The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1919-11-01
e ali favorable, under the foaowing

plan:
Plant OH the richest high land. we'll
removed from swamps and overgrown
bitches.
Prepare thoroughly. so as to plant
earliest practicable date to avoid
frost.
Don't cut out fertilizer.
Make rows three feet apart. and
/ take a single hoe chop between hills.
/ leaving two stalks to each hill.
.Plow every week, even if the other
crops must be neglected.
Use q, heavy application OF top
dresser or nitrate of soda to force top
growth so as to provide plenty Of
forms for the more numerous weevils
later in the season, as weevils will
not puncture bolls as long as, forms
are there.
Pick up all squares or forms.
Limit the cotton acreage to not
more than seven acres to the plow.
Plant Wannamaker's Cleveland big
boil cotton.
Remaining acreage to be planted to
corn and velvet beans and peanuts. -
Clarence F'ickling, who operates
large farm on the share cropping
plan, and who is thk active head of
the Commercial Bank at Blackville.
followed. Six years ago, John Far
lreH told me he regarded Clarence
Fickling as the best farmer in the
Blaekville section, thoroughly prac-
tica1, conservative to degree, and
possessed Of such a thorough scien-
tific agricultural education that there
was no guess work in his methods.
Mr.. Farrell added that Mr.. Fickling
planted a row of peas in every cotton
middle.
Mr.. Fickling's admirable talk was
full of meat from start to finish. He
pictured the ravages of the boH wee
vils in sections slightly infested last
year for the first time. as he saw
them on this trip and the prosperity
of the farmers and all the people IN
the sections Of. Alabama where the
boil weevil first appeared in 1913, Of
the thriving peanut Oil mills, peanut
shelling and products plants, meat
packing plants and the ever growing
deposits of the banks, of interviews
with bankers who contrasted the
peanut and pig prosperity with the
inevitable farm mortgages seldom IL
quidated when cotton was king. And
then Mr. Fickling got IN high gear on
the money value Of peanuts. the ready
market, the keen competition for the
crops from Virginia buyers, and
showed the proletarian pinder to De
the one crop that would bring more
blessings to a boil weevil infested
community than any other that our
farmers could turn to, because of the
wide aGaptability of our soils, the
training of our labor, the world de-
mand for it's products, it's small and
inexpensive fertilizer requirement,
the small output for labor. the ease
of it's harvesting as compared with
other row crops the adaptability to
mechanical gathering, a larger acre
income than cotton, and larger
acreage per p1ow.
Mr.. Eickling related the story of
one farmer with whom he had talked
| in Alabama who through illness and
deaths in the family, had been un-
able to work his peanut crop. Despite
that. on, very ordinary land. this
grass infested crop had yielded IS
bushels Mr. acre of peanuts, sold for
50 per bushel. half ton of finest
hay worth $40, total of $50 an acre
under adverse conditions. The farm
er and two small children harvested
and stacked three acres of peanuts
day. Another profit would come from
grazing hogs ON the residue.
Investigation proved. said Mr.. Flick
ling, that where 70 bushels of pea
nuts and a ton of hay had been har-
vested, yielding $3.50 an acre. that a
sow and her four pigs could run on
that acre until it was to be pfowed IN
the spring. at which time the pigs
would be hogs. weighing notices. than
100 pounds EACH total Of 640-pounds
worth s96. a grand total of s276:
Looking at the negro farmers. Mr
Fickling told them they might have
some doubts about ready market fo1
their peanuts, ard he wGnted to as
sure. them. and all other farmers, tina,
Che would have warehouse for the
purchase of every pound they
brought. at top market prices. accord
ing to grades That besides. buyers
from other sections would be there tc
compete for them. just as cucuhoe1
and. cantaloupe buyers focked tt
Blackville to buy those crops That
the farmers and people Of BlacEvil}e
would establish a peanut OH mill
with a, peanut shelter annex. so tha,
their own mill would crush the home
grown peanuts. and compete. in otf7e1
centers; that they must grow a pea
nut for every cotton seed they didn't
grow
Mr.. Fickling stressed the necessity
of growing uniform varieties. Spanish
peanuts where they are to be har-
vested. and North Carolina Runners
where they are to be hcgged OFT. he
also declared that the greatest Profit
to the farmer was in frogging off all
peanuts. selling them to tile hogs,
funder which condition the soils were
not impoverished. but highly I'M
ton