The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1907-10-26
FARMER AND
PLANTER
HOW TO BUILD UP A FARM.
Prof. Massey Gives Counsel Every
Farmer Should Put into Practice.

Ohio and wants me. a southern man.
to give him some help in the metnoos
for improving the land in that secuon.
He SAYS that the native farmers tell
him that it is useless to SOW clover
seed there, as clover no longer sue
ceeds. and that he need not expect to
raise as good crops of grain or any
thing else as he grew in Ohio.
Our correspondent, however, Is OF
the opinion that the land there that
has run down can be brought up to
a productive condition, and in this l
fully agree with him The southern
uplands have been reduced to an I'M
productive state by bad farming more
than anything else. The rolling iands
have been washed into gullies, be-
cause the blowing has been done with
a little plow and single mule, ana
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 head of water to break
over ard make a worse gully than
| ever. What is needed, as have often
said. is not terraces nor ridges made
by plows around the hills. but deep
/ Moving and sub-soiling, to form a
deep loose bed of soil to retain the
water that will soon be needed to
carry the crops over drought
| / have for many years been trying
to hammer into the heads of southern
farmers the fact that they have for
generations been scratching a poor
farm that lies right on top of a more
productive one. waiting for 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. 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
around the hills to gather 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 not 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
; 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 tt
make manure in the feeding of them
that will help in the restoration OF tht
4 humus or vegetable decay that is ths
= life of the soil. Now to do all THU
= we must feed the soil in the things
= that it lacks.
Say we are working the land witt
cotton as the money crop. Starting
= with crop of cowpeas sown for hay
= we should encourage the growth o
the pease and thus get them to d
= more nitrogen fixing by feeding ther
= well with phosporic acid and potash
= Not less than 800 pounds of acid pho'
- phate and so pounds of the muriate {
- potash should be applied to the pc
- crop. This will give a heavy crop {
the best hay in the world and on tn
.. stubble we can sow with no prepar'
ton at all is pounds of crimson Glove
q. seed per acre. In the spring as tn
10 blooms we will turn it under for I'll
Il. cotton, and with 800 pounds of IL
al same mixture in the burrows We wi
re make fairly good cotton crop. So
q crimson clover seed again among IL
he cotton at the last working, and du
re- ing the winter spread all the manu-
"a made on the farm from the forage II
and turn all under in spring for cor
ira The peas and crimson clover will gil
a you nitrogen, but they are gree'
of feeders on phosphoric acid and p,
nv ash, and these must be supplied sin
iu- they can not be had from the air.
ny This is an important fact to be Ike
ty, in mind. Some farmers, hearing
Inn the value of the legume crops Ii
mt peas and clover, get the notion tn
RS all they need to do Is to SOW the
the year after year and get their land RI
nu- But If these legume crops are
low moved from the land and no ca
wn. taken to restore the manure, they v
use act for the impoverishment of
ate, land instead,of its Improvement.
lcn The point of the greatest imp
ses. lance is the maintaining of the
rae. supply of the mineral elements, ph
'ecs phorus and potassium, in the form
ap phosphate and potash salts. II tn
tne are literally supplied to the Gro
ave the legumes will do the rest and
anu save the purchase of the costly Mi