St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-02-16
FARMER AND PLANTER,
BIZ WAY OF EXPERIMENT.
Deepening the soil shown t. he tie
Planters Plan e Increase
Cotton Yield. Nrst

1dAAcO AOE Inc pIeoenC crop d COCtO0
will tempt many farmers to plant too
much cotton next year. But it they
will plant . plentiful crop Of every
thing else, kind Providence" may
again interfere and prevent our max
ing too much cotton. But be this a.
may, it is to the interest Of southern
farmers to decrease the cost by. in
creasing the yield per acre. We shall
not argue this question, however, in
this place, but simply give the result
of an experiment we made many years
ago from which we learned some valu-
able lessons. 44tA q
We selected five acrse on the high
est hilltop and the poorest land on
our farm We broke this with heavy
sulky pillow followed by subsoil. We
succeeded in getting about thirteen
inches deep. This gave US about
twenty inches of loosened soil, and
went entirely through the hard pan.
After the winter rains and freezes
were past, we sowed 400 pounds COM
mercial fertilizer per acre broadcast.
This was one ton for the five acres.
We narrowed this with a spring.
toothed harrow, going about sfSe
inches deep. After about ten days we
put on another ton, narrowed again
with the same harrow, going about
three inches and a half deep. After
about one week we put on another
ton of the fertilizer and narrowed with
the Acme harrow about three inches
the first time, and crossing this about
two inches deep. We then laid of the
rows five feet apart. rut on another
ton fertilizer in the drills: ran long
narrow rooter as deep as we could
and threw up q fiat bed with half
turner. We then narrowed these beds
witr light fine-toothed harrow and
planted with a homemade Texas bar
rel planter. 1863 &,t scott :.
We stopped the holes with corn
cobs so as to drop seed about every
20 to "a inches. We used improved
seed of our own selection which came
up bold and strong and were prop
erly thinned to two stalks in hill.
We had intended to put on another
ton of fertilizer in the middle Of the
rows, but as we could not get the
Kind we wished, we failed in this. Our
intention was to use ton per acre of
high grade commercial fertilizer, but
we had to contend ourselves with 1000
pounds per acre. We used no compost
or stable manure or other manure OF
any kind. Our plan was to test how
much commercial fertilizer it would
pay to use on one acre of cotton. We
had thus far, expended about thirty
dollars per acre. There was nothing
now to do but to cultivate the crop,
and to gathersit. ,ssess sksFfs
The cotton grew off SO rapidly that
the cultivation cost but little. This
was done with broad-hee1 scrapers set
to run very shallow.3 The cotton soon
shaded the center surface and the
grass gave up the fight.
NOW FOR THE RESULTS.
We never saw cotton grow 50. Meas
uring sticks placed beside. the stalks
showed gain of two and half
inches per day at the height of the
growing period. The taking on of
fruit was equally as encouraging; the
hollis were large and set thickIy upon
the limbs. The yield exceeded our ex-
tectations.~ We got about two bales
and half per acre, and as cotton was
then selling at nine cents, the profit
was very satisfactory. 1t was not on:
ly the largest yield but the cheapest
cotton we ever raised. at an expense
OF about two hundred and twenty
five dollarsrau told. we had made |
about two hundred dollars worth Of
cotton and over three hundred hish-
els seed which were worth to us near
~ a dollar a bushel; for nearly every
one who saw or heard of the cotton
wanted the seed. But the largest part |
Of the profit wassin the improvaaent.I
of the land. That resulted principally
from the work that had been done.
While it is true that the crop of cot
ton did not appropriate all the fertl- |
izer that had been used and the next |
crop was somewhat benefited by what |
was left, that piece of land continued
to make large yields of evry kind of |
crop, for many years. The lessons we
desire to draw from this experiment
ere, that thorough culture and high
will pay, and do pay. That
small areas and large yields are more
profitable than large areas and small |
yields. 4E1l
1t pays to make experiments. That
crop was mainly due to the deep plow-
ing. 1t would not have paid to use
that much fertilizer on land plowed |
three or four inches deep. The deep
er the soil the more fertilizer can be
used profitably. If the states east OF |
the Mississippi wish to compete with !
Texas in raising cotton they must
deepen their soil.-Southern Cultiva-
tor. --f-es---