The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-05-18
FARM, GARDEN
AND HOUSEHOLD
By S. A. COOK.
fed Farming GIeanings

diversified Farming GleaninSs
from the Sugar Cane Convention.
Mr.. William Roddenberry of Carlo.
Ga. at the recent meeting of sugar
cane growers at Macon, Ga, presented
a paper upon the subject that must
prove of genuine interest to all inter-
ested in cane culture. BY Mr.. Rodden-
berry's statement he is one of those
diversified farmers that deserve to be
held up as a pattern for all those who
realize the crying necessity for a radi-
cal change in our system of farming
that instead of its being just cotton
and corn" in Georgia it must from now
on be cotton and sugar cane and water
melons COR something else) and sweet
potatoes Cor something else) and col
lard seeds Cor something else), and good
pastures and cattle and pork, etc.
Mr.. Roddenberry in 1902, had forty
six acres in cane, forty-three of which
was manufactured into choice syrup
Three acres was set apart to furnish
seed cane for this year. The syrup
from the forty three acres sold for So,
567 Cor SS4 per acre net profit. To
plant, cultivate and harvest the forty
three acres cost S1.935. The net profits
amounted to 1882.
Besides forty-six acres in cane he
had seventy acres in cotton Che still
believes in cotton) twelve acres in col
lards. for the seeds; twelve acres in
watermelons and ten acres in sweet po-
that averaged twenty-five bushels per
acres. Followed the oats with peas.
He planted sixty acres in velvet beans,
which was used as pasture for forty
head of cattle from October to Janu-
airy. He had also lis acres in corn and
peanuts in alternate rows. The corn
yielded thirteen bushels per acre. One
hundred and thirty-five hogs gathered
the peanuts mostly for themselves The
total yield of pork was 2l,600 pounds
that sold for 1926. He sold $210 worth
OF beef and $l20 of milk COWS. The
thirty-seven bales of cotton made on
the seventy acres sold for 81 500. From
the twelve acres in collards he realized
$3.50 pounds of collard seeds that sold
for 500. The nine cars of melons from
twelve acres brought $780, and the ten
acres of potatoes yielded LOO bushels.
He sold 600 bushels of these for $240.
We CLEAN the above at random from
Mr.. Roddenberry's address. Referring
to sugar cane, he went on to say:
First in order is the cost of the seed
cane. this item costs me nothing, and
need not cost any cane grower any
thing after he once gets started.
get my seed cane from the stubbles
of previous years cane crop, and in
order to make this seed cost nothing, l
MA MT h.. 81.
ing off and narrowing down well with
tooth harrow, and l let the cotton and
stubble cane grow together. l almost
invariably get enough cotton to pay all
expenses of fertilizing and cultivating
the stubble cane, and get enough seed
cane to plant the same number of acres
in cane the succeeding year OF the
seventy acres in cotton in 1902. men
toned above, forty three acres was
cane stubble land and yielded nearly a
half bale of cotton TO the acre in addi-
ton to the stubble cane with which l
planted by 1903 crop, this half bale of
cotton per acre more than paid the
entire expenses of growing and putting
down seed cane. Sometimes we can
get an extra growth of cane from stub
bles and grind a portion and still have
enough left to plan same number of
acres the next year, and at same time
make cotton enough to pay all expense
of growing the stubble cane. 1t is
therefore, safe proposition to say that
seed cane need not cost anything.
Having disposed of one important
item, viz, the seed cane, 1 will now
give the items of expense on the forty
three acres Of cane in round numbers:
Per acre.
Labor preparing land .........S 90
Stripping seed cane and planting 3 90
Cultivating. blowing and hoeing.. 5 90
1sOO pounds commercial fertilizer. II 90
Labor stripping, cutting and pill
ing ...--............. %
Labor hauling cane to mill. ..... 5 90
Manufacturing into syrup, Is bar
refs .................... 10 90
Total cost per acre .............$4 5 90
This does not include feed and hire
of teams, nor land rent, nor interest
on money invested, for the reason that
] make the teams self-sustaining out
side of the cane crop, and as the land
belongs to me the total profit repre-
sents the amount l receive for rent of
same and includes the interest on
money invested.
Taking above cost per acre as a ba-
sis. forty-three acres of cane at S45
per acre would cost $1,935. Subtract
this amount from the amount received
for syrup. $5,567. leaves the net profit
on the forty-three acres of cane, 3d.
632, which is $S4.47 per acre. Now by
subtracting the profit on the cane 49,
632 from the total profit on the entire
farm, S5,S43, we have left $2,210, which
represents the entire profit on the mis-
cellaneous crops when severed from the
cane crop. and as the miscellaneous
crops occupied 334 acres of the farm,
we have net profit of S6.62 per acre
en- general crops, against $S4.4I per acre
on sugar cane. / will say in passing
that this profit is exceeded By many
OF our smaller cane growers who plant
COW pens and other rich spots.
While the above profit was satisfac-
tory to me, it is a fact that this profit
would have been increased about so
per cent. by the use of a first-classi
modern manufacturing plant.
Ii All Depends.
I notice in your monumental pillar
of forage and grasses for the South
that Johnson grass is named as a part
of the base of the pillar. Now if the
base is faulty l want to know what
the result will be. 1 have often heard
of the Johnson grass in our Georgia
papers, but never saw it growing Un-
til l visited Texas at the time of the
reunion in Dallas, and on inquiry /
was told that a COW would stand knee
deep in field of it and actually starve
to death, and the parties who intro
duced ii into Texas had done an irrep-
arabic injury to the state. / also see
that the Governor of California has
approved law which makes it mis-