The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16
SUCCESS OF FARMING
 DEPENDS ON LIVE STOCK
Horses, Mules, Cattle. sheep ana Hogs Improve condition of the soiI--Aia- bama oaers ExceptIosai Inducements Fer Animal Industry.-No Need to. Buy Meats from West.
By c. A. CARY. Adjourn.

malnah interests tort thS 1I ', five that impeis men. cleTss s,ss sa,., nav ,,.,~ tv love. charity, pnilantnropny or -. ao;ug for immediate or quick re- .,,~,s of profit. or worldly gain In some tsn~ihla form, regardless Of distant tinneiy results this pressure age must ruin good lands to opta'n presens profit. .a,,. ho, ,,. neonle first destroyed or ruined the isrdr For example look at the poor lands and abandoned rarms Of New EnrIand and Virginia. 1t has taken cenfu~ies for the scientisvs to learn that fha resources of the soil can De ex- hausted. But the average farmer ol ah countries must learn 1t only by exper- ienca. Poverty and necessity nave taught farmers how to repair and re- build old worn-out lands. There may be quick ways to make old soil rlcn anu fertile; but the poor man cannot ahoru S26 worth of commercial and other heE tilizer on each acre of land to make one good crop. Yet the rich and the poor farmer can afford to- be making their lands better and richer in fertility every year by making ana saving anu using homemade fertilizers, by rotat- ing crops and by diversified farming.
 At no time in the history of the world has there ever been found cheaper,
  around fertilizer for soil than the na- turaI fertilizer made by animals, A one crop system of farming cannot be as- sociated with profitable livestock Feed ing or breeding. Instance the sugar cane plantations of CnDa and Louis- jana; or the exclusive rice fields or southwest Louisiana and the rice peit of south Carolina. Look again at the wheat fields of the DaKotas and then at the cotton belt of the South. On all of these regions a single crop, grown year after year, on the same lands re- duces the quantity of plant food and or vegetable matter (humus) in the soil and increases the quantity Of poison ous waste material from the plant grown or excreted by the plant into the soil.
 Recent experiments indicate that no plant grows best by growing 1t on land where the same crop grew the year before.
 Without live stock the feed grown on 6 farm cannot be most profitably used on the farm. They must be sold and are thus removed from the farm, taking away fertility; or they may re- main unusued or employed directly as a fertilizer.
 Use of Wasted Feed.
 The wasted feed on the average Ala bama farm in the form of grass, corn
 
 meal, if saved and fed properly would grow more horses, more mules, more cattle more hogs. more sheep and more goats. But if a proper system of rota- tion of crops were put into practice on every farm there would be feed on the farm of carpet grass, Bermuda grass, crab grass, alfalfa hay, peavine haA., shredded corn fodder, Johnson grass hay, soy bean hay, vetch hay, uat hay, wheat hay, sorghum, peanuts, cettou seed and corn.
 No country or climate can produce a better variety of grasses or forage plants. With cotton seed meal, corn, rice potash and rice bran, cheap syrup and peanuts, the feed stufrs, Ter nnishing and fattening cattle, sheep and hogs for the markets and the block. are unr surpassed.
 One farmer has repeatedly asserted to me that he has made corn that cost pork that cost two and one half cents
 Professs Gray, of the Auburn sta tion has I Aduced gains in pigs at less than two ats per pound. And still we find cotto and corn farmers buying fat sides O pork at from 8 to IA cents a pound, an this to feed laborers who make one btle of cotton upon three to ten acres of land. Many Of these same farmers buy hay and corn to feed the mules and then pay $S to $1O for pick ing q bale of cotton.
 With a climate in which two crops of forage plants and pasture the great CT part of the year may be grown, 1t seems strange that so many horses and mules are bought in other states and so much beef, mutton and pork are shipped into Alabama from the north. Moreover it also seems strange that butter and its substitutes are shipped into Alabama almost by tine carload. This proves that we have d home mar ket that will pay freight from distant states on mules, horses, beef, pork and butter.
 Are th gre no farmers in Alabama who making a success of the live stock farming or diversified farming in con- nection with live stock! Fortunately there are a few who have all of She live stock they can feed and some of them are raising mules, cattle, sheep and hogs The farmer who has kept up a system of diversified farming and has raised all the live stock he could feed on the farm, finds his farm grow ing richer in.fertility and his conImer- cial fertilizer bills are growing less and less every year.
 Home Grown Meats.
 But some one says our system of farming is based on cotton and cheap, ignorant labor and the unange for the newer and better diversified farming cannot be made in one or a few years. Moreover 1t is stated that many Of the white farmers and all or the negroes do not know how to breed, feed and de- Velop live stock. 1t has been asserted that our home made beef and mutton do not sell for as muca as the meat which comes from the north; but that may be from lack of proper finish or quality. Proper training will change or wipe away the ignorance.
 In the last ten years Cne price of farm labor has advanced at least 100 per cent. In some degree it has im- proved in efficiency but not loo per cent. With high priced lanor the farmer cannot afford to raise cotton on land which requires three tu ten acres to produce bale and pay sS to $IO a bale for picking. He may make money by raising cotton on land that will pro- duce bale per acre, bun not If he pays S15 to $25 per acre for commercial fer tilizers and SS to $10 per pale for pick ing.
 One of the problems that confronts the average cotton farmer, Is how to reduce the cost of making the cotton. One way is to arrange the syACem of farming Tn way that cotton shall not be grown on the same land more frequently than once every three or four years This will necessitate growing cora, peas, wheat, oats, rye, and other forage, gram and soil improving crops. And when these are grown they must not be sold because that would be selling soil fertility. These feeds should be fed to live stock and by so doing the farmer saves the feeding value end the ferti- Iizar value of all the feed the farm