Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1899-04-07
FARMER AND PLANTER.
FUTURE OF COTTON GROWING.
Present and Prospective Low Price of Cot
ton Turning the Attention OF the
Planters to Better Methods.

Ihutcih W ffe'tpA 'a'e"o"'s
The present low price Of cotton and
the absence of any immediate prospect
of its rising materially higher in the
near future must naturallybe asource
of great Encouragement to the farmer
in the cotton belt. We are constantly
receiving letters from farmers all
over the south, requesting informa'
ton about this and that crop which
they propose TO put in the place OF
cotton, as there is no longer any profit
in growing the staple. They seem
ready to undertake the culture of al
most any other crop about which they
know nothing, and to abandon the one
with which they are familiar. My in
variable answer to these enquirers is
that they do not need any crop" in
that they do not need any crop lin the
the place of cotton" for cotton has al
ways had too big place in the south.
What they do need is to relegate the
cotton to its proper place as a special
money crop, and then to so conduct
their farming as to grow the cotton
at lower cost
1t is doubtless true that cotton can
not continue TO be grown according to
the plan common in most places in the
south withany profit at present prices,
and also true that under the most
favorable conditions the profit in the
crop is not what it has been. The crop
will no longer carry a man without
capital who depends on the merchant
to furnish him supplies, and then
grows half bale OF less per acre. The
day is past for this kind of cotton
growing, and for the future the crop
must be grown on a cash basis by men
who are going to farm in a more sys-
tomatic manner, and are going 10
grow cotton solely as money crop
after making their expenses out of
other crops, and feeding stock to help
the fertility of the land.
In any cropping it is not always the
biggest crops that pay the best, but
the crops that are grown at the least
cost. The farmer who Is carried by
the merchant grows cotton at fear
full cost, when one considers the in
terest he has to pay for the accommo-
dation. and it is not to be wondered
at that this class of growers can
not, at present prices, make both ends
meet. But there are here and
there men who are farming with cot
ton and making some margin, even at
present rates. One grower in this
state claims that during the past sea-
son he has grown his cotton at a cost
of 2.o7 cents per pound, and he gives
the exact figures that made up the
cost. But he did even better than n
bale an acre, and it is very evident
that the only way to grow cotton in
the future will be to grow more bales
on fewer acres, and to so arrange the
farming as to constantly build up the
soil for greater and greater produc-
ton by judicious use of the modern
methods of crop rotation, the intro
duction OF recuperative crop, the car
rying of stock, and the proper and lib
eral use of fertilizers in the proper
place.
The cotton farmers of the south
have for many years been content to
buy their fertilizers on the patent
medicine plan, without stopping to in
quire whether the particular brand
used was the best adapted to their
crop or their land, or whether they
could not get the same or better re-
suits in a cheaper way. On the worn
lands of the cotton belt, where clean
culture year after year had depleted
the soil, the use of commercial fertil-
izeres is of Importance. But there is
rot the slightest doubt that the south
ern farmers have thrown away mill
ions of dollars that they might have
saved had they farmed their lands in
q different manner, and used freely
the right form of fertilizers (Which
they could have gotten for less money
than what they have been using).
The proper kind of fertilizers and
the proper place for the fertilizer in
the rotation are both important mat
ters, and the man who proposes to
grow cotton in the future must stop
the patent medicine plan of advertis-
ing and find out what his land needs,
and then apply that IN liberal man.
ner. Some experiments lately made
at the Virginia station with the fer
tilizaton of the wheat crop are sug-
gestive for the fertilization of the cot
ton crop, Notwithstanding the differ
ence in the two crops. These expert.
ments showed that though complete
fertilizer containing the usual per.
centages of nitrogen, phosphoric acid
and potash gave the largest crop, the
most profitable crop was where phos
phoric acid and potash were applied
without nitrogen, for the extra croJ
where nitrogen was applied did moi
pay the extra cost of the nitrogen.
Now, as it was evident that com
rlete fertilizer gave the largest yield
| il behooves the farmer to inquire
whether the nitrogen can not be had
at cost that might repay its use
And it is right there that the cottor
farmer can get the nitrogen needed
without buying it; for he can get il
not only without cost but even at 6
profit through the use of COW peas
the season previous to the planting O
the cotton. This crop absorbs nitro
gen from the air, and leaves it in the
soil, and this, in combination with
lhosphoric acid and potash, makes
complete plant food. These ingredi
ents are almost universally lacking il
the soils of the cotton belt and are o
course very necessary. 1t is essentia
that there be the right proportion o
all of them, so that each may have it
due effect. Of course the peas vii
give you fairly good results withou
| the application of phosphoric acid ant