The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-09-14
FARMER AND PLANTER.
COTTON CULTURE.


the Restoration Of the Worn Out Cotton
Lands Of tho South.
In my last letter referred to the
Importance of leguminous crops in the
restoration of our land SO as to make
maximum crops possible, and spoke
OF the Importance of the southern COW
pea In starting this improvement.
within the past five years another
crop has been introduced to our farm
ers' notice that promises to be the
greatest aid and ally of the COW pea
Tor the southern farmer that has yet
been tested. This is the annual grow
Ing clover, now known as crimson
clover There is no plant that fits in
SO well with the cow pea as forage
crop for the south or as a renovating
crop. have been urging the merits
OF this clover upon the cotton farmers
OF the south for several years and not
only on the cotton farmers, but on all
oil our farmers alike. Mr.. r. P. Nc
Anally, of Saxon, n. c.. writes that he
tried crimson clover three years ago,
but it grew only nine inches high and
he discarded it. But recently he
was induced to give it another
trial with the help of 500 pounds of
kninit per acre narrowed in with the
seed, and now. he reports wonderful
growth ''as thick as the hair on a
dogs back" This shows that his soil
needed 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
green pasture all winter in place of a
bare soil washing away all through
the winter rains, and will have a
growth to pillow 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 as
soon rs the peas are cut for hay, he
can SOW the clover seed on the land
after stirring it with a cutaway har-
row, and can pasture it until time to
put the land in order for cotton.
Mr.. William Choice, of Spartanburg,
5. 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 advice how to
treat it, as the land had been badly
run down under the old one-crop
planting system. l advised him to use
literally potash salts and dissolved
phosphate rock, and sow it down in
crimson clover. He prepared in Au-
gust a large field and did as directed.
The results have been he says more
than satisfactory. sin April follow
ing the clover was in full bloom, and
made alarge crop of hay, which was
off in time to plant cotton. Planted
on the clover sod without any other
manure, and the young cotton now
shows that rich rank growth which is
fair harbinger of good crop. This
goes to show that proper rotation,
with crimson clover as the basis
of recuperation, will make the farm
rich and at the same time give paying
crops" Here then we see the effect of
one weIl-fetiiized crop of crimson
clover, the hay from which fully paid
all the expense of the fertilizers in
giving the promise of good crop
without further fertilization. No bills
for complete fertilizers ut high price
to be paid for out of that cotton.
This shows what l have been for
years insisting upon, that the true
way 10 fcrtilize for our sale crops 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 nitrogen that costs so much in
a complete fertilizer and thus
not only get heavy forage
crop to feed for the making of
a profit out of stock, and to make
our manure pile larger, but thus fix
nitrogen 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 a
profit in doing so, and at the same time
have the satisfaction to know that our
soil is actually being improved by the
process. 1t has been well said that
1.-THE coming farmer of the south will
be aAgume farmer" Cow peas and
crimson 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
summer or winter. be left to the vast
ing Of rains and sun by lying bare,
but between every hoed crop may be
covered with q growth to yield
profit while it gathers fertility
for the land and food for the sale crops.
But it must not be assumed that these
crops will bring all the elements Of
fertility to a soil that has been ex.
hausted by long tillage and exposure
to the teaching effects of rain and sun.
If You want the best results from the
action of leguminous crops, you must
feed them. They will gather nitro
gen for you free. but they can not get
the potash and phosphoric acid that
xb, ,~ox,s ~ for.,ar vaarS have taken