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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, OCTOBER 15, 1882.
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what it takes off in the proportions in which
each element is taken, being careful to re
turn each time a little more than the crop
takes away. Now this is not difficult to do,
and doing this is in itself intensive farming.
Suppose you intend to plant a crop of corn
or of oats, from which you expect to realize
fifty bushels per acre. If you are ignorant
as to the chemical constituents required to
make up your crop, Professor White, our able
State Chemist, will take pleasure in telling
you, if you write and ask him, exactly how
much your crop will withdraw from the soil,
what elements and in what proportions.
Then buy the chemicals, and using muck,
barnyard manure and cotton seed as a basis,
go to work and mix your manure according
to the formula furnished, then put it in the
ground before planting your crop, and don’t
you see, your land can’t be injured, but
will be benefited. So with every crop you
plant, fertilize with direct reference to the
requirements of the crop If you wish good
results.
There is no funner but would laugh at the
idea of attempting to make a crop without
feeding his mule. Why, he will say, my mule
will die. So with your land. If you crop it
year after year without feeding it, it will die
as certainly as your mule. It only takes a
little longer time in one instance than in the
other.
Whilst upon this branch of the subject I
desire to call your attention to a very impor
tant point, and that is the vital necessity for
complete nmnureiuent. It is on account of
the incomplete, one-sided system of manure-
ment that lias come in vogue among us, that
so much prejudice has arisen, and justly too,
against the use of phosphatic ammnniated
manures, commonly known os commercial
fertilizers. As bearing directly upon this
subject I will read you an extract from a lec
ture delivered in Germany by Professor
Franz Giersberg, a gentleman of such reputa
tion as to be employed by the Govern
ment to deliver lectures before the agri
cultural societies throughout the Empire.
He says: “There is no doubt but that the ap
plication of bono dust as well as other phos
phates to the soil, may and will pro
duce large yields for soveral years, the
soil by reason of such application
(mainly in connection with nitrogen,)being
stimulated to more vigorous action. The soil
yields largely of the nourishment which, in
addition to phosphates, all plants necessarily
require, but as no compensation is allowed
for the absorption of the former, we, but too
often, experience the result, that where a soil
receives only „ phosphate mauuring for a
length of time, it will become eventually en
tirely unproductive. Phosphate manuring
only returns to the soil the one, omitting
the other nourishments needed for the ac
tual thriving of the plants, and, as a conse
quence, the soil and crops deteriorate in
quantity and quality. One-sided manure-
ment will not produce satisfactory results for
any length of time.”
How aptly this illustrates the experience
of our Georgia farmers. Without any
knowledge of what their crops require, they
have gone oil blindly buying, at extravagant
prices, phosphatic ammoniated manures,
(just such as Prof. Giersberg alludes to,) of
whose composition they are ignorant, and
after finding the yield of their lands wonder
fully improved for several years, suddenly a
fearful falling off takes place, and then they
blame the manure, when the fault lies at their
own door on account of its improper applica
tion. The true plan is Bave all the lot and
stable manure under the shelter you can,
rake out your fence corners and ditches, and
gather all the muck and humus or decayed
vegetable matter that is rotting uselessly
around your premises, and then compost
them with chemicals in quantities and pro
portions to suit the requirements of the
crop you expect to grow. And above all
else save your cotton seed for composting.
Cottonseed comes nearer being within itself,
a perfect fertilizer than any other one thing
known to the farmer the world ever.
Make up your compost and don’t be afraid
to use it. I applied this year five thousand
pounds to the acre. George Ville, the cele
brated European authority Bays, that in
France and Germany 20,000 pounds to the
acre Is the rule for the application of com
post
In Ohio we are told that the compost
raised, on a farm of fifty-five acres, from ten
head of horses and thirty head of cattle, in
the space of one year, was valued by the
8tate chemist, after careful analysis, at
twenty-six hundred and sixty dollars, and
this was applied broadcast at the rate of forty
thousand pounds to the acre, with the r^
suit of a clear profit of three hundred dollars
per acre. This compost wasmade with muck
and lot manure without the addition of any
chemicals.
In order to compost suitably for a proper
system of intensive farming, you must havo
humus, and this can only be obtained from
a proper mixture of animal 8nd vegetable
matter. Just think, gentlemen, <of the mil
lions of dollars that are annually lost to the
farmers throughout the South as the result
of laziness and carelessness in a failure to pen
our cattle at night Give me a good
pile of lot manure and cotton seed, and
the chemicals as-1 may need them, and I
will guarantee to make a manure that will
pay anywhere from one to five hundred per
cent, on its cost in increased production of
crops alone, leaving out of view the im
mense and permanent increase in the
value of the lands upon which it has been
applied. Now, gentlemen, to give you the
practical results of this system I advocate
before you to-day, as tried by myself. Five
years ago I selected sixty-five acres of poor
land. The character of the land being pine
with a sandy surface and clay subsoil within
reach. I selected level land, and the first
year cultivated it carefully without manure.
The yield was eight bales of cotton—a pretty
good evidence of the extreme poverty of the
soil. Next year I commenced manuring,
using five hundred pounds of my compost to
the acre, applied in the drill j the crop for
that year was twelve bales. The year after I
doubled the manure, using one thousand
pounds to the acre, and I gathered that year
twenty-three bales. The year after or last
year I doubled the manure again, still apply
ing in the drill, using two thousand pounds
to the acre, and the crop, in turn, doubled
itself, yielding me forty-seven bales. This
year I have doubled the manure again, using
an average of from four to five thousand
pounds to the acre, and my crop is estimated,
by good judges who have examined it, as
promising from seventy-five to one hundred
bales of cotton. In addition to this I have
already gathered from this siSty-fivo acres
five hundred bushels of oats, as follows:
Last fall I planted five acres of the sixty-
five in oats, using on it two hundred bushols
of cotton seed per acre as a manure. From
this, on the last of May, I harvested one hun
dred bushels of oats per acre, or five hun
dred bushels altogether, and after clearing
off the oat stubblo I planted the land in cot
ton and now have cotton growing on it of
which this stalk, which I show you, is a sam
ple. This stalk is, you observe, fully five
feet high and has on it, by actual count, one
hundred and twenty-six bolls, blooms and
squares. And yet, to-day, it is but two
months and one day since the seed, from
which it sprang, were deposited in the ground.
Had it been planted and grown on land not
manured upon the intensive system it would
not be more than half as large, and would bo
far behind tho stalk I exhibit in fruitage.
The expense of making this crop this year,
all inclusive, labor, manure, gathering, etc.,
will not exceed twenty-three hundred dol
lars, so that if I muke the lowest estimate the
seventy-five bales at 10 cents per pound we
have
75 B. C. $50 00 each $3,750 00
500 Bu. oats, COcts per bu. 300 00
2,600 Bu. cotton seed 12% cts 300 00
$4,350 00
Expense 2,300 00
Profits $2,050 00
But this is not a true statement of the
profit, the expense account includes the en
tire expense of my two-horso form, and tho
profit account does not give all the products
raised thereon. Sinco 1 began I have found
that I could cultivate more than the sixty-
five acres with two plows, and I have added
about twenty acres more, making in all about
eighty-five acres.
This additional twenty acres I planted this
year first in oats and then in corn and peas;
on it I have made five hundred bushels of
oats, and will gather from it four hundred
bushels of corn and ona hundred bushels of
peas. All the expense of making this is in
cluded in tlie twenty-three hundred dollars,
so to get a fair estimate of tho profits we
must add the value of this to tho profit ac
count already brought forward.
8ay profit already calculated $2,050 00
500 Bu. oats at 60 cts., 300 00
400 Bu. corn at 75 cts 300 00
100 Bu. peas at 75 cts 75 00
Total profit $2,725 00
Giving a total of nearly three thousand
dollars profit on my two-horse farm. All of
the work on this was done by two ordinary
mules with the exception of eighteen days
ploughing of one animal, and assistance from
my carriage horses in hauling out my com
post, which could have been avoided by start
ing a little earlier in its distribution.
Now let us figure a little and see how the
compost pays. Two thousand pounds of my
mixture costs, if you have to buy the cotton
seed that are used in it, $7.25; the first year
therefore, 500 pounds to the acre, cost $1.80
per acre or on tho sixty-five acres, $117.00;
but the crop rose from eight to twelvo bales,
or an increase in value of $200.00, giving a
profit after deducting cost of manure, $83.00.
The second year using one thousand pounds
to the acre we have a cost of $3.60 per acre
or on the sixty-five acres$234.00, but the crop
increased from eight to twenty-three bales,
an increase in value of $750.00, giving as
profit on the manure $516.00. The third
year the compost cost $7.25 per acre or a total
of $4,71.00 but tliecrop went up from eight,
without manure, to forty-seven, giving a
gain in value of $1,050.00, and a clear profit
over the unmanured land of nearly fif
teen hundred dollurs. Are not these figures
sufficient to convince any one that the im
mediate return from such a manure is highly
remunerative? But the immediate return
is not all; when I began with my sixty-five
acres, five dollars an acre would have been a
high price for the land; to-day I would not
take for it one hundred dollars per acre, and
it is improving with every crop.
Now to give you the formula upon which
my compost is made: Take- thirty bush
els well rotted stable manure or well rot
ted organic matter, as leaves, muck, etc., and
scatter it about three inches thick upon a
piece of ground so situated that water will
not stand on it, but shed off in every direc
tion. The thirty bushels will weigh about
nine hundred pounds; take two hundred
pounds of good acid phosphate, which
cost me $22.50 per ton, delivered, making
the two hundred pounds cost $2.25, and
one hundred pounds kainlt, which cost me,
by the ton $14.00, delivered, or seventy
cents for one hundred pounds, and mix the
acid phosphate and kainit thoroughly, then
scatter evenly on the manure. Take next
thirty bushels green cotton seed and distribute
evenly over the heap, and wot them thorough
ly; they will weigh nine hundred pounds;
take again two hundred pounds acid phos
phate and one hundred pounds kainit, mix,
and spread over the seed ; begin again with
the stable manure or humus, and keep
on in this way, building up your heap
layer by layer until you get it as high as con
venient, then cover with six inches of rich
earth from fenco corners, and let it stand
at least six weeks; when ready to haul to the
field cut with a spade or pickuxe square down
and mix as thoroughly as possible. Now we
have thirty bushels of manure weighing
nine hundred pounds, and three hundred
pounds chemicals in the first layer, and
thirty bushels cotton seed, weighing nine
hundred pounds and three hundred pounds
of chemicals in tke second layer, and these
two layers combined form the perfect com
post. You perceive that the weight is 2,400
pounds. Value at cost is:
30 Bu. cotton seed 12% cts $3 75
400 pounds acid phosphate 4 50
200 pounds kainit .' 1 40
Stablo manure, muck, ect., nominal.
Total $9 65
This mixture makes practically a perfect
manure for cotton and is a splendid applica
tion for corn. To have a perfect manure for
cotton, wo need: Phosphoric acid, ammonia,
humus, potash, lime, magnesia, soda and
silica.
Now commercial fertilizers furnish us three
of these only, phosphoric acid, ammonia and
potash, and for a long time no potash was
used in their composition. Hence, don’t you
see wlmt au imporfect, ono-sided immure for
cotton the best of these fertilizers must be.
Now my compost contains every element
needed:
Acid phosphato gives phosphoric acid and
lime.
8table manure or muck and organic matter
gives humus and ammonia.
Cotton seed gives ammonia, potash and
humus.
Kainit gives potash, lime, magnesia and
soda.
Silica is always present in the soil, in prac
tically in inexhaustible quantities; so we
have in my compost everything essential
supplied. You will readily perceive in this
formula the vast importance of kainit, con
taining, as it does, nearly one-third of its
bulk of salt, it is a great conservator of mois
ture. I have found it, combined with hu
mus, a specific against rust in cotton, and
owing to its contents of sulphate Of magne
sia it is invaluable in the power that it pos
sesses in the compost heap of fixing the am
monia os a sulphate and thereby preventing
its escape. I regard its discovery in the bo
som of the earth at Leopold Hall in Germany
along with that of the phosphate beds at
Charleston, which occurred almost simulta
neously, as the greatest boon that a kind
providence has bestowed upon the agricul
tural community in tho last century.
Now, gentlemen, let us take it for granted
that upon the plan I suggest before planting
your crop, you have made your compost
heap, and put into your ground more than
your crop will take out, then one cause for
the deterioration of your land has certainly
been removed. The scientific trouble is gone
but the mechanical difficulty remains.
Shall I say what that is? Do you not all
recognize it? It is the fearful loss of the top
soil witli its valuable elements of fertility,
caused by our tropical, washing rains and
the-shallow system of culture to which we
are driven in the cultivation of our standard
crops, corn and cotton. For this evil which
is a great one, three remedies suggest them
selves. One is a proper system of bill-side
ditching, a system in which the dirt is thrown
on the upper side of the ditch so that it may
catch the washings and in time, as it wero,
terrace the field.
Another is to be found in deep preparation
of your lands for your crops, breakiug your
land deeper each year as you are able to In
crease the quantity of humus in it, so that
there will be no danger in bringing too much
clay on top at any one time. This will
increase the absorptive power of the soil
and render it less liable to suffer from
drought or to wash. For this purpose I
would recommend some good sulky turn-
plow—one that can be set accurately and
relied upon to turn the land a given depth
whether it be soft or hard. The other and
most important remedy is to be found in a
rotation in succession of crops, keeping tho
soil thereby full of rootlets and organic mat
ter all the time, causing it to hold together
and preventing washing. For example—plant
your field in the fall with oats—you all know
that from the time the oats come fairly up
until they are cut they will provent washing.
Now as soon as your oats are cut lay off
your land in rows seven feet wide, os follows:
take a turn plow and bar off each way leaving
a ridge from four to six inches wide in the
middle unbroken. Break this out with two
shovel furrows; put from five hundred to a
thousands pounds to the acre of a good ammo
niated fertilizer iu the bottom of this furrow
and cover with a little dirt, to prevent the
fertilizer coming in direct contact with your
seed, with a scooter furrow from tho side—
then sow your seed by hand using a plenty,
from three to four bushols i>er acre, and cover
with a harrow or forked plow. You will got
a stand in a few days: the stubble in tho
ground will prevent washing until it rots.
Your Ibtton at that season (almost tho first
of Juno) will grow very rapidly. Now when
you give your cotton the lost sweeping, drill
peas in the middle of each row, and apply
with them about two hundred pounds of ash
element to the acre. Your peas will grow off
rapidly, will in their turn prevent washing,
will not interfere with the opening or picking
of your cotton, will protect the lower bolls
against dirt and will give you a magnificent
coat of humus as a manure for your land.
In the history of the world th^ fact is well
attested that no people who are so fortunate
os to bo able to raise two food crops in one
year, can be kept long in subjection. To this
fact Ib due the wonderful recuperativo powers
exhibited under the most unfavorable cir
cumstances by the people of France. The
French can raiso but two crops a year—but
we excel Franco, wo can raise three with al
most a certainty of success. Nature has dono
everything for us in this favored clime. It
only remains for us to embrace tho opportu
nities she so freely offers, and an era of unex
ampled prosperity certainly awaits us.
Thero is one trouble that has often struck
me as applicable to the farmers of this coun
try; they are not deficient in energy—but
they don’t think enough.
Now above all I would recommend to our
farmers to read, think, study and experiment
for themselves.
8ome one has said: “Work is tho engine
which draws the car of success.’’ Now if I
were an artist I would draw for you a picture
of a huge car labeled success, drawn by a pow
erful engine entitled work—but the picture
would not be complete without a skilled en
gineer in the cab, with his hand on tho lever
and eye directed ever ahead, and upon his
brow I would inscribe in characters of living
light, the word Thought.
Let us determine to-day, then, gentlemen,
that we will no longer run in the old groove,
and plant as our fathers did, because they
were our fathers. This is an era of improve
ment and progress. The world never stands
sUlL