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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, OCTOBER 15, 1882. 7 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