The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1899-05-03
Farmers Experience.

The Atlanta Weekly Constitution is
doing good service to the agricultural
South, no part of which needs it more
than Georgia, in publishing interviews
with successful southern farmers We
note that animal farming is promi-
nent feature in these interviews. With
cowpeas and kindred crops, cotton seed
meal and hullS. peanuts. chu1as, rye.
oats. and fair crops Of corn, rotated
with cowpeas, beef, pork and mutton
should be made at less cost than
in any other part of the country. All
that the southern farmer needs is to
be educated out of the cotton rut in
which he is in with both wheels, and
into diversified farming, in which an
imal farming is prominent feature.
One wheel in the cotton rut, can then
be made profitable as the animals fest
on legume crops, ana cotton seed meal
and hulls will save the commercial
fertilizer bills. Read what Mr.. Kings
bury says and Leaf the Ruralist reader
ponder and practice:
Il have been fattening cattle every
winter for several years, and have al
ways made a good profit on them, be-
sides the benefit to my land, which
has more than doubled in value from
the manure.
Il feed the cattle OH cotton seed
meal and hulls. which the farmers can
get for their cotton seed at fair eX-
change, and as they haul their seed to
the railroad or cotton oil mills, the
cost of hauling NE hulls and meal
home is practically nothing. By feed
ing the cattle in the fields they desire
to fertilize, and placing the feed boxes
in the side Of the fields furtheast from
the water the cattle going to the water
and back to the feeu boxes will dis
tribute the manure, and save the eX-
pense of hauling them ost of 1t. | am
fully convinced that diversified farm
ing is the true and only way to make
farming profitable, cultivating the
land that has been enriched until it
will yidd bountifully, and this can be
done by almost every farmer, for these
old red hills respond to proper cultiva-
ton in a way that is marvellous. The
use OF homemade fertilizers, deep
blowing, and thorough preparation Of
the ground will insure a good crop.
Cultivate fewer acres, cultivate them
better and enricL them. One acre
plowed deep, thOrC ughly narrowed and
we'll MANFRED will produce more than
five acres under inc average systeAn
of farming A few COWS sheltered and
bedded with leaves every night will
make a quantity Oh manure that will
surprise any one who has never tried
it. and the butter can be sold at re
muneratiVe prices, while the butter
milk and skim milk can be proftably
used in raising hogs.
'"The land that is too poor to Guilt
vate, SOW in rye in the fall for winter
PASTURE taking the STOCK off of it as
soon as grass comes in the spring. Let
it head out and turn it under in May
or June, sowing peas at the same time,
and you will get crop that will pa!
we'll for the labor and in two or three
years bring the land up to a state of
fertility that will give profitable crops
of corn, wheat or oats. During the
winter. when the stock are sheltered,
have the manure hauled out eacn day
and spread broadcast on the land.
expect to cultivate or top dress grass
or grain. only handling it once, and
that work is done at time when bur
little can be done blowing. and does
not have to he done when the season
comes for preparing and planting the
crop"