The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1904-10-25
Tuesday, October Is. 1904.
How I Built Up Some Poor Farms.

poor land fits a man to write about poor land.
and if he is competent in proportion to the pow
erty Of the land, then / think [ am the most COM
petent man in North Carolina to discourse about
poor land. Some years ago / bought some so
poor that the ownership carried a distinct spe-
cies of disgrace along with it. For time out of
mind owners (and since the war successive ten
ants) had skinned that land or tried to-, for gem
orally the land did the skinning, the tenants be-
ing poorer at harvest than at seed time.
This land lay convenient to me. It was free
from rocks, hills and waste places. It was light
and indeed somewhat given to sandiness and
therefore pleasant to cultivate. I bought it,
giving the owner considerable less than one-half
the price he paid for it a few years previously,
and set to work to make it productive.
I did not intend for that land to break me as
it was said to have served it's former owners.
Therefore l sought to. proceed upon economical
lines. Aware that of the three elements Of fer
tility, ammonia, potash and phosphoric acid, that
amonia is both the most costly and the easiest to
escape the soil, I decided to buy as little ammo
mia as possible, especially as it costs about three
times as much as the other properties per pound.
Of course l had to have ammonia, but I knew
that | could get it without buying it at so much
per ton. In fact, get it free, as the process by
which l got it, as will appear, did not cost me
anything extra to get the ammonia added. Pot
ash and phophoric acid I also needed largely.
These / had to buy because there was no other
way to get them into the soil.
The land was plowed and run off, in rows three
feet apart. In these rows I sowed a mixture of
$50 pounds of kainit and 100 pounds of acid
phosphate per acre. Listing on this furorw by
"a furrow from each side I then split open the
list and AHA threw open the furrow for the peas.
In this furrow l sowed evenly early IN June cow
peas at the rate of one bushel to the acre and
covered them lightly with a small tooth ~cultiva-
tor. During the summer, as needed, they were
given three plowlngs with a small tooth ~cultiva-
tor, no hoe work being required.
Ihe result was a fair crop of cowpeas and pea
vines. The peas / picked as soon as ripe and cut
the vines for forage.
In September l plowed under the stubble and
broad cast the same quantity and the
same kind of fertilizer used for the peas. This
l narrowed in with a disk harrow, leaving a per-
feet seed bed. On this l sowed annual (crimson)
clover at the rate of three gallons to the acre and
dragged it in with a brush.
Ihe following spring the clover yielded a mod
crate crop OF forage, the land being yet too poor
to raise clover with much success.
In June l plowed under the crimson clover
stubb!e and again drilled In peas, using the same
and the same mode of culture as the
year. The autumn showed how my
land was improving. The crop Of both peas ard
pea vines was good, l might almost say excel Ut.
In September the pea stubble was plowed un-
der and crimson clover again sown, the treat
ment being the same as that of the fall before.
Ihe-next spring gave a very good crop of clover
hay, indeed. This I again followed with peas, the
cultivation and manurlng being the same as for
the two former crops. The crop of peas and for
age that came that summer was a wonder. Its
equal had never been seen in this neighborhood.