The Lafayette gazette., 1895-11-02
FARMER AND PLANTER.
COTTON cuLTuRE.

=
COTTON CULTURE.
Ioprovea rnlaxe ana Its Relation - the
Production O1 tho Staple.
One of the Ereatest draw bacl<s to in-
cotton culture is thu fact that cotton
does not apparently succeed we'll with
deep plowing. It has seeh found that
cotton is opt To be later on deeply
worked soil. not fruiting we'll TIL the
roots strike hard bottom. Etoin close
observation am satisfied that this 10
more apparent than real, and that
white In the immediate prepare tion Of
the lnnd for the cotton crop 1T Is to
plow less deeply than for the other
crops in the rotation, the fact that the
land has been deeply broken in
previous plowings is no detri-
ment, but an advantage to the
cotton crop in increasing the capillar-
ity of the soil, and warding of the
effects of drought, the well-settled soil
having the same effects on the fruit
ing of the crop that an unbrolken soil
would have and without the disadvan-
tages attending the real hard pan.
There is no point where greater Inn
provement is needed in the south than
in the breaking and preparation Of the
land for crops. With the incoming OF
the era of farming instead OF plant
ing, the one-mule plovv should disap-
pear from the farm except for the pur-
pose of ma rkinG rows perhaps. AS a
tool for b, eaking land or for cultivat-
ing crops it should be relegated to
the museums of depurted tools, along
side the pointed tree limb of ancient
times. 1t may answer for the stirring
of sand that has nothing but sand In
it. But in all the upland red clay OF
the south no tool less effective than a
turning plow drawn by two good
horses should he used for the breaking
of land, and for all crops except cotton
a large plow drawn by three mules or
horses should be used. For years In
Virginia 1 never broke n feld with a
lighter tenn than three mules to
a ployv. and followed in the same fur
row with subsoil plo,v drawn by two
horses. SO as to break the clay fully
foot, and generally more. All
over the red clay lands of the south
men are to-day plowing a little furrow
with single mule, drawing . plow
that has more resemblance to a child's
play tool than to a real plow for work.
the elements of fertility, while just
below the point of the tootl-picls plow
there lies virgin soil waiting for the
man with courage and intelligence
enough to break it and let in tue roots
of the peas and clover to unlock the
storehouse of big crops. This is no
mere theory, for we have done it
On which the North Carolina
college of agriculture was built
was five years ago the most
notoriously poor spot around Raleigh.
BY deep breaking and the use of a lit
tie clover it was brought up to make
over fifty bushels of corn per acre,
with hardly any manuring.
While N tho deem ga ,,dy, soils ~ the
Goa st deep plowing may not be needed
there is no practice that will more
rapidly tend towards the improvement
of our clay hills than deep plowing
subson blowing and shallow cultiva
ton. Our farmers have long age
learned the value of shallow culture
for the cotton crop, but most of then
still imagine that the corn crol
must be deeply worked, and hav'
its feeding roots lacerated with n plow
When I was young and thoughtles
too worked corn with a plow an
| was of the opinion that I must banl
| up soil to the rows to keep it from
falling down in the winds, not reflect
ing that corn with uninjured roots
! and allowed to plant it's brace root
| on level surface would stand up bet
ter than that which had had its root
| lacerated and destroyed by the plo,v
| and could get no firm hold for it
brace roots on a sloping bank Of earth
Then too where the oats crop is nc
| used in the rotation, and it is desire'
to follow the corn crop with cotton
this shallow culture is an advantag
in getting the soil below frmed TO
the cotton crop. We do not conside
it the best policy to have two hoe
crops follow each other, when
can-be avoided, but where peas ar
sown in the corn, the cotton crop ma
we'll follow it, provided the cotton ha
| a liberal supply of the potash an
phospho oric acid it needs. Some hig
scientific authorities, who neve
plowed an acre, have of late been try
ing to show to the farmers that tn
best way to grow cotton is to appl
only just much of a complete fe1
tilizer as the Immediate crop can uss
and they call the restoring of the plan
of the soil. "dealing in futures" Nov
as far practical farming is cor
cerned, there is no business where it
more profita bic and essential to des
in futures. and the farmer who doe
not deal in the future of his soil
making sad mistake. 1t is this yer
lack OF regard for the future of tn
la nd that has brought the cotton couy
try to the impoverished condition th,
aff1icts it to-day, and until we come t
take the future condition of our soil
into consideration with every sale Gro
we grow, there can be no real advanc,
ment in agriculture in the south. c
nll the measures therefore than ten
| to the (leyelonme Mt Of the real fertil