The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1905-12-09
FARMER DPLANTER.
WHY BUY NITROGEN.
farmers should Rotate Their Crops,
Grow Nitrogen Gathering Crops
and Save Millions Now wasted.

Will our southern farmers ever get
rid of the notion that for every crop
sewn or planted We must have spe-
cial fertilizer formula to mix, and a.
ways with large percentage OF nitro
gen?
There are millions Of dollars thrown
away In North Carolina and adjoining
states every year in the purchase OF
nitrogen Tor ammonia, as the fertilizer
men prefer to put it, since the figures
look larger, and it is easy, as l have
said, to improve the fertility OF the soil
and to get annually increasing crops
without buying an ounce Of nitrogen,
provided the farmer farms and does
not merely speculate on the chances
with a formula.
The grain farmer and the cotton
farmer have no need for buying nitro
gen. This is especially true Of the cot
ton farmer, if he feeds the meal from
his cotton seed and the hay he can
make from cow peas and the slower OF
his corn we'll shredded, and carefully
saves the manure to return to the land
broadcast for the corn crop. Then IL
the corn is properly cultivated and -
cut and shocked while the fodder IL
good, and pease have been sown among
it before the last working, he can chop
these up with the cutaway harrow till
fine and all the organic matter left on
top Of the soil, and can with disk
drill seed small grain and have the
dead pea vines as q mulch and top
dressing. Then he will need on the
wheat only 300 pounds Of mixture of
six parts acid phosphate and one part
muriate of potash. Then follow the
wheat with peas, and the peas will do
more for you in the way of getting nj
trogen and making forage If you will
give them a similar application; both
applications costing no more than one
of the ordinary complete fertilizer.
Then cut the peas and cure them for
hay, and SOW the crimson clover and
rye on the stubble, the rye to guard
against the failure of the clover. Turn
these in the spring for cotton without
fertilizer Of any sort. Sow among the
cotton at last working more crimson
clover and rye. and during the winter
get out and spread on it all the home
accumulation of manure, and turn all
for corn and new round of the rota-
ton.
number Of years ago q young
farmer, rot in the cotton district, but
whose main crop is wheat, commenced
corresponding with me, seeking advice
in the improvement of his land. had
not heard from him for good while,
till | received from him a photograph
of his 25-acre field of COW peas, all cut
and cooked for hay, and he wrote that
the field made 100 tons of cured hay. He
said that years ago that field was too
poor to make paying crop Of any
thing, but that by following my ad-
vice and sticking to the rotation with
pease he has made over 80 bushels of
wheat per acre and seventy bushels of
corn.
Following a similar rotation, and
feeding all the roughage Of the farm
and all the cotton seed, 1t is evident
that the farmer in the cotton belt could
mike profit enough out Of these auxil-
larry crops of corn and small grain and
pease to more than pay all the expenses
of his farming and leave the cotton
crop as clear profit. But 1t will not
be done by the men who want a fer
tilizer formula for every crop planted.
and who merely use fertilizers to get
little more stuff to sell. After a
few rounds of the above rotation there
will be absolutely no need for pur-
chased fertilizer except phosphoric acid
and potash for the pea crop, for the
most profitable place for this is on the
crop that feeds the land and the stock
at the same time. The farmer to whom
/ have referred says that all the great
Improvement in his land has been made
by the crops raised ON it while inn
proving them, and not by any great
outlay of money which he did not have.
Why not go to farming systematical-
ly, and stop this everlasting palaver
about fertilizers?-W. F. Massey. Hor-
ticulturist, North Carolina Experiment
Station, and Editor of Practical Farm
er.