The Jones County news., 1913-07-31
A MODEL LEARNER
WHAT MR.. MILFORD PARKER Is
DOING AT MELR0SE FARM.
Mammoth Prolific Corn. Ex-
ira Fine Cotton. Enriching
Land with Lesperdeza.

ON Sunday morning our friend Mr..
Milford Parker took Us drive out to
his Melrose farm, something over a
mile from Ellisyille This farm Is on
the site OF a large saw mill plant that
was burned some years ago, and has
thereon some forty good houses, be-
sides a splendid store-room, large
barns and all manner OF outbuildings.
la fact, it is nice little town within
itself Mr.. Parker owns large tracts
OF cut-over land in Jones county, but
in this tract he has $500 acres, and
which he intends to turn into an in
tensive farm, and also raise improved
breeds OF stock. He has now some 500
acres cleared but is every year
opening more fields The land
originally cost Mr.. Parker only 81
per acre when it was in original forest
timber. On this place is the mineral
well we have already written about,
and an ideal place for u public park
Tie has 25 acre pond and can en-
large it to so acres with but little
work When the trolly line is ex-
tended TO Hattiesburg and which will
be done before many year twill pass
through this place. Mr.. Parker has
now graded the road bed for half the
distance as also a lne steel bridge
across Leaf river and says he will
deed this property to the company If
they will build the trolly line. 1t
would develop splendid farming
country between the two railway
systems.
But what we went out to see was the
crops growing on this place and of
which we had heard number speak.
The FIRST crop we inspected was seven
acres OF corn. 1t is a new variety of
seed, mammoth profile. On many
OF the stalk were six and eight large
ears, and we believe the field viii
average four ears to the stalk. We
saw In one hill two stalks, and the
ears from them would he good feed
for horse or mule. This is not the
common prolific corn, but the ears are
extra large and long. We advised
Mr.. Parker to save all of this corn
and sell it for seed 1t looks to us
like il will easily mkae from Is to 100
bushels per acre Mr.. Parker says
he only gave this corn one blowing
and then cultivated it with harrow.
We never saw anywhere finer field
of corn than this.
But TO show what Jones co unity soil
will do, Mr. Parker pointed out a
patch of corn on his place, belonging
to negro renter, and which was only
run around one time after the grains
came up. And yet the stalks are
large and tall with big ears, The
ground is matted with grass and
weeds, but if the rains continue that
darkey will make good corn crop
without work. This shows that the
soil of Jones county is especially
adapted TO corn, and instead of i'm
porting grain from the West our
farmers ought to ship corn
Mr.. Parker has several fields of
cotton, but we only inspected one
patch. We never saw finer cotton
anywhere. On one stalk there are
l24 bolls and squares, and it is taking
on fruit all the while. Mr.. Parker
says he thinks il will make at least a
bale per acre, but we predict it will
do better than this. He has Is acres
of bale-to-acre cotton. Mr.. Parker
has had the weevils picked twice a
week, and he has about exterminated
the pests. Walking through his
cotton you only occasionally see, a
fallen square, and the stalks are
growing very fast and taking on fruit
This cotton was planted late, or il
would have been laden with grown
holls. Mr., Parker says he is satisfied
that cotton can be grown in Jones
county under boil weeyil conditions.
and we agree with him.
But what most impressed us was
the work Mr.. Parker is doing toward
up his land, He drove us
over field where he had oats, and had
also sowed the land in Lesperdeza,
the little dwarf clover that appeared
in the South the year after the sur
render, and is species of the Sham
rock, of Ireland. II is said that this
plant will only grow in a conquered
ltisa lugune, and improves