The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1895-09-07
FARMER AND PLANTER.
COTTON CULTURE.
Some Aids to Improvement in Its Produce
tion In the south.

IN former article i nave SHOWN
that what the south needs is not an
abandonment of her great staple, but
a system of culture that will increase
the crop per acre, SO that the crop can
be grown at less expense and on re-
duced acreage This is to be done only
of planting cotton year after year on
the same land, by the aid of expensive
fertilizers, and the substitution for it
of systematic farming methods. in
which rotation of crops shall be de-
vised, all suited to the southern condi-
tions, and which shall all tend to the
increase of the yield per acre OF the
cotton crop, through systematic
building up Of the fertility of the soil.
1t is now well-settled fact that
economical soil improvement in any
part of the country must be accom-
plished through the aid of the plants
known to botanists as the leguminose,
or the pea family. 1t has been
demonstrated that this family OF
plants all have the power to get and
fix in the soil from the air the element
nitrogen, which is one of the essential
elements of plant food, without which
no green plant can grow, and which is
the most costly part of our fertilizers
when purchased in the market. In the
northern and middle states, and in the
upper Piedmont part of the south
Atlantic states, the ordinary red clover
is the best legume for general farm
purposes, making, as it does, ex-
cellent hay, and rapidly adding humus
to the soil, as well as gathering the nj
trogen for the succeeding crop. But in
all of the sandy plain of the south the
red clover will not thrive through the
long summers, and it becomes necessary
to resort to some other plant to take its
place. Fortunately, we are not with
out one eminently adapted to the
wants of the south, and one that will
do more in the same length of time for
the Improvement of our southern lands
than red clover could if it were per-
feet success. This has been we'll
termed "the clover of the SOUTH" the
COW pea. Years ago those planters
who wished to do something for their
land and not crop it necessarily,
were in the habit of 'sresting" it in
alternate years; that is, they allowed
it to lie idle a whole season, and
gather a coat of weeds and grass to be
p]owed under for the next crop. This,
of course, was to some extent better
than the constant cultivation and the
use of fertilizers merely to force sale
crop. But it involved the keeping of
half the land continually producing
nothing of value, and, worse than this,
it brought in weeds and grass to make
the labor of the next years cultivation
more costly and difficult. 1t was only
one phase of planting, and was not
farming as business-like man should.
We know now that the best way to rest
land is to keep it at work growing some
thing that will be of advantage to the
soil, and at the same time bring money
to the farmers purse. between every
sale crop of cotton or grain. In the eff
fort now being made in many places
to diversity our crops, there is too lit
tie notion that the crops used to make
the diversity can not only be made to
serve the purpose of food for the
farmer, and his stock, but that they
can also be made subsidiary sale crops
to the staple crop of cotton. We hear
of farmers who have grown crop of
corn, congratulating themselves that
they have corn enough for two or
more years, totally ignoring the mar
ket value of the corn, or its value to
put into stock for immediate sale, and
forgetting that boarded grain is worse
than boarded money in its rapid de-
probation by reason of shrinkage and
insect depredations. The effort should
be made to make the most profit
able use of the dlversifying crops to
increase the profit of the farm
In getting away from the bondage of
the one crop of cotton we should en-
deavor to get as money producers as
many other products as is consistent
with the proper carrying ont of the ro-
tation adopted. Even the recuperative
crops of peas, grown while the land is
resting" should be used as forage for
live stock. and while improving the
land should at the same time be made
to improve the pocket book as well.
The corn crop, unless the markets. too
good for the grain, should, with its
fodder, be made to promote the same
purpose either in feeding beef and
pork or for the dairy. The straw
of the oat crop comes in play for the
same purpose, and all enter into
the improvement of the manure pile,
and consequently of the soil. Weth-
er the cotton farmer should sell
the grain he grows in rotation with
cotton will depend almost entirely
upon his location. If he is where he
can sell the products of the dairy to
advantage, it may be better for him to
use the grain mainly in that way. But
if he has good market for grain, he
had better usually sell his surplus and
self it before it has deprecated by the
myraids of weevils and other insects
that prey so rapidly on grain stored in
southern climate. He will start usual
~ on soil that has been badly depleted
of plant food, and the greatest problem
that usually comfronts him is. how can
l get my land into productive condi-
ton, so that can adopt and maintain a
regular rotation of crops? BY the cul-
ture of peas and clover can secure all
the needed nitrogen from the air, but
where am / to get the food for plants
there that will enable me to get the
best crops of peas and clover? Our
sandy soils are usually deficient in both
phosphoric acid and potash, particular
ly in potash. These are mineral mat
tiers that we can not get from the air