The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-09-20


We have had abundant examples
of it's having been grown on the same
SOIL for 20 years in succession, with
varying yields and profits. This was
done with the use of commercial fer
tlizers, and as the land naturally
yielded less, an increase application
of fertilizers was made. 1t is very
unfortunate for the farmers of South
Carolina that they ever learned, that
by increasing the amount of fertiliz-
er from year to year. that they could
keep up the yield of cotton in seAson-
able years. For the increase i'm fer
tilizer does not increase the moisture
holding capacity of the soil; and in
seasons Of excessive drought or rain
fall, the crop Is failure. AS w. H.
Barton puts 1t, a man who uses u
thousand pounds of fertilizer to the
acre on soil barren of humus prays
for a good shower of rain every week
when he should be praying for knowl-
edge to fill his soil with humus in
order that he might stand a months
dry weather, without Injury to his
crops.
Decrease in West.
When the rich prairies of the Mid
die West were first brought into cul-
tivation, it was thought that their
fertility was inexhaustible. After 10
to 20 years of cropping them in corn
and burning the stalks, the yield was
60 bushels to little more than 80
bushels per acre. BY a system Of
rotations and the use Of manure
these lands are gradually climbing
back toward the 60-bushel mark.
No two plants take exactly the
same proportion of the elements of
plant food from the soil, so without
a rotation there results an unbal-
anced supply of elements, which re-
suits in a reduction Of production. 1t
is a well known fact that plants will
not thrive unless the necessary pro-
portions of soluble plant foods are
present in abundance. A soil may
have ever SO much potash and nitro
gen and be deficient. in phosphoric
acid, and it will not produce good
results. Then taking cotton for our
money crop and corn, oats and wheat
for our grain crops with which prin-
cipally to feed the farm animals the
other crops to grow in a rotation
are those that will restore to the
soil the elements removed by the cot
ton, and to give variety of foods
for the farm stock.
Three-Year Rotation.
The rotation generally accepted in
South F1rOlina Is q 'three-year rOta-
uon of Cotton, corn and small grain;
and 7 IAN not suggest a better one.
Ther, IS d great stride from nearly
all cotton to planting only one-third
of the farm in cotton. AS a stepping
stone from the one crop system, to the
three-year rotation, suggest a two
year rotation, in which half of the
farm is planted in cotton and the
other half in corn and Oats-cow peas
to be brOadcasted in the corn and on
the Oat land after the oats are har-
vested. By planting cover crops of
winter legumes after the pea vines are
and in the cotton not plant
ed to oats, the fertility of the soil
can be kept up. This is only u sub
stitute for the three-year rotation.
Root lice attack the cotton when it is
planted after corn. and there is trou-
BILE in getting oats planted in time
after crop of cotton. SO / shall only
discuss in detail the. three-year rOta-
ton.
In the three-year rotation of cotton
corn and oats or wheat, peas are
sowed in the corn middlcs at the last
working and broadcasted after oats.
To SOW oats and vetch or clover in
the cotton middles and turn the pea
stubble and plant the same cover
crops makes q rotation and system of
cropping almost complete. This sys-
tenn will return plenty of humus to
the soil, and with an occasional lining
and the addition of potash and ground
phosphate and small amounts of nj
trogen, nearly any soil in the State
would grow larger crops from year
to year. In this system of farming
where cotton is subject to wilt or
blight, only Iron or Brabham peas
should be planted in the rotation. to
keep down the mematodes or root
knot. The Iron pea, being as good or
better than any other variety Of peas,
should be planted by all farmers in
sections where cotton wilt is preva-
lent. The above system is an ideal