The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1921-08-12
I alkS to Farmers
~ IcOMMissIoNER:oP AGRICULTURE :
Cl BY T. r. PECK


tunity is open to young men with a
practical knowledge of agriculture
and character of soils than that of
buying neglected farm lands and
improving them, either for perma-
nent homes or for developing the
farm and selling. A farm in
good state of cultivation will sell
for more than the price it can be
purchased in its neglected condi-
tion and the cost to put it in a good
state of cultivation. l know this is
true, because | have repeatedly
bought neglected farms, improved
them and sold them for more than
double the price / paid for them,
l also made the crops cultivated
pay practically all the cost of put
ting them in condition.
When | began my capital was
small and I had to begin in a small
way, / remember my first pur-
chase was seventy five acres. [
paid $l75 for the tract; / built
cottage for $l25 and my own labor;
[ cleaned up the place, cultivated
one crop on it and sold it for 81 900.
My next purchase was 65 acre
tract. put it in shape and clear
ed $4,000 on it. My next purchase
was a farm of 373 acres for SIS. 900.
| L kept it three years, improved it,
made the money on it spent for i'm
provement, and sold it for $l1, 900.
Another tract | bought for $4,000,
doubled crop production on it per
acre, and sold for $4,000. Either
of the last two farms mentioned
would today sell for $4,000. I
have bought and sold more land
than the average men, aud | do not
know of a person | sold to who did
not sell for profit if they wanted
to sell.
OF course, it is necessary to know
soils and just how to build them.
There is land that lies well that |
would not buy, because it is hard
to rebuild and hard to hold when
rebuilt. There is unlimited posi-
bilities for development in our red
clay or limestone soils. | have
taken fields that had been allowed
to wash in deep gullies, filed the
guilies with brush and plowed
them in until | could cross them
with any team and plow. would
locate hillside bitches to take care
of the water to prevent washing,
break and subsoii the land in the
fall and seed to rye and crimson
clover, using every ounce of manure
[ could get, spreading it broadcast,
working it in the surface when pre-
pairing the seed bed.
| would get some pasture during
the winter when the land was dry
enough, taking everything off for
the spring growth; this | would
turn under early in May and set d
to soy beans, using $50 pounds of
16 per cent acid phosphate. When
the beans were ready to turn under
in the fall, | would plow them un-
der and apply two tons of ground
lin estone per acre and seed TO
wheat, using $50 pounds of Is per
cent phosphate. On one plot |
threshed 43 bushels Of wheat per
acre. | found | could take a good
clay subsoil, break it deep during
the fall, apply manure to help out
the rye and crimson clover, let the
frost and soil water disintegrate the
subsoil and make available plant
food by growing rye and crimson
clover in winter and soy beans or
peas in summer, turned all under
and thoroughly mixing the vege-
table matter with the broken up
subsoil. | could have a soil that [
could grow profitable crops in a
short time.
Nature teaches us some valuable