Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-11-04
BREAK LAND NOW
 FOR NEXT CROP By JOHN H. PAGE. Commissioner of Agriculture.

It is now time to look to fall break. ing for the next crop. Last year a good many farmers broke more e: less of their land in the fall and all who dia will know the benefits. Deep fail breaking is the first .r'rortant step in good seed bed preparation for spring planting. It is best to break about an inch deeper every year uh- til you get down to a depth of eight Or ten inches. Even deeper than that is gcod, and when followed by sub soiler it is still better. Ky Seep fall blowing the vegetable matter is turn ed under, ard decays, and adds fertif- ity to the soil. The deep blowing loosens the earth so it will absorb and hold the water when it rains, and the land will not wash so badly, if at all. The land will retain ,ts fertility it will be increased by the decaying vegetable matter.
 Ii sowed to rye, so much the bet, ter. Rye will give you a winter cover crop, which will tend to keep th'' plant food from lcaC:llrg out of the soil It will afford light pasturage, and can be turned under in the spring to further enrich the soil. Where it is practicable the cotton fields should be plowed between the rows and planted in rye.
 It is a settled fact that there will be a reduction of the cotton acreage next year This will come as result of the exercise ol good judgment up on the part of the farmers, merch- ants, bankers, and landowners. Other lines of farming must and will oe taken up. In making these changas attention should be given to live stock Growing cash crop of any kind every year and taking it off If the farm and selling it is bound in the end to run down the fertility of the soil. Something must be put black on the land to keep it up. Your own observation and experience has taught you that. no better way of keeping up the land than rais- ing stock. You feed the stock and the stock fertilizes the land. l I believe raising hogs Is the best paying work on the farm. You can raise a crop of hogs as quick as you can raise a crop of cotton. To raise hogs profitably the brood sows should
 be bred during November and Decem- Der, so they will bring pigs in 'Febru- ary and March. Some kind of pasture should be prepared for the pigs lo run on next spring and summer. You can SOW some rape in the spring if you have nothing else. Rape will pasture fifteen to twenty head of | ho %o l>k> will raise an average of six pigs each so two sows and their pigs can be pastured on one acre of rape. That will be better than letting them run on the range. Hogs on the range get diseased more easily than when kept up. Brood sows should be bred to good pure bred males. If so, and the pigs are cared for and fed and water ed we'll, they can be made weigh from 150 to 200 pounds each next fall. A I good 200 pound hog is worth $15. 90 l That is half the price of bale of cot ton now. You can raise an average of ten such hogs on an acre of good
 land, where you could raise only bale
 of cotton. If you will give as much
 work to raising hogs as to cotton you ! will make twice as much. If you have the cholera to contend with you can vaccinate your hogs and keep it
 out. I hope to see the farmers turn
 their attention to hogs, as the best
 and quickest substitute for cotton Meat and lard is high, cotton is low
 Raise the high-priced product. ; crop of hogs can be raised easily az
 mOst any field crop, and more profit
 ably.