The Columbus commercial., 1911-01-22
BETTER FARMING.


increase the productiyeness of the SOIL
This country can not feed the popula.
tion which it must necessarily have
within comparatively few years If IL
does not change its agricultural meth
| ods."
The above sentences are taken from
an address delivered before the National
Corn Exposition at Omaha, Neb., by
James j. Hill, one of the greatest think
.rs of the age. Mr.. Hill realizes the
vet that we are abusing instead of using
the soil, and that consequently its pro-
dsstiveness is rapidly decreasing. The
problem that confronts every farmer is
how to economically increase the pro-
duc.iveness of his soil.
New let us study the subject of soil
fertility for short time. Soil must be
well drained, deep, full of vegetable mat
ter, and contain plenty of plant food in
an available form in order to yield
maximum crops.
A deep soil is certainly desirable.
This is proven conclusively by the good
cotton and corn that grows on back
furrows" and the small cotton and corn
that grows in dead burrows" There
is one way, and only one way, to dep
ca thin soil, and that is by blowing
iitt,e deeper every time { is broken
and by turning under vegetable matter,
such as corn and cotton stalks, oat and
pea stubbles, grass and trash.
The soil must be in loose, porous
condition, so that the air, water anJ
plant roots can easily come into contact
with every grain of it. The soil is
reservoir to receive and hold water to
supply the needs of crops. If it is de-
void of vegetable matter, it will pack
and run together after every rain, and
will not hold enough water to supply
Vhe needs of crops.
The first step to be taken in order to
increase the productiveness of the soil
is to reduce the washing to minimum
A field thoroughly pulverized to depth
of, say eight inches viii readily absorb
three inches of rainfall, and a soil in
this condition will suffer no surface
washing from ordinary rains. We ought
to sow some crop like vetch, winter
clovers, rye, oats, barley or wheat in
our cotton when we lay it by, to bind
the surface particles protect it from
washing in the fall and winter, reduce
the teaching out of the plant food to
the minimum, and add vegetable matter
to the soil
While the soil may be gradually deep
ened, filled full of humus, and thereby
made more porous and absorbent of wa
ter, covered with vegetation as much of |
the year as possible-still, these meth
DDS may not be sufficient at all times |
to enable the soil to absorb all Of the |
rain as fast as it falls. II is, there
fore, advisable to provide good hill
side bitches with fall of from one to
two inches in twenty feet, to carry the
surplus water out of the field.
Mr. Hill says; "Give us system of
farming in the United States which shall
greatly increase the productiyeness of
the soil" Diversified farming and stock
raising is the only system of farming
that will increase the productivenes Of
the soil. The too exclusive culture of
cotton always means poor soil. Our
lands need a rotation of crops, including
Ieguminous crops, and much Of it should
be devoted to the live stock industry
A better balanced system of farming is
needed-one that will include more crops
10 enrich instead of wear out the land;
,ne that will include more live sto-k to
consume the surplus products and the
eguminous crops that must be grown
10 enrich the land and to make manure
70 still further enrich the land
By a suitable rotation of cotton, corn
md peas, oats followed by peas or les
,edeza, every acre of our rundown farms
night in a few years have its producing
,apacity more than doubled. Such
ystem of farming would in few years
egenerate our worn lands to where che
hird of the farm planted in cotton
would yield as much as the two-thirds
low in cotton yields. Under this sys-
EN- of rotation with the legumes, the
ands of this state would need only
,round phosphate rock, which can be OBJ
aimed for about five dollars per ton.
This system would rapidly increase the
of the soil and at the
ame time save millions of dollars in
ertilizer bills.
We are told in a bulletin issued from
he Louisiana Station that one acre Of
spanish peanuts grown on very poor
and at Calhoun contained one hundred |
nd ninety-two pounds of nitrogen,
Forth at commercial fertilizer value at
sast twenty-five dollars. One acre Of
elvet beans contained one hundred and |
inety-one pounds; and one acre of c. W
cas-, one hundred and eight pounds. {
'hese crops made from two to three and
half tons of feedstufs richer in food
lements than wheat bran. Where such !
sstorative crops can be grown on land I
nd fed 70 stock without serious loss in {
value and the manure from J
he stock saved and put on the land.
there any excuse for poor landi No !
,untry on earth has such advantages I
1r growing soil enriching plants, and !
ct no country makes so little use of G
Rem.
A three-year rotation Of cotton, eOrn c
nd peas, oats followed by peas. good .
lowing and the addition of a little c
round phosphate rock at the Calhoun a
al Station brought the cotton up 20
bale and more; the corn yield TO thirty
wen bushels. the oats in one case 20 d
rer SIXTY bushels and Peavine hay 70 0
70 tons. b. this system Of farming P
ie poorest farm in the South may soon o