The Southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1895-1909, 1908-01-18
SUBSCRIPTION RATG0.
one Year. sioo; SIX Months. 50 cents; Three Months. 70 cents.


GET YOUR FREE RON THE AIR
The special topic of this weeks Southern Farm
Gazette cannot be surpassed in Importance to
the Southern farmer by any other. Commercial
fertilizers are a necessity In modern farming: but
there Ia no one thing In which tho farmers OF the
South have wasted more money and more soil
fertility than In the use OF commercial fertilizers.
They have wasted In buying a low-gradc article.
one-fourth OF which 10 useless nllcr. They have
wasted in putting merely a little dribhlc In the
furrow TO start a growth that the soil canndt
maintain later. They have wasted tho humus in
their soil and thus made tho fertilizer they used
less effective by no; being dissolved in dry wealth
or when their dead skeleton OF a soil drics out
completely as far az the shallow. one-mulc piow
went. As I have often sa!d. they have merely
been gambling on tho chances for a crop with lcsa
plant food than a good crop demands.
Soil.Inprovcmcnt tho True Object Of Fertile.
ing.-What the famers OF tho South should .ccog-
nize la. that in general farming the truc use of
commercial fertilizers In not merely TO produce n
crop for sale. bu, In more than that. /, In TO main
tain and improve tho fertility o! tho soil.
The Affection man puts his little dribhlc OF fer
;ilizcr in tho furrow. Tho crop starts OF. and
soon uses what he has given II. and then a, the
imporian, fruiting time draws on tho natural
store In tho soil already deficient. and after the
poor crop In made. tho soil In poorer than before.
and tho farmer comes TO tho conclusion ,ha; for
tilizers arc only siinulan,s. and he kocpa on try
Ing 10 galvani.c into produc;ivcn~as tho dead
skeleton OF sand and clay which he has robbed
OF It's life. tho humum. On our Southern uplands.
especially on tho sandy soils that cotton loves. no
system OF farming can DO per fnancn;ly successful
and profitable but ono tho prime object OF which
IN the restoration Of tho i!!e OF tho soil. tho decay
cd organic matter or husnus. and any usc % com
mcrcial fertilizers that has no, this restoration of
hunna as ita main object will be ~waa;r.ul and ua.
profitable.
Sand Hills That Made Th~ms~iv~. Rieh.-I
wish tina, every Southern farmer could 500 aha,
] saw this week In North Carolina man max
Ing a fertile farm on tho sand hills OF Moore coun-
~ mainly from the products of tn. aand iiscif. |
was at Pinehurst and rode over tho farm with Mr.
Tufs. Cowpcas and COWS 10 eat them arc max
Ing n farm on what was the moai barren of
sands. Mr.. Tufts has been growing corn year nj.
ter year on tho aamc land. and putting back on 4,
NIL manure made from feeding co~pea hay and
the ensilage made from tho corn. And right
there where a bowling wilderness once covered
the land he has ut least ono nr!d tina, I am SUI
would make aevcn,y-nve bushels OF corn or more
per acre II II was maiured for grain instead Of all
being made into kiiage. And he In growing corn
In rows three feet apar, on land that In the begin
ming would hardly have made stalks two feet high
and six feet apart.
Cowpeas and cows, with acid phosphate and pot.
ash have done II. All over another field | saw
great ricks OF co~pea hay covered with tarrrd
ielt covers. for the large barns were all too small
for tho produce OF tho sand-hills. and no has
enough cowpea hay and silage TO carry his herd
OF nearly 100 through the whole year.
Live Stock VIII Add Value TO Ferilixer.-Of
large diaries. but the almos, total abandonment
OF i've STOCK feeding Ia the main thing that haa