The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-03-21

ton and une-half br<Idcast wnefe the
cotton roots Will a il at fru1uns
time when the roots are rum Nc idI
and wide. and in a good season you
should make a good crop. even oeteeI
than the good one just maoe- DuA
grow peas and crimson clover al,
ways have a cover crop on the iaLu
in winter. Feed cattle with n pea
ihay and corn stover and make manure
o keep up and increase the fertlii,s
of the soil, and do not depend on
fertilizers merely to get a crop 10 sen
Your good soil gives you n STAR.
and if it runs down. it Will De your
fault.
Pine Rarren LandS.-On these lands
the constant forest fires nave oufh'
out all the organic matter, ana wh.h
NEWLY cleared. the land is especlaiiy
acid and very deficient in all sorts I,
plant food. You can grow corn ana
cotton on the sandy soil with an ~
~plication of fertilizer. but should
adopt a rotation that Will prlnS
organic decay into the soil 10 MAKE
corn and cotton at one on hediiS
/ cleared D ne barren sand, l Wouid use
the Thomas phosphate as ~the.source
Of rhosphoric acid. because il carries
some lime. You can mix TINS In d
fertilizer. If It is TO be used at once,
but with organic matter. like cotton
seed meal. / would not let the mixture
stand long, as the lime may Voiati!lZe
the nitrogen or ammonia. Nitrate OF
soda will not be affected by it. Two
hundred pounds Of Thomas
100 pounds of nitrate OF soda. by
pounds of ~cottonseed meal, n 2Ou
pounds of muriate OF potash, VIII
make a ton Of cotton fertilizer TO be
used at rate, of 400 pounds or more
per acre, under the cotton partly. but
more broadcast SO that the roofs can
ret FOOD at fruiting time. For corn
on such land. I would mix l.oeG
pounds Thomas phosphate, 1ou
pounds nitrate of soda, SOC pounds or
c~ottonseed meal. and 400 pounds of
bounds broadcast. Then SOW peas in
the corn. and crimson clover in the
cotton, and start a rotation to build
up the humus content of the soil.
Examining SOFIA humble of our
farmers want to get the State ChemlsE
TO come n look over our land n
tell us what kind Of fertilizers We
need Even if the chemist came
down, he could not tell you what your
soil needs. He might make an ex-
ipensive analysis of it. and tell YOU
what it contains, but he could not tell
you anything about the availability
of that plant food in it. No one cail
walk over land and tell just what it
needs, except that i'll a general way
he may know that .he land is acid
and needs lime. or that land OF such
a nature usually needs potash. or
something else. but it would be all
guesswork for q chemist or any n
else. The OILY man in the world who
can find out the particular plant food
needs Of his soil is the man who farms
it. BY a series of plot experiments.
continued for several years, using one
plot as a check and then putting the
different plant foods alone on each
plot, and then mixed in twos and
then in threes, making a complete
fertilizer. and by studying the results,
he can find out which one OF the dif-
l~ferent plant foods are especially lack
ing in his soil and which he does not
need to buy. h chemist would have
to do his to find out, and he farmer
ican do It better for himself.
Make he Choppers FarIncrS.-Mr.
Carter, of Georgia, has found the
way. Make the tenants farm in a
good rOtat' on. Let them have teams
enough to break the land we'll and stop
the scratching and the bull
tongue pillow. Get the tenants to UNI
ders1and the benefits to them of good
farm rotation and soil improvement
and the feeding of stock. Get all hands
to farming and stoo cropping.