The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-04

who use as much as twenty dollars worth of seed on an acre However. this would not be necessary in many eases. But always pays to use aa ample amount of the very best and purest seed.
 remember a farmer who came to the store one day for winter rye. He had read what I had to say for winter rye foc pasture in The Age-Herald, so he came in 10 inquire about it. I asked about his stock and he said that he had thirty-ave young cattle, four colts, some sheep and a few hogs. So I figured out the acreage and the amount of rye need- ed to SOW per acre. He stood around for some time in a deep study, and finally said that l could put up a half-bushel for him. I asked him If he had any chickens and he replied that he had about fifty and dozen geese. l told him that the half-bushel of rye would not afford any more pasture than was need cd for his poultry but no doubt he made 1t do for all of his stock
 On another occasion I was visiting the Amzi-Godden Seed company in Birmng- ham, when a farmer came in and said that he wanted to SOW seventy-ave acres to pasture and that he wanted seed and advice how to prepare the soil and how to sow the seed. The head of the firm, thinking he had a good customer left hlE desk and spent hours giving the necessary information on a large line of grasses and clovers, telling the farmer how to prepare his soil and how much seed to SOW of each kind, together with oll necessary details. Finally after hours of wasted time. the farmer bought thirty cents worth of Bermuda grass seed.
 I make mention of these cases to show the crude idea that many of our farmers have apotft securing clovers and grasses
 Farmers Too Impatient.
 Another great trouble is that many farmers become too impatient in these matters. They want to see immediate results and often good stands of clovers and grasses are plowed up and destroyed because the farmer does not know what 1t Is when 1t comes up and thinks 1t some worthless grass or weed. Only last week, farmer at one of my meetings said that he sowed a field of alfalfa last spring. He said, q followed the advice of you book-farmers and that alfalfa never came up. Now what shall I do blow up and SOW again this fall? If you will only go with me out to my farm, will take you out and bring you back l want you to see my land and tell me what to do for am anxious to secure field of alfalfa"
 I went out with him, and found a per- feet stand of alfalfa, growing under a heavy crop of crab grass I said to him, "All you have to do is to cut that grass take it off and your alfalfa will take the field. You have a good stand. now ready to be clipped, so as to make it spread and cutting the grass will also clip the alfalfa. Now, the chances are that if I had not gone out there he would have plowed up that field and always said af- forwards that alfalfa was Q failure and would not grow on his soil.
 At another meeting the other day, after the lecture a farmer came up to me and said, Well, I went along with you all the way until you got where you advised us to plaw under rye, stock peas and clovers to renovate the soil. Hay in Missouri is worth too much for turning under. We have got to feed 1t or sell It." If the crops are made into hay, and this hay fed to dairy cows on the farm, and all the fertilizer put back onto the farm 1t would be perhaps better than to turn under the hay crops. But to cut and sell the hay from the farm would be poor economy and only robbing the soil.
 Another farmer said to me, Your talk is all right and what we need but we cannot wait for these results. We must have returns at once and we want all we can get from our lands and want 1t now" This Is why so many farms are worn out and worthless.
 Farmers We'll Educated.
 One of the great troubles is we find so many farmers who say "that fellow is a book farmer, and there is no use for me to listen to him. I have forgotten more about farming that he ever knew. All there is in farming anyhow Is to drive old Kate up and down the fleld.''
 The other day a farmer came to me and said ''I want to ask you, is there danger in my spelling my land by using commercial fertilizers? My neighbors tell me that am ruining my land by us- ing this kind of fertilizer" I asked him how much he was using and he said that he was using 100 pounds per acre each year for the past five years. We'll I said to him, "now let us count up. Nitro gen per cent acid phosphate per cent and per cent potash. Six and seven make thirteen and two is fifteen. Here you are using fifteen pounds of plant food on an acre. Now figure up and see how much plant food you have for each square inch of that acre and see how long 1t would take to spoil land by using that much plant food.'
 This question of plant food is one of vital importance to our farmers and one that they must study and more fully un- derstand before they can ever succeed as they should in agriculture.
 The farmers agencies and free bul1e- tins offered by various agencies are the best sources for obtaining this informa- ton.
 HAVE just returned from trip to the
 east, where was interested in agri- cultural conditions generally. That we will have a large crop of corn there is no doubt. The crop is maturing fast and few more weeks of favorable weather will make the crop fine. Of the corn states I visited I will mention Mis- souri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Penn sylvania. All these states have fine crops of corn, and in all sections the crop is more or less spotted. some fields late