Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1895-10-10
FARMER AND PLANTER.
COTTON CULTURE.


provemcnt.
In a former article | referred TO the
Importance OF lcguminous crops in the
restoration of our land so as TO make
the maximum crops possible, and spoke
of the southern COW pea in starting
this improvement.
Within the past five years another
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 win
ter growing 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 n
renovating crop. l have been urging
the merits of this clover upon the cot
ton farmers OF the south for several
years, and not only on the cotton farm
ers, but on all Of our farmers alike.
Mr.. Il. p McAnally, 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 1t an
other trial with the help of 800 pounds
of ltainit per acre narrowed in with
the seed, and now he reports Won
derful growth-''as thick as the hair
on dogs back" This shows that his
soil needed the help of the potash IN
the KANT to enable it to gather
nitrogen for him. The great adj
vantage 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 green pasture all winter
in place of bare soil washing away
all through the winter rains, and will
have growth to pillow under
for corn in the spring that will
insure him a good crop. Then
as have said, it fits in well with the
COW pea crop, for as soon as the peas
are cut for hay he can SOW the clover
seed on the land after stirring it with
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 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 large field and did as directed
The results have been, he says, more
than satisfactory. I'm April, follow
ing, the clover was in full bloom, and
made q large 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 a good crop. This
goes to show that n proper rotation,
with crimson clover as the basis Of re-
cuperation, will make the farm rich
and at the same time give paying
crops.
Here, then, we see the effect OF one
we'll fortified crop of crimson clover,
the hay from which fully paid all ex-
pense of fertilizers, in giving the prom
Use of good crop without further fer
tilization. No bills for complete fer
tilizers at high price TO be paid out
of that cotton. This shows what
have for years been insisting upon,
that the true way to fertilize for our
sale crops is to use the cheaper forms
of mineral plant food to grow heavy
crop of the plants that are going to
capture for us the nitrogen that costs
so much in complete fertilizer,
and thus not only get a heavy
forage crop to feed for the making of
profit out of stock, and to make our
manure pile larger, but thus fix nj
trogen in the land for the succeeding
crop of cotton or corn. This is in eff
feet not only getting the fertilizer
free for the cotton crop, but the maxi
ing of 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 a legume farmer"
Cow peas and crimson clover, with u
liberal use of the cheap potash and
phosphates, lie at the very foundation
of all rational farm improvement in
the south. BY their aid the land need
never, either in winter or summer, be
left to the wasting of rains and sun by
lying bare, but between every hoed cror
may be covered with a 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
futility to q soil that has been ex
hausted by long tillage and exposure
to the teaching effects of rain and sun.
If you want the leguminous crops YOU
must feed them. They will gather
nitrogen for you free, but they can not
get the potash and phosphoric acid
that the crops of former years have
taken away from the soil, and with
out these are given them they can mo-
get the nitrogen they would with {
well-developed growth, and you viii
not only use the hay crop they would
give, but the effect on the soil for sub
sequent crops. Nothing from nothing
and nothing remains. 1t will pay fa
better to put a liberal dressing of Thu
cheap mineral fertilizers on the pet
and clover crops, than to put the SAM
money value in high-grade fertilize
on the cotton crop direct, and not onl.
pay better in the cotton crop, but il
the permanent improvement Of tn
soil, Having these two crops then a
sheet anchors in our efforts to grow
cotton cheaply, we will take up in on
next the various rotation of crops tina
may be practiced with cotton as TIL
money crop or, in other words, tn