The Little River news., 1916-04-01
FERTILIZERS AND FIELD CROPS

!i' oi success as farmer, DaQ lhei blowing to say about the use of ;u:no: II say that farmers can make very acre of their lands rich if they Till. Providence intended the earth .3ould increase in fertility as rapidly $ it does in population. Every man hat assists in removing this dormant ,Uano, lying idle and useless on the thincha Islands, and puts it in cir, 'ulation, creating herewith food and .othing, is a benefactor to his kind. .kc country suffers for want of hare of the surplus fertilizins mate | rial. Remove the deposit and apply 70 crops, and it will enrich the land "I commenced to use guano in 1S4s. and gradually increased the use of it until the present time, never having n'tted to use it on my crops eX- cepting the last year of the war, when l could not obtain it. With the proper system of rotation of crops, and re- turning all the crops to the land, eX- cept the lint of the cotton land may be improved with Peruvian guano alone, but not so fast as when you combine with the soil all the ele, ments of the plants to be grown Am monia being necessary for all plants, 1 know of no crop that it would not benefit. It will pay the best urcn those crops that bring the most mon-f ey-cotton being that crop in this scc.I tion, and tobacco in other sections ''l
 It will be seen from the above that Mir Dickson profited greatly by the use of guano. He knew well the value. of ammonia to growing crops, but youf will observe that he knew quite as well the value of other plant foods to the crop. He got better yields whent he applied all the elements of plant! food than when he applied ammonia alone. Also observe that he consid- cred it good business to apply fertil. izer. He was business man as we'll as farmer, and knew all the keen points in the business world.
 The Hon. James M. Smith, anotherI millionaire farmer of Georgia, whol died only few days ago, has the fc!-I lowing to say with reference to tlaeE use of fertilizers on farm crops:
 ''The use of fertilizers has becomeE one of the most important factors inl ful agency in producing an increased! yield-a thing we should desire andl work for. We certainly believe in thel use of commercial fertilizers, but wei also believe in the turning under of vegetable matter, the sowing of! lecumes and the saving of all barn yard manure. The up-to-date farmer will not consider one of these, but all four of them, in trying to increase his farm crops"
 Each of these two farmers, who, have done much to stimulate farm i'm. provement, learned the value of fertil.
 iZers, but learned equally well the value of diversified farming They would not decrease the use of fertil. izer, but diversity more. They would have us use more fertilizers, so that] we could grow more plants and vege- table matter, in turn blow this under. and in this way increase the fertility of our lands. The most effective farming of today involves these two great principles. Use fertilizers and diversity the crops. Rotate and feed the plants. and you will increase your yields, be more secure from plant dis. eases, and bring your farm into high
 state of cultivation. T
 If growing crops take plant food out of the soil and we do not blow under an amount equal to this, or get it from some ether source and apply it, our land is sure to decrease in fertility and in value. This is fact beyond dispute. With most of our crops we take from the fields large amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and pot, ash. which never goes back to the place on the farm from whence it came We should see to it. then, that some kind of plant food takes it's place. In the case of cotton, we sell the seed, and with them large amounts of nitrogen and other eler ments of plant food. Very often we burn the stalks, and in this way take
 from the field much more valuable plant food. It is suicidal policy for us to do this under any circuln. stances, but especially so when we fail to put back on the soil what we take off.
 On sandy farm ill one of the Southern states, which had been aban- doned by it's original owner and sold for fifty cents per acre, little barn, yard manure ard heavy applications
 of fertilizer made another farmer
 rich. The last farmer used $15 worth
 of fertilizer per acre and raised 1,400
 pounds of seed cotton per acre. This
 was about bale per acre on the en-, tire farm The $15 investment in fer, l tilizers and good breaking and culti.' l vation netted the thrifty farmer more
 than $50 per acre when cotton was bringing high price.
 All the experiment stations and oth- CT institutions have found that fertil.
 izers applied to farm crops under good conditions pay handsome div. idend on the inve5 nent. Jt generally n1aaf}sf the cORa2r .rsg of q nanal 9s