The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-02
Animal Husbandry in Alabama.

Breeders Gazette.
 To The Gazette; The education and practice of the farmers of Alabama have beon directed toward cotton-growing for years. Oi1 men are not easily or readily induced to adopt new methods and con- servatism and want of energy may be found. But the progressive men, who live in the present and for the future. young energetic men who are taking in the new spirit of industrialism, are awak- ening to the possibilities of stock-raising as permanent part of our agricultural system. The State Agricultural Depart
 ment at Montgomery and the Agricultural
 and Mechinacal College and Experiment
 Station at Auburn are doing all they ts'n
 with limited means to educate and stiin-
 ulate farmers to go Into the stock busi-
 ness. Moreover, farmers institutes are
 being held in nearly every county in Ala bama and much good Is being done by face to face talks on animal husbandry.
 Yet there are few farmers who know the stock business sufficiently well to make striking success. It requires time, study, perseverance and experience to become a good livestock farmer, yet believe changes are coming as rapidly as conditions will permit. In the past three years more farmers have studied how to engage in the livestock industry than ever before in the history Of Alabama.
 The fact is some of them have fairly good start in beef and dairy cattle. sheep and hogs. Some mistakes have been made and will be made.
 It Is not advisable that Alabama farm CTS should quit the cotton business; they duce moro live stock. diversity their crops and raise more cotton on less acre age. It is true that some soils In Ala bama are not very fertile because they have been cultivated in cotton year af- ter year with nothing to make good their loss except the small addition of com mercial fertilizers which were so soluble that what was not taken up by the cotton plant in the Summer was washed out by the rains in Winter. No single crop sys- tenn of farming will maintain or improve the fertility of soil As natural conse- quence Alabama soils ere greatly deficient In vegetable matter and never can be permanently improved without It. Stock raising forces the farmer to diversity his crops and to return to the soil all the vegetable fertilizers that are made on that farm or brought to It. All the pea vine hay, vetch hay, alfalfa, burr clover, and all other hays and forage, cotton seed and cotto nseed neal and nulls, may all be utilized as vegetable fertilizers after they have been used as feeds to produce beef, pork. mutton or milk. On an aver age, f5 per cent of the fertilizlng value of feed stuffs is found in the liquld and solid manures coming from the animals by which the feeds were consumed. Thus the farmer gets double rse of all the feed-stuffs that he produces or buys and Is always improving h's land Tn plant food potash. acid phosphate and nitro gem, In mechanical condition and in moisture-retaining capacity. Stock-rais- ing is not incompatible with cotton pro- tuction and is q necessity to soil inn provement. Stock raising necessitates the growing of cowpeas, vetches. alfalfa. soy beans, !clvet beans and vegetable which will add nitrogen and vegetable matter to the soil and at the same time produce the best kinds of hay for feeding cattle. horses mules and sheep.
 With diversified crops every farmer produces the major part Of his living ne- uessities; he has home grown meats, veg etables, bread-stuffs and fruit. while the single-crop cotton farmer must l,uy al- most everything his family and his la borers consume with what he receives from the sale of his cotton. The stock man cuts down his commercial fertilizer bill. sells cotton and surllus animals. A failure in the cotton crop leaves the sin gle crop cotton farmer high and dry" but the stockman always has living. The cotton man buys his horses. rn'i'"%. pork, beef and mutton, while the stock raiser may sell horses. mules. hogs. cattle, sheep and cotton. It s difficult to exactly determine the number and value of the