Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1904-12-16
FARMER PLANTER.
BUILDING UP POOR FARMS.
A North Carolina Farmer Tells How
He Went About Rcclaiming
Poor Lands.

Poor Lands.
If having been the owner OF poor
land fits man 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 distinct species of disgrace along
with it. For timo 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 at seed-time.
This land lay convenient to me. It
was free from rocks, hills and waste
places. 1t was light and, indeed: some
what given to sandiness, and therefore
pleasant to cultivate. | bought it, Civ
ing the owner considerable less than
half the price he paid for it 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 1T
costs about three times as much as
the other properties per pound. or
course I 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, as will appear, did not cost me any
thing extra to get the ammonia added.
Potash and phosphoric acid l 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 off
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 furrow.
This served to mix the fertilizer in the
soil, and also to throw open the fur
row for the peas. In this furrow l
sowed evenly, early in June, cowpeas
at the rate of one bushel to the acre
and covered them lightly with a. small
tooth cultivator. During the summer,
as needed, they were given three
plowings with small-tooth cultivator,
no hoe work being required.
The result was lair crop of cow
peas and pea-vines. The peas picked
as soon rs ripe and cut the vines for
forage. a-a
In September I plowed under the
stiIbble and applied broadcast the same
quantity and the same kind Of fer
tiiizer used for the peas. This har-
rowed in with 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 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 June 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 croI
! Of both pease and pea-vines was good
| | might almost say excellent.
In September the pea stubble was
rlewed under and crimson clover again
| sown, the treatment being the same
| as that of the fail before. The next
| spring gave 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 Won
dsr. It's equal had never been seen
III this neighborhood.
now found that this pauper farm
had been transformed into very good
one indeed, worth many times what
paid for it, That fall I turned under
the pea stubble and 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 count
Every two or three years | have ro
tated in cowpease or crimson clover
using potash in the form of sulphatt
of potash and acid phosphate on The
berry crop, and my land grows better
and better.-C. w. Blacknall, in South
ern Cultivator