The Bolivar County Democrat. (Rosedale, Miss.) 1887-1969, 1915-12-04
BETTER FARMING cAMpAIen

The Better Farming meeting
was held at the court house We'd
uesday afternoon. and, while the
attendance was rather small on ac-
count Of the rain which fell Tues.
dav night and Wednesday morn.
rug, still there was a fair sized au-.
dience Of prominent planters and
business men to greet the speakers
and the talks were very much en.
joyed.
The committee having the Dutch
lunch and smoker in charge had
made arrangements to entertain .
large crowd and there was great
quantity of eatables and drinkables
left over.
Prof. Green opened the
meeting by making talk from lis
Illustrated charts showing ,e enor-
me ~ quantity Of food for man and
beast shat thscounties ofMississipI i
imported from the West and North
that could have been grown here,
thus keel ing The money at home
| and making the cotton crop a pro-
81 crop" thus enabling every plan-
tier to have q ha, K account all the
year round. instead Of just a short
time in the II and winter.
| Mrs. Mathis, Of Birmin ham,
Ala. wal one Of the most interest.
ling speax,rs aud gave her system
for building up old worn out farms,
saying that she could bnild up the
worst piece Of ground she ever saw
IL from eighteen months to two
years. Following is part Of her
plans.
Mrs. G. H. Mathis, of BiTn1ing-
ham, Ala, the we'll kuownTeclaim-
er Of worn ont Southern farms, for
many years has built up the fertii-
/
lity Of soil on her land by - system
of. cover crops and crop rotation
which any tenant farmer ID the
south can follow and produce
twice or three times as much cot.
ton. grain or hay than the. land
tproduced before the rotation was
begun. Some years ago she
bought 1000 acres of badly worn :
out mountain and fat land in East
ern Alabama for s. an acrer. Crop
rotation improved the land until
il produced an acre. She says any
farmer can do the same thing.
A tenant on one Of Mrs. Mathis
farms this year on 80 acres raised
lis bales of cotton. 400 bushels 0
corn. hay to feed his teams for a
year. all potatoes and vegetables
and II eat for his milyand receiv-
ed 81, 100 cash for his work. pas-
| ing Mrs. Mathis S35 cash, las
bushels Of corn, tons Of hay and
100 bundles of fodder. Another
tenant farmer rented 46 acres rails
ed 20 bales Of cotton. which With
the seed. brought 81 900. He also
raised 500 bushels of corn. $50
bushels of sweet potatoes. two hogs
weighing 800 pounds each kept two
COWS aud had all the truck from a
garden. He got 1880 cash, the
living for his family and the feed
for his stock.
Mrs. Mathis method is We y
simple. She begins the peal', work
in September when all land OH her
farm is turned with two horse
plow aud cubsoiled by a subsoil
plow With two mules. The plows
are followed BY disc harrow after
which the land is scompacted with
a roller. Then the field is sown in
crimson clover and hairy vetcb,
| using 20 pounds of crimson clover
seed and 10 pounds of vetch seed
to the acre, In May the clover is
torn to pieces with disc oharrow
and turned under with two horse
low. Cowpeas are sewn on the
freshly plowed land at the rate of
|lH bushels an acie. On poor land
the clay long pea vine is SOW" and
the whippor will variety OH land in