The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-01-24
NOTES OF THE FARM.
By w. F. MASSEY. of A, & N College
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES loeeo0e0oeoee ooo00O0O

sOWSUVSWV00 O0WOOOWUOS
alone in March and harrow the seed IN
with smoothing harrow rms VIII
give you better chance than 10 50"
with the oat7. When the Southern lar
mer finds out what a crop the ileid pea
is when properly used, he will not
bother about 'orage crops that belong
to cooler climates
From Robson county: Reading
your letters copied in the Farmer ana
Mechanic" | see that you are interro-
gated by good many farmers TOT IN
formation. j have some new land, sec
ond year in corn. / wish to put TINS
land in cotton next season. What would
you manure with, and in what proper
ton? The land is plentifully supplied
with humu3 l moved here from Mar
ion, S. c., and with the same manuring
and cultivation / was able to gather
1000 to 1;500 pounds of cotton seed per
acre, while here / get but 500. what
does this land need to produce like re-
suits? You have seen the land about
Red Springs and know about what
kind of soil it is. / also have few
acres of wheat, sown broadcast in stable
manure before blowing in. Is there any
top dressing J could apply this spring
that would be beneficial" Here we
have the same old idea which has been
repeated TO me thousands of times.
How much fertilizer to make a small
yield large one. No man can tell the
exact manurial needs of soil except
the man who is working it. The chem
list cannot tell you and only experiment
tai work done by the farmer himself
will ever settle the question as to what
the soil lacks. One thing our lands all
need, and that is good preparation and
more thorough tillage. Good prepare
ton does not always mean deep ploW-
ing, for I doubt that very deep plow-
in is best for your lands as it is for
the red clay upland country But
wheat especially needs a very deep
thorough filming and compacting of the
soil, and in Your land which is not es-
pecially adapted to wheat the sowing of
wheat and merely blowing it in will
never make a heavy wheat crop, for
the land, too light already for the best
wheat growing, does not in this way
get the packing that it needs. Having
applied stable manure broadcast on
the wheat / would not apply any more
heterogeneous fertilizer. But it may pay
you to give the wheat a top dressing
aClQ phosphate early III Tie SpIliiS
at rate of two hundred pounds per acre.
Your new and you say has plenty of
humus in it. Then farm it SO as to keep
the supply sood and do not run it down,
for the fertilizers will always have
better effect on land well supplied
with humus. which holds moisture.
and thus dissolves the fertilizer better
than land destitute of humus. Put the
ton in. i,ah
plenty of peas are grown and fed and
manure laalt Grow cotton, and
some green winter growing stuff among
it, even if only rye, to keep the nitrogen
from teaching away in the winter rains.
On this get out &ll the manure you
can make and all the rich earth and
woods mold y GU can haul, and put it in
corn. Follow the corn with winter oats,
and give them a good dressing of cot
ton seed meal and acid phosphate and
potash say loo pounds of the meal, 200
pounds of acid phosphate and so pounds
of muriate of potash per acre. AS soon
as the oats are mown, SOW peas on the
land, and cut and cure them for hay to
feed to cattle. Pillow the pea stubble
for cotton n the spring, and give it a
good dressin>, of the following: acid
phosphate 1900 pounds, cotton seed
meal 600 pound and murate of potash
200 pounds. tC make ton. In this cot
ton SOW rye and the sand vetch in the
fall and turn it under in the spring,
with all the manure you can make from
the feeding ct the pea hay and corn
fodder and oqt straw and begin the ro-
tation over again. This will give you
three year rotation which will rapidly
bring up your land till you will con-
slider a Lotto f,ound crop of seed cotton
no great shakes. In few rounds of
this rotation il you need all the forage
you make, you will ere long be making
manure enough to go over the corn
tend, and Won will need then no more
fertilizer for he GA. crop, and you will
find that it y i'll be better to put the
acid phosphate and potash on the peas
following he oats 1han to put them on
! the cotton direct, for the bigger you
make the pea crop, the bigger your ma
nure pile viz be and the heavier the
! cotton crop | reported the success
! lately of farmer in Alabama on SINH
lar land, who adopted the plan ! have
/ recommended. and he says that in the
! last season, the worst cotton season
for years, he made so TO 80 bushels of
| oats per acre. 40 bushels of corn and
| from three quarters to a bale Of cotton
per acre. ard the year before he had
nine acres o. cotton that made ten
bales, and this on land that few years
ago would hardly sprout peas Go thou
and do likewise. Land is not brought
up by merely fertilizing year after
year, but by a systematic course of
good farming. And do not be tempted,
when you fins that you can grow bale
or more of cotton per acre, to go to
planting the land over again in cotton,
| but stick TO the rotation and learn to
farm instead of merely planting land.
One more letter from Alamance we
must try to find room for: II have
piece of land. good red soil, which
want to sow in grass for moving pur-
poses. What kind will be the best to
| sow?' On land of that character |
would SOW a mixture of orchard grass,
/ tall meadow, oats, grass and red top.
| Sow ten pounds each of the first two,
and five of the last per acre. Prepare
the land well and make the surface
smooth and fine, and harrow the seed
in lightly with a slant-tooth smoothing
| harrow.