The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-01-28
FARMER DPLANTER.
COTTON GROWING.
Intensive Culture Of the Cotton Crop n
Against the Old and slipshod

The writer had previously urged
The application of the principles OF
intensive farming to cotton culture
as one of the most hopeful and effec-
tive methods of relieving some. of the
most serious symptoms, if not of eff
fectually curing. that everywhere
complained-of malady ..over produc-
ton" The man who by concentrate
ing his capital, his labor, and his fer
tiiizers, upon q smaller area, succeeds
in lowering the cost of production,
has not, only furnished valuable OBJ
Ject lesson to the community, but has
placed himself upon decided vantage
ground for the, future. If, as many
believe, somebody is going to be
crowded out in this cotton growing
business, he will be about the last
somebody to leave it. 1t is the man
who can raise the best cotton at the
least cost who is going to do the most
of the "crowding," and the ''other fell
low" who will do the leaving"
Indeed too much can not be said in
favor of this matter of reducing the
cost of cotton production. No indi-
vidual has the power to raise the mar
ket price of this staple by the slight
est fraction of farthing. 1t is in
deed questionable whether any posi-
bic combination of men or capital or
trust" could permanently effect this.
But every individual cotton grower
can work at the long arm of his own
plantation lever, and if he can not
lift up the price, there is always
chance to force the cost down, which,
so far as he is concerned, amounts to
the same thing.
There is no doubt that the general
trend of matters is towards improved
methods and better results. Statistics
indicate that in gradualvvay the crop
of lint per acre is steadily rising. This
increase has been going on for the
PAST twenty years at an annual rate
of about five pounds per acre. The
Financial Chronicle gives the average
production In 1S90-91 as 1874 pounds.
which in 1S97-9s had risen to 24s
pouids. This menas about million
and quarter bales increase for the
space now devoted to the crop. There
is, in the nature of things, no earthly
reason why l2,000,0 900 bale crop
should not be grown on half the pres
ent acreage, while the ether half de-
voted to cereal and forage crops
would place the south in condition
of independence and self-supporting
power utterly beyond anything known
in the past.
One of the best means of securing
this result would be by the adoption
of some definite and well considered
rotation of crops. "Cotton"-"cotton,,
--eternally cotton" year after year,
on the same ground, will ruin any
land outside of the Rer river bottoms.
or some other such marvellous natural
manure heap. The basis of the whole
system will properly be heavy crop
of cow-peas, which can in nearly every
instance be secured by liberal applica-
tons of potash and phosphoric acid.
The cow-peas are better turned under
late in autumn. Fair land, with this
treatment, provided the application of |
the mineral fertilizers has been lib |
eral enough, should give splendid |
crop of cotton. This may be succeed |
ed by corn, or oats or both, in regular |
succession. Any stable manure avail |
able can be judiciously appropriated |
to the corn crop. But whether three |
or four years rotation be adopted, cow
peas should form the fundamental
crop. To this the great bulk of the
mineral fertilizers should be given. An
average application for peas would be
about 900 pounds. Acid phosphate and
300 pounds kainit Tor IS pounds muri-
ate of potash per acre. The others
will follow in natural succession, and
often without further fertilization. the
crops and the crop producing capacity
will steadily advance together. OF
If the land is greatly exhaust
ed to begin with, it may be necessary
10 supplement- the fertilization of the
sow-peas, by additional applications of
potash and phosphoric acid to the cot
ton itself.
The contagious influence of gener-
Al and intelligent application of the
of scientific agriculture, to
,otton growing, over the south would
De hard to estimate. Happily the ex-
pertinent stations, most of the agri-
culture journals, and here and there, a
vide awake and progressive planter,
ire working fnonfuIlv in this direction.