The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-12-20

A0d Importance to Cur Farmer Read
erS,
Jurisprudence Of the Progressive Farmer.
The Northern farmer, travelling
through the upland regions OF the
South is struck with the great area OF
washed and wasted lands, red quilted
hillsides and old fields abandoned for
nature to restore with the broom sedge
aud the pine. He jumps at once to the
cOnclusi IN that bee Ause the sections In
which he sees these things have been
devoted to the culture of tobacco and
OF cotton. that these crops are Cread
fully exhaustive things to grow, and
ne comes to the conclusion that If be
settles in the South he will have none
OF them. He thereby makes a great
mistake. TIE crops are not respon
siDle for the conditions he depIoree,
for as good farming Can be done, and
the fertility Of the soil retained and
promoted with tobacco or cotton as the
leading crop as it can with any Of the
crops grown in the best farming re
gions 1t is the system, or rather lack
OF system, and not the crop grown,
that has caused the waste that should
never have been allowed. The great
need o. our Southern uplands is humus
or the decay of organic matter. We
know full we'll that when one Of our
billy fi2Ids is first cleared from the
forest, there is for awhile no destruc
tive washing, for the old deCayiDg
roOts furRish means for underdrain.
xe, and the bumus 90 abundant then,
with the small decayiug roots prevents
the washing. But year after year TIE
greedy culEivstOr works that land
without IntermlesiOn In cotton, and as
it's fertility wanes, he seeks to replen-
ish the store of plant food with com
morcIal fertilizers, not seeing that all
the time he IL bringing about condl
tions that render the fertilizers less
eff actIve, for the compass ing of the
soil, shutting out air and warmth, and
the washing of the humus making the
soil less reGentive Of the moisture so
essential to the solution OF the plant
food applied, are rendering it more
,fficulT to keep up the fertility and
productiveness of the lard through
the application of fertilizers In the
sections growing bright gold leaf to-
bacco, mang growers are t fiji eted with
the notion, that if they get their lands
rich, they cannot grow as tine quail
the best tobacco is grown on freshly
cleared landR, that have not been rob
bed of their humut, and the men IN
the bright tobacco section who are
farming in way to restore this humus,
are growing the best crops aud are get
ting the best prices for their product.
The question then comes Win IulI
force to the Southern farmer. WhetI eE
his crop be tobacco or cotton, and par
| Gcularly where it is tobacco: What
shall we do 10 restore our lands to ne "
ground conditioDs9 There is no doubt
that the pilIng on of a lot of crude ma
nures would IT suit in damage to the
quality Of the Leaf, bu5 the gradual
restoration OF the humus that has been
wasted, and the restoration Of the me
chanical and physical conditions that
prevailed when the land was freshly
cleared from the forest, can only re
suit in the restoration of the capacity
of the soil for the proc uction OF that
kind OF tobacco for which it was
adapted when fresh. The only way tC
do this, is through the culture Of those
renovating crops like pc ,s and clover
and the heavy feeding of them with
the minerals in the shape Of phospholi iC
acid and potash, which they need fol-
the best results. In this way we can
fill the soil with organic matter for the
tobacco crop, and at the same time be
under the necessity for the purchas9 OF
less nitrogen for the crop Fortunately
the same red clay upland sections that
grow tobacco, are we'll adapted TO the
growth of the finest wheat, and there
ia no crop grown as q summer crop
that puts the land in as fine condition
for wheat as che tobacco crop, and the
heavy fertiliz alton needed by the to
bacco will carry the wheat crop
through without further outlay and
furnish q means for rotation that will