The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1902-04-05
FARMER AND PLANTER.
A TALK WITH FARMERS.
a southern AgricuItural Editor Has
somethfng to Say to the Farm
ers Of the south.

4
lifting of southern agriculture. Edit
ing an agricultural weekly paper of |
wide national circulation, he is nat
urally brought into close contact
with farmers in various parts of the
country. Northward the farmers are
in better shape to-day than in the
south. There is much discourage
ment among southern farmers, espe-
cially cotton farmers, by reason OF
short crop and low prices. At the
same time the southern tobacco
growers are happy over the improved
prices for their crop. think, there
fore, that this is good time to talk
with those, who, like me, are deeply
interested in the farming of the
south.
Why is it that the cotton farmers
are depressed? Of course, as have
said it is at present on account of
poor crops and low prices. But why
should these conditions always en-
barrass the southern farmer? Is it
not because the cotton grower is
merely cotton grower, and not a
farmer in the best sense of the word?
! think that much of the poor crop
is due to the way in which farmers
who study their profession are al
ways ready to grasp improvements
in cultivation and fertilization OF
their crops, while in the cotton belt
the same methods are pursued in the
growing of the crop that have been
pursued for generations, and the
farmers seem to think that there is
no other way. They spend too much
labor in the cultivation of the crop
through using obsolete tools and
nelecting to adopt improved meth
DDS. They work the same land year
after year in cotton with q little
dribble of fertilizer, never realizing
that through good farming and the
use of a good rotation with the re-
Cooperative crops they could use the
fertilizers more lavishly and in a
cheaper form. In all the South At
lantic states the past summer there
were constant deluges of rain. The
cotton grower as a rule has his
favorite brand of ready-mixed fer
tilzer, and he used it in the regula-
ton way in the furrow to start the
crop. Last year nitrate of soda was
unusually cheap, and there was a
temptation for manufacturers to use
it freely for the nitrogen in their
goods. Nitrateof soda is a very solu-
BILE form of nitrogen, and il not taxi
en- up at once by the plants, is speed
lily lost. The season was very wet,
and we saw hundreds of fields of we'll
drained light upland soil where the
cotton failed and the owner said that
it was drowned out. The fact is that
it was starved out. The little fer
tilizer applied in very soluble form
was washed away Though long
years of constant cultivation in cot
ton had no power to how'd on to the
plant food. Too little was applied in
the start, and that little was soon
lost.
Now suppose that every cotton field
in the south had had crop of peas
on it the season before. that these
peas had been well fortified with
phosphate and potash so that the
growth of forage was heavy, and the
accumulation of nitrogen from the
air by means of the pea roots was
also heavy. This organic ammonia
would not have been SO rapidly
washed away from the plants as the
soluble nitrate was, and by its OBJ
sorptive power it would have held
the plant food there for the plants,
and the result would have been better
crops through the agency of a crop
that enabled the farmer to feed more
stock and raise more manure at
home. In fact, after heavy FER
tilization of the pea crop with the
mineral elements phosphoric acid and
potash alone, the crop of the past
wear would have been better with nc
more fertilizer added than it was with
the complete fertilizer on the sol
deficient in humus. The meaning OF
this is that the southern Gotten
farmer has got to go to farming II
he is ever to meet the low prices fol
the staple which seems to be the
future prospect.
Another point in which we have
failed, as l have suggested, is in thu
use of Anticipated cultural methods
The pillow and sweeps of the cottoi
belt do excellent work, but they do /
at too great cost, and the deep plow
ing and killing of the crop is disad
vantage. The corn growers OF tn
central west have long ago found GU
that deep preparation Of the soil ant
shallow cultivation, keeping the sol
perfectly level. is better than the old
fashioned killing of the corn ant
tearing the roots with pillow afte
they extend across the rows. III
roots of the cotton plant extend Il
the same way and are torn by III
stock of the sweep, and the hilhnI
Is no more advantage to the cottol
than it is to the corn. If the cottol
is planted on the level, with plan
food in reach of it in every direction
from the crop of the previous veal
the first cultivation should be befor
II is up by running smoothing han
row over it to break the crusA The
as soon as up run the weeder length
wise and Srosswise the rows, and yo
Will see the cotton start with boun
n IL