Woodruff County news. [volume] (McCrory, Ark.) 1901-1910, 1907-09-26
FARMER AND
PLANTER
uow TO BUILD UP A FARM
prof. Massey Gives Counsel Every
Farmer Should Put Into Practice.

correspondent in Central Tennes-
49,. writes that he moved there from
OHIO and wants me. southern man,
- oive him some help in the methods
for improving the land in that section.
u eavs that the native farmers tell
hin, that it is useless to SOW clover
I'D there. as clover no longer sue
IDS and that he need not expect to
roisa as good crops of grain or any
hing else as he grew in Ohio.
Our correspondent, however, is of
.ho oninion that the land tAere that
hos run down can be brought up to
productive condition, and in this
fullv agree with him. The southern
,,nIands have been reduced to an I'M
nroductive state by bad farming more
than ANYTHING else. The rolling lands
have been washed into gullies, be-
cause the blowing has been done with
little plow and single mule, and
only few inches turned.
Efforts have been made all over the
south to check this washing by run
ming ridges, called terraces, around
the hills. with the idea of making the
water move slowly. But the terraces
often make the damage the greater
nv gathering a head of water to break
over and make worse gully than
ever. What is needed, as l have often
said. is not terraces nor ridges made
nv blows around the hills. but deep
blowing and sub-soiling, to form
deep loose bed of soil to retain the
water that will soon be needed to
carry the crops over a drought.
l have for many years been trying
to hammer into the heads of southern
farmers the fact that they have for
generations been scratching poor
farm that lies right on top of a more
productive one, waiting for a man
with nerve to ues pillow that would
turn up some of the fertile land and
a subsoil pillow behind it to still deeper
loosen the clay below. l have tried
to teach that after this deep prepare
ton, the cultivation should be shallow
and level to retain the moisture and
to prevent the formation of ridges
water to make gullies.
Added to these is the important mat
ter of a farm rotation, and the grow
ing of the legume crops that nos only
feed the stock, but leave nitrogen in
the soil for the following crops. Not
that rotation alone will do the work,
for a rotation is only another means
of getting more and more out of the
land; and the more we get from the
land, the more attention we must give
to the keeping up of the store of plant
food in the soil. We must have the
legumes to get us nitrogen and to
make manure in the feeding of them
that will help in the restoration of the
humus or vegetable decay that is the
life of the soil. Now to do all this
We must feed the soil in the things
that 1t lacks.
Say we are working the land with
cotton as the money crop Starting
with crop of cowpeas sown for hay,
we should encourage the growth of
the pease and thus get them to do
more nitrogen fixing by feeding them
we'll with phosporic acid and potash.
Not less than 800 pounds of acid phos-
plate and so pounds of the muriate of
potash should be applied to the pea
crop. This will give heavy crop of
the best hay in the world and on the
stubble We can SOW with no prepare
uon at all Is pounds of crimson clover
seed per acre. In the spring as this
olooms We will turn it under for the
cotton, and with 800 pounds of the
same mixture in the burrows we will
make fairly good cotton crop. Sow
crimson clover seed again among the
cotton at the last working, and dur
aug the winter spread all the manure
made Oh the farm from the forage fed
ana turn all under in spring for corn.
me peas and crimson clover will give
you nitrogen. but they are greedy
'eeoers on phosphorus acid and pot
sSh' and these must be supplied since
'ney can not be had from the air.
! lhis is an important fact to be kept
Al mind, Some farmers, hearing of
Inc value of the legume crops like
peas and clover, get the notion tina
al they need to do is to SOW these
year after year and get their land rich.
nut II these legume crops are re:
moved from the land and no care
."MSh 70 restore the manure, they will
ao' lor the impoverishment of the
'"nu instead OF, its improvement. !,
me point of the greatest impor-
'ance is the maintaining of the full.
supply of the mineral elements. phos-
pnofus and potassium, in the form of
phosphate and potash salts. If those.
-. hoerally supplied to the crops,
o iegumes will do the rest and will
I've me purchase of the costly nitro
sen' since they can get it in album
uance from the air.-W. F. Massey. IN
progressive Farmer.