The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1898-07-16
FARMER AND PLANTER.
INTENSIVE FARMING.
Without Judicious Crop Rotation Y0tcn-
sivc Farming Is an EconOm.
icaI Impossibiiity.

:
sidering its vital Importance, little fol-
lowed. Without it, our worn lands
will continue worn and thin. If south
ern farmers would practice it 20 years,
the productiveness of every acre of up
land would be increased fully so per
cent; and even if not a pound of fer
tilizer was bought, our lands at the
end of that time would produce as well
without guano as they. do now with it.
Ii this be true, then it is matter of
great economy.
think we can trace as the reason the
same thing that is the cause of the
present worn and rundown condition
Of many OF our formerly best planta-
tons, to-wit: the undirected negro
tenant He is the greatest curse in the
south to-day. The negro is the best
farm laborer in the world; but at the
same time the worse tenant-farmer.
His trouble is that he lacks Judgment.
When this is supplied by the white
farmer he becomes a success. It's nee
essary for the good of the laborer, land
and landowner, all three, that the
owner plan and direct. If he does not,
he may get his rent in the fall, but his
land will be less valuable. In the case
OF negro tenants this can best be done
in the rent contract. This should al
ways specify the kind of crops to be
painted, and the number of acres in
each, and should require that the kind
of crops on particular fields be changed
yearly. A great improvement would
be to require the tenant to plant Is
acres in cotton, ten acres in corn with
peas between the corn rows, to be
picked and not cut or pulled) and five
acres in peas, and to make a two-year
rotation of these crops, putting in corn
and peas next year the IS acres this year
in cotton. OF coure "a three-year rota-
ton would improve the land faster
than this two-year plan, but we must
change plans gradually. Too radical
change is not apt to be permanent.
We must learn to walk before we learn
to run.
A farmer who tills his own land
would be foolish to adopt anything
less than the three-year system. 1t re-
quires less labor per acre, and while it
demands about ten acres more land to
the pillow, it is for this reason more sat
isfactory, and, in the long run, for
more renumerative, even leaving out
the increased value of the land. No
one will deny that it is far more salts
factory to make $500 year profit on so
acres with two hands, than the same
amount on 80 acres with three hands.
This is about the difference between a
three and two-year rotation.
No matter in what way you look at it
the three-year rotation for cotton
farmer seems to be as near perfect as
system can be. For one pillow it is as
follows:
Acres
First year, cotton. Observation-Disclosures. IL
Second year. S Dens iior hay,
Thirdyear S %Ssa, Z
OF course, if more than one plow is
run, you multiply these numbers of
acres by the number OF plows, except
us to wheat; with it plant what is
needed for bread and Seed and the rest
of ''third-year" land plant to oats, un-
less you intend to raise wheat to sell.
The land this year in cotton is
planted next year in peas and corn,
and the year after in oats and wheat,
and SO ON. In each corn row peas are
planted for seed. As soon as wheat
and oats are cut turn under the stub
BILE, at the same time dropping or drill
ing peas in every third furrow Just be-
hind the pillow, to be covered by the
next furrow. This was David Dick
sons plan; and when peas are to be
planted in rows (which is the best way),
saves labor. If time is not to be found
to cultivate the peas, it may be better
and cheaper to broadcast them than to
drop or drill.
In this rotation two-thirds of the
land grows renovating crop each year,
and one that materially adds to the
fertility of the land; SO that when this
system is followed it is necessarily true
that the soil becomes richer every
year. When this plan has been fol.
lowed long enough to make our fields
produce a bale of cotton to the acre
then it will be economy to cut all pea
vines for hay, rather than turn them
under for fertilizer and humus. Until
this point is reached, however, am an
advocate of using the larger part of the
vines for manure, unless the number o.
stock kept on the farm require then
for food.
In this thrce-year rotation only 2:
acres require regular and constant cul
tivation-those in corn and cotton.
And though 80 ncrcs have been sci
aside as being q fair one-horse farm. il
does seem that good mule ought moi
to find that number too great when II
OF those acres require little, if any, cul
tivation. The old rule used to be 2;
acres in cotton and 10 in corn; but
these 30 acres can be better cultivated
than the 81 acres, since because of q
greater diversity of crops the work il
better distributed during the year ant
does not all press at once.