The Wilmington morning star., 1940-06-03
GOODMAN OFFERS
COTTON THEORIES
Veteran Cabarrus Count
Agent Presents Sound
Production Practices

agent in Cabarrus county for the
State College Extension Service for
more than 25 years. He has seen
the prices of cotton rise and fall,
and being a practical farmer him
self, as well as a county agent,
has been interested in every good
practice, new and old, used in
growing bumper yields and high
quality of cotton.
From such long experience and
personal contact with farmers,
good and bad, Roy Goodman has
naturally developed some definite
theories on cotton growing. For
instance, he says late cotton is a
thing of the past because of the
boil weevil, just as late corn does
MT do we'll because of other insect
pests.
Another thing" says Farm A
| gent Goodman, there are thou
sands of acres Of land in North
Carolina that will not make a bale
of cotton to the acre, no matter
how much fertilizer you put on it.
Now. this doesn't mean that the
correct amount, kind, and place
ment of fertilizer isn't important.
I'm going about over the county.
talking to farmers, learning their
methods of growing cotton. and
trying them out myself, I have
concluded that the following system
is best, especially on the black
back, or rusty soil of which we
have a great deal in Cabarrus
County: Ridge your ground to a
bed in the middle in the fall of the
year and let freezing weather pull
verize the soil.
Put Fertilizer in Deep
Using a distributor, put in 400
pounds to the acre of a good 4-10-6
or 6-1O-8 fertilizer, 200 pounds of
20 percent acid, and 100 pounds
of manure salts just before plant
ing time early in May. Put the
fertilizer in the ridge as deep as
as you can get it, with special
care to have the fertilizer and the
seed separated by at least two
inches of soil.
Nov comes the important part.
At planting time, put in 100 pounds
70 the acre of a 4-10-6, 4-8-4, 4-12-4
or any other high grade fertilizer
with the seed. This much won't
burn the seed, and it will hold the
cotton through dry weather. and
still not produce an excess of grass
in rainy weather."
That is Goodman's system of
cotton fertilization, land prepare
ton, an seed planting. He is not an
advocate of long-growing winter
cover crops. "They are good in
theory, but it takes all the year to
| grow cotton" the veteran farm
agent declared. 'It's all right to
plant vetch or crimson clover at
the first picking in September. but
it should be plowed under in March
to give the land time to set be-
lore planting cotton"
In discussing vetch, Goodman
says that small grain farmers in
Cabarrus don't like it because it
tends to Take the wheat, oats,
rye or barley" with a volunteer
growth the following season.
Triple-A Changes System
sThe Triple-A program has
made a great change in cotton
growing the Cabarrus man as
serted. 1.-The best land in the
Piedmont is being used for cotton,
and the poor land is being used
for soil conserving and soil build
ing crops. When 1 say that there
is plenty of land in North Carolina
that won't make a bale of cotton
to the acre, no matter how much
fertilizer is used, that statement
should be qualified. With Korean
lespedeza in the summer, the GRIM
son clover, vetch or Austrian Win
ter peas in the winter, poor land
can be built up in five or six years
to the point where it will grow a
bale of cotton to the acre"
Goodman commented further that
those fellows who make two bales
to the acre, and my daddy is one
of them, accomplish this by
spreading manure on their cotton
land year after year and then by
using a good system of fertilizat-
ion. Unfortunately, however, most
Of us are unable to do this, and
we don't have the fertile land to
start with"
OF course Goodman is a strong
believer in good seed, as are all
other good farmers and farm a.
He also thinks that the one
variety community cotton pro-
gram, being promoted so success
fully throughout the State by J. S.
Shanklin and Ralph Raper, cotton
specialists of the State College Ex-
tension Service, is of great value
in improving the quality of cotton
in North Carolina.
"Cabarrus is not the biggest cot