St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1895-06-01
FARMER AND PLANTER.
RAISING COTTON.


Crop C0asidercd.
We hear 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 little reflec.
ton will show the utter impossibility
Of effecting the desired purpose in this
way. Human nature is very selfish,
and II 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 ad-
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 bale of
cotton can not grow it in this way any
longer and live. Cotton as 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 farmer, and not mere
planter, gambling on the chance of so
much fertilizer giving him SO much
cotton. lie 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 work between sale
crops, growing peas and crimson clover
to iced stock for raising manure for the
corn and cotton, so that the old time
practice of dribbling little fertilizer
in the furrow, for immediate effect,
can be forever abandoned, and a gem
crous broadcasting of the manure for
the benefit of the soil take its place.
or course the change can not be made
all at once. but 1t behooves all farmers
whose interests are in the cotton crop,
sity the cotton crop must be the money
crop, to begin to take measures to
make it really money crop, the sur
plus crop, but not the sole depend
cnce 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
regard to the culture of all sorts of
crops with which they are totally un.
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 unfa-
miliar are very doubtful at all
times. Any single sale crop is
curse to any country, be it cot
ton. wheat, tobacco peanuts. fruit, or
else. Cotton can not be
longer grown under the old practices,
and it behoovcs all who are in the
proper cotton country, the flat, plain
of the south. to realize that
while no crop is better suited to their
a. a special crop. it must no
longer be the sole crop. The fact that
land can be brought up to q high state
Of fertility by proper rotation of
crops, and the use OF the cheaper forms
of mineral fertilizers. phosphoric acid
and potash, without the purchase
Of the expensive nitrogen, has
been abundantly proved, where the
leguminous crops. like peas and
clover, have been grown between the
sale crops. Now is the time to begin
to get our lands into such q proper ro-
tatlon. The southern field or cow
pea will do more for the lands
Of the southern coast plain than any
plant yet discovered, as by its growth
the farmer is enabled to get free from
the air the nitrogen which is SO costly
when purchased in a commercial fer
tilizer Cotton needs for its growth u
well balanced fertilizer in which pot
ssh has r prominent place, with
proper percentage of the other ele-
ments of plant food to enable the
plant to use the potash economically.
On land where no peas or other legum-
nous crop has been grown it will be
necessary to use complete fertil-
yer, but if we have previously grown
| crop of peas or clover on the land by
he aid OF mineral fertilizers, there
will be no need to buy the costly nitro
rem for the cotton crop. But it will
lot do to assume that because the peas
,r clover will help the land in the mat |
er of nitrogen that it will keep the
and perenniaily fertile. The peas are |
greedy consumers of potash |
md phosphoric acid, and these being |
to them they will get the rest.
And we need not fear that any amount |
If these mineral fertilizers that we
nay add to the soil will he wasted, for |
he soil will hold on to everything but |
he nitrogen till some plant calls for
t. Therefore, if we want to start our |
and in the proper rotation for the /
growth of the cotton crop. it is essen
,ial that we start with the pea crop |
ind supply it with the essentials of its |
growth. Let us start then this spring |
md sow the peas broadcast not less
han bushel per acre, and apply to |
hem 300 pounds Of acid phosphate and |
20 pounds of muriate of potash, or 200 |
pounds of kainit. per acre. This will |
give Us . good growth of peas, and the
pest use we can make of these peas
will be to tura them into hay or en-
image fer feeding cattle. Then in
september rnnS ! cut-sway harrow
.ver.1 the, stubble and sow crimson
.loreri at thektate Of Is pounds per
gre, This I IN grow during the win
sr and calb plowed under in the
pring for and the same dose of
crti1izerEf3{en it. Among the corn
liant psRtnd as soon.as the corn is
81 RaQ III under, and sow the land
H str oats. witkpeas for hay again;
plow the stub6le for COTTON the
xt season, fortified again with the
anne cheap fertilizers, and sow Grim.
ON cloxeg., sas-fhrough the cotton at /
he last workitTsto be cut for hay in
he sprink.1ad the land put in corn
'gian. Ye9 lrs6on HID that il you keep
took enough to use up the forage yqu
vln grow that ere long you will ha401
manure enough to cover
'Pnr corn fic3f ovefs broadcast. and
inally- Won Miu need NO. artificial fer