St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-05-16
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THE NEED OF fhE HOUR

In the Cotton Dolt Of the unle~A States
Keep Down the Aerea9e-The Q1sssiea
Of Fertilization and Fertilissrs.
The fertilizer men arc making exten.
sivc preparations for the season, and
the prospect 10 that the cotton farmers
Of the south are about 10 commit the
extreme folly Of planting larger area
In cotton the coming season. The re-
cent Improvement In price. due to the
shot crop of last year. It Is feared by the
best friends Of the southern plan ter,
will have the effect Of inducing tho
farmers TO plant an extensive area in
the staple. and to abandon the diversi.
ecation of crops. which the low prices
Of the past have forced them to adopt.
With favorable season, the result
will inevitably be low prices again.
What every friend Of the south should
urge now Is to keep down the acreage,
and to get the farmers 70 farm so ~ to
grow more cotton per acre. Ten mil.
lion bales on rs many acres will leave
more profit at = low price, than TO-.
O0O, 900 bales on 10000, 900 acres. The
man who takes three acres to grow Q
bale, will feel the burden of dve-cent
cotton worse than the man who grows
. bale per acre. Good farming, with
cotton rs the money crop, Is what We
need in the cotton belt.
know one man here in North Caro-
lima, who has little farm of 80 acres,
which he farms on . well-considered
rotation. He plants but six acres In
cotton, and never any more. But
he never fails to get nine bales,
With five-cent cotton this man Is
whole, At least. but II he got
but two bales, ~ many Of the larger
planters about him do, ON the same
area, he would lose money when cot
ton goes down. But he does not get .
bale and half per acre ON land that
has been left out the year before to
rest" by growing . crop Of weeds, for
his land is in peas when not 1t work
growing crop for sale, and the peas
furnish him the nitrogen which his
neighbors arc buying at the rate of 16
to 1S cents per pound. He encourages
the growth Of the peas with the
cheaper forms of fertilizers in kainit
and acid phosphate, and the peas do
the rest. The peas arc cut and fed,
and the manure returned to the soil.
And this is the point which /
have for years insisted upon, that the
true policy is to feed literally the
crop that is going to enrich the land
and prepare it for the sale crop. We
know the peculiar value of potash in
the form of kainit ON the cotton crop
In preventing the rust, but it is not 90
well known that the effects Of kainit
are far better when applied some time
before the planting Of. the crop. %
that the potash gets perfectly assimi-
lated In the soil and the surplus of
chlorine disappearA This Is the rea-
SON why the application Of kainit and
acid phosphate to the preceding crop
Of peas or clover will give better re-
suits ON the cotton crop, than il ap-
piled directly to the crop
Last year q gentleman in South Car
Olina took my advice in this respect,
and fertilizcd crimson clover the fall
before with lainit and acid phosphate,
cut = good crop of clover hay the next
spring. and at once planted the land in
cotton. He made double the crop on
that field that he got on an adjoining
field not SO treated, and then also
sowed clover among the cotton, and re-
Gently wrote me that he has . fine
green clover field in place Of the usual
bare ground and dead stalks. But
some will say: Eyes, probably this ID
what we should have done, hut we did
not. Now what is the best thing for
US to do?" Well, our opinion is,
that the true policy is to get to farm
ing in this busincss-like way rs soon
as you can, and for the present select
4 limited area of your best land and
fertilizc and manure it more literally,
and try to get big crop on fewer
acres.
As rule. do Eot advise the use of
kainis rs a source Of potash, at least
at distance from the seabord, BE-
cause the freight runs up the price Of
the actual potash to . higher price
than in the more concentrated forms
of muriate and su.phate. But for the
cotton crop, the potash In the form Of
kainit has . greater value than in any
other form, from It's capacity to pre-
vent rust. If you did not get the
kainit on q crop Of peas or clover last
year, the next best way to get
its full effect is to put It in the fur
rows some time before the planting Of
the cotton. II you mix your own fer
tilizcrs, rs you should do, this will be
easy, for you can sow the kainit and
acid phosphate carly. and apply the
cotton seed, or the cotton seed meal,
that you may wish n the source of
nitrogen afterwards just before, or at
planting time. But It will be great
deal better to SOW the lainit and bed
on it some time before planting time.
It will give far better results than II
applied at planting.
There il another 3se for the kainit
that few Of our farmers practice. It
ID well known that stable manure
rapidly loses value in nitrogen by
being piled and heated, the
carbonate of ammonia escaping
rapidly, and the manure dre-fanging.
It has long been . practice to scatter
plaster among the manure TO prevent
this. and this Is . good practice. But
for the cotton PLANTER, who wishes to
increase the value Of his manure by
adding potash to Il, and NJ :ise ssssas
time prevent the burning of the
nanure - well or better than plaster
does, kainit comes in - . very useful
material. KAinit scattered freely
among the manure a IL II thrown out
from the stables viii not only prevent
los of ammouia, and add potash to
the manure, but il viii put the pot
ash there in better shape for the
crop Of cotton than IL Il WAS
applied to the crop direct with
out being first used in the stable ma
nure. With manure saved In this way,
and > liberal dressing Of . mixture Of
600 pounds Of add phosphate. GO
pounds Of kainit and 100 pounds Of
cotton seed meal 70 make . ton, put
ting 8 much On ~ acres - yoa usu.
ally put On -. you Win stend : better
chance Of pcoAt fruo Tie cotton crop
than II you speead tie manure AID fer.
tiiiser over tho larger sres s1d got .
axna11n4 Ns.oGA ssnp aARA Y1tn0a&vA farm,