The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-12-22
REPORT TELLS OF MANY THINGS
DONE TO IMPROVE THE AGRI-
CULTURAL CONDITIONS.

This marks the close of the dem
onstration work in Terrell and Lee
counties for 1914, and l take great
pleasure in giving a summary OF
what the work has accomplished.
The work was begun Feb list, when
60 demonstrators were enrolled.
These men agreed to plant, fertilize
and cultivate certain crops accord
ing to government methods, keep
records of all expenditures, and note
the yields. Sept. LIST 40 more demon
strators were added to this list, and
agreed to plant vetch, bur clover,
crimson clover and alfalfa. During
the year l have paid these demonstra-
tors 823 visits, not only to advise
them relative to the best methods of
planting and cultivating their demon
stration fields, but about everything
connected with farm life. In this
advice | have constantly striVen to
be conservative in every instance,
backing my judgment with that of
the U. S. Department of Agriculture
and the State Agricultural College,
with which l have been closely in
touch. In making these visits | have
travelled Ais miles. In the interest
of these men l have written 4S9 let
tiers, getting information from diff
ferent sources relating directly or
indirectly to their farms.
Cotton Yields and Wills.
One hundred and seventeen acres
of cotton have been cultivated ac-
cording to government methods, with
an average yield per acre of 1,48O
pounds of seed cotton. The greatest
yield was 5000 pounds and the
smallest 500 pounds. In every case
where the yield was below 1000
pounds the land was affected with
wilt, the greatest drawback to cot
ton raising in this section. When
these fields were selected for demon
stration l did not know that they
were affected with wilt or l would
have taken steps that would have re-
suited in better yields. For such
lands / distributed so bushels of Dix
lie wilt resistant seed, but the disease
being so general these seed did not
near cover the affected territory.
Ninety-eight per cent of the cotton
from these seed lived and some of it
was on as badly affected soils as /
ever saw. The yield in seed cotton
varied from 900 pounds to 1000
pounds per acre. This disease caused
a loss of $880,O00 to the state in
1910. After the soil is once affected
we can get rid of the disease only by
rotation, using wilt resistant seed, |
such as Dixie, and by using in our
rotation corn, wheat, rye, oats, iron
cowpeas, velvet beans and peanuts. |
This is natures method of forcing !
us to do things we ought to do any
way We can never improve our
soils and bring them up TO the state /
of cultivation that they ought to be
till we begin a systematic rotation
OF crops.
Splendid Corn Yields.
Two hundred and fifty-nine acres
of corn were cultivated according to
government methods with an aver
age yield of 1898 bushels per acre
for the adult farmers and an average
of As bushels per acre for the club
boys. The greatest yield was 70
bushels and the least was Is bushels.
The greatest drawback to corn rails
ing is the fact that the clean culture
associated with so much cotton rails
ing has exhausted the vegetable mat
ter in the soil. Corn requires great
amount of moisture, and this vegeta
BILE matter from peas. velvet beans,
ETC., is very necessary to hold the
moisture till needed by the plant in
it's maturing stage.