The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-23
coon FARMING IN PIcKENs.


 soil i'm Our Own County.
 Carrollton Alabamian- Herald.
 This is non-assuming man and, at first, you do not think there is any thing extraordinary in his make up But come, let us examine his farm and see how he manages his soils and crops. We will go down into this bottom land.
 First, you are impressed with the cleanness of his fields. Although this has been an unusually wet season, so far, and his farm is located on low, moist land, there Is not even one blade of grass to be seen in his fields and his cotton and corn are doing splendid ly. You are surprised, perhaps, not to see ridges thrown up around the plants. The land is already well drained. though he says he is going tr place a short tile drain under that low spot over next the hill And why does he not ridge his land In this damp soilg Because he finds, by using light running cultivators, he can get closer to his plants without the ridge and can, also. thus dispense with q large part of the hoing which adds so much to the cost of cotton crop He is un- able to find any use for ridges on land his fields permit. he cheeks his cotton and so does away with most all the expensive hoing, thus greatly increas- ing his net income in the fall.
 This fall he is going to SOW oats and vetch in this bottom land field and cut 1t for hay next spring. then blow the land and put it in corn. He will thus get two good crops the same year off the same land and the land will be stronger at the end of the year than it was at the beginning. I will tell you an interesting story about this man. Some years ago the crop growing sea son was excessively wet Now there is one thing, that this man will not do and that is blow his land too wet. He will do all he can to have well drained land but when the rains are excessive he ceases to cultivate till the land gets in condition. Well, this year the land was continuously wet and the grasses literally possessed the fields and no crop production was possible that year Things looked hopeless for men and teams It was not long, how ever, till he decided that since the rains had converted his cotton and corn fields into grass and weed patches, he would turn these grass and weed patches into meadows and did so. He gathered ton after ton of good nutritious hay from these fields and, as a result. he was able to keep his mules in good condi- ton all the year and bought only about $30 worth of corn.
 Now come with me and we will go up out of this bottom and see some- thing on the hill land. This Is splendid example of soil management. Only a few years ago this soil was as poor as any you see around here but today. this man tells me, 1t produces over two bales of cotton to the acre with an expenditure for fertilizer of less than $s an acre. You notice this cotton is checked and now, July Il, l nearly waist high and the lateral branches are almost interlocking be- tween the rows. This upland soil is known as the orangeburg sandy loam and this man has proven, or shown, to what state of fertility 1t can be brought by simple and inexpensive methods of soil management. He simply used coarse manuFes and a little commercial fertilizer occasionally and plowed the land deeply The soil on this little field is now about twelve inches deep while the soil out wonder is but three or four inches deep. True. you cannot get stable manure to improve unlimited areas of this poor land but you can use green manure crops, such as COW peas vetch. oats and rye, and thus, in re- markably short time, bring your land up to where 1t will yield crops that will simply astonish you when you come 10 compare them W1In former yields Now this question, please: Do you not put as much labor on your acres that produce but one-third of q bale of cotton as you put on your acres that produce two bales. except the picking? Then let us make each acre we cultivate produce maximum yields. We can do it. This man tells me he can easily bring all his hill land up to a high state of fertility but he already has enough good bottom land and does not need 1t.
 Perhaps the most important part of this mans farm practice is in relation to the cotton plant itself About 1887 he conceived the idea that he could in- crease his yields of cotton by selecting seed for planting from stalks that showed tendency to heavy yields. He therefore, went over his fields careful ly and selected the plants that had the best shape of stalk, the most bolls. and the largest bolls. The seed cotton from these stalks was kept separate from the general crop and enough was gath cred to yield sufficient seed to plant his entire crop the next year. The next year the operation of the preceding year was repeated and this practice of selecting for seed only those plants that most nearly approach the ideal, is still followed, and with evan mora