The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1917-02-09
Food, Feed, and Fertility.

Food, feed, and fertility are the foun-
datiou of safe farming, according to
the United States Department of Agri-
culture. A circular sent to farmers,
bankers. and business men in cotton and
tobacco territory bv the Chief of theO :
flee of Extension Work in the South says:
"Let us feed the people, feed the live
stock, and feed the soil. When we
have done these three things, then raise
such acreage in money crops as we have
the labor to tend"
The circular points out that the true
value of cotton or tobacco to the farmer
is to great extent the amount of food
and feed that it will purchase. The
price of cotton and tobacco has risen,
it is true, but so has the retail price or
all other farm produce. "By growing
all cotton, or tobacco" says the author,
''and exchanging it for a living you are
simply swapping high-priced product
produced by your labor for high
priced product produced by the labor
OF the other fellow. When you follow
safe farming, however, you produce
your own food and feed at cost and
sell your cotton or tobacco for the
other fellows dollars"
Safe farming is defined in the circu-
lar as including these items:
~ A home garden for every family
on the farm, from one-tenth to one
fourth acre, well located, well titled.
and tended as carefully as any othel
crop on the farm, planted in rotation
to time the vegetable crops so as to
have a continual supply for the family
table as many days in the year as pos.
sible. To this should be added one.
fourth of an acre Of potatoes. either
Irish or sweet, or both, to be used as
food for the family.
(2) Enough corn on each farm to
last the family and the live stock fol
one year, with little excess for safety
81 Sufficient oats and other small
grain to supplement the corn as food
for one year with certainty. These
small grains conserve the soil in winter
and provide summer grazing for live
stock.
az Hay and forage crops to supply
the live stock on the farm for one year
with little excess for safety. The
legumes, which add fertility to the sol
and produce the best hay, should moi
be forgotten.
~ The necessary meat, eggs, and
milk for the family. The meat should
be procured by increased attention t
poultry and hogs because of the rapid.
itv with which these can be produced
Every family should have at least two
COWS, 80 that one can be in milk all the
time. A sufficient number of brood
sows should Re kept to produce the
pork for the family, with some excess
for sale. The average number of poul'
try per farm should be gradually in
creased to at least so. There should be
eggs and poultry for the home table
with a sufficient excess for sale. The
live stock on the farm should be grad.
| usly increased so as to consume the
otherwise wasted products and make
productive the reproductive and un'
| tillable lands.
CO. Cotton or tobacco for the main
money crop after the living has been
amply provided for.
(7 The sale of the surplus products
of the garden, the orchard, the poultry
the live stock, and the feed crops te
| cover the necessary running expenses
of the farm. leaving the cotton OF
tobacco as the real cash crop.
The present prices of cotton and TO-
bacco says the circular, should not bt
permitted to tempt any farmer to de-
part from his program. 1t is the only
safe plan to follow, no matter wha'
the price of cotton or tobacco may be