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-s - ‘ FARMERS SHOULD NOT BE FOOL SD Sudden Rise In Cotton Price Is Only a Snare. NESBITT’S WARNING NOTE Commissioner of Agriculture Exposes tbe Old Game That Is Being Played to Induce Planting of a Big Crop. An Appeal For Diversification and Smaller Area. Department or Agriculture, Atlanta, March, 1,1898. ’ ‘ COTTON. It is to be hoped that no sensible fanner will be misled into the oft re peated mistake of planting a ruinously heavy cotton crop, by the recent expected and predicted rise in the cotton market. Surely that game has been played often enough and we have learned its mean ’ ing! Concentration should always be the watchword among farmers, that is, the aim should be to cultivate only so much land as we can thoroughly manage, and from which we can obtain the largest yield at the smallest cost. But just now, it is even more important than usual, that we do not waste our time and money and weaken our strength by spreading out our farm operations over a larger area than we can do justice to, or than will pay expenses. Cotton plant ing time is fast approaching, and the price of cotton has advanced more than half a cent! This is the usual pro gram, and at this hopeful season of the year, many an otherwise sensible man, who has resolved on better plans, sees in this improved price reason for breaking his good resolutions. Instead of apportioning a fair amount of his land and time and labor to cotton and the re mainder to the comforts and indepen dences of farm life, he resolves to try the all cotton plan again another year and trust to luck, or his time accout with his merchant, for the balance. By “all cot ton” we do not mean that he will be so foolish as to actually plant his whole farm in cotton, but that he will give his main energies and his best lands to this v crop. How many a man is now taking this step, thus preparing for a hand to hand strugge against desperate odds from start to finish? In his case the mi nor crops, which mean so much to family comfort, as well as to family in come, must necessarily be reduced or al together abandoned. The vegetable gar den, the orchard, the dairy, the smoke house, the poultry yard, all must suffer, while the staple provision crops, corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, cane, all must, in a measure, give place to the predomi nating, all absorbing, daily struggle for an increased number of cotton bales. This course is simply playing into the hands of the spinners. The certainty of a big cotton crop will not only prevent any considerable rise in present prices,but will tend to keep the market depressed while any indication that the farmers are determined on a reduced area would at once send prices up. Cannot fanners realize that they hold the key to their own prosperity, and that success the coming year lies only in a smaller cotton crop and ample provisions for man and beast? The little experience of the past year, and the alarms now being sounded from one end of the south to the other, should surely warn him of his danger. For his own sake, and for the prosperity of the country at large, we trust the warning will be heeded before it is too late. WHAT OUR CROPS NEED. Our crops need three main elements, nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. Different crops take up these elements in different proportions, but there is no crop that we grow which does not re quire them in greater or less degree. WHAT OUR LANDS NEED. The crying need of most of our lands is humus, that is, decaying vegetable matter, by which we enable the crops to appropriate the three needed chemical elements to the best advantage. HOW SHALL WE OBTAIN THESE? The all important humus must be sup plied from the farm itself in the form of stable manures, composts, by plowing under the various forms of vegetable and animal matter, which accumulate from year to year, and last but not least, by leguminous crops. These, when prop erly managed, perform three important offices. They gather the unused nitro gen from the air, deposit it in the soil, and also help to unlock the stores of potash and phosphoric acid lying dor mant in most subsoils. They furnish a crop rich in food constituents. When this is taken off the land, what is left of stubble and roots lays a foundation for the humus, which every experienced farmer knows, is the factor above ail others which makes successful farming possible. Having by such means ob tained the necessary humus and nitro gen it remains for us to secure needed potash and phosphoric acid. These may be supplied in part by deep fall plowing, bringing up a little of the subsoil, going deeper each year, and by the frequent and fine pulverization of the soil during cultivation, both of which enable it to hold moisture and thus convert its ele ments to the use of growing crops. If when the leguminous crops are planted they are given the necessary amount of phosphoric acid and potash for their best development, say 200 to 400 pounds to the acre, not only will their nitrogen powers be increased, but when the stub ble and roots are plowed in, much of these mineral elements will remain and be just in right condition to be taken up by the following crop. This is the most economical and at the same time the most profitable plan for our worn soils. Commercial fertilizers, when used alone on such lands, act only as a temporary stimulous. The rotation, which legu minous crops require, will gradually lead to the diversified farming so much to be desired. D versified, intensive, rotating and economical farming is what Geor gia and the south so sorely need. R. T. Nesbitt, Commissioner. INQUIRIES AND ANSWERS. State Agricultural Department Fur nish ea Information. Question.—l notice what you say in the February report about making use of the corn stalks, which have been wasted heretofore. Please give us a lit tle more information on thia subject. After the stalks are shredded how is the fodder kept, and what is its feeding value? Can it be fed to farm stock without using any other “roughage,” and is there any trouble in getting them to oat it? Answer.—After the stalks are shred ded the fodder may be kept in the barn or any dry place, until needed for use, taking care not to disturb the mass, for no matter how dry it may seem, there is at first sufficient moisture to cause a slight fermentation, and if the fodder is disturbed during this fer mentation monld is apt to appear. The feeding value of this fodder has been shown by analysis to be greater than cottonseed hulls and nearly equal to the best quality of timothy hay. At the. Experiment Station farm in this state this forage has been thoroughly tested. It has been used there- for weeks at * time as the only ’‘roughage” to the, manifest benefit of the farm animals, and they eat it readily. On the subject of “Corn Stalk Hay,” we copy the fol lowing from Bulletin No. 36 of the Geor gia Experiment Station. These bul letins are sent free to every fariner who applies for them, and we would advise you to address a card to Director R. J. Redding, Experiment, Ga., requesting that your name be put on their mailing list. You will then receive all the lit erature of the station, as it is issued. Bulletin No. 34 says: In Bulletin No. 30, containing the re sults of Experiments in Corn Culture made in 1895, the attention of farmers was espacially called to the advantages of the method of utilizing the corn stalks for stock food. It is the almost univer sol practice in the south to gather and cure the blades, and harvest the ears of corn, leaving the entire stalks in the field to prove an almost unmitigated nuisance and obstruction in the prepara tion and cultivation of the land in the succeeding crop; and winter homes and hibernating retreats for insects that will be ready to attack such crops, especially if it shall be another crop of corn. Farm ers have habitually considered this large part of the crop as of no practical value. Indeed, com stalks, especially of the large types of com planted in the south, are of little available food value because of the mechanical condition. Even in the north the old method of feeding the stalks (“stover”) without any mechani cal preparation was but little less waste ful and slovenly than leaving them in the fields. But the use of machinery for preparing the the com stalks, shred ding them into a coarse hay, is rapidly extending. A number of very effective machines may now be had at moderate prices, that will convert the hard, flinty stalks into a soft, easily masticated sub stance, very similar in mechanical con dition to coarse hay, that is readily— even greedily—eaten by horses, mules and cattie. In Bulletin No. 30, already referred to, the whole subject was discussed at some length, showing by experiments made, and by analysis that the value of the naked stalks that are generally left in the field, after harvesting the ears, shucks and blades, amounts to fully one sixth of total value of the crop. Bulletin No. 36, published last fall, says further on this subject: The station has just finished shred ding the com stalks from five acres of com. The crop was very much injured by the extreme heat and drouth, and the yield of grain was cut off at least 25 per cent. The com was cut down just above the surface of the ground Aug. 23, and immediately shocked, placing about 150 stalks in each shock, and tying the top of each shock with twine. No rain fell on the shocks and the ears were husked out Oct. 3, and the stalks immediately run through the shredding machine, being apparently perfectly dry. The yield of the five acres was as follows: Shelled corn 155 bushels. Shredded stalks, or stover. 14,000 pounds. This represents a yield per acre of 81 bushels of shelled corn and 2,800 pounds of dry corn hay, which is believed to be very nearly equal in feeding value to good timothy hay. In the above total yield of corn hay is included the blades and shucks, which are almost univer sally saved and utilized by Georgia farmers. But there are also included in the 2,800 pounds of corn hay about 1,300 pounds of the stalks, which are usually permitted to remain on the grpund and nonutilized as food. This 1,800 pounds represents the food loss for every 81 bushels of shelled corn. The corn crop of Georgia, for convenience, may be stated at 31,000,000 bushels—sometimes less, often more. Then, at 1,300 pounds of corn hay, heretofore not saved, for every 31 bushels of corn, the total loss in the state would be 1,300 pounds by 1,- 000,000 = 1,300 million pounds, or 660,- 000 tons of com hay, a very good foed, and worth at least flO a ton, or a total of 16,500,000, or about enough to pay fat all the commercial fertilizers used in Georgia in one ysar! This may be con sidered a remarkable statement, and it will no doubt surprise many a fanner •who has not thought about it. I have replied to ytmr question thus at lenghth, because there to scarcely a •object of move importance to the fann ers just now. The universe t practice of shredding the corn stalks n ans a sav ing of millions of dollars.- State Agri cultural Department. Fertilizer For Corn. Question.—What are the best propor tions in a commercial fertilizer for corn, and how, at what time, and what amount would you apply it? Answer.—All things considered tbe best fertilizer on our ordinary lands for coni should be in about the following proportion. Cottonseed meal 1,000 lbs., acid phosphate 1,000 lbs. muriate pot ash 50 lbs., or 200 lbs, of koinit may be substituted for the muriate of potash. On lands almost destitute of humus, that is, which have cultivated and re cultivated in clean crops, we would not venture to use more than two or three hundred pounds to the acre, applied just before or at planting time. The com crop, more perhaps than any other, is dependent on a supply of moisture for its best development, and it has been found that the direct application of com mercial fertilizers does not result as well as where these have been applied to a previous crop, and provided the applica tion be sufficiently heavy. If the ferti lizer has been broadcast, as for oats or peas, the succeeding com crop is usually very satisfactory, although fine crops of corn arc often made after a heavily fer tilized cotton crop. As a rule, any for mula, Which will analyze 7.00 per cent phosphoric acid 1.30 per cent potash and 3.40 per cent nitrogen, is suited to com. —State Agricultural Department. Hate Spring Oats. Question.—l have a piece of land which I think will make a good crop of oats, tut lam in doubt about planting it so late. Would the first of March be too late to sow it down? And what kind of seed would you advise me to Use? Answer.—ln southern Georgia the first of March is rather late to sow oats, but in your section, North Georgia, if a quickly maturing variety, like the Burt, is planted on rich or well fertilized land, the chances for a satisfactory crop are good. The great, drawback to our oat crop is want of care in preparation and seeding, coupled with the fact that we generally plant our oats on our poorest land. In sowing oats at this season, our object should be to force the crop forward to a quick maturity. To do this plant the "Ninety Day” or "Burt” seed, on land naturally rich, or made so by rotation and manure. If the land has been previously well broken and the oats are harrowed in, so much the better. But if time is too pressing for this, then clear off the land, sow the oats, about a bushel to the acre, and plow the seed in, running the furrows close and deep.—State Agricultural De partment. Fertilizing Cotton. . Question.—Please tell me how the elements in a commercial fertilizer af fect cotton ? I mean what influence do the separate elements, nitrogen, phos phoric acid and pdtash, have on the growth of the plant. Os course every man who plants cotton would rather have bolls than stalks or leaves. I know the probable effects of certain qualities es soil on the cotton plant. What I want to know is the Separate effect of each ingredient in the fertilizer, so that I may more clearly understand how to apportion my fertilizer to suit my differ ent kinds of land—in other words to in duce the development of well formed and well filled bolls. Answer. —Nitrogen makes weed or stalk, it also has a tendency to prolong the period of growth. If there is an ex cess of nitrogen it often causes the plant to form stalk and leaves late in the sea son, when it should be developing fruit. Phosporic acid tends to force maturity and develop fruit. Potash will give strength and vigor to the stalk. It en ters hugely into the lint, and if in the form of kainit, tends to lessen liability to rust. The fruit forming element to phosphoric, acid. Nitrogen makes stalk and foliage. Potash gives strength to the plant and develops the lint.—State Agricultural Department. Proper Distance For Planting Corn. Question. —Would not a larger yield be realized from the same land if the com crop was planted in double rows on wide beds, instead of single rows on nar row beds? Answer. Experiments have been carefully conducted to settle this ques tion, and the conclusion arrived at is, that the more nearly each plant occu pies the center of a square area of soil, the greater the yield—that is, all condi tions being equal, single rows 4x3, will yield more than double rows, fix 6. One plant in each hill, the hills equidistant, gave better results than two planted to the hill separated by longer distances.— State Agricultural Department. Hens Laying Soft or Thin Shelled Eggs. Question.—Some of my hens are lay ing eggs with soft or very thin Shells. I cannot account for this, as they have plenty of lime and grit in reach and are in splendid condition. Please tell me if there to any remedy for this. Answer.—Perhaps the trouble is that your hens are in too fine condition. Hens, which are too fat, often lay such eggs. Try shorter rations and * little Epsom salts every other day. This may be given in the drinking water. Let them have green food, and plenty of lime.—-State Agricultural Department. *• Ctattta* rmt First Bam. Manchester, in Adams county, has a colored baasbal ulna that has been beat ing everything- iu aoothern Ohio. Not long since they sent word to West Union, the oounty sent of that county, that they wished to ami for a game with tfceeol ored boys at that place. Although West Union had no regularly organised nine, the challenge was accepted. A team was got together and put to practice. The day for the game arrived, and tbe two teams met on the fair ground* The West Union boys had several players in their team who had never been in a match game and knew aa little about tbe rules as they did about playing, one of them waa Pete Johnson, a tall, rawboned darky, who waa assigned to hold down first base. Pete’s hands were as big as a barn door, and when he opened them out it looked aa if it were impossible for a ball to pass him. The game waa railed, and the visitors took the bat. Tho first man up hit an easy little pop up to first base. Pete got under it. It fell plumb into bis open hands, but bounced out and rolled to one •ide. The batter reached his base. Pete picked up tho ball, and, stepping up to tho base, hit tho runner in the book with the hand containing the ball and almost knocked the breath out of him. He stood holding tbe ball, apparently waiting for the runner to vacate tbe base. Presentlyhesaid: “You’seout, niggah.” "Naw, I isn’t out, nuther,” replied the runner. “ Mlstah niggah, I soz you're out,” re peated tbe burly first base man. “Naw, I isn’t out,” protested the run ner. "I wuz on my base When you touched me.” “An you ses you isn’t out?” “Course I isn’t out, man. You fro’ de ball to de pitoher. ” The umpire called out that tbe man was safe, but Pete took no heed. He ran bis band down into hie panto pockets and drew out an ugly looking razor. Strik ing a menacing attitude, he again directed his attention to the runner and said: “Mlstah niggah, I ses once mo’ you’ae out. Now, isn’t you out?” and be opened the blade of the razor. “Yessir, yessir!” replied the now thor oughly frightened runner. “I’m out—l’ze out I” and he hurried off tbe base. That ended the game. The visitors saw clearly that they had no possible show of getting past first base.—Ohio State Jour nal. The Political Secrets of Dr. Hers. An opinion on the Dr. Cornelius Hers affair has been submitted tome. It to that It has been revived to alarm some illustri ous Italians. King Humbert to to visit Berlin on tbe marrow of the anniversary of Sedan. Dr. Hers was charged in this decade to negotiate the desertion by Italy of the triple alliance. About £1,000,000 was to have been spent, £600,000 of which was to go into Italian pockets. If he were now to “reveal” what he knows, to would be extremely awkward for some upper most personages in Rome and for a few living French statesmen. M. Spuller was favorable to tbe plan of buying Italy out of the triplice. He was such a plain, hon est man and so well satisfied to live like a struggling student that Ido not believe he had personally any reason to be afraid of Dr. Herz opening his mouth, but there were colleagues of his who trembled. In the present state of Europe Italy might help to make the scale tilt over one way or another. It would be more pleas ant for Russia to hold her by revelation made through Dr. Herz than by heavy subventions. There can be no sort of doubt that Herz was engaged in a mission to Borne by a syndicate of French parlia mentarians that included M. Spoiler. If there were not a colossal motive for seeing him, a committee of 80 of the chamber of deputies would not have first sent two members to Bournemouth and then pro posed, because Dr. Herz required it, to go there en masse. A most eminent diplo mat—l shall not say what power ho repre sented in Rome—when Hen was pulling wires there onoe said to me that hie could only account for different things which came to his knowledge by assuming that Herz had nearly detached Italy from the triple alliance.—Paris Cor. London Truth. Japanese Newspapers and “Devils.” The Japanese newspaper, as described in a letter from Tokyo to the Rew York Poet, is a curious product of the borrowed civi lization of the mikado’s empire. Practically there is in it no telegraphic news, and tho editorial articles are ingen ious studies In tbe art of saying certain things without saying them in away to warrant the censor’s suppression of them, for tbe minister of state for the interior has power to suspend any paper when in his opinion it says anything prejudicial to order, authority or morality. Not infrequently tbe censor has occasion, to write an order for the suppression of a newspaper, and when he does ft he is brief, but wonderfully polite. He puts tbe honorifics “o” or “go” be fore all tbe nouns and verbs. Prefixed to a noun “o” means honorable and ton verb it means honorably. Similarly “go” means august, augustly. So tho order to the editor of the offending newspaper when it arrives will read like this: “Deign honorably to cease honorably publishing august paper. Honorable edi tor, honorable publisher, honorable chief printer, deign honorably to enter august JaiL" Tbe honorable editor with his honorable coworkers bows low before tbe messenger and then accompanies him to the august jail, chatting meanwhile of tbe weather, of the flower shows or of the effect of the floods on the rice crop. Centuries of breed ing under Japanese etiquette have made it Impossible for any one to show annoyance. True to Bis Bringing Up. A writer in The Indepsnent has discov ered something rare—a donkey boy in Cairo with a sense of the ideal. Most boys of his’ profession are a good natursd lot, but few are the vices they cannot teach. Little Hassan, on tho contrary, seems to have principles and is quietly stanch tn his adherence to them. Once he refused a cigarette, says tbe traveler, and in my surprise I almost lost my balance. “Whatl Not smoke, Haman?” said L "I thought all the donkey boys smoked. ” “I don’t,” said Hassan, who looked about 11, was short, very brown, very scantily dressed, quite dirty, had only one eye and trotted behind the donkey with rounded shoulders and bead craned for ward. “I don’t If I did, my family, would beat me, and quite right too.” “But who are you and who are your family?" J asked. “Ah!” be said proudly. “We ara Su danese. In the Sudan we are rtriot To smoke, to use wine, to drink coffee, nkt to pray—these are shameful things, and if • man does anything impure they hang him to a tree with bis faee toward tho sun.” AN OPEN LETTER • To MOTHERS. WE ARE ASSERTING IN THE COURTS OUR RIGHT TO THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF THE WORD *CASTORIA,” AND “PITCHER’S CABTORIA,” as our trade mark. I t DR. SAMUEL PITCHER, Hyannis, Massachusetts, 90S the originator of “PITCHERS CASTORIA,” Me same that has borne and does now ~~ on every bear the facsimile signature of wrapper. This is the original • PITCHERS CASTORIA, ’ which has been | used in the homes of the Mothers of America for over thirty years. LOOK CAREFULLY at the wrapper and see that it is the kind you have always bought on and has the signature of wrap- per. No one has authority from me to use my name ex cepf The Centaur Company of. which Chas. H. Fletcher is President. a March 8,1897. Do Not Be Deceived. j Do not endanger the life qf your child by accepting a cheap substitute which some druggist may offer yo” (because he makes a few more pennies on it), the in gradients of which even he docs not know. . ? “The Kind You Have Always Bought” BEARS THE FAC-SIMILE SIGNATURE OF f Jr n Jb f Insist on Having The Kind That Never Failed 7ou. the cottaum qompamv. vs atwniMv •tmeet. mew ywmk drtSu , . .... —GET YOUR — JOB PRINTING DONE AT The Morning Call Office.— 1 ' We have just supplied our Job Office with a complete line ol Btationerv kinds and can get up, on zhort notice, anything wanted in the way 01 LETTER HEADS, BILL HEADS, STATEMENTS, IRCULARS, ENVELOPES, NOTES, - MORTGAGES, PROGRA AB, ’ . CARDS, POSTERS’ DODGERS. FTP, ETt We irny toe 'jest ine of FNVEWFES ym : this trade. Aa ailracdvc POSTER cf axy size can be issued on short notice. Our prices for work of all kinds will compare tovorably with those obtained yog any office in the state. When you want job printing of’any n ‘ /'•' "'’l cal) Satisfaction guaranteed. —■ .11.11 ■ I ALL WORK DONE 4 f With Neatness and Dispatch. -- - • • Out of town orders will receive prompt attention J J. P.&B B. SawtelL Cm OF GEORGIA IMT.IO. ♦ ♦♦♦♦ Schedule in Effect Jan. 9, Tio. f N 0.12 r SjilT faSw* Dally. Daily. Daily. stawows. Dally. Dally. Daily. Tlopts 4«pm team Atlanta. ...A> 7»pm 11 team T«s» • npm 447 pm BMaa> Lv Jonesboro Ar • f2put M■ sm stosm 9UpS S»u>Dv »Apm Stems StfamiAr BarnesvfUe Lv »«pm *<*« 77 40 m tUtofsn Ar Thomaston Lv 73 CO pm VT OS m . _ BUS IKS BSS <SS iii fe •Daily. 7«xoept Sunday" Train for Newnan and Carrollton leavesOrifln at S«s am. and IjO px dally sxespt e. Sjjr H. HINTON. Traflto Manager, Ssvamtab. Os. • w -