Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-07-20
Wade Drake Pioneer in Ander
son in Resorting to Cover
Crops to Improve Leach
ed Lands.

who lives near Anderson, 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 PORN; but Mr.. Drake
bears the distinction of beginning the
work and proving its worth.
In 1909 Mr.. Drake bought 200
acres of poor land, quilted and scar
red with abuse. He began to plow it
a 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 more years his land
was producing more than double
what it was when he bought it. In
1914, 225 acres more were added. to
the original tract. This was handled
much as the other tract but Mr..
Drake was not satisfied with the pro-
gress he was making in bringing back
this soil so he began to assemble all
of the information and the best meth
DDS 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 win
ter was very great so in addition to
putting in a good system of terraces
he planted rye and other grains SIM
ply as a protection to the soil dur
ing the winter. A little later he heard
of the soil building qualities of hairy
vetch. So he tried that. He inoculated
the soil where he was planting vetch
and followed other instructions 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 allowed
to seed on the land and then was
harvested for seed. There were
enough seed left on the land to in
sure 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 1916, 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 fol-
lowing year Mr.. Drake has added
crimson clover, velvet beans, burr
clover, abruzzi rye and other crops
to his system of soil building. Every
acre of his land produces a cover
crop each year which is turned under
for enriching the soil.
In speaking of his work recently
in reply to the question: "Why did
you fall upon this soil building prac-
tice?" Mr.. Drake replied, "My land
was so poor 1 could not produce a
good crop to get satisfactory returns
for my labor. I knew something had
to be done so I started out to see
what 1 could do. 1 thought if peas
were so good as summer cover
crop that if I could crop on the
land for the winter that would be as
good as COW peas are for summer,
would enrich my soil twice as fast.
l have found that crimson clover and
vetch will do this. They are adding
nitrogen and humus to my soil dur
ing 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
a half a 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 a 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, rs bushels
of wheat, so bushels of corn or a