The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-04-24
FARMER AND PLANTER.
FARMING WITH COTTON.
Better Methods Are Rapidly Suppianting
the Old Ideas.

the cultivators and their anxiety to
learn better methods. Years ago 1t
was thought that cotton was crop
that would not fit into any improving
rotation, and that the only way to
grow it was the old way of planting
year after year and trying to squeeze a
little more from the land by the use of
costly complete fertilizers. With cot
ton at good price this method could
usually be relied upon to give some
profit even at the enormous percentage
the cotton planter paid the merchant
for money and supplies. No other crop
grown in this country could have borne
the great cost of its production under
this system, or rather no system, for as
we have often said it was simply gam
bling on the chances, and resulted in
''Old fields" and quilted wastes all over
the south. With the low prices of cot
ton In recent years came the necessity
OF either abandoning the crop or grow
Ing it at lower cost. Thoughtful
men who see that cotton is the natural
money crop of the greater part of the
south, will adopt the same plan that
prudent men adopt in any business
when prices rule low, reduce expenses.
The old argument Of the cotton planter
that he could not afford to grow any
other crop, because cotton paid more
per acre than anything he can grow,
falls to the ground when considered in
the light of the heavy expense of pro
viding forage and grain from the west
to feed his teams, and paying big per-
centage on the money to buy them
with. 1t has been found, too, that
cotton fits into farming rotation as
well as any other crop, and that the
annual outlay for high-priced fertiliz-
ers is entirely needless to the man who
adopts the same businesslike methods
that farmers in other sections have
been compelled to adopt. 1t was for
tunate for the south that the climate
and soil that favor the growth of
cotton are also the most favorable
to the grandest recuperative crop
In this country, the COW pea. Years
ago it was the practice to bewail the
fact that in most of the best cotton
lands of the south red clover can not
be grown with success. But this should
not be deemed misfortune, as the
southern farmer can improve his land
faster with the COW pea than the north
ern farmer can with clover But the
best way to do this has been a ques-
ton, and though the same crops are
not grown in the south that the north
ern farmer grows, it has been found
that the same method of rotation
with the crops he grows is as
available and profitable in the
south as in the north. In fact his
climate enables the southern cotton
farmer to grow more crops in short
rotation than the northern farmer can.
The feeding of stock, where it can be
done, with profit, is as important TO the
farmer In the south as in the north, and
while it is not feasible to abandon the
use of artificial fertilizers, they should
be used in such manner as to increase
the capacity of the farm for feeding
cattle and sheep and making manure
at home. The old plan of gambling in
fertilizers without thought of using
them for the permanent improvement
of the land has had its day.
The cotton farmer of the future will
use them literally, but viii use them
judiciously,in their proper place to for
ward the building up of his land in
the production of his sale crop at a
lower cost. But to keep stock and
make manure requires that there shall
be plenty of food. And here we have
great advantage over the northern
farmer in the crops we can grow in a
limited time. / want to say at the
outset that as / have before written,
the best rest for land is to keep it busy
growing something of value either to
the farm or farmer. The old prac-
tice of resting land between crops
of cotton 10 grow up in weeds Is
not the best we can do. Every
southern farm in the cotton belt can
have a permanent pasture for stock in
summer by using the Bermuda grass.
This will do away with any necessity
for pasturing the fields devoted to crop.
ping, and win save interior fences. On
the cropping land make regular ro-
tation of crops, and short one of not
more than three years. Do not potter
and bother with the piling up of what
has been called compost, but whatever
you make in the way of manure get i,
out as soon as possible where some
crop is waiting for it. year or so age
] saw one of the farmers of South
Carolina cleaning out his stables
and hauling the manure out be
tween the rows of cotton in August
He said that it would leach and waste
In the barnyard, and whether it would
do the cotton any immediate good On
not he wanted to get 1t on the land
where he was growing crops and let il
leach where some plant could get 1t
Now with the great amount of feed WI
can grow from the Indian corn PLAN
and the COW pea there is no difficulty
In keeping stock in the south and feed