St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1907-05-11
FARMER AND
PLANTER
cULTlvATlNe COTTON.
What Fifteen Years Experience Has
Taught Carolina Grower.


I speak from experience when /
say the poorest land in North Carolina
if underlaid with clay, can in five or
six years be made to produce from six
to eight hundred pounds of lint cotton
per acre.
And the greater the yield the cheap
er the cost per pound, if the fertilizer
is used with discretion after consid-
ering the needs of the soil.
Right here, too, let me say that II
the farmers would learn their needs
and mix the fertilizers accordingly,
they could save from one to three dol
lars an acre on commercial fertilizers
alone. Some soils need per cent
potash while others will perhaps do
as well on three. Very few of the
guano factories put more than 2 per
cent potash for cotton and about 2 per
cent ammonia. This is enough ammo
n. - the cotton follows q good pea
vine stubble, but If it follows corn it
generally needs more ammonia.
I have never cultivated large area
in any one crop, as a 30-acre farm
will not admit much of any one crop,
but I have experimental with nearly
all the field crops grown in Eastern
North Carolina, and especially with
poor land, for much of the 80 acres
would not make corn tassel thirty
years ago, but the few acres I cult
vate in cotton have averaged for the
past fifteen years over 500-pound
bale to the acre, and this with an
average Of not 500 pounds of ferti-
lizer per acre. With judicious fertiliz'
ing and cultivation we ought always
to get pound of lint cotton for every
pound of fertilizer used. This might
be carried out perhaps ever up to
| 1000 or 1900 pounds. I have not
tested it above 500 pounds, but have
| proved it good that far, and when
| get more humus in the land, think
will try It up to at least thousand
| pounds per acre.
It seems useless, however, to fer
| tilize to any extent without good prep
aration and cultivation-a soil broken
at least II inches deep as fine as pos
sible, fertilizer only few inches deer
and well mixed with the. SOIL and
prefer to put all Pm going to use be
fore I plant, for I have not found II
profitable to put on a side dressing
later. AS to distance, I prefer foul
foot rows, and Is to 20 inches in the
rows. AS to cultivation, sometimes
go over my cotton every week, the frs
| time across the rows with harrow
| or 18-inch cotton plow, leaving only
small place to be worked by hoe, ant
if preferred it may be cross-plowet
again.
The more rapid cultivation the soon
er the cotton gets ahead of everything
else, and if the work Is done right M
harm is done to the plant. II goot
plowman does his work right in thu
cotton patch, fifty cents an acre will
be sufficient for all the hoe worl
needed any ordinary year; the later il
the year the lighter the work shoulC
be and less frequent.
In many cases topping cotton prove
beneficial, especially if the growth i
good and it is done early in July.
There are so many varieties Of col
ton and SO great diversity Of sol
each individual farmer can best as
certain from his own soil what variet
is best suited to 1t. This can be don
only by tests which any intelligen
farmer can soon determine by trying
Every farmer may greatly improv
his seed and yield by selecting fror
the patch, first the best stalks, frui
being the test, then from these seleC
stalks the very best bolls. With thi
done from year to year, and with ger
eral care and judgment exercised, W
might cultivate half the lands now Gu
tivated or 100000 acres in cotto
and get at least 100000 bales, whic
will in a few years be needed. TIL
other lands now wasted in cotton coul
, be turned to good account in som
crop that hogs, sheep or cattle woul
harvest at remunerative prices, thu
{ settling some important labor pro-
lems.-D. Lane in Progressive Farme