The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1917-02-15
Crops Must Be Carefully Planned
In Future. A Workal@ @e Schedule
BY David r. Coker

and farmers of the State are aroused
to the danger of the advancing boil
weevil, but many Of them have no
definite and easily followed program
which will prove effective in making
the situation livable when the weevil
arrives. Any crop rotation proposed
must take into account renters and
share croppers, who are majority of
our farmers, and it must at the same
time appeal to the large stakeholder,
whose active cooperation will be abb
solutely necessary. Every authority
on the subject agrees, first, that the
cotton crop should be reduced; sec
ond, that food crops should be in
.cYased; third, that the soil should be
'senfiCpAd, before the weevil arrives.
The increased food crops should, of
course, be readily marketable, and
should afford the maximum improve
ment to the soil. believe we have
one crop-the 80 or 1O0-day velvet
bean--which is admirably suited to
this purpose, and l propose the fol-
lowing recipe for the one-horsc ten
ant farmer which may be readily
adapted to use by farmers of any size.
Plan Proposed.
The average one-horse farmer now
plants say 20 acres of cotton and four
acres of grain (corn or oats). Let
his merchant and landlord insist on
,1nr &c -,
more of corn and 1S acres or less of
cotton. In the six acres Of corn insist
that he plant early velvet beans.
Next year G9l9) have him plant
nine acres of corn with velvet beans
and Is acres of cotton. Six acres of
these ID will be behind the previous
years velvet bean crop and will re-
quire no fertilizer except acid phos-
phate or ground phosphate rock, cost
ing So to 3$ per acre.
In 1919 the corn and velvet bean
crop should be increased to II acres
and the cotton reduced to II acres,
nine of which will be behind the pre-
vious years velvet beans and require
but small outlay of fertilizer
In 1919 the cotton acreage may re-
main at ~ acres and the other II
should again be put into corn and
beans and each year thereafter the
cotton will follow the bean crop and
the beans follow the cotton crop. A
cover crop of Abruzzi rye (or in some
cases crimson clover) should each
year be put in the cotton.
Boil Weevil Damage
While the boil weevil may be ex-
pected to arrive here within two years
it is probable that his maximum dam
age will not come before 1920. If
this scheme is followed, out cotton
acreage will by then all be upon land
which has the previous year produced
the finest humus and nitrogen crops
velvet beans-the fertilizer re-
quirement being less than GO per cent
OF that now considered necessary.
Upon such land and with such fcrti-
lizing we may by following the gov
ernment recipe for the production of
cotton under boil wcevil conditions,
expect to make at least as much cot.
ton per acre as is now being made.
With moderate fertilizing the corn
may be expected to make not less
than 10 bushels per acre and the
beans not less than 15 bushels Three
hundred bushels of grain is now more
than half the value of the product of
the average "a acres rented or share
&c
to the average cotton crop upon the
same acreage.
1T will in most cases be necessary
to plant for horse feed about two
acres in oats followed by peas or
beans to each 24-acre crop. This will
come out of the corn and velvet bean
acreage and will not interfere with
the efficiency of the scheme. If to-
bacco is planted it should come out of
the cotton acreage.
Velvet Bean Profitable.
The worst j infested boil wecvil
areas in south Georgia, Alabama and
mississippi are now using this velvet
bean profitably. The farmers claim
that they can raise from 20 to 30 bu-
shels per acre of beans besides an
average corn crop. Wherever they
are being raised in any quantity oil
mills and merchants have prepared
themselves to grind them for feed and
the farmers, l understand, are receiv-
ing about $40 ton for them in the
hull. We, ourselves, this year plant