The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-29

creased, until this year MT Thornton has in one field, under one fence, 500 acres of the best alfalfa. Five cuttings have been had up to September 1, and there will be another full cutting for this sea- | son
 There are HOO acres under this one | fence, and within two more years this en- tire tract of land will be one solid al- falfa field.
 l s1t will be seen that there is a net profit of from SIS to S2O per acre, which, on 1000 acres, would mean profit of $1s,- GOO to. $2O,OOO each year. ! Since the first planting in 1898 there has not been a single failure, and there are many other farmers in this same sec tion who have yet to experience their | first failure. No other alfalfa section in the world can boast of such a record as this-twelve successive successful crop | years.
 | MT. Thornton bought this land for about three dollars an acre 12 years ago; he has refused $50 an acre for that DOT l tion sodded In alfalfa The alfalfa has l paid for the lands it is grown upon, and has, in addition, bought several thousand acres nearby. It has improved the soil until it Is now one of the richest planta- tions in the black belt; It has stimulated ! the farming industry; 1t has convinced our farmers of the folly of depending solely upon the timid and uncertain cot ton crop; it has stopped the waste of soil and added fertility to every foot of land | 1,- moisture below.
 Alfalfa can be relied upon as the | one crop that Is always certain and | profitable. One hundred acres sodd- ed in alfalfa Is the best collateral any conservative bank could ask for, for | 1t is not only a high price, certain crop, with a ready market, but where ever planted 1t will increase the lands in value more rapidly than interest | accumulates on borrowed money. The alfalfa of Nebraska and Kan sas cannot compete with our market. for the six or seven dollars difference for the western farmer to invade our territory.
 AnOlHeT eNiueHC6 Ol lIle success Ol alfalfa in this cane brake section is shown in the distribution last year, by MT. Thompson alone, of fourteen thousand dollars worth of alfalfa seed in his immediate section. Just think of the amount of hay to be pro duced from 900 of seed, then consider that this was distributed by only one farmer, without profit to him, and it will be seen how rapid ly this section Is being turned into the richest and most profitable crop known to any agricultural land. Wherever the alfalfa has been sold, the mortgage has been marked satisfied; ditches and washed places have been filled; waste lands have been reclaimed, farm houses have either been repaired or the old home has given place to a new and more modern one, convenient and commo- dious barns have been constructed; :; the dreary, lonely dullness of farm life has been forgotten and the alfal- ia farmer has become the enthusias- tic advocate of back to the farm;" the wives and daughters of the al-
 
 servants on their own farm, but have again become true ladies of favor ed land; the farmer himself has talk en on the air of prosperity and his banker greets him with a smile of confidence as he invites him to depos- 1t the results of the alfalfa crop with his institution.
 "The farmers of the black belt of AlaLana have learned that cotton and corn are good crops when labor Is cheap and plentiful. but that alfalfa will produce with little labor and that when field is once sod" 1t is like grove of orange trees below the and profit.
 MT. Thorntons object lesson has spread to every intelligent farmer who has black land with lime in the soil. anc we predict that within five years therc will be more acres of the black lands of Marengo, Greene and Hale sod" .n alfalfa than are now planted in cotton, and when this is accomplished -he records of these counties will show a steady decrease in the number of mortgages recorded | against the large plantations that once relied upon the uncertainties of cotton and other crops that brought forth. uncertain yields and year by year impoverished the lands" To this I want to add what MT. Thornton himself says about the prac- tlcal results of growing alfalfa:
 Twelve years ago I planted 10 acres which produced, the first year, 30 tons that sold for SIS per ton, delivered at nearest railroad station. This field has been gradually extended until I now have | GOO acres seeded. The average crop has | beer more than three tons per acre, and the average price more than $15 per ton. | "The average cost of ditching, prepar- l ing the seed bed, seed and planting is I not more than SIP. .50 an acre. The cost of harvesting, packing. hauling and loading | on cars will average S6 to $6 per ton.
 "The negro labor is efficient and costs from 50 to 75 cents a day. the former price including subsistence while working. These statistics can easily be verified by 1 any one in this section.
 ''It is interesting to note a comparison between the advantages of the black belt of Alabama over the lands of the west. | Tn the west alfalfa is popularly called I mortgage liter The lands in that section. as every one knows, are very high, say from $100 to S160 per acre. Be- sides, the serious side of the question fs that these lands must be irrigated at a