The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-13
THE oNE.HoRsE FARM.

THE oNE-HoRSE FARM.
 Prof J. B. Newman in the Southern Farm Magazine.
 The chief enemy to progressive agr- culture in the southern states is the "one-
 horse farm" The equipment of a one i horse farm is generally cheap mule. too weak, as usually fed to do good work; boy Dixie and a scooter blow, provided with scooter shovel and half shovel This primitive equipment in the hands of one ignorant of the very funda-
 mental principles underlying successful agriculture is a guarantee of not only failure in production but of the deteriora-
 ton of the soil. The history of southern ] agriculture fully Illustrates and substan- tiates these statements.
 The landowner has the matter largely in his own hands. Self-preservation and the protection of his lands from contin-
 ued waste demand that he stop the pres ent practice of superficial preparation. ignorant and wasteful use of fertilizers upon land incapable of retaining the mos- ture necessary for their utilization by the
 plant and cultivation, which is destruc- tive rather than conducive of the best de- velopment of plant growth and produc- tion. The average landowner tenants
 out his land to any responsible person who can secure supplies from merchants by mortgaging crops not yet planted and buy on credit some broken down horse
 or mule also blanketed with a mortgage. l The landlord does this knowing and ac- | knowlelgeng that what he receives from
 the tenant will not pay for the deteriora- | ton of the land from which his profit is
 supposed to be derived. This policy and
 practice are suicidal in their results.
 The tendency of the age in all other
 enterprises is towards concentrated ef- | forts combined with the use of the most
 advanced and economical implements and
 machinery. The farming industry must
 fall in line and keep up with the process 1 sion.
 | Cotton mills are discarding antiquated
 machinery and installing instead the most | up-to-date appliances of every descrip- | ton. We find no one-horse cotton and
 wooden mills, no one-horse cotton oil
 mills, no stringer and scrap iron rail-
 road tracks. We never now hear of the
 whip saw or the upright saw of fifty years ago, but the one-horse blow is still l in evidence.
 Unite Their Teams.
 l Landowners can protect their land, in-
 crease their products and benefit their
 one-horse tenants by requiring them to
 unite their teams in the preparation of the
 land. The writer did this 35 years ago. l The tenants complained in spring. but
 thanked him in the fall The best invest | ment a one-horse farmer can make is
 the purchase of another horse or mule.
 Land cannot be properly prepared by | single team nor can the most valuable
 and economical implements be utilized with less than two horse power. The l weeder, which should be on every farm, | is the only exception to this statement Any small farmer can better afford to | buy the extra mule than he can to att l tempt to farm with one, provided he will determine to plant no more land than he can thoroughly prepare and fertilize and will diversity and rotate his crops thus producing ample food for the stock and annually increasing the productive capac- ity of his land. With improved imple- ments. such as the Chattanooga rever- sible disc blow, the Mallory blow, the disc harrow. the disc cultivator, the now er etc. on all of which the plowman rides. better crops can be grown at re- dueed cost By the use of such llDor- saving implements the wages of one man can be saved. and this will buy the ex- tra mule, while the improvement of the land and increased crops will pay for the implements.
 Again, the improved preparation will not only reduce the fertilizer bill, but
 will increase the effects of those used by enabling the soil to absorb and retain
 more moisture For the same reason it will render the droughts of summer less injurious. Again. by having full team. more work can be done, while the iand Is in the best condition in both prepara- ton and cultivation. By using wide scrapes and cutivators the two mules will be able to cultivate the corn and cotton promptly after each rain, and thus dis | pense with much of the hoe wrk. More than twice the load can be carried on two-horse wagon than on the one-horse. One man with two mules can do more
 and better work in preparing land than | two men with one-horse blows. One man riding moving machine can do more
 work and do it better than five men with grass scythes. By using a double team, l without increasing the area under culti- vation, twice as much soil is made avail | able to plant roots, while it's capacity for 1 absorbing and holding moisture is quad- rupled' thus diminishing the risk of injury
 to the crops by either excessive rains or
 summer drought thereby insuring larger
 crops of better quality at reduced cost of production
 | Capacity is Increased.
 1 Not only is this true. but instead of de-
 creasing in fertility as is usually the case