The Huttig news., 1907-09-28
FARMER AND
 PLANTER
HOW TO BUILD UP A FARM.
Prof. Massey Gives Counsel Every
 Farmer Should Put Into Practice.

I see writes that he moved there from Ohio and wants me. southern man, to give him some help in the methods l for improving the land in that section. He says that the native farmers tell l him that it Is useless to SOW clover ] seed there, as clover no longer sue l ceedS, and that he need not expect to raise as gcod crops of grain or any | thing else as he grew in Ohio. Our correspondent, however, Is of ! the opinion that the land tsere that
 has run down can be brought up to
 productive condition, and in this l fully agree with him. The southern l uplands have been reduced to an un- | productive 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 blow and a single mule, and
 only a 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 | by gathering a head of water to break
 over and make a worse gully than ever. What Is needed, as I have often said, is not terraces nor ridges made by 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. I 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 more productive one, waiting for a man
 with nerve to ues a blow that would | turn up some of the fertile land and
 subsoil blow behind it to still deeper
 loosen the clay below. I have tried
 to teach that after this deep prepara- | tion, the cultivation should be shallow
 and level to retain the moisture and to prevent the formation of ridges
 around the hills to gather a head of water to make gullies.
 Added to these is the important mat ter of farm rotation, and the grow ing of the legume crops that net only feed the stock, but leave nitrogen in the soil for the following crops. Not
 that rotation alone will do the work, for rotation is only another means
 of getting more and more out of the land; and the more we get from the sis nust 1fve 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 it 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 well with phosporic acid and potash. Not less than 300 pounds of acid phos- phate and 50 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 prepara- tion at all 15 pounds of crimson clover seed per acre. In the spring as this blooms we will turn 1t under for the cotton, and with 300 pounds of the same mixture in the furrows we will make fairly good cotton crop. Sow crimson clover seed again among the cotton at the last working, and dur ing the winter spread all the manure made on the farm from the forage fed and turn all under in spring for corn The peas and crimson clover will give you nitrogen, but they are greedy | feeders on phosphoIis acid and pot ash, and these must be supplied since | they can not be had from the air.
 This is an important fact to be kept | In mind. Some farmers, hearing of | the value of the legume crops like | peas and clover, get the notion tha all they need to do Is to SOW these year after year and get their land rich. But if these legume crops are re-
 moved from the land and no care taken to restore the manure, they will act for the impoverishment of the land instead of its improvement
 The point of the greatest impor- tance is the maintaining of the full supply of the mineral elements, phos- phorus and potassium, in the form of phosphate and potash salts. If these are literally supplied to the crops.
 the legumes will do the rest and will
 save the purchase of the costly nitro
 gen, since they can get it in abun-
 dance from the air.-W. F. Massey, :n
 Progressive Farmer.
 There Is no treat which the shut
 un hens will aDnreciate mora than