The Green Forest tribune., 1914-11-06
OUR WEEKLY LETTER
 FROM JOHN H. PAGE
Interesting Letters for
 the Farmers
ALL PARTS OF THE FARM WILL BE DISCUSSED IN THESE
 INSTRUCTIVE LETTERS

It ID llOW ClIllc u lOOh Go loii breaking for the next crop. Last year a good many farmers broke more or less of their land in the fall and all who did will know the benefits. Deep fall breaking is the first important step in good seed bed preparation for spring planting. It is best to break about an inch deeper every year until you get down to a depth of eight or ten inches. Even deeper than that is good and when followed by subsoiler it is still better. By deeper fall blow ing the vegetable matter is turned under, and decays, and adds fer tility to the soil. The deep plow- ing 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 return it's fertility and it will be increased by the de- caying vegetable matter.
 If sowed to rye, so much the better. Rye will give you a wint- CT cover crop, which will tend to keep the plant food from leach ing out of the soil. It will afford light pasturage, and can be turn ed under in the spring to further enrich the soil. Where tits prac- ticable the cotton fields should be plowed between the row and planted to rye.
 It is a settled fact that there will be reduction of the cotton acreage next year. This will come as a result of the exercise of good judgment upon the part of the farmers, merchants, bankers, and land owners. Other lines of farming must and will be taken up. In making these changes attention should be given to live stock. Growing a cash crop of any kind every year and taking it off of the farm selling it is bound in the end to run down the fertility of the soil. Something must be put back on the land to keep it up. Your own observation and experience has taught you that. There is no better way of keeping up the land than raising stock. You feed the stock and the stock fertilizes the land.
 believe raising hog 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 hog profitably the brood sows should be bred during November and December. So they will bring pigs in February and March. Some kind of past ure should be prepared for the pigs to run on next spring and summer. You can SOW some rape in the spring if you have mo- thing else. Rape will pasture fifteen to twenty head of hogs to the acre. Good brood sows will raise an average of six pigs to each, so two sows and their pigs can be pastured on one acre of rape. That will be better than let ting 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 watered well, they can be made weigh from 150 to 200 pounds each next fall. A good 200 pound hog is worth S15.OO. That is half the price of a bale of cotton now. You can raise an average of ten such hogs on an acre of good land. where you could raise only a 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. hope to see the