The Southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1895-1909, 1908-01-18
WE MUST T LAND-ROBBING M START
LAND-BUILDING.

tilizers: an amount great enough for a kings
ransom and twenty five times the total amount of
taxes collected by an average Southern State.
Our farmers might we'll spend . 200. 900 a year
(and more) for commercial fertilizers judiciously
bought. but our present widespread recklessness
in purchasing and handling them means a loss
OF untold millions every year. Yes. millions: not
merely thousands or tens of thousands or hun
dred Of thousands of dollars. but the farmers in
that part of tho South covered by The Southern
Farm Gazette alone are actually losing millions
upon millions every year by not giving more earn
est heed TO this matter OF judiciously using fertil-
ixcrs. The money los, here in the course of a sin
gle year would probably put a new coat of paint
on every farm house in Mississippi.
Understand our point: The millions are no,
los, by buying $40. 900. 900 worth. but by failure
to apply 10 the RICH; crops and the RICH, soils and
In tho RICH, proportions.
We waste enormous sums feeding our soils on
badly balanced fertilizer ra,ions-like a child us
ms a pin, OF molasses with one helping o. batter
cakes. or giving a horse tour bundles of fodder
with a half feed o! cortland we pay millions OF
dollars for nitrogen tina, VIC ough, TO Sc, FREQ from
the mir by growing peas and clover. aud We lose
other enormous sums by buying low-grade goods
'&sb" 80 pft@E ~ 14@~HV
observing tina, they arc dcarcr In proportion to
tho plant food they contain.
We do no, urge our farmers TO buy less fer
uliEcr. ~o do urge them to buy more judieiously.
And to III" millions that sre los, through rcck-
lssa buying aud reckless handling OF commercial
fertilizers. VIC mus, add ~ many millions more
that arc loo, every year BY our failure 10 live up
To our opportunities for making aud saving barn.
yard mannrca aud for growing legum,s: our
lands %prrishing for lack OF humus and vegetable
matter while We dose them with pt;iful dribbles
Of lo~-grado fertilizers,
Tho fertilizer manufacturer OF America ought
10 Join the farm papers In u crusade for more
lcguinca and moro ~barnyard manure. Without
'hcac 10 give l!sc aud body To our so.ls. CONNER
eial fertilizers arc a mere ~cxpcd.cn, and make
ahif,. merely poa,ponins the certain day Of quilted
.ant. and exhaustion.
What the Southern farmer needs more than
anything else Is TO stop land.robbiug and start
land-baiiding. Tho soil Ia tho farmers capital
a,ock. and the bank which In feeding on It's capital
stock !na;oad OF increasing 1, IL no surcr doomed
To failure and bankruptcy than 10 the farmer who
Ia letting his soil set poorer instead OF richer.
Tho sofia In Europe that have made good crops
n thousand years. aud are stili making them. are
II living rebukc for all OF us here In the South
shame upon III who are wasting In one generation
tho land heritage that God intended we should
keep fertile for our childrens children through
thousands and thousands OF years. And We arc
wasting II. too. III spite OF the fact tina, OF all tho
great crops that men grow. co,ton-when tho seed
or their equivalent are returned to tho soil
makes tho ligh,est draft on tho fertility Of the
land.
IL II TOO much TO hope that n few thousand NJ