The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-08-20
AIDS TO IMPROVED COTTON
CULTURE.

restoratation of our land 80 as to make
the maximum crOfs possible, and
spoke OF the Importance Of the South
ern COW pea in starting this improve
menr. Within the past five years an
other crop has been introduced to the
notice of our farmers that promises to be
the greatest aid and ally of the COW
pea for the Southern farmer that has
yet been tested. This is the annual
winter growing clover now known as
crimson clover. There is no plant that
tiCs in so we'll with the COW pea as a
forage crop for the S nth or as a reno
waiting crop. l have been urging the
merits of this clover upon the cotton
farmers of the South for several years
aud not only on the cotton farmer S but
on all of our farmers alike. Mr.. r P.
McAnally, of Saxon, n. @ writes that
he tried crimson clover three years
ago, but it grew only nine il ches high
and he discarded it. But recently he
was induced to give it another trial
with the help of $40 pounds of kainit
per acre narrowed in with the SEED
and now he reports a wonderful growth
las thick as the hair on dogs back"
This shows that his soil needs the help
of the potash in the kainit to enable it
TO gather nitrogen for him. The great
advantage to the cotton farmer in the
crimson clover crop is that he can SOW
it all through his cotton field after the
cultivation is over in August and will
have a green pasture all winter in
place of bare soil washing away all
through the winter rains and will have
a growth to plow under for corn in the
spring that will insure him a good
crop. Then as / have said, it fits in
we'll with the COW pea crop, for soon
as the peas are cut for hay, he can SOW
the clover seed on the laI after stir
ring it with a cutaway harrow, and
can pasture it till time to put the land
in order for cotton. Mr.. VIM. Choice,
of Spartanburg, s, c., writes that he
had an outlying farm that he tried to
sell, as he had more land than he needed,
but failing to do so, he asked my ad-
vice how to treat it, as the land had
been badly run down under the old one
crop planting sy Stem. l advised him
to use literally potash salts and dis
solved phosphate rock, and SOW it
down in crimson clover. He prepared
in Augus5 large field and did as di
rected. The results have been, he says,
| thoyo uotjCfo0tOryT GNTn nriI OT.
lowing the clover was in full bloom,
and made large crop of hay, which
was off in time to plant cotton Planted
on the clover sod, without any other
manure, and the young cooton now
shows that rich, rank growth which is
fair harbiDger of a good crop. This
goes 20 show that proper rotation,
with crimson clover as the basis of re-
Cuperatiou, will make the farm rich
and at the same time give paying
crops.' Here, then, we see the effect
of cne we'll tertilized crop of crimson
clover, the hay from which fully paid
all the expense of the fertilizers, in
} giving the promise of a good crop with
out further fertilization. No bills for
complete fertilizers at high price to
be paid for out Of that cotton. This
shows what have for years been in
sisting upon, that the true way to fer
tilize for cur sale croI S is to use the
cheaper forms of mineral plant food to
grow a heavy crop OF the plants that
are going to capture for us the nitro
gen that )sts so much in a complete
fertil zer and thus not only get heavy
forage crop to feed for the making of
a profit cut of stock, and to make our
manure pile larger, but thus fix nitro
gen in the land for the succeeding crop
Of cotton or corn. This is in effect not
only getting the fertilizer free for the
cotton crop, but the making of profit
in doing so and at the same time have
the satisfaction to know that our soil
is actually being improved by the pro
cess It has been well said that the
coming farmer Of the South will be a
legUme farmer" Cow peas and Grim
son clover, with liberal use Of the
cheap potash and phosphate, lie at the
very foundation of all rational farm
improvement in the South. By their
, aid, the land need never, either in
e summer or winter, be left to the vast
, ing of rains and sun by lying bare, but
v between every hoed crop may be Gov
d cred with a growth to yield profit while
it gathers fertility for the land and
h sod for the sale crops. But it must
# not be assumed that these crops will
II bring oil the nlnrnenta of fertility tC