The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-16

sal-I8MEan au41 1aIlu uflm uHlluMm 28 iluHls Ine first thing to fix in mind is that the markets wanted about as much cotton as was grown last year. The amount actually needed may have been l little in excess of last years crop or II may have been a little less; that. however, is not the main point. The essential thing is that last years cot ton was in demand at fairly good I prices There is no doubt but that if the total yield had been reported as l six per cent greater the prices which | prevailed would have been at least ten l per cent instead of six per cent lower. l The decrease in selling price per pound would have more than overbalanced | the increase in the quantity for sale. | The larger the crop the less money 1t | would have netted the producers. | If each farmer plants seventeen acres | Tn cotton when he should have only 1 sixteen he not only reduces the sum | total he gets for his crop, but he ir- l "reases the labor cost of making that crop and also makes 1t necessary to buy some things which that extra acre of ! land could have produced for sum considerably less than they cost on the markets
 You can make several acres of peas i or peayine hay for what 1t costs you to make one acre of cotton, but you can not exchange the cotton raised on one acre for the peas or peavine hay raised on the several acres. If you do not believe the above state ment take few minutes this evening and figure the cost of growing one acre of cotton. also of growing four or five acres of peas. You do not find great deal of difference, do you? Now. sell your cotton, which will be about two hundred pounds If the acre of land was of ordinary fertility, at ten cents per pound the acre of cotton is worth twenty dollars. neither more nor less.
 The cotton is the only crop which can be taken from the land during the average cotton growing year. Now. you are ready to follow the four acres tn peas. Ordinary land, ordi- nary season, ordinary peavine hay about fifteen hundred pounds to the l acre or three tons in all. Each ton of good peavine hay is worth for feed ing purposes more than an equal weight of the best grade of Western | timothy hay. for which the Southern | consumer pays from fifteen to twenty | dollars. or even more in many cases. | But let us be liberal with king cotton | in this argument and say that the l peavines have a farm value of only ten dollars per ton, or the four acres | give us hay worth thirty dollars at a
 
 | cotton, which is worth only twenty | dollars.
 The real benefit from a pea crop does not stop when the crop Is har- vested and marketed, but as it comes !! from the field in October or even ear- 1 Her, the land is left clear for a crop | Of small grain, either rye, oats, wheat l or barley, as may be preferred. can be used for this crop. The small grain crop. if properly put in and | cared for, will be worth more per | acre than the peas brought on the msrket. Yet the small grain. as com- | pared with cotton ig a cheap crop to make. The small grain is off the l land In time for another crop of peas | Thus two crops. both valuable ones, are produced within twelve months, | We know farmer who made consid- erably over a ton of peavine hay to the acre last year and from the same ground he has harvested a crop of oats. which will bring him upwards of fifteen dollars to the acre just as | they come from the field. The pea vine hay sold readily at from eighty cents to one dollar per hundred | pounds. One acre therefore in peas | followed by small grain gave cash re- turns of more than thirty dollors.
 These two crops left the soil ir bet ter condition for future farming than
  trogen from the atmosphere and stor- ed 1t in the soil to await the de- | mands of some other crop which cam | not draw it from the air The stub ble and roots from both crops make | considerable supply of humus in the soil which helps to keep up the sup | ply Of moisture for other crops and reduces the tendency of soil to wash | or gulley from excessive rains. Improve the farm by diversificatIon and rotation of crops. Impoverish the soil growing a single crop on the same. land year after year. Legumes, as peas, sofa beans. velvet beans and the clovers make rich soil Cotton. corn and other non-legumes wear the soil out and eventually impoverish farm and farmer.
 What bearing has all this on the price of cotton, anyway3
 The lesson for today is knock out one or more acres of every seventeen you have planted in cotton this year and plant the land in peas. This ad- vice is intended more especially for the planter who saw fit last spring to enlarge the cotton acreage It is also intended for the one who planted the same amount of cotton this year as last and who bought hay or other sup ply crops with which to make the cotton. It Is good again for the one| who would improve his soil and thus become independent.
 It will not be long until another set of figures and statements are col lected to use In getting up acreage and condition reports for another month. In case each community in the South or even in your own state alone should report that extra six per cent in cotton acreage had given place to some forage or soil improving crop the result would be worth a good many dollars to you when your cotton is offered for sale this fall. do not think you will lose any money by this move while you may make some. What will you do about. it?-J M. Johnson in Cotton Journal.
 How to Exterminate the Cattle Tick Glenn W. Herrick, Mississippi State
 Entomologist. Agricultural Col
 lege, Miss.
 There are. in Mississippi, at least five kinds of ticks found upon cat tie; but the one that concerns us most vitally Is the Southern cattle tick. It has been proven beyond the shadow of doubt that the cattle tick is the agent whereby the dreaded disease, Texas fever, acclimatton fever, or whatever name it may be known by, Is conveyed from one animal to anoth- regard to Texas fever among cattle, malaria and yellow fever among human beings The only possible way for a cow to contract Texas fever naturally Is through the bite of a COW tick.
 It follows, then, that if there were no cow ticks there would be no Texas