Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1904-12-17
PLANTER.
BUILDING UP POOR. FARMS.
A North Carolina Farmer Tells How
He Went About Reciniming
Poor Lands.


II having been the owner Of poor
land fits a mar to write about poor
land, and If he is competent in pro-
portion to the poverty Of the land,
then | think ] am the most competent
man in North Caroline to dicsuss about
poor land. Some years ago | bought
some so poor that the ownership car
ried a distinct species Of disgrace along
with it. For limo out of mind, own
ers, and since the war, successive ten
ants, had skinned that land or tried
to, for generally the land did the skim
ming, the tenants being poorer at har-
vest than al seed-time.
This land lay convenient 10 me. 1t
was free from rocks, !hills and waste
places. 1t was light and, 'tadeed, some
what given to sandiness, and therefore
pleasant to cultivate. | bought 1t, CIV
ing the owner considerable less than
half the price he paid for it a few
years previously, and set TO work to
make it productive
| did not intend for that land to
break me, as it was said TO have served
its former owners Therefore | sought
to proceed upon economical lines.
Aware that OF the three elements Of
fertility, ammonia, potash and phos-
phoric acid, that ammonia is both the
most costly and the easiest TO escape
the soil, ! decided TO buy as little am
monia as possible. especially as it
costs aboutrfaPes times as much as
the other properties per pound. OF
course | had to have ammonia, but
| knew that | could get It without buy
ing it at so much per ton. In fact, get
it free, as the process by Which | got
it, rs will appear, did not cost me any
thing extra to get the ammonia added.
Potash and phosphoric acid | also
needed largely. This | had to buy.
because there was no other way to
get them into the soil,
The land was plowed and run of
in rows three feet apart. In these
rows | sowed a mixture Of $50 pounds
of kainit and 100 pounds of acid phos-
phate per acre. Listing on this fur
row by furrow from each side. | then
split open the list with one flrrow.
This served to mix the fertilizer in the
soil, and also to throw open the fur
row for the peas. In this furrow
sowed evenly. early in June, cowpcas
at the rate,of one bushel to the acre
and covered them lightly with a small
tooth-cultiyator. During The summer,
as needed, they were given three
plowings with a .small-tooth c%ultiyator,
no hoe work being required.
The result was a fair crop Of cow
peas and pea-vines. The peas | picked
as soon as ripe and cut the vines for
forage.
In September | plowed under the
stubble and applied broadcast the same
quantity and the same kind of fer
tilizer used for the peas. This | har-
rowed in with a fine disc harrow, leav-
ing a perfect seed-bed. On this |
sowed annual (crimson) clover at the
rate of three gallons to the acre and
dragged it in with n brush.
The following spring the clover
yielded a moderate crop of forage, the
land being yet to poor to raise clover
with much success
In JuneaI plowed- under the crimson
clover stubble, and again drilled in
the pease, using the same fertilizer and
the same mode, of culture as the pre-
ceding year. The autumn showed how
my land was improving. The crop
of both pease and pea-vines'w was good,
| might almost say excellent,
In September the pea stubble was
plowed under and crimson clover again
sown, the treatment being the same
as that of the fall before. 'The next
gave a very good crop of clover
hay, indeed. This | again followed with
peas, the cultivation and manuring be-
ing the same as for the two former
crops. The crops of peas and forage
that came that summer was a Won
der. Its equal had never been seen
in this neighborhood.
| now found that this pauper farm
had befn transformed into a very good
one indeed, worth many times what
| paid for 1t. That fall turned under
the pea stubble anl, put the land in
strawberries, my staple crop. Since
then | have grown as fine berries and
as fine crops of all Kinds on that land
as anybody has grown in the county.
Every two or three years ! have ro-
tated in cowpease or crimson clover,
using potash in the form of sulphate
of potash and acid phosphate on the
berry crop, and my land grows better
and better.-C. w. Blacknall, in Soutlt-
ern Cultivator.