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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, aTLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1913.
agricultural
,fgg Education
^—**> Successful Far>mn<%- ,
Sssfe # An^ew tx Soule
I fltg department win cheerfully enaeatm to jurnisn any information,
l.ettcrs should 6e addressed to Dr. Andrew M. Soule, president Stats
Agricultural College, Athens, Oa.
DEVELOPING GEORGIA’S AGRICULTURE
C > EORGIA has 'made great strides
T agriculturally in the past deo-
* ade. Many influences have
contributed to this result, but
no one factor deserves more
credit than that of education as ap
plied to the solution of the problems
of the farmer. Within the period men
tioned the whole scheme of instruction
in agriculture has been reorganized and
directed along modern scientific lines
to -the end that some of the more im
portant principles which research has
brought to light might be made avail
able to a considerable proportion of
those who till the soil. The growing
appreciation of education as applied to
agriculture has been amply demonstrat
ed by the growth of* the State college
of Agriculture which now has nearly
140 men studying for degrees as com
pared with 25 five years ago. The in
crease in attendance on the long cours
es has been approximately 33 and 35
per cent for the past two years. The
enrollment in all courses up to the
present time is 200,’ and promises to
be 300 before the end of the present
college year. It is doubtful if a larg
er body of young men has gathered to
gether in any southern state for the
purpose of specializing along the line3
of scientific agriculture.
While the state has not made large
appropriations as compared with many
others in the south, enough money has
been provided to erect a suitable build
ing and gather some very excellent
equipment for the instruction of stu
dents. It has been a difficult, and at
times discouraging task to overcome
the opposition and prejudice which has
existed towards agricultural education,
but U would seem that substantial
progress'is being made in the right di
rection and one of the problems
which the state now faces is the im
mediate provision of additional build
ings and facilities in order that the
young men in Georgia may not be de
prived of the advantages which edu
cation with reference to modern agri
cultural practice insures.
The awakening of intellectual facul
ties as applied to agricultural devel
opment is the most gratifying occur
rence within the past ten years. For
fifty years men went hungry, though
there was an abundance of land
throughout the world to produce all
the bread needed. For reasons nard
to understand, however, no attention
was given to * the utilization of this
land and the evolution tnrougn invent
ive genius of types of implements by
which- it might be worked with econ
omy. During this period men dreamed
about the moon and endeavored to es
tablish false standards of philosophy
and living. There were a rew ex
tremely rich and millions in abject
poverty and distress. Civilization was
stagnated and industrial progress at
the lowest ebb. With the advent or
the mowing machine and the reaper
a change came over the face of affairs
which few men of this day ana genera
tion are able to appreciate; for it made
bread available to every one at a rea
sonable price. In 1830, ror instance,
it took three hours of a man’s time to
produce a bushel of wheat. By ma
chinery in 1912 this was accomplished
in less than ten minutes. With an
abundant supply of bread for every
one the standards of living have Deen
raised, intellectual advancement has
been witnessed on every hand, and our
modern industrial development and civ
ilization owes its existence largely to
the fact that man through the applica
tion of his intellect to the problem of
u^lizing the natural gifts of the soil
has been able to provide for himseir
an abundance of ’cheap food and raw
materials.
This illustrates the power of the train
ed intellect as applied to the advancement
of the nation through the utilization of
its latent potentialities. One example
must serve in this instance, but as
great progress, has been witnessed in the
evolution of cotton, tne development or
corn and the promotion of our live stock
industries as with wheat. From the
foregoing we may justly conclude that
while the state of Georgia is making
great advancement, her future is to be
determined by the degree to which she
promotes education in agriculture so that
the mind of the youth of the state wno
are to be her leaders may be perfected
along this line, and those living In the
country and cultivating the soil so direct
ed that they will be able to use the nat
ural gifts af their special environment
to the best advantage in the development
of a type of agriculture which may be
regarded as permanent, economic, and
therefore constructive in its purpose ana
scope.
. The power of the application of a few
principles in redirecting the energy of a
people is best illustrated by what has
been accomplished through the boys’ and
girls' clubs, which were Organized
through the agency of the University of
Georgia in 1906. To Chancellor Barrow
is due great credit for the wisdom and
foresight he exercised with reference to
the promotion of these organizations. To
day Georgia has 15,000 boys and girls in
her industrial clubs, and they are teach
ing a lesson to young and old alike
which has already borne fruit of the
greatest importance and which is des
tined to revolutionize our point of view
with refeernce to farm practice and in
dustrial advancement in the near future.
In 1906 when the clubs were started,
Georgia was producing about ten bush
els of corn per acre, and the crop for
that year approximated 45,000,000 bush
els. In 1911, the average yield was 16.5
bushels and the state produced about
75,000,000 bushels of corn. The increase
in a period of six years wa3 30,000,000
bushels, equal to a money value of $30.-
000,000. The additional corn produced
has enabled the purchase and mainte
nance, of more horses and mule^ of a
l'arger and better type. Henc* it has
been possible to use more modern agri
cultural implements and cultivate the
soil* to better advantage. The $30,000,-
000 annually sent out of the state for
foodstuffs has been kept at home, and
in fact, commission merchants in Chi
cago and St. Louis have complained
about the falling off in the shipments
of corn to this state. Surely, the cap
italization of a few elementary princi
ples of modern agriculture through the
receptive minds of the boys and girls
of Georgia has brought an economic
profit of startling proportions. What
may be anticipated when 100,000 boys
enter these clubs and a new vision ana
purpose in life is brought Into the
heart of every community-, no matter
how isolated?
The girls have done magnificent work
along the lines of canning and domes
tic science, yet this work has c^nly be
gun. The writer viSited a school fair
in Oconee county recently, and saw the
product from one girl’s tenth-acre plat,
which had been cultivated under the
directon of the college In co-operation
with Professor McWhorter, superin
tendent of public instruction for that
county. This little girl had made a net
profit of $68, which was probably as
much as was obtained from any acre
of land In the county last year. This
profit was on the basis of $680 per acre,
yet this little girl dislpayed a record
showing evefy phase of the work she
had performed in the production of this
crop and just how she had earned so
much money.
There are some who decry the type
of education portrayed in this article
because it smacks too much of com
mercialism and the economic side of
life; they fear it lacks cultural value.
The writer does not believe it is pos
sible to erect a ten-story building with
out a good foundation. No one has yet
accomplished such a wonderful engineer
ing feat. Neither is it possible to de
velop a love for the aesthetic and the ar
tistic until people have been given an
opportunity to earn a sufficient amount
of money through the development of
their intellects along certain lines to
make them appreciate the value of
highr standards of living and an advanc
ed civilization. It is not possible to
build beautiful roads, in the country,
erect fine consolidated rural schools, re
construct the country churches, and build
palatial homes with modern improve
ments until the man living on the land
has learned how to so utilize It so as
to double, treble and even quadruple
Its earning power.
It will be admitted by many that suc
cess in any line of Jife is bound to bring
a measure of culture and to give a force
to character which may otherwise be
lacking. The little girl who works out
in nature’s garden under the canopy of
heaven with the birds singing in the
tree tops and the flowers of the field
in riot about her is certainly not so
situated that her labor should be at all
degrading or lack opportunity for cul
ture and an appreciation of the finer
sentiments which make life most worth
while. The little girl who is learning
how to take some of God’s best gifts
and mold them through her will arid
through the application of certain well
known scientific principles into a vital
ized energy which they did not possess
before is certainly drinking deeply at
the fountain of knowledge, and is going
to be a bigger, better and broader woman
because of this experience. The fact
that she has learned to do her work
from an economic standpoint will not
limit her vision, but will fit her better
in the crisis of life to meet each new
obstacle successfully and to grasp op
portunity when it presents itself at her
doorway.
Only one phase of the extension work
being carried on by the State College
of Agriculture has been touched on In
the foregoing paragraphs. Work of
equal importance with reference to soils,
live stock, poultry, plant production,
chemistry, horticulture, farm mechanics,
veterinary medicine and forestry is be
ing prosecuted. More than 100,000 white
farmers in the state of Georgia were
reached last year through >he extension
services of the college. Petitions and
requests are daily being received by
the Institution asking for aid and advice
in solving some local problem which
has been baffling the community for
many years. Responses have' been made
to these as generously as possible but
Georgia is a big state, and when her
population becomes aroused along agri
cultural lines, it is impossible for the
College of Agriculture to handle these
requests satisfactorily unless mo’re lib
erally endowed by the state in the im
mediate future than has been the case
in the past. The time has evidenly ar
rived when new buildings and equipment
must be provided for the care of the
young men who are coming to Athens to
receive the training which will in deed
and in fact constitute them leaders in
agricultural development throughout the
length and breadth of Georgia. Certain
ly the people, non-resident at the col
lege are entitled to receive the vital
facts of agriculture as they are now
known and appreciated. The state can
not afford to withhold from its citizens
the power which knowledge brings to
them for increasing their earning ca
pacity, the improvement of their social
and financial status and the enlarge
ment of their vision as it pertains to
all that makes for the welfare and ad
vancement of humanity and civilization.
It will be necessary, therefore, for
the board of trustees of the State Col
lege of Agriculture to ask for a consid
erable increase in appropriations for the
enlargement of the teaching faculty and
for the maintenance of the extension
work organized so inauspiciously a few
years ago, and which has now grown to
the proportions indicated in this article.
Brains and money constitute the in
vestment of every business man. In the
same way they constitute the most im
portant and essential investment of the
state. Georgia stands at the threshold
of a development along agricultural
lines which is destined to revolutionize
her industries. The future depends on
the liberality with which the state en
dows those agencies capable of taking
the plastic mind of youth and increasing
its power ten, twenty, yea, even one
hundred fold, through educational pro
cesses.
PLANTING COWPEAS ON STUBBLE
LAND.
E. W. B., Madison, Oa., writes: I have
some ground that was in wheat that was
in good condition and w»at to plant it to
sorghum and peas. What would be the
cheapest and quickest way to do this?
Heretofore I have been sowing the seed,
turning them under and then harrowing
level and smooth, but thought probably there
was a quicker way. How would it do to
sow the reed and then run a cutaway har
row twice across the field at right angles?
Would this put the seed in the ground?
Two mules cduld by this irieaus do the
work of six.
The Need of a Rural Finance System
For the Benefit of Georgia Farmers
By J. C. McAuUffe, Milledg-eville, Otu
WHEN TO APPLY NITRATE
OF SODA TO THE CROPS
Co-operative finance is one of the
greatest needs of the nation at pres
ent. National and state governments
are devoting attention to this urgent
necessity and nowhere else is this
course so badly needed as in the cotton
belt. The credit system, involving the
crude loan arrangement made necessary
by inadequate protection, has caused an
exorbitant interest rate to devolve on
those who work and pay their debts.
Operators of these cpncerns have made
no more than a legitimate rate of in
terest in the way of dividends, conse
quently no direct attack could be made
on them as business men, but the hard
ship worked on the deserving people is
at once apparent.
There is something radically wrong
with the system. That is the whole
story. Financiers and farmers who
have devoted a life time to the problem
of rural economics are thoroughly con
vinced that there must be an evolution
of financial character in the cotton belt
before the progress commensurate
with the resources of the section is
reached." In Europe the Raffeisen sys
tem of farm finance has revolutionized
agricultural life and caused develop
ment of the most notable character. In
America there 1b probably no man
more interested in national rural wel
fare than Mr. Herbert Myrick, head
of the Orange Judd company and pub
lisher of many agricultural newspa
pers and farm journal^. Intensely in
terested in this questioTi are dozens of
other men, including Mr. Harvie Jordan,
of Georgia, and both of the gentlemen
named are in Europe now studying the
question of rural finance.
The Georgia legislature can hardly
do anything better than evolve some
improvement on the present banking
system and while this is yet in the em
bryo stage its importance is growing
each day, many states already planning
state land banks and it will be only a
land is cut up by what we call “slushes,”
bottom places enriched with the washings
of the hillsides, and rank with vegetation,
such as maple, berry bushes, swamp grass,
etc. It has occurred to me that this would
make good litter for our horse and cow
stalls because I have understood that more
nitrogen exists in green leaf than In dry
vegetation. What do you think of this
plan for enriching our land?
A cutaway harrow may be used to
advantage *n preparing stubble land
for seeding to cowpeas. Seasonal con
ditions will have much to do with the
success attending this practice. It ia
also important according to our experi
ence to prepare the land fairly well for
the pea crop. We have had excellent
‘success from the use* of the cutaway
harrow and the method of planting sug
gested in your letter as well, but our
greatest and most permanent success
has come from the use of gang plows
which turn the land fairly shallow but
rapidly and enable the farmer through
the use of the harrow and grain drill
to prepare and plant *his peas under the
most favorable conditions. Of course,
your long experience in the cultivation
of this crop has impressed you with
the importance of so preparing the land
as to secure a uniform stand as quick
ly as possible after seeding, and, there
fore, plowing the land as in your former
practice or with a gang plow, as has
been suggested, will in our judgment
be more likely to insure securing the
best results.
* *
MAKING MANURE FROM LITTER.
H. E. P., Sylvester, Ga., writes; Our
There is no reason why the litter and
trash growing in the draws or slushes
to which you refer should not be used
to advantage as a substitute for othvr
forms of bedding in the stalls or sta
bles where various classes are main
tained. On the eastern shore of Vir
ginia where they grow sweet and Irish
potatoes almost exclusively the pine
areas on practically every farm are
used as sources of vegetable matter,
the pine needles and other trash being
raked up carefully each year and placed
in the bottom of the furrows before the
planting is done. This has been found
very beneficial to these crops and is
now an almost universal practice with
the farmers in that section.
In Georgia thousands of pounds cf
nitrogen and other desirable forms of
fertilizing material might be utilized
to excellent advantage, as you have
suggested, and we are doing all in our
power to encourage this practice. It is
shown beyond question of doubt that
yard manure or the nearest substitutes
therefor can be used to the greatest
advantage on our Georgia land, one of
the main defects of which is its defi|
ciency in vegetable matter. It is true
that nitrogen is likely to be found in
larger quantities in living plants be
fore they reach a stage of maturity and
before the grain or. seed has ripened.
Nitrates in a living plant are fixed
and those in a dead plant or leaf
hot fixed and are therefore liable to be
washed away by rains.
SUPPLEMENTED FERTILIZERS FOR
COTTON.
Jj. E. S.. Wetmnpa, Ain., writes: I hnve
nine aeres in cotton tlmt was in truck early
in the spring which were well fertilized.
I put 500 pounds of 10-2.25-5 on the cot
ton. The cotton has been choped out. What
fertilizer shall I use now? I also have
three acres planted in melons in rows 12
feet apart, with beets between the rows.
Used 1,000 pounds of 8-5-10 fertilizer. Will
the fertilizer put on the beets help the
melons? I put .800 pounds under the melons
when planted and 800 pounds as side ap
plication when bunching. Would nitrate
of soda be helpful now?
The cotton on the lands described
in your letter will be benefited to a
considerable extent by the fertilizer
used under the truck crops, and the use
of 500 pounds of a 10-2.25-5 as an ini
tial application at the time of planting
the cotton was certainlly a good formu
la to use in view of the previous fer
tilization of the land. We would sug
gest now that you use about 300 pounds
of a 10-4-5. This side application may
be put on any time in the next two or
three weeks and you may scatter it
broadcast or put alongside the drill
rows which ever you consider most con
venient. Personally, we would prefer
to have it distributed over the ground
so the feeding roots of the plants will
traverse a larger area of land and thus
have an opportunity to gather a larger
proportion of plant • food. Nitrate of
soda may be needed on this crop as
a final application. Thfct can only be
determined by the character* of growth
the crop makes and seasonal conditions.
The melons have been well fertilized
and we doubt whether it is advisable
to use any more plant food at this par
ticular time. If so, nitrate of soda would
oe the only thing to use and it should
be applied at the rate of 200 pounds per
acre, putting it in a circle around the
hills but not In contact with the vines,
ff the land is low in vegetable matter
and the plants do not vine as freely as
Jeslrable to insure the largest yield, we
would use the nitrate.
* * *
TURNING COW PEAS FOR SOIL IM
PROVEMENT.
K. L. C., Cuthbent, Ga., writes: What
is the best method of plowing in peas
for the improvement of land; that is, at
what stage should they be plowed under for
the improvement of land?
The time to plow under cow peas
depends much on seasonal conditions.
In a very wet year when the ground
is full of moisture the crop should
not be turned under until it has reach
ed a much more complete stage of ma
turity than in a season when there has
only been a fair amount of rain. The
pea .crop contains a tremenaous amount
of water; in fact, the green crop may
weigh as much as 40,000 to 50,000
pounds per acre. To plow this mass of
green material under when the land
is surfeited with water might cause the
land to sour, whereas, if the turning
under were deferred until the lower
leaves and pods were beginning to
ripen and the peas were in good
condition to cut for hay no such dif
ficulty would be experienced. In a
comparatively dry season when this
crop is turned under the land should
be immediately rolled so as to bring the
moisture to the surface and cause the
decay of the vines. As a rule, the lar
gest amount of plant food will be se
cured to the land by turning the crop
under when the lower pods and leaves
are beginning- to turn yellow.
short time before the states and the
nation are ready to aid every agricul
tural undertaking. The enormous vol
ume of business that may be trans
acted by the land banks and rural sys
tern of credits as applied to co-opera
tive finance can hardly be estimated,
but the farmers of the tJnited States
are now producing close to ten billions
of dollars worth of stuf^F and to do
this they operate oil borrowed capital
amounting to over three-fourths of the
value of their farm produce. They pay
an average interest of probably 10 per
cent, statisticians say a little less, an-1
it is interesting to know that barring
the people of Alabama, that is the
farmers of Alabama,. Georgia farmers
pay he highest rate df interest. Busi
ness men pay ordinarily 6 to 7 per cent
in the south. In European countries
where rural co-operation finance is in
operation the rate of interest is less
than half that paid in America.
Real estate is the basis of ail
wealth and agriculture is the founda
tion of commerce and yet, if I am cor
rectly informed, not a single national
bank can extend loans to any of the
holders of real estate In the nation.
They can not extend credit on growing
crops, or upon any of the greatest as
sets of the nation, including live stock
and kindred property. Oontrast this
to the situation existing in other coun
tries, Brazil being a notable Instance,
in addition to the other countries men
tioned Brazil has its Agncola bank and
from it radiates a financial system that
are becoming the most valuable In the
dize the coffee planters to such an ex
tent the farms of the Amazon country
ar becoming the most valuable in the
world and the cities of Brazil, together
with those of the Argentine, just to
the south, are becoming the richest
imaginable.
With conditions of this kind exVit
ing elsewhere and the avenues of
commerce and industry opened to the
wide world, with distance eliminated,
we can hardly hope to compete # with
producers of any kind unless we adopt
different tactics from those how In
use. Only a few instances v can be
cited in which any one will suffer
from the establishment oT the rural
system of co-operative finance, includ
ing the land banks. In a short while
even those who feel they would suffer
will find it different.
The Georgia legislature has been
importuned from several sections to
revise the monetary laws of the state
and the bankers of Georgia are even
divided on how this shall be done.
However, everybody realizes that it is
time something was being done to pro
test the interests of the people an*
when this is done everything else is
accomplished. The establishment of a
modern system of rural co-operative
finance solves .the problem.
Illustrating this in a *homely way.
vet demonstrating beyond the shadow
of a doubt the feasibility o fthe plan,
numerous instances may he tnentioned
In which even the negroes of commu
nities in Georgia are organized. They
have a local batik of their own.'con
ducted without the protection of the
law. save if be the law of their own
band, in which all the farmers of the
community take part and they have a
common treasury from which supplies
are purchased for cash in proportion
a« everv man wants it. In a Georgia
town this business is of immense vol
ume and is much sought after b'y the
wholesale dealers and the community
at interest Prospers, f Of course, this
is very much d4fferent from the opera
tion of the land hank and co-operative
finance svstem. but it serves to show
the effectiveness of the plan. Let the
Georgia legislature get busy and pave
the way to real rural progress.
pnv* nc pRontc? fjnivq
AFTER NEW CORN RECORD
QUITMAN, Oa.. June 21.—The Brooks
County Bovs’ Corn club is working with
the intention of lowering its own record
or last year and is going out after the
south Georgia record. There are only
twenty-nine members of the club, but
they are all working hard. There were
twelve in last year’s club and ail of
them are in the work again this year.
J. O. Lucas won last year’s prise, with
112 bushels, and he intends lowering
this record himself this year. Prospects
for a good corn crop are much better in
the county this season than they were
last year, and there is no doubt but that
the average yield produced by the club
last year of sixty bushels per acre will
be greatly increased.
The members of the Club are: G. L.
Joyce, Shelly Shearer, Clarence New-
some, B. J. Morris, Lester Johnson, B.
L. Johnson, John Huffmaster, J, M.
Johnson, T. W. O’Ltff, Henry Crosby, A.
G. Toole, John Dewey Blalock, Tlnley B.
and Flavius Young, Tallie Green, J. O.
Lucas, H. D. Ramsey, Jim Hutchinson,
W. J. Rast, Dan Groover, Joe Miller,
James Hutchinson,, Kennetth Holloway,
James Davis, Frank Hinson, Ezra Webb,
Reese Webb and Earl Scruggs.
To Corn Club
Boys and Girls
Home and Farm, Louisville,
Ky., is told that there are In
Georgia 10;000 boys and 2,500
girlfc enrolled in the Corn
Clubs.
That Is good; all of you go
in to win.
To win In this contest, and
in the greater contest of life,
you should be reading Judge
Dearing's articles entitled
The sub-
j«ct is
treated In
n a r ratlve
form.
"P ran-
nan’ and
Saunders ”
New Method vs. Old §2* wTo
discuss
the sub
ject, and they are just like
your neighbors.
These articles are one of
the features of Home and
Farm, Louisville, Ky.
Another feature is the re
publication 6t
Corn Culture
and Soil
Preservation
Farish
Furman's
Letters
These are plain
to plain people.
Who some years
ago took a farm
of 65 acres, and
in five years in
creased the prod
ucts of cotton
from seven bales
to a bale an
acre.
talks by plain men
Subscribe now for Home and Farm,
Louisville. It will help you to win the
corn prizes and the prizes of life. It
is made by farmers for farmers; po
litical climbers have nothing to do
with it. Only 50 cents a year; in
blocks of three $1.00, or three years
$1.00.
Home and Farm, Louisville, Ky.
By Prof. J. p. Dugg-ar, Alabama Experi
ment Station.
Not enough experiments have yet been
made in any state to determine posi
tively under all conditions of soil and
season just what is exactly the best
stage at which to apply to cotton or
corn the nitrate of soda so generally
used, nor at what stage to apply any
other fertilizer which may have been
omitted at the time of planting. These
questions are still being investigated
at the Alabama Experiment station, and
d9ubtless at other stations. The recom
mendations made below are based part
ly on results of tests made at a number
of stations, and party on observation
of ordinary practice.
I believe that there is on the aver
age but little difference in the results
from applications . made to the corn
plant at any time when it is between
two and four feet high. Indeed, where
the growth is rapid and the seasons are
favorable it may be safe to conclude
that there will usually be but small dif
ferences from applications made from
the time the corn plant is about two feet
high until it is nearly ready to bunch
for tasselling. The more favorable the
latter part of the season, the later, is
it practicable to apply nitrate of soda
or any other fertilizer.
We are more concerned, however, with
th6 time of- application that is best for
those years when the seasonal condi
tions are not favorable during the pe
riod of vigorous growth of the corn
plant. It Is reasonable that when dry
weather follows the application of ni
trate of soda, or any other 'fertilizer,
there is need for a longer period to
elapse between the time of application
and the time of full development of the
ear than under favorable weather condi
tions. This is true, both of corn and
cotton. To avoid having & large pro
portion of the nitrate of soda ineffective
in years when the late season is quite
dry, it seems to me advisable that ni
trate of soda, when applied in ordinary
amounts, should be supplied not later
than the period of bunching for tassel-
ing; and that the results would be even
more certain if the application were a
little earlier than this period. More farm
ers make the mistake of applying ni
trate of soda too late than too early, to
both corn and cotton. Undoubtedly ni
trate of soda may be effective if applied
even after silks are showing plainly, but
it cannot be so completly utilized as it
the plant were given a longer period in
which to manufacture grain from the ni
trates and from the other constituents
of soil and air. If dry weather should
occur after late application, a considera
ble proportion of the nitrate may not be
utilized directly or indirectly in the pro
duction of grain. Our experiments have
indicated clearly that oats make the
best use of nitrate if it is applied at
least two months before maturity-
With the cotton plant, too, there are
several stages Of growth at which
nitrate of soda is highly effective. My
preference is to apply it when the
plants are ’between eight and twelve
inches high; and yet there are cases in
which it may pay to apply it a little
earlier or a little later than this. For
example, if the young cotton plants are
late and small, their growth will be
greatly hastened if at least a part of
the nitrate of soda is put in early, or
as soon as the plants are well rooted
and have enough leaves, say four or
six, to utilize the fertilizer rapidly.
Early application would seem to be
especially in place in the presence of
the boll weevil, and when for any
cause the crop has made a rather late
start, since a moderate amount of
nitrogen applied early tends rather to 1
hasten than to delay maturity.
On the other hand, it may be ad
visable to apply nitrate of soda to
cotton when it is more than twelve
inches high, if for any reason enough
nitrogen had not been applied prior
to that stage of growth. Late ap
plication, however, tends to late ma
turity and hence should be es-
ecially avoided where the boll-
weevil is present. A number of ex
periments made under the writer’s di
rection in a number of oounties in Ala
bama indicate that nitrate of soda,
unless applied reasonably early, may
result in the later maturing of the cot
ton plant than from the use of equal
amounts of nitrogen applied in the
form of cotton seed meal before the
seed are planted. The late applications
do have the effect of keeping the plant
green, and to some extent, perhaps, of
decreasing shedding; but this practice
also results In a compensating, loss in
yield of lint through the destruction of
many immature bolls from frost.
A man who is working for a prize
yield of either corn or cotton can, of
course, afford to continue to apply nitrate
of soda later than can one who Is farm
ing under ordinary conditions; for the
grower of the. prize acre does not ex
pect to get as complete utilization of
his fertilizer &^ does the man wh ap
plies moderate amounts.
The case is still stronger for the early
application of cotton seed meal. We
must constantly remember that before
meal or any other nitrogenous fertilizer
can be taken up by plants, its nitrogen
must be changed first into the form of
ammonia, then into the chemical com
pound known as nitrites, and then to the
form of nitrates. AH of these stages
are processes brought about by micro
scopic organisms in the soil, and all of
them require a fair amount of time tor
operation. This is not true of nitrate
of soda, Which may begin to effect the
plant without any notable chemical
change. '
^Equally important is it to apply acid
phosphate to the plant in its early
growth. Even under conditions in which
experience has proved it advisable to
“feed the plant,” that is, to hold back
a part of its fertilizer to be applied
after growth has proceeded vigorously,
intercultural applications of fertilizer
should be made relatively early in the
plants’ life. The plant must have time
in which to fully utilfee phosphates and
potash- Doubtless, all phosphates should
be applied either 4 before planting or by
£he time corn is two feet high; and to
cotton preferably before planting, or
soon after active growth has begun.
SOME GOOD REASONS
FOR CROP ROTATION
There is prevalent all over the south
an idea that land gets tired, and that it
is a good thing to let a field 11 eand grow
weeds and grass a year or so. Of course
this Js better than keeping it all the time
In a r clean cultivated crop. But land does
not get tired, for nature will not allow
it to rest. The land Is just as busy at
work growing grass and weeds as It
would be in growing something better.
The whole Idea In a rotation of crops Is
to keep the land at work between sale
crops growing something for its improve
ment.
Many have asked if It will nbt be bet
ter, in growing grass or clover, to turn
it all under for the improvement of tlje
soil. Of course this would rather more
rapidly get the humous into the soil, but
it is hardly the best farm economy, es
pecially in most of the southern soils.
The peas and cloyer are valuable feed
crops for live stock, and we can feed the
pea hay and save the manure carefully
and can recover fully 80 per cent of it
maturial value for returning to the land,,
and also get a profit from the feeding.
Much has been written in regard to what
icalled green manuring. Turning under
green crops in summer may not do as
much damage in the clay soils of the
north, but in the south the turning under
of a green crop in hot weather is apt to
cause such an acid fementation that it
may do moue harm than good, by sour
ing the soil. Then there is another rea
son why I would not turn under these
crops in midsummer, as so many advise.
I want the peas and clover to do all the
nitrogen-fixing they can, and they do
more of that in the later stages of their
growth than in the early ones, and if the
crop is to be turned under, it is better to
wait till it is mature and the weather
more favorable.
The main thing, aside from the hu
mus-making work, that the legume
crops do for us is the fixation in or
ganic matter in the soil of the nitro
gen, which is the most costly material
in a purchased fertilizer. The farmer
who farms in a good rotation and
grows and feeds the legume crops, can
avoid entirely the "purchase of nitro
gen in a fertilizer.
In the best wheat-growing section of
eastern Maryland, where crops of forty
bushels an acre eft more are not un
common, the best farmers have for
years abandoned the purchase of am-
moniated fertilizers and buy only the
phosphate and potash, or even the
phosphate alone. But they practice a
short rotation and have clover on their
land often.
One Maryland farmer, who was an
enthusiastic farmer to his death at
the age of eighty-five, wrote to me
some \ime before his death, that for
twenty years he had averaged forty
bushels of wheat an acre on his farm,
and that during that time he had used
no commercial fertilizer except acid
phosphate for the wheat, and made his
corn on the clover sod on which his
manure was spread, so that every field
on his farm was covered with manure
once In three years. The clover and
the manure maintained and actually in
creased the humus in his soil, and kept
up its productiveness.
The clover was made Into hay, and
with the corn stover and straw was
fed to stock and the manure returned
to the land. A similar practice will
restore the soils of the south, and what
is needed more than the fertilizers, im
portant as they' are in the right hands,
is good rotative farming.
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Don’t buy an engine until you have investigated the Oole.
Write today for catalogue and full information regarding out
special engine offer. Do this now.
«• P. COLE MANUFACTURING CO., Box K NEWNAN, GA. .
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KIDNAPERS ARE GIVEN-
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
SALEM, Ill., June 23.—Frank Sul-
lens and Ernest Harrison were found
guilty today of kidnaping Dorothy
Holt last March. The jury fixed the
penalty of each at twenty-five years
in the penitentiary. The state had
asked the death penalty.
Important evidence in the case was
a confession by Sullens that he had
kidnaped the girl and taken her to an
abandoned mine where he was to turn
her over to Harrison. For this, he
said, Harrison was to give him $5.
The girl was found in a critical con
dition. Sullens was arrested and- a
mob demonstration against him re
sulted in the calling out of several
companies of state troops.
TRY OUR RAZOR- SEND NO MONEY.
$ 3 UPVALUE
N0WONLY*ies
THINKS STROP and
*192 HONE FREE
25YEARS
GUARANTEE
USE OUR RAZOR 10 DAYS—-Test Its quality yourself. Yon will get the
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The MIDDLEBROOKS RAZO R is Hollow Ground, made of the finest steel.
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MIDDLEBROOKS CO., Dept. H„ ^
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NAME \ooof.7o
P. 0
St. or R. F. D. No
Box State
New Parcel Post Map and Chart
of Horse Remedies
We have just bought a large
number of New Four Leaf Charts,
which we are going to give with
The Semi-Weekly Journal. This
Chart contains a 1913 Calendar,
Pictures of our Presidents from
Washington to Wilson, a Chart of
Horse Ailments and Remedies,
giving Symptoms of Diseases and
How to Treat Them; a Parcel Post
Map of the United States, with
instructions; a large State Map of
your own state, besides other in
formation and statistics, valuable
in every household. We are giv
ing a Chart to each person sending
us One Dollar for the following
papers: The Semi-Weekly Jour
nal 18 months, Farm Life 12
months, and Every Day Life 12
months. Use coupon below.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta, Ga.
Enclosed find One Dollar, for which send me The Semi-Weekly Journal
18 months, Farm Life 12 months, and Every Day Life 12 months, and mail
me absolutely free your NE.W Ready Reference Parcel Post Chart.
■NAME
P. 0 R. F. D STATE