Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-05-07
FARMER AND PLANTER
COOP FARMING.
yIr Fundamental Principles On Which
Good Farming " tsssed.

day in the year.
1t is absolutely necessary 70 his sue
cess in crop raising that he should
know not by name merely, but thor.
oughly understand the work and infiu-
ence of every one of these principles.
As they are all necessary factors or
agents In the growth and maturity of
good crop of anything, it follows that
| il one is absent and neglected there
will be failure, sometimes more and
sometimes less.
These principles are good seed, good
seed-bed, fertility of soil, moisture,
heat and sunshine. Ignorance of one
or more of these in farming makes
rote farming. This kind is frequently
successful. but sometimes not; and
when not, the rote farmer doesn't know
the reason why, aud can not correct
his errors.
The object of this writing Is to slim
ulate study of all of these principles,
because a knowledge of them will be
guide to the farmer, telling him
every morning what work he should
do that day, and how he should do it.
Good seed means r well-developed
and matured seed of its kind free from
the seed of every other growth. The
largest is not always the best. 1t is
important that it should have grown
in crop that was as pure of its kind
and as free from disease as possible.
The fall months is the best time to
select seed corn. All through the
winter while feeding stock is next best
time. just before planting is the worst
time.
Much good work in the making of a
good seed bed can be done in the fall,
even for the next spring planting.
January and February are generally
wet months in my latitude southern
kentucky, no profitable work can be
done in or on ground when it is wet at
any season of the year. BY a good
seed bed mean a soil thoroughly pull
verified before or at the time of plant
ing and then packed if the ground is
| dry. Some work in the making of a
poor soil richer can be done all the
year round. The only rule i wish TO
advise at this time is that soluble
manures put on land when wet, is
more than one-half lost. Dry ground
has strong affinity for attracting and
preserving liquid manure. but il it is
already wet the fertility will pass off
with the surplus water.
The meaning of moisture as here
contemplated is that the soil in which
the plant roots are feeding shall have
| just enough water in it to make the
plant food soluble and the soil friable,
but not sticky. Our crops don't wish
to have their roots in either wet or dry
ground.
The meaning of heat is that the soil
shall have that degree of temperature
most favorable to the termination and
growth of the desired crop. In some,
such as garden peas, Irish potatoes,
rye, wheat and some other grains,
| low temperature is best. But for beans,
sweet potatoes, corn, cotton, tobacco,
sorghum and southern stock pea the
soil can hardly have too much warmth
in it.
by sunshine is meant that every
plant shall receive its share OF the di-
rect rays of the sun. Because it is
solar light pulsatipg its ETHEREAL waves
through soil and plants that creates
vege table life and stimulates growth.
We may talk about artificial heat,
light and electricity; but there would
not be upon this globe either vegeta bic
or animal life if it were not for the
power, the agency and guardianship
of the sun. The short-sig hted farmer
may say that he will make his land
rich, that he will make good seed
bed, that he will plant good seed, that
he will cultivate well, but for the matter
of moisture, heat and sunshine, he will
trust to Providence. He may quote
Scripture and say that God said to
Noah that, while the earth re-
maineth, seed time and harvest, and
cold and heat, and summer and winter,
and day and night, shall not cease"
This was promise that is being full
filed. But there came with that
promise the command to live by the
sweat of the face-to subduc the earth,
and to possess it, and to be co-labor-
err with nature. Where moisture and
heat are deficient we can increase
them. Where there is too much
moisture, heat or sunshine we
can diminish them, or which is
the same thing, protect our crops from
them. We can so cultivate as to in
tensify the influence of either of these
on our crops when needed. l remem-
Der one late, wet spring while / was a
young man ! covered my corn from
three to four inc hes deep, while my adj
joining neighbor covered his one inch.
His came up and did well, and mine
rotted. His corn had around it proper
amount of moisture; mine had too
much. His corn had temperature of
20 or 80 degrees of heat more than
mine. A weak sunshine nursed his
corn into a new life, while mine never
| felt it's genial influence. re-
member again that it was a very dry,
hot spring and summer that l did not
get all my lano intended for tobacco
| set out, and it was on the LIST day Of
July planted some of the ground in
corn, covering it six inches deep, be-
| cause l found a little moisture at that
depth. The strong sunshine brought
it up before the next rain. remember
another year when it was cold, wet
| spring, and one of my neighbors and
myself had each field of corn that we
had been cultivating on the level sys-
tenn because it was the time of the year
to expect warm, dry weather. The
corn had gotten to be about three
| inches high and ,eemed to stop grow.