The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-04-15
Notes and Comments.

am not posse rnistic in regard TO
improved farming in the South. From
the hundreds Of letters that come to
me weekly | find that men every
where in the South are considering
the matter Of farm rotation, and
many are working toward Stahllsh-
ing a good one, and many. too, nave
found out the value of a rotation that
brings the legume crops on the land
frequently. Especially is this true
in North Carolina, which State is ad-
vancing more rapidly in improved
practices in farming than any other
State in the South. Changes in the
methods of soil cultivation are always
slow, but one great evidence of the
change and the desire to learn is the
greater interest that is being taken
IN agricultural education. When we
opened the North Carolina College of
Agriculture n Mechanic Arts. farm
ers could hardly be induced to send
their sons to taxi the course in agri-
culture. Now they are crowding their
sons into the college to study agri-
culture. And it is to the young men
who are e ting new ideas at the col
lege, and to the boys who have been
taught that great crops Of corn can
be made by boys. and hence have
begun to see the great possibilities
in the soil of the South, we must
look for the future advancement.
Men who own land and are content
to parcel it out to Negroes to grow
cotton until it gets so poor that even
the Negro will not take it. will be
forced out and the land will get into
better hands. Looking back over the
past twenty-five years and noting the
wonderful advancement that has been
made IN the South during that time
l have great hope for the future.
Farmers are getting away from the
one-nule, toothpick-plow farming,
and while the development is slow,
it is, Notwithstanding. surely com
ing.
No agreement for the mere reduc-
ton of III acres in cotton will even
stand, and the only Way to reduce the
acreage in cotton is to get cotton
growers to stop the old single-crop
planting and go to farming in a rO-
tation that will shorty enable them TO
grow more cotton on one-third their
land that they have beer growing on
all of it.
One Of tht greatest difficulties I find
with Southern farmers is their dig
like to a sod. They want, if they
adopt a rotation, to have one tina
will keep all the Ian all. the time in
hoed crops. Some years ago I was
tdSkcd 10 inspect a kaEIn III eastern
North Carolina and give the owners
some advice as to its Improvement
IT was 800 acres Of deep and rich re.
! claimed swamp and fairly drained by
!, Open bitches. But every acre Of ths
400 was in cultivated crop-cern
peanuts, and cotton, and that on lane
that would make splendid crops O.
hay, in a region where hay Away
: commands a good price. and where i
: could be fed proftably to stock. True
! Oh our up1ands the best thing TO,
years to come Will be a short rotatio,
TN which the dependence is placed o.
y the annual legumes for forage unit
o the land has been brought up to
0 condition in which grass will paw bet
r ter, and a long rotation used. Fo
the present a three-year rotation O
corr M peas. small grain and peas
cotton and clovtr and then back L
r corn, will do more for the develop
ment of the productivity Of on
Southern lands thar a longer one
re When Southern farmers get past tn
J. idea hat all other crops except cot