The Columbus commercial. (Columbus, Miss.) 1893-1922, 1895-12-08
FARMER ANDPLANTER
FARMING VS.. PLANTING.

grown in regular farm rotation as Is
practiced among good farmers in sec
tons where the money crops are grain
and stock. The utter fallacy Of the
notion that this can be the case with
any annual crop has been repeatedly
shown from the experience Of those
who have, broken away from the old
time methods Of cotton growing, and
have shown that cotton fits as we'll
into an improving rotation OF crops as
any other Of our hoed crops. It's true
that its use in rotation neeessitates
rather longer rotation than where
there Is but one hoed crop in the rota-
ton, for where cotton is grown there
corn must almost Of necessity be
grown also, and to properly To-
cate two hoed crops in a rotation,
so that both can have a fair chance for
success, involves a lengthening of the
series of the crops This Is a matter Of
no disadvantage, however, as It gives
more diversity to the farming, and
opens up more opportunities for the
profitable keeping of stock on the cot
ton farm. We would lay it down as
rule that no progressive farmer in the
south should disregard, that two clean
cultivated crops should never follow
each other in successive seasons on the
same land, unless a leguminous crop
can be gotten in between them. We
will suppose that the farmer in the
coast plain, the true cotton belt, will
adopt for his crops cotton, corn and
winter oats. Now, the true idea
In rotation of crops is to
so manage his rotation and
fertilization as to get the largest
amount of the money crop, cot
on, per acre, while steadily in
creasing the fertility Of his soil. He
viii study the art of using fertilizers
so that he can get, by means of the ro-
tation he uses, not only without cost
but at an actual profit, the most ex-
pensive portion of a high-grade fer
tilizer, the nitrogen, which, when pur-
chased in the market, costs more than
three times as much per pound what
the potash and phosphoric acid cost.
If he farms without such a well-de-
vised rotation, in the old one-crop
plan, he must buy the nitrogen, and
must thus be handicapped in grow
ing cotton in competition with a neigh
Dor who farms while he plants. With
the added cost in the crop of the nitro
gen his neighbor makes a profit in
getting from the air while he pays
a heavy price for it on the market. It
is easy to see then that while his neigh
Dor may find a margin OF profit in the
cotton crop, he may at the same price
lose money in the culture, and not only
lose money on the crop, but find that
his land is growing poorer and poorer
at the same time. And this is to-day
the condition Of the great mass Of the
cotton growers of the South Atlantic
cotton country. Now let as assume
that the farmer iYgoing to get out of
this destructive syttem, or rather lack
of any system, and that he is going to
grow something else besides cotton.
And he is going to do this, not
because OF some misty notion that
he has that he should diversity
his crops, and grow some other
things besides cotton, just in the same
way that he has been growing cotton,
but that he has determined to use these
other crops as a means toward the de-
velopment Of his land for the more
profitable culture of cotton. He is not
going to grow a lot of corn this year
so as to be able to say that he has
grown enough to last for several years
while he grows cotton, but he is going
to use these extra crops as any busi-
ness man would use the stock he has
for sale, to help pay his expenses. He
will get rid forever of the idea that his
cotton is the only thing to get money
out of, but will turn all his sur
plus of any kind into money, and
thus tend toward the smaking of the
cotton crop surplus crop for profit
The change from a plantation which
has been run for years in the single
crop of cotton until it will only bring
cotton by the application Of a complete
fertilizer, to farm where a variety of
crops are grown in a systematic man
ner, can not be done all at once, unless
the owner has a surplus cash capital
But it can be done gradually by any
man of industry and perseverance.
The one thing which our people need
to learn is the value Of concentration
in farming, and to realize that a few
acres heavily fertilized and well culti-
waited win give more profit than many
lightly dressed and scratched over.
If, therefore, the man who wishes to
change his practice will drop off about
half the area be usually eultivates in
the cotton crop and use on the re-
mainder all the fertilizer he has been
accustomed to use on the whole, he
will have a fair chance to make more
clear money than he would on the
whole, for the extra dose Of fertilizer
win not only give him a better crop
Of the staple, but will help in the |
adoption Of the rotation we propose. |
We viii suppose that he does so, |
and in August, on his well-cul- |
tivated and enriched acres he sows 1
all among his cotton seed Of Grim
son clover at she rate Of fifteen |
pounds per acre, and If by any means
he ca. afford to buy a few hundred |
pounds of acid phosphate and potash /
Cor a top dressing on the clover in the
fall he will be that much further
ahead, and tho money will be invested /
where Il will pay better percentage I
than II bank stocks. We will assume /
that he Is going TO keep some stock to /