Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1913-01-03
FOR The LANDS SAKE
Does Your Farm Pay? If
Not, Why?


Are you farming on sound, practi-
cal basis, increasing the productiyeness
of your soil, and making your farm pay
you for your labor and interest on you;
investment, or are you scratching your
land in haphazard, half-hearted way
and wasting a God-giyen inheritance 7
Ii the latter, stop now and get yourself
right before it is too late.
The Lord never intended for us to
abuse or destroy the fertility of the soil
that He, out of the goodness of His
heart, placed in our trust, but expects
Us to till it properly and hand it dowa
to our posterity with usury,' so let il
be said of us, "well done thou good and
faithful servant"
Are you interested in upbuiIding your
soil, increasing its productiyeness and
thereby swelling your bank account !;
then let us get to work now and prepare
not only for the coming. year, but for
the years to come
The information and advice which We
have to offer is based on results from
southern experimental farms demons
strated facts from modern farmers, and
the sound teachings of the best agricul-
turist, stock growers and soil physicians
the country affords
Now is the time to take the stumps,
scrub trees and brush out of the fields.
Have you ever figured on the time lost
in backing off of stunps; the energy
jerked out of you and your already over
worked horse, or the non-producing area
taken up by these abominable him
ORANGES? When you do we feel sure
you will spend lot of winter days re-
moving them. You cannot properly pre-
pare seed or cultivate growing crop
in a stump ridden field, and it is next to
impossible to use an improved labor saw
ing implements which by all means
should be done to offset the scarce, higll
priced farm labor.
Open up drain bitches, fill up washes
and gullies and replace the old grass
grown terraces with broad ones (12 to
16 feet wide) that will not interfere
with cultivation in any respect. Terrac-
ing is absolutely necessary with most all
lands in the hill sections of Mississippi,
if improvement in oil fertility is ex-
pected. Washing and teaching should be
prevented ss much as possible, for in
many cases more plant food is lost in
this way than is taken up by the grow
ing crop.
We cannot lay too much stress on the
Importance of winter blowing. Have
you noticed that in each instance where
an unusually large yield has been made
that preparation was begun in the fall.
Begin now, break your land broadcast
and pillow it as deep as your land will
permit aud turn under all the vegetable
matter possible. Remember we must
have our land in good mechanical con-
dition if We are to get results. A deep
soil with an abundance of vegetable mat
ter in it well pulyerized, is what we
want and when we have it we need not
fear excessive rains nor drought.
Plant food, whether supplied by nature
or artifcially, is not directly available.
This is why SO many of our farmers get
poor results from the use of commercial
fertilizers. All food assimilated by the
plant must be in liquid form, SO the
foor, from whatever source, must be dis
solved before the plant can utilize 1t.
There are many agents employed IN
plant food transformation of which the
most active and the most important Is
bacteria. A fertile soil is one teeming
mass of these little germs, so it be-
hooves us to study the conditions under
which they thrive, and do all in our
power to fit the soil for their develop
ment and active life. A warm, moist soil,
not saturated with water, with free ac-
cess of air, an abundance OF decaying
matter and certain amount OF lime
make an ideal home for these bacteria.
These conditions call for deep blowing,
the constant addition of vegetable mat
ter and proper regulation OF moisture.
The price of farm labor together with
the high cost of living make the cultlva-
ton of poor, abused soils almost prohib-
tive. Daily farmers complain of fraud
being practiced in the fertilizer trade.
They claim the application of from 200
to 800 pounds has not helped them one
bit. They are right to certain extent,
but why? The fault lieth not IN the
fertilizer, but in the condition of the
soil. The use of commercial fertilizer
cannot pay as it shoulder would under
proper conditions-on compact, inert
soil totally lacking in everything essen
tial to productiveness.
The farmer should study the condition
of his soil and strive daily to increase its
fertility, and when the proper condl-
tions are realized the use of from 500 to
1000 pounds of commercial fertilizers
per acre will prove to be most profit
able investment and then the farmer
will come into his own and can truly
say: 81 am master of all that surrounds
me-"