The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-09-04

In 189. we had a drouth in Iowa, OF
such severity as practically to destroy
the corn crop. In 1885, as soon as mois-
ture came. our crops were the heaviest
in the history CT the State, showing
conclusively that the effect Of the drouth
in 1894 was merely to look up the plant
food and let it remain until the following
year. During several months Of the
winter, the soil was frozen solid, when
no loss of plant food could take place. II
is different with you in the South. Your
soil does not freeze up in the winter,
while you have rains that wash out the
plant food. We find it necessary in the
North, in order to maintain the fertility
Of our soils, to rotate crops, so that
| grazing crops shall occupy the ground at
least one-third Of time. We get our
greatest crops from blowing up our pas
lures. / think it is entirely practicable
for Southern cultivatOrs TO replace the
humus in their soil by growing grasses
and legumes, because there is a great
demand at the present time, and prob
ably always will be, for first-class
horses, cattle, sheep and other grazing
animals, and the Southern cultivator is
famed for his excellence as ~1lOck-master.
The cotton crop of the South has been
suffering on account of drouth. and on
account of heavy rains. ] Will not at the
| present time discuss the latter condition;
there are. Of course, methods by which
| the bad effects of heavy rains on bottom
lands can be avoided, that are no doubt
we'll known to intelligent cultivators in
the South. \ greater problem is the
loss of crops from drouth and the neceS-
sity Of adopting systems of management
that will prepare the soil to resist to as
| great an extent as possible the effect CT
long-continued drouths. Soils that have
had their humus or decaying plant food
oxidized and burnt out by perpetual cul-
tivation, when put into cultivated crops
like cotton or corn are much more sub
ject to losses than soils that are full Of
rant roots that enable them to retain
moisture. ] think it would be entirely
practicable on your light billy lands to
double the amount of cotton grown, by
putting the lands into grazing pastures
or even into meadow condition. where
the crop is taken off by the mower, or
by green manuring.
The methods by which fertilizers are
supplied to southern soils require consid-
| GRAFTON and careful analysis. Where
nitrogen, potash, phosphoric acid and
other elements of plant food are applied
as commercial fertilizers, they are much
more emphatically at the mercy of heavy
rains than where they are applied other
wise. Where the fertilizers is applied
in the shape of barnyard manure, or
green manure or grazing it cannot be
ashed out by rains as readily as where
it is applied as super-phosphates. | have
observer in many places ridges made
across the face of hillsides to prevent the
soil from flowing away during heavy
rains. The recourse is doubtless wise.
I.+ tho fo~l;r- bow, IS +ho l;lJ,;lo, -
grasses and legumes suitable to the lati-
tude would be much more etfectual in ar
resting the flow Of soil towards your
streams. An old hillside, cultivated again
and again, for many years, With it's
humus gone, would grow a good crop no
doubt if sufficient Commercial fertilizer
were applied. The operation would be
entirely successful if it did not rain too
much; but the nitrate is subject to being
washed away into the sandy and gravelly
| subsoil, and taken beyond the reach of
the plant. This will occur much more
| certainly in the old cultivated field than
in a newly broken up pasture field.
| It is necessary to continue the Guilt
walton of crops during a drouth longer
than we are in the habit OF doing. 1t is
customary with most of US to give the
land so much cultivation and then lay
the crop by. If the crop has shaded the
ground to protect it from the rays of the
sun, SO that evaporation will not take
place, followed h. the cracking of the
soil which is the result of evaporation,
then the cultivation might be stopped.
But if the ground is bare, then c~ultiva-
ton should continue, and a dust mulch
be maintained, until the crop does shade
the soil. / remember planting crops Of
| several kinds in a dry year at the Iowa
Experiment Station, after a two-inch rain
the last Of June. The crops were tur-
nips and cabbage for cow-feed, planted
for the purpose of ascertaining the eff
feet of the volatile acids of those roots
on the flavor of butter. Sweet corn and
tomatoes were planted for the college
kitchen. I was entirely aware that with
out cultivation the soil would lose all
its moisture inside of ten days, and the
crops must perish for want of it. set
about maintaining a dust mulch of per
haps two and a half inches, and in or
der to maintain it, cultivated twice a
week until rain came, which was only
after seven weeks drouth. I succeeded
in my object, and good crops were the
result. That kind of cultivation is much
more necessary in the South than it is
in the North, because you have a warmer
sun and generally lighter soils. We have
cC0h lIlpol IlIS lhc ldD1t grapes from
Europe lately and sending them down to
your State. Our Pomologist visited them
lately and found them suffering from
drouth. The mulching process is pre-
cisely what they need, either by the APP
p!ication of a mulch to the soil or by
continual cultivation that will maintain
a dust mulch.
The Improvement of Southern soils
brings into consideration the money crops
that can be grown from them outside of
cotton. There is a great demand abroad
for frst-class horses, and for such horses
as are more common to the South than
to any other part of the United States.
The road horse, the carriage horse, the
gated horse, are all in demand. We
sold t4,O9 horses last year and received
S.. 1920 56 for them. The demand will be
continuous, and the Southern States can
we'll give attention to the production of
such horses as are needed in other coun-
tries. 1t would be wise for us to produce
what the merchant wants and not what
we think he should buy. The principal
basis of the horse is pasture, and while
the grasses and legumes l am speaking of
are filling the Southern soil with humus.