The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-14

ago this soil was as poor as any you see around here, but today, this man tells me, 1t produces over two bales of cot ton to the acre, with an expenditure for fertilizer of less than s an acre. You notice this cotton is checked and now. July H. nearly waist high and the lateral branches are almost interlocking between the rows This upland soil is known $ 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 manures and 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 remarkably short time, bring your
 lana up to where it will yield crops that
 wIi simply astonish you when you come
 to compare them with former yields, Now, this question. please: Do you not put as much labor on your acres that
 produce but one-third of bale of cot
 ton as you put on your acres that pro
 duce two bales. except the pcklng?h
 Then let us make each acre we cultivate
 produce maximum yields. We can do 1t.
 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.
 The Cotton Plant.
 Perhaps the most important part this mans farm practice is in relation to the
 cotton plant itself. About 1887 he con
 ceived the idea that he could increase
 his yielcs of cotton by selecting seed
 for planting from stalks that showed d tendency to heavy yields. He' therefore,
 went over his fields carefully and se- lected 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 gathered to yield sufft- cient seed to plant his entire crop the
 next year The next year the operation of the preceding year was repeated ana this practic of selecting for seed only
 those plants that most nearly approach
 the ideal is still followed, and with even
 more care since the results have been so favorable as to give him a reputation as a leading cotton breeder in every cotton state in the Union.
 The man tells me that, while he has sold a great many bushels of seel, on account of superior qualities bred into th1 l plant, his practice of seed selection has | paid him handsomely in the increased | yield from his own farm. He tells me that his cotton will yield him 30 per cent more lint at the gin than it would have | done from a similar stand twenty years | ago And these qualities of big boil and heavy yield are still being emphasized by l careful seed selection.
 Breeds New Cotton.
 | He has bred dp a cotton that is par ! ticularly well adapted to his soil. The | plant is now perfectly at home on his l farm and he has simply made it his ser want He Is not content to have half the 1 stalks in his field producing cotton and the other half producing leaves, but he | has so moulded the life of the plant to l the soil conditions that they both work | in perfect harmony, greatly to the if | nancial advantage of the hand that 1 guides
 | The characteristic of this boil and heavy | yield that have so long been empha- | sized in this plant, are retained for some | time even when the seed is planted on i soils entirely or largely different from | that on which it has had its home for | the last twenty years.
 | Now what this man has done with his 1 soils and cotton you can do. You will not have to work any harder but you , will work to much greater advantage and | your returns will be multiplied many fold. l The mans name? This is MT. J R. l Strickland. He lives near Pleasant Grove
 In Pickens county. Ala. Go and see him, 1 as | did He will have some interesting | things to tell you and show you.