The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1921-08-04
SUCCEEDS IN BUILDING SOIL.
Cover Crops Improve Leached Lands.
Remarkable Yields Produced.

|
derson, South Carolina, has used a
greater variety of legumes and other
cover crops and has accomplished
more in the way of soil building than
any other man in that part of the
country. Mr.. Drake is now being fol-
lowed by many other good farmers
who are adopting his methods in
some modified form; but Mr.. Drake
bears the distinction of beginning the
work and proving it's worth.
In 1909 Mr.. Drake bought 200 acres
of poor land, quilted and Scared with
abuse He began to plow it little
deeper and prepare the soil better for
his crops, thereby getting better
yields than his neighbors. Then he
turned under a few crops Of COW peas,
sowed quite good deal of small
grain and followed this with peas. In
| a few years his land was producing
| more than double what it was when
| he bought it. In 1914, 22o acres
more we're added to the original tract.
This was handled much as the other
| tract but Mr.. Drake was not satisfied
with the progress he was making in
| bringing back this soil so he began to
assemble all of the information OBJ
tainable about soil building and the
best methods of growing crops. He
reasoned that COW peas were good
but if he could just add some winter
crop to his summer soil building
crops he could build up his soil much
faster. He knew that the teaching
of plant food from. his fields during
the winter was very great so in addl-
ton to putting in a good system of
terraces he planted rye and other
grains simply as protection to the
soil during the winter A little later
he heard of the soil building quail
ties of hairy vetch. So he tried that.
He inoculated the soil where he was
planting vetch and followed other in
structions which he had obtained
from different sources, carefully and
to his surprise and qualification he
| produced a good crop Of vetch.
First Allowed to Seed.
The first crop of vetch was allow
ed to seed on the land and then was
| harvested for seed. There were
enough seed left on the land to in
sure a perfect stand of volunteer
vetch the following fall and with the
seed saved from this land many more
| acres were seeded that fall. The fol-
| lowing spring, which was 1915, many
acres of vetch which would have pro-
duced more than ton per acre were
turned under for fertilizer. Many of
his neighbors called him foolish and
even proposed to cut and haul the
feed away if he would give it to them,
for they could not bear to see so much
feed wasted" During the following
years Mr.. Drake has added crimson
clover, velvet beans, burr clover,
abruzzi rye and other crops to his sys-
tenn of soil building. Every acre OF
his land produces cover crop each
year which is turned under to enrich
the soil.
In speaking of his work recently
in reply to the question: "Why did
did you fall upon this soil building
practice?" Mr.. Drake replied, My
land was so poor 1 could not produce
a good crop or get satisfactory re-
turns for my labor. I knew some
thing had to be done so I started
out to see what 1 could do. I thought
if peas were so good as summer
cover crop that if could get a crop
on the land for the winter that would
be as good as COW peas are for sum-
mer, l would enrich my soil twice as
|
clover and vetch will do this. They
are adding nitrogen and humus to
my soil during the winter instead of
the land washing away"
In the beginning Mr.. Drake was
using about 800 pounds of fertilizer
per acre and his yields were about
half bale of cotton, Is bushels OF
corn or Is bushels of oats. By the
methods outlined above this same
land has been brought up to high
state of cultivation. During the past
few years this same land has aver
aged more than two tons of hay per
acre, so bushels of oats, 25 bushels
of wheat, so bushels of corn or a
bale and half of cotton per acre.
Larger Yields Grown.
For the year 1920 he produced an
average of 70 bushels of corn per