Pocahontas star herald., 1924-10-30

oats, hay, pumpkins and many other
crops | might name. To illustrate:
3 | have in mind one instance senator
Clarence Henderson (who is now no
mOre) in 1918 had renter on one of
his Current river farms, who wanted to
leave ana go elsewhere. Said renter
: had 27 acres in corn. They agreed
to gather the corn ana load 1t on the
train mt Success as buyers were buying
and shipping to Texas and when they
had weighed up the entire crop on the
% acres the average per acre was lO3
/ bushels and ~ lbs. practically 1Oi
bushels per acre, and as per reports 1t
must be about as good this year In
numbers of cases in the state the boys
corn clubs have produced more than a
hundred bushels per acre. Where can
you beat it? In 1913 ! bought little
farm for my son on which there were
about acres in cotton. Ii was fully
as tall as n mans head (nOt a little
man either) and the army worm strip
ped the leaves clean of it but not
early enough to hurt il and il weighed
out at the gin nearly 2,5OO pounds
seed cotton per acre.
While | lived at Success | challenged
the good women to compete in garden
ing as knew the men were too trifling
to try it, ! told them | would keep
tabulated statements of every item L
raised, harvested, and valuation which
was not more than half what they are
worth now and at the end of the
season | found that | had produced
ST620 worth on one-siXth of an acre
or S45720 per acre at half what it Is
selling for now. Off of ten peach trees
| gathered 80 bushels of as fine peaches
as could be, some weighing ii to 10
ounces each. I weighed other peaches
from other neighbOrs orchards that
weighed 16 and one IL ounces. If you
never weighed peach try IL some
time and see how large pound peach
is 1t will not be as large as a pump
kin unless its a small one but you will
be surprised at its size. sold them
for 80 cents per bushel. | had grape
arbOr 2Sx2S ft, ten vines years old
same as the peach trees. on of this
arbor | gathered 16 bushels of grapes
Concord Variety sold them for 3
cents per pound. Among my peach
trees | had rows of Strawberries 50
feet long, less than 4 square rods in
the plot | gathered 40 gallons of ber-
ries which would equal 1000 gallons
per acre. | know this sounds fishy
but | would willingly make affidavit
to these statements. It's not guess
work or here say but by a real test.
And when | moved to Pocahontas
rented VIII Argos home on the bluff
above the depot, just red clay hill
but he had fertilized it well with barn
yard manure and had a fine garden
alongside of the house. He was down
every day to get vegetables and had a
very fine onion bed 1t was the last
of June he came to pull his onions.
| asked him if he had any idea how
many bushels an acre like that would
produce TO which he replied that he
did not. We measured off feet square
making 16 So. #. and pulled the onions
/. off of il and had a measured bushel in
the rough | asked him how much tare
we would take off. He and his helper
! thought one third would be enough
| told him that we would take hall
as he would have more onions than he
wanted SO we split it $3.50 and re
duced ii and found that an acre all
over as good as the feet square
would yield 361 bushels. And on july
9Th, spaded the same plot and
planted i'm Ky wonder beans. | left
the same feet square grow until they
were as full as they would he and
Y gathered the beans dry and green and
I found that | had 1860 bushels Del
acre. | then sowed turnips but the
: birds ate them up.
e | will pause long enough to say tC
G Bro. Smith, our county demOnstrator
u that | am by no means electiOneerinl
I to suppressed you in your position hui
:, rather to give encouragement to yOuI
; splendid work in keeping before the
= people the idea Of the best methods OF
scientific farming and the diversified
b tion of crops. Your splendid articles
L are to the point and should be read
e studied and practiced by the farmers
[ which will greatly help to solve the
S difficult problems that confront the
! farmer of the present day. 1t is esti
i mated that a hundred million dollars
: or more will be required of them to
buy feed stuff to tide them over and
l make the next crop in Arkansas. This
would not be so. Every farmer should
e he sure to raise enough feed to feed
= his stock and fatten his meat at least
: | am with you Bro. Smith and | will
or rather the people to diversity. and a
more intensified cultivation in less
acreage and better cultivation is what
5 we need. ! have studied scientific
farming some myself and in my demon
stratiOn work have adhered 10 the
) methods, And | do know that good
5 seed. well prepared seed bed and
through cultivation is absolutely nee
! essary, that is to say, let nothing grow
: except the plants you are cultivating.
? have already indicated that | have
: never been accused of being very wise
z and haven't seen very much of the
world but as | have passed along /
? have tried to keep one eye open and
2 observe a few things. None of us
) know anything except what we have
learned and if we do not try to learn
by absorption or otherwise we will not
; be very well informed and many Of us