The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1911-10-13
PLANNERS RETURN FROM
TRIP OF INSPECTION.
Visited StoacMlc txterlmeat Statioa and
Claiborne County.

A party cf Leforo County planters,
composed Of " A Swift, ID Mo emore,
Riley Ely. D o Alexander. Jack Davis.
Jim Mitchell aud WP Kimbrough-ac-
companied by Demonstrators Flowers
spent few days last week visiting and
inspecting the crops and the boil weevil
situation at tho S oneviIle Experiment
Station iu Washington county and in
Claiborne county.
These gen lemen drst respected the
crop at the Stnneville Experiment. Sta
tion. where they viewed the successful
production Of several varieties Of cot
ton, corn, peas, soy beans and alfalfa.
Each Of them were favcrably impressed
with the method Of cultivation pursued
at the Station, and got many excellent
ideas &s to diversification. Here they
found an average OF three quarters of =
bale of short cotton being made to the
acre, and the alfalfa was simply superb
five cuttings per annum being the
record there this season. The corn,
pea and bean crops weee also splendid.
From Stoneville the party journeyed
ON to Port Gibson, Claiborne County.
They visited there the magnificent
plantation Of Mr. Ben Humphreys, a
nephew Of Ex-Gov b g Humphreys and
cousin Of Congressman T. G Humphreys
Cir cult Clerk B Humphreys, and DR. ID
> Humphreys. This plantation is the
old home place Of Gov Hnmphreys, and
consists of 1000 acres 600 acres being
planted in corn. 200 in cotton, and the
remainder in hay, peas and pasture.
His corn this year averaged 35 bushels
to the acre, he made 155 bales of cotton
on the 200 acres planted, (which has
practically all been picked,) and didn't
use a pound of fertilizer. He Alternates
his crops, planting cotton on q certain
piece cf land one year, which ia fol-
thus keeping the coil in prime condi-
tion without the use of fertilizer. By
following corn and peas with cotton he
makes three Haarters of a bale to the
acre, whereas in planting cotton con-
tinuously on the same land less than q
half bale can only . made.
Mr. Humphreys b: 800 head Of good
cattle, mostly Her, f,rds, and 200 head
Of fine hogs on the place. and finda a
ready demand for tn. n at z. Cd Iice,
in the different markets. He is nuw
fattening with ensilage 200 head Of
cattle for market.
The Humphreys plantation is in the
heart of the boil weevil district, but
the methods emp Dyed in handling the
situation by Mr. Humphreys have result
ted in his keeping all his labor and in
making fairly good yield of cotton
despite the boil weevil. He had wee
wills in his crop in May, but began pick
ing and destroying them at once, thus
preventing their running his crop.
During their visit the party also in
spected the farm Of MIR J B Allen, the
originator of the Allen Improved long
staple cotton. Here they found him
making three-qnarters Of bale Of his
short sta pie to the acre and half bale
to the acre Of his long staple variety.
He successfully used arsenate Of lead
in dry form to poison the weevils from
Nav LIST to middle Of jun. and claim
where arsenate lead is used cotton pro-
duces Is per cent better than without
it.
Capt Swift informs The Common
wealth that the farmers in that section
who are not using scientific methods
will make about ono bale of cotton to
Ave acres. He says that early planting
and rapin cultivation is the slogan. and
all who fail tn follow these lines OF ad-
vice are doom"d to dismal failure.
Capt Swift says the visit Of inspec-
tion was worth a great deal to each
member Of the party and ne proposes to
adopt good many of the methods Oh.
served in diver>ified farming.