Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-03-07
FARMING Is MUCH IMPROVED
BUT STILL LACKS NEW METHODS
Observations from Windows of Agricultural Train Show Sit
uation Is Encouraging But Many Difficulties Are Yet to
Be Overcome

This is a pitiable sight and every agency
In the state should lend a supreme effort
towards having Il corrected.
While the old method OF preparing the
land by breaking out the middles is
rapidly disappearing, many acres of
corn will be planted in the water furrow
this year without the soil having been
properly prepared. Thousands of acres
OF cotton viii be planted on the bed con-
structed by turning over four or FIVE
burrows that constituted the middles in
the field of last year. The soil is a
great laboratory in which mysterious
transformations are constantly at work,
provided the laboratory is supplied with
the food enabling the fora OF the soil TO
the land IS treated as indicated, there is
no hope OF these life activities going on
There is no hope that large yields will
be secured. II is pitiable indeed to see
land prepared for cotton and so poorly
plowed that the rows OF stalks which
produced the spindling meagre crop Of
last year still hold their position from
one end OF the field to the other. Such
men are seeding tares and that is all
they can hope to reap. The little sickly
Insignificant stalks Of corn and cotton
observed are the best evidence OF the
Indifferent methods Of culture they are
following.
The article is not written in any sense
OF criticism. but to point out some fun
damental methods Of practice which arc
pitiful in the extreme and which causes
an annual loss to the state of Georgia
amounting to anywhere from twenty
five to fifty million dollars. BY the re-
direction OF the effort put into the culti-
walton Of these lands all this might be
changed. Surely, IL Is worth while for
the commonwealth to put its resources
at the command OF any and all agencies
that may hope to redirect this system Of
cultivation
II is noteworthy that no effort to
speak of is made to supply our land
with vegetable matter; yet our soils are
very deficient in this material which has
much to do with an abundant harvest as
anything else with which agricultura.
science is now acquainted. Crop rota-
ton is thing unknown and unappre-
ciated for the most port. The continu-
Gus cultivation OF the same crop on the
land year after year not only tends to
exhaust II, but provides an ideal condi-
ton for the multiplication OF plant dis
eases which presently rise up and de-
stroy the crop. Without rotation vege-
table matter must always remain absent
from the soils. and though we may dou-
Bile and treble or even quadruple the
application OF commercial fertilizers
our efforts will be OF comparatively lit
tie value. for in the absence of decaying
organic matter the lamentations essen
tial TO the Transformation OF plant food
and the stimulation OF plant growth can
not go on in the soil. The redirection
of our agricultural practice means more
to the state OF Georgia than all the
other problems with which she has to
deal. The land owner, the farmer, the
NJ hA o11 ho Cd I'D
Every effort must be conserved. They
must be taught the how. the why and
the wherefore OF the fundamental things
which influence increased yields and en-
able the conservation and upbuilding OF
the soil and the states greatest indus
try The awakening evidenced in Geor-
gia is a happy sign of the times. II