The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1903-12-31
GULF COAST CROPS
INTERESTING FACTS RELATIVE
TO FARMING IN THE Ex-
IRENE SOUTH

IRENE SOUTH
Products Varied in Character and Soil
Richly Reward Faithful Farmers
This VIII Be the Great Livestock
Section
Gateswooa, Ala, Special: There is
q surprising lack of information on
the part Of the Northern farmer as to
the crop possibilities Of the greater
part of the South Perhaps the high
lands of Baldwin county, Alabama. can
best be chosen as the locality the pro-
ducts of which can be named as typi-
cal representatives of the region
known az the Gulf Coast.
II We ts.ke the Central South we And
every climate and soil with which the
Northern immigrant 10 familiar. The
farmer from Michigan, Nebraska or
the Dakotas will find little change In
crops or climate. of his experience in
parts Of Kentucky, Tennessee and
northern Alabama. except that the
winters are much shorter and lack the
awful severity with which he is ia
miliar. However, IL his own health
or that of his family requires a less
rigorous climate and he seeks the salu-
brious and soft climate of the Gulf
Coast, there is a radical change in the
soil and in the methods Of ia rming as
well as q complete change in farm
products On this immediate Gulf
Coast there is no possibility of bliz-
yards, never such things as northers
nor sand-storms, and it is never Wis.,
tied by cyclonic disturbances, and
there are only few degrees of frost.
1t is country where doctors and
dealers in overcoats will seek new avo-
cations. The summers are long. The
sun is hot but the air is tempered by
a gentle seabreeze ladened with the
odor of pine trees, while sultry nights
are unknown. Livestock has abun-
dant pasture ten months in the year,
and what little shelter may be requir-
ed is inexpensive. Here are some of
the forage crops: Oats yield 40 to 20
bushels to the acre; upland rice yields
40 to go bushels. if threshed worth 81
bushel, often cut in the milk and
put away like sheaf oats for feed; hay
of various varieties; cassava (nothing
less than South American tapioca and
yielding from six to IL tons to the
acre, growing on the sandy soiD which
is five times as rich in starch and ia
tening qualities as corn; velvet beans
yielding from six to sixteen tons to the
acre; cow-peas, etc. All these furnish
winter forage and are unfailing crops
year after year.
Two acres of oats sown in the fall
will furnish abundant pasture for q
cow in the winter season, and give
splendid dairying returns with nc
other feed, and can be cut with q yield
equalling the best oats of Indiana OF
Illinois.
There Is not day in the year wher
a man may not work out In the oper
air in his shirt-sleeves, and there II
not a calendar month in the year wher
some edible crop may not be raised
Two or three crops OF hay-which II
equal to the best timothy-can be cu
from the same field in one year. Mel
Their timothy nor red clover nor ever
blue grass do we'll here, In fact have
never been given a fair test; but Der
muda, carpet grass, beggar weed ant
Mexican clover are indigenous alonf
with $50 other varieties of grasses
that originate on the Gulf Coast. Few
people realize thai the high lands O
west Florida and south Alabama arr
the best grassed countries in tn,
world In fact, let some of thes,
grasses once get q start and it is al
most impossible to get rid of them
These hay crops are valuable ant
never failing. Cattle seem to prefe
the has to timothy from the North.
The soil of the Gulf Coast is a sand,
loan with clay subsoil that perma
nently retains fertilization, which Il
accomplished by chemical products O
by crop rotations. It is much easie
to cultivate when once cleared of tn,
stumps, that work being easily done
than any soil in the North, and a mucl
larger area may be tended than in tn
colder North. If fertilization is re
CURED it may be done at much les
cost than elsewhere in the South. a
the largest chemical fertilization
plants in the world are on the Gul
Coast and their products are shippe,
by steamer from Pensacola to Gel
many, England. France and all part
of the world. The native farmer has
save in very few cases, made littl
study OF fertilization and crop rots
ton. and Northern immigrants are SUI
prised that such vast opportunities Il
agricultural products have so long r.
NAMED dormant
When any man from the Nort]
comes here and makes a failure he ha
himself alone to blame. He mus
plant or SOW such things as the cour
try will produce to the best advantage
He never expected to raise sugar can
or rice or pinsapples In the NORTH
and he should not expect to rails
crops down hero not suited to thi
climate, and when he comes and stl
dies the soil and the seasons and 1