Macon beacon., 1917-10-12

new to me, 80 If tell the same 30
again, less much exagger ati
may still believe them, even nc
they are shorn of most of thei ratl
tions.
This may not be a velS, interesting
letter for some Of my best friends. the
little folks. for most of it will be made
up Of "big stories" of the farm. but
they could make it entertaining by try
ing to pick out the little bit of truth
from the great quantity of-well, other
hirgs true, too.
l shall give the results of my demon.
trations that are just finished. l want
to state first though that was extreme.
: lv handicapped in the cultivation OF
I these fields. because I had nothing tc
cultivate with but Gee Whiz cultivators
and the rainfall was greater than the
average, with shorter wet season, and
the greatest trouble l had was trying
to instruct the labor about tn FORK.
I couldn't talk to them nor could H.,
to me, so the only way possible was to
take hold and show them.
l had three small demonstrations
two in the northern part of the state
and one west of here about 1870 miles
The land is hillside land and not classed
as very fertile, has no lime and no fer
tilizers were used. The soil is very red
and it's texture is porous clay, though
the field west is fine. sandy soil and
gets very hard during the rainy season
planted at Curvello (north) two i'm
ported varieties of cotton Texas Big
Boil aad Durango-and two native va
rieties-Herbaceo and Maranhao; the
latter is tree variety. The Durango
is very susceptible to diseases, and
nearly half of it died Of anthracnose and
wilt; the others resisted these diseases
splendidly. At Gustavo da Silviera
(rorth) | used the first three used at
Curvello; and at Cercado (west) used
Texas Big Boil, Triumph. Herbaceo and
Durango. This field was not planted
until December 1st and the others on
November 1st, just at the beginning of
the rainy season. This field was very
much damaged by small weevil that
attacks the plants when very young,
cutting them off just above the ground.
This land being very fine sand, when
the rains were heavy and continuous.
it would get very hard and the plant
roots suffered for want of deep cultiva-
tion; the first of March l reported to
the Department of Agriculture that
the field was a complete failure, but a
week later the rains became lighter
and the cotton began to grow and has
given profitable yield.
Curvello is the only place where the
varieties were gathered separately and
the yields are as follows:
Texas Big Boil, 2,O6 acres, pounds per
acre. Observation-Disclosures. 2l6O
Durango, .33 acres, lbs. per acre $50
Herbaceo, .36 acres, " - $50
Maranhao, % acres. s............. 0
AS this field is within few yards of
cotton factory the price is based on
Rio de Janeiro lint prices, though the
factory pays much less for cotton
brought IN by the natives as it is always
brought in the seed and the factory gins
lit; if the yield on this demonstration
had been sold in the seed it would have
brought only S506.4O, but as it sold as
Aginned cotton it brought. including the
seed, $734 %, or nearly S247 per acre.
land would run for the different varieties
les follows:
Texas Big Boil, value per acre.. 1918. 16
durango, value per acre. ...... l34 85
Herbaceo, value per acre. ..... 1913 10
The price OF seed is SIS per ton. The
cost of all the work, iacluoing picking,
lamounted to $93, 80 there is profit of
lS641. .28 on a little less than three acres.
The field at Gustavo da Silviera has
I2.5O acres and averaged 1907 pounds per
acre and sold for one cent pound in
| the seed and the cost of this demonstra-
tion was $84 63 Cotton sold for $40l. rs,
with expense of $84 63, leaving a profit
\ of $3l7, IL, or Sl26 85 per acre The
picking is not quire finished at Cercedo,
but the yield will be about 1000 pounds
| per acre and the cost about the same
| per acre.
The department is highly pleased and
the farmers with whom | have worked
are dreaming big dreams of lcountabe
riches to be made while cotton is at
such high prices. | would like very
much to get loose from my co tact
and get into the game myself. am
working alone and of course in a state
Y az large ss Texas one man can hardly
! make himself known in the work. The
|! STATE, the people, in fact no one recog-
nizes the wonderful oppoi tunity this
| country has. With cheap labor. cheap
! mules, corn at 90 cents bushel and
land cheap and taxes low, the Profits
growing cotton are enormous | am
not writing this to make the Noxubee
farmers, who love cotton so well, dis
contented with boil weevils, So ccrn,
sCa-ce labor and rs cent cotton.
Ttis year shall make demonstrations
for about six men. It is not possible to
manage many fields alone when some of
them are 500 miles apart. | shall make
one for DR.. Bernardes, the future pres
ident-of Minas; he is very much inter-