials Oh it
: growth. Let us start then this spring
and sow the peas broadcast not les
: than bushel per acre, and apply t,
& | them 300 pounds of acid phosphate an,
Z so pounds of muriate of potash, or 20
Z pounds of kainit, per acre. This vii
: give us a good growth Of peas, and thv
best use we can make of these pea
Z will be to turn them into hay Or en-
+ silage for feeding cattle. Then il
II September run q cut-away harrop
e over the stubble and sow crimson
clover at the rate of Is pounds pc
= acre. This will grow during the win
8 ter and can be plowed under IN th
i spring for corns and the same dose q
{ Il = Il