The vidette. (Iuka, Tishomingo County, Miss.) 1912-1967, 1915-06-24

4
acres of land in Tishomingo County
being but one ninth of the
entire acreage of the County.
And this tone nineth is not de-
veloped anything like to the fullest
extent, +, because we would not
average much over quarter to a
half bale Of cotton for the land i'll
cultivation. While one of our
residents of this County last year
grew 1900 lbs lint cotton per acre.
The same rule applies to corn. A
Mississippi boy got the gold
medal offered by the Secretary of
Agriculture for the greatest num-.
Der of bushels of corn raised on a
acre of ground in the United States
the amount being two hundred and
twelve bushels. We will ilnmedi-
ately have people tell us that these
are exceptional cases. Prize win
ners are always exceptional cases,
but it gives us a mark on which
we can place our calculation. Ii
shows us what we can do by inten-
sified farming. If we were to put
all the work on ten acres of cotton
that we usually put on thirty
to forty acres we would come near
averaging crops of this magnitude.
By properly cultivating ten acres
in cotton we will clear more than
trying to cultivate thirty or forty
acres. If we take ten or fifteen
acres of corn and give it the same
amount of attention we can raise
as much corn on this as we can on
two or three times the amount on
land usually planted. There is
| no excuse for a farmer not raising
enough corn to supply his farm.
There is no excuse, whatever, of
not raising enough hay, or silage
of some kind to take care of his
stock, and also have small dairy.
| / am now confronted with the
proposition that our lands are poor,
and have to be fertilized. Why
not in Tie idle days of The Fall and
Winter ma le our own fertilizer?
BY making a mulchion pen, in
which you can spread leaves and
rotten wood, sprinkling with
little acid phospate, cleaning out
your cowpens and stables, spread
ing the cleaning over the other
layer, then another layer of leaves
and phosphate and so on to blowing
time in the Spring you have bet
ter fertilizer than you can possibly
buy from a factory and you made
this fertilizer during the idle days
when you would have been sitting
around the fire. The money that
is sent out of Tishoming County
each year for commercial fertili-
zer amounts to a nice neat sum
that by saving the very things
nature has given you you can keep
this money at home.
You can take the average farm
and you will find the corn stalks
left standing in the fields to be in |
the way of your next Spring crop. |
These corn stalks can be |
cut andsshocked making an excel
lent feed for the COWS, and the
amount of refuse from the fodder
going into the fertilizer pen and |
is returned to the field and sup
p lies the earth; the very nutriment
that it needs for its next yeal S
CROP In handling our farms in |
this way we can effect great |
saving in the fertilizer bill. We |
cut down our acreage of cultivated !
lands and intensity on the acres
we cultivate and raise better crops, |
grasses. peas, clover, or any of the |
high class grasses, for which at the |
present time we are buying and !
sending our money away to Illinois |
Kansas and Missouri, to states
that produce our hay and corn.
The first stepping stone to pros
perity for any farmer is a we'll |
stocked smoke house. There is no
reason why every farmer in this
County, that has as much as ten
acres of ground cannot raise on
that land more than enough to
keep family for the entire year.
All kinds of vegetables grow we'll.
Part of these can be dried, stored |
in the smoke house, part can be
canned; part preserved, and the