Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1913-04-09

breaking the crust and destroying
young crab grass. L. Coleman.
IL
Green cover crops, such as rye,
clover, etc, should be allowed to grow
as long as it is safe ito let them
grow and as the crop to follow will
permit. However, they should be
turned at least from two to three
weeks before the mex crop Is to be
planted, and the land disked or other
wise put in good conditions before
planting the crop which is to follow.
1T is always safest to cut the cover
crop well with a disk harrow before
turning 1t with the plow.-T. B. Par
ker.
IL
Prof. H. A. Morgan, of the Tennes-
e experiment station, in a talk to
farmers recently, gave a good exam
pie Of the sort of poor business farm
ing the South has been guilty of for
many years. We buy timothy hay
from the North and pay from $40 to
$25 a ton for it, and sell these North
ern farmers who produce the timothy
hay our cotton seed meal at from
$25 to $50 a ton. A ton of timothy
hay contains about 20 pounds of nj
trogen, while a ton of cotton seed
meal contains about 1872 pounds of
nitrogen. To say the least, this is not
a fair fraio tp pnr lonas ..|
IL
Don't burn corn stalks in order to
prepare the land. A farmer wrote to
me to-day asking what would be the
difference between turning under a
heavy growth of dead peavines and
cornstalks and burning them. In a
heavy growth OF pea vines he will
have organic nitrogen enough to be
as valuabel as a tor an acre of a fer
tilizer with 3 per cent ammonia and
that would be worth $40 to $12 an
acre. He would lose this in the
burning, and would lose the humus-
making material. and would have left
only the potash and lime that were
in the growth burned. In many
places he would lose as much as an
acre of the land would sell for.-W.
F.. Massey.
Ss
Several years ago l thought Of
utilizing the poultry lot for some
thing else, as we'll as poultry. / ha /
it planted in Irish potatoes, while
my %neighbors looked on and smiled.
I let the chickens run out for a few
days after they were first planted,
until the new plowed ground did not
attract them. There was nothing
outside then that they could injure.
1t worked like a charm. The little
biddies seemed to enjoy foraging un-
der the vines later. We had our
patch outside as usual, but it and my
neighbours potatoes all became infest-
ed with bugs, some Of the tops being
literally eaten to stems, while not "a
bug was to be e e in my poultry lot,
and then ! smiled. We have planted
1t in potatoes several times since. We
supposed the chickens picked of the
eggs, for they do not seem to relish
the bugs.-Mrs. e. N. d.
i
AS a matter OF fact, the increase in
yields Of corn due to the application
Of commercial fertilizers Is generally
obtained at a cost almost, if not
quite, equal to the increase in the
value Of the crop. In other words,
corn !. not a crop which yields larger
profits from the use of commercial
fertilizers like cotton and some other
crops. For this reason, the Southern
farmer who expects to double his
corn yields and make large and prof
table crops must add to the fertility
Of his soil by applications of stable
manure or the blowing under of
legumes. When this is done, then
with good blowing and cultivation
and the use Of a liberal amount OF
phosphoric acid he may hope for
large yields Of corn, but not until
then. This organic matter Is neces-
sary to enable the soil to hold sufi-
cient moisture and supply the nitro
gen to produce large and profitable
yields.