Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1906-06-21

excellent articles on diversification and
rotation They are well worth a care
full perusai by all:
Dversifcation.-Askt the first fsrme,
you meet what is diversification. IL is
dollars to dimes that he can't tell. Ed
itors who have undertaken to pull the
farmers out Of a hole are to blame. Di-
versify. they say; then they will with
the next breath say that diversincatiou
and rotation are the salvation of the
farmer. and | doubt il one out of ten
could give an intelligent answer. Diver
sifeation means a division of crops. We
piney woods farmers are diversified
farmers. Probably we do not 20 far
enough with the division: that Is, we
do not divide up the crops as equally
as We should To BE- q diversified farmer
in every sense the word implies, we
should divide our crops something like
this: Twenty acres Is enough for any
one man; maybe twice enough. Plant
FIVE 10 cotton. five to corn. i've to oats,
to be followed by five to peas, and five
acres to be planted to cane. Irish and
sweet potatoes, garden. orchard. etc. For
me-. twenty acres is too much. prefer
twelve, and am fool enough to try my
follows: Three acres to cotton, three
To corn. three to oats, tn BE- followed by
peas. and three acres for sugar cane.
sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes. melon,
and orchard. This j. liberalization; il
means division Of crops-.iiyided. if YOU
please.
-Rotation.-fou need not talk 10 any
but diversified farmers about rotation,
e. -. ~..f
lows or goes with diversiieation- We
diversity to make farming profitable
TO keep from putting all your 'eggs' in
one basket. and we rotate To keep up
the fertility of the soil- We will take
. wheel. place four cards upon il. On
the first we will write cotton. on the
second corn. On the third eats and on
the fourth truck We begin to turn the
wheel at cotton: when the wheel il
turned one fourth around we arrive at
corn. and whea We have rolled the wheel
over one time W. arrive a. the card la
beled cotton. where we began. These
cards. a. YOU see. do not lose their place
on the wheel Each one represents
wear. and turn of the wheel repre-
seuts four years This represents
four year system of rotation In France
the farmers Practice a four-year system
Of rotation. but one wear the land re-
mains fallow; that Is. il grows up to
weeds and j. not cultivated at all Here
in the South, three year system OF rV-
tation is more practicable Corn, oats
and cotton The farmer with fifteen
acres would run it thus: One-third Of
each Of the three crops named, and each
to occupy the land one year in three"
-.
to the point. He is gifted with the fac
ulty of making himself understood. lie
doesn't say whether the pea crop should
would likely settle this question II the
soil was in need of the replenishing
power of the peas. they could be turned
under; otherwise the crop could be har-
vested. making four from the land IN
three years.
In speaking of the fact that nearly al
of the Southern roads are preparing 20
double-track their lines. the Birming-
ham Ledger says:
The truth is. the produetiveness of
the South has increased so rapidly of
late years that the railroads find il hard
to meet the transportation demands
with single tracks Complaints of the
inadequacy of shipping facilities are
growing more numerous every year.
Thousands of dollars worth of straw
berries and other trucking product had
to be thrown away last year because the
ears were not available for shipment.
The fruit season opens almost every year
with complaint of the shortage of ears.
The double-traek systeIs will greatly
facilitate the shipping. and will remove
much of the difficulty along its line.
Not only is the freight traffic on all of
the principal railroads increasing stead
lily, but the passenger traffic is very
much heavier. 50 that it Is not unrea-
sonable to look for the double tracking
Of nearly all of the large railroad sys-
tens in the South in the next few
years"
The United States government sc-
eeptanee of Gulfport harbor, together
with the refunding to Capt. Jones OF
Si50,000, 4 portion of what has been
expended upon its construction. means
q great deal TO Mississippi. IL means, in
the first place. that we have two reeoS-
nized deep water harbors ON our eoasS
line. Paseagoula having been 50 reeog-
nIzed for wears. and the subject OF fairly
liberal appropriations at the hands OF
Uncle sam for Improvement and mainte-
nance. II means that in the future
years of great business prosperity
psnsn.. s, ., "a - '.t ~. ',ass.s; ION :, .ae
through Southern ports, Mississippi will
have two for the handling of this busi-
nes> instead of one. Ii means that on
our coast line there will be more than
one large commercial center ami other
benefits too nurserous to mention All
this victory
lexington has organized and put into
working order one OF those town and
community building organizations known
.s a building and loan association A