St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1910-12-31
IMPROVE TEXAS SOIL
Method for Bringing Orchard Into
Better Fertility.
Sowing Burr Glover Is Excellent Plan
-Wornout Lands Can Best Be Re-
stored by Planting cowpeas
and Turning Under.

(By H. H HARRINGTON, Texas Ex-
pertinent Station.)
One of the best methods for bringing
an orchard into better fertility is to
SOW burr clover in the early fall. This
clover will grow and soon cover the
ground during the winter and early
spring The burr clover will ripen it's
seed during the early part of the
month OF May, and should be then
turned under and the land kept In
clean cultivation until the next fall.
will terminate and give you another
covering for the entire winter and
early spring. The burr clover seed will
not terminate during the summer, no
matter how favorable the conditions
may appear 1t does not grow before
cool weather Of the fall, and 1t Is not
necessary in the spring to walt until
the clover is all dead before blowing
it under, only be sure that goodly
part of its pods have ripened sufti-
GENTLY to reseed the land.
AS a general thing, the Keiffer pear
does not need much fertility. The same
is true of the LeConte, since II we'll
fortified and well cultivated, their
growth is liable to become strong and
mature for fruit, and at the same time
become much more liable to the blight.
Apples should be pruned and fertilized
with burr clover, as in the case of the
peach.
of hn
| raised for forage Is peanuts. as this
crop comprises both grain and rough
age of superior quality. Not even al
| falfa is equal to good, clean peanuts,
such as can be raised on sandy land,
nor does this crop need any fertilizer,
since frequently upon rich land they
make more tops and less fruit, nor do
| they in any way irpoverish the SOIL
but rather add to it's fertility. Sorghum
and Kaff1r corn, and such crops, are
very severe on the land, and the value
Of the crops upon poor land is de-
cidedly less than the damage they dc
to it.
| Fertilizers can be obtained in near
ly all small towns from the local cot
ton seed Oil company, and a great
many merchants deal in fertilizers for
the accommodation of their customers
Worn out sandy land can best be re-
stored by planting it to cowpeas and
turning them under, as soon as they
| have reached their full size and com
mence Towering, for green manure
BY waiting longer to turn them I'M
der, there Is loss in the fertilizing
value of the peavines, inasmuch as the
materials of plant food become con
centrated in the ripening Of the peas
In improving poor land, crops of vari
GUS kinds ought to be alternated with
crops of cowpeas, which will soon vi
tally change both the chemical and
physical condition OF the land, forming
humus, and thus making a stiff sol
more loose, and loose soil more
compact. The humus formed will be q
retainer of nitrogenous fertilizers
which in less sandy soil are readily
lost by teaching.
To begin with, 1t will be necessary
| to use commercial fertilizer on pool
land, but this can be dispensed with
| at least to some extent, as crops o.
cowpeas are returned to the land. Ap
plications of 400 to 500 pounds of cot
tonseed meal, with about half tina
quantity of acid phosphate mixed witt
it, generally give fair results. If corr
is planted, the cottonseed meal should
not be applied until the corn is knet
high, as otherwise it is likely that The
! meal will give rise to too large stalk
and too small ears, because the cotton
seed meal becomes early available ant
/ is after that readily lost by teaching
inc