The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-12-19
When Our Boys
Come Home

President Woodrow Wilson has
asked congress to provide every re-
turning soldier and sailor who wants it,
with a farm ready and equipped to
make a living from the start-well
fenced, all the needed buildings, team,
live stock and implements. 4 small
the balance at low interest, to be paid
for In 20 to 40 years, with the option
Of completing payment at any time,
Not less than 100 soldier sailor farms
will be located together to form an en-
tire community, Good roads will be
settlement. An expert will live in
each community who will help every
farmer to make the work profitable.
The people Of Memphis, Tenn, and
the 100 counties in the city's immediate
trade territory, will welcome these SOL
d~ier-sailor farmers, and will do every
thing in their power to make the farms
their products and to create a warm
n lasting friendship between the SOL
der farmers and themselves.
The Memphis district offers inviting
conditions for making farm homes. A
growing season of 240 days, eight full
40 to AZ inches annually, with sum
mers not SO hot and winters not so
cold as in the North. Eight trunk line
railroads and the Mississippi river
furnish transportation.
Most Of the land offered for soldier
sailor farm settlement in Eastern Ar
kansas, Northern Mississippi and West
ern Tennessee Is alluvial land of ex-
~traordinary richness that needs clear
ing and draining. a few only Of the
thousands Of instances Of It's great fer
ttllty can be given In this statement.
Cotton--Gov. Frank Lowden, Of llli-
nois, bought 10000 acres Of such land
drained 1t apd his returns from cotton
and cotton seed in 1918 were $500 an
acre. Adjoining land yielded 60 bush
els Of corn per acre,
Alfalfa-The heavier lands are par
ticularly adapted to alfalfa and thou
sands of acres already seeded yield
each year. A field of alfalfa 60 miles
from Memphis was cut May IA, June
16,. July 10, Aug, II, Sept. 81 and
Oct. n, averaging a total of seven
tons Of hay per acre for the year. The
next year this field averaged 81 tons
per acre.
Corn-Corn on alluvial land averages
80 to IS bushels an acre under good
cultivation, often the yields are larger.
On a farm of 1900 acres. rs miles
south of Memphis, adjoining a tract
otfered Tor soldier farms, a large field
ylelded IN 1914, 116 bushels an acre,
and In 1915, lis bushels per acre. ST.
lage corn on a farm 25 miles east of
memphis produced IL tons an acre and
crop. OF cowpeas between rows.
Wheaton a plantation 35 miles from
Memphis IN .l9l5. 500 acres of wheat
averaged 80 bushels per acre; in 1916.
l,loo acres averaged 26 bushels; in
1871, 500 acres averaged 81 bushels, and
In 1918, S2S acres averaged % bushels.
Each year the land has produced be-
SIDES the wheat, a crop Of cowpeas or
Potatoes-Irish potatoes produce two
crops o year on the same land, A fair
yield for the first crop is 100 bushels
an acre, and for the second crop, SO
to go bushels. :"
Gardens-From Memphis south. gar
den crops grow outdoors the year
round -Four general paintings are
made the year ~round-the first from
February to April, the second in June
early, July, the third in Septem-
per and the fourth In October and No
yember; On Thanksgiving day one
Iamiiy had - different kinds of vege-
tables growing outdoors,
Since the beginning of the European
war In 1914 the Memphis territory has
chahseo from a one-crop, cotton sys-
TEN OF farming to diversified farming
with g most marked increase in hoes
beef and dairy cattle and poultry. Ths
pasture season Is eight months the
winters are mild, and corn, siiare. al
fslfa, ccwpeas, soy and velvet beans
Spanish peanuts and ~cottonseed meai