The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-02-06

amount of valuable information. The
state of Texas has employed able lee
turers, men competent to go out and
teach and talk from a practical stand
point. Not only this, but the railroads
of the state have live, wide-awake men
travelling over their lines and teaching
the farmers how to farm and how to best
get their crops on the markets. There is
friendly rivalry among us in this work,
each one of us trying to make the farm
ers on our line the most prosperous in all
the state. THERE'S no wonder that under
the influence of all this work Texas
farmers should be forcing their way to
the front
Work Done by Manure.
The same results can be obtained in
any OF our southern states under the
same kind of hard work. When 1 COM
menced this mission work out here,
about one year ago, | had Texas farmers
to tell me that fertilizers would spoil
Texas lands and crops. I found the
towns full of stable manure, that is
around the barns, where it would accu-
mulate until it would have to be hauled
away. In many places / persuaded the
farmers to haul this out and put it on
their farms, and a few experiments were
made in using this waste on the land,
which proved so very satisfactory that
every bit of the manure made this win
ter was saved and applied to the soil,
and in one town on our line the Truck
Growers association has just bought a
car load of commercial fertilizer from
Memphis. which they will use on their
canteloupe land.
| was holding meeting in Texas
town the other day and made a strong
rofnf On tho irnporfopaa IF avar,v farm
er saving and using every load of stable
manure that could be had. When |
was through my talk imagine my sur
prise when an old gentleman came to
me and said Sir. l can get hundreds of
wagon loads of well rotted stable manure
right here in this town. Can you tell me
how and when to use?" I said to him:
Haul it out at once and spread it on
your fields and then plow 1t in
Riding out at this same place to look
at a stock farm l saw hundreds of
wagon loads of fine, well rotted stable
manure out at the dump I persuaded
the farmers here to haul this out and
turn it into fruits and vegetables and 1t
will be hauled and used this season, for
we got a producers association organized
and they are going to plant potatoes,
tomatoes, canteloupes and fruits.
In another town 1 saw a wagon yard
of an acre or more which I am sure was
IS inches deep all over in fine barnyard
manure. Is 1t not surprising to see such
things as this In this advanced age?
Well, it only shows how much there is
yet to be learned about the very simple
things of farming.
At one Of my meetings the other day
a farmer said to one of my frineds who
Is helping me on this tour of lectures:
white is fine speaker, but he Is too
deep for the average Texas farmer; he
uses language and words we do not I'M
derstand." Well, this rather set me to
thinking and wondering, for I thought l
used only the most common words of our
language. so I got my friend to find out
what the words were that could not be
readily understood. why" the farmer
said, che talks about nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid. rotation of crops. about
balanced food for plants and stock
These are things we do not understand"
Well, but these are the things which
all farmers will have to learn, and the
earlier they commence the better.
Up to Date Methods.
After a rousng meeting at one town we
were invited out to see 1900 acre ranch.
On this ranch we found some fine up-to-
date farm operations. We found good
stock of all kinds. including horses. cows,
sheep, goats, hogs, mules and a great
amount of poultry. Almost everything
is carried on under strict business rules
and modern methods. Economy in all
the various branches of the farm is prac-
ticed, that is so far as the manager has
been educated On this farm is large
dairy. Milk and butter are both sold.
but when we come to examine the COWS
used here for dairy purposes. we found
that this farmer needed education on the