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CUKRfcNi lS ON AGRICULTURE
Edited by E. E. HALL, County Agt.
JUST A SUGGESTION FOR
THIS YEAR’S PLANNING
•hr * because a cr*p was profitable
last year, it does not follow that it
will be profitable this year. II one
• l your main crops paid you a bit
better t! 'in anything else last year,
it will probably be wise for you to
f row that crop again this year, but it
may not be wise for you to increa e
the acreage of it or to give it u larger l
place in your farming program. This
Is especially true if that same crop
was generally a paying crop last
year. In that case, there may be a
great many other farmers ready to
go into it this year on a larger scale,
and if that happens, profits from it
jrre not likely again to be so good.
This applies to the different classes
of livestock kept on the farm as well’
as to the different crops grown on it.
Of course, this is not offered as
an infallible rule —there are not ma
ny such rules in farming; but it is
given as a suggestion to which heed
may well he paid. The tendency to
rush into a thing one year just be
cause it paid well the yer before is
a tendency to which most of us are
too subject. Before the rushing be
gins, it is well to figure out just as
well as one can why the profit came
and whether the conditions that
made that particular part of the farm
work stand out are likely to prevail
the coming season. Unforeseen
changes in conditions may, of course,
make such study of little avail, hut it
will he helpful more often than it
will be useless.
—Southern Agriculturist.
SOY CLEANS VS. COW PEAS FOR
HAY AND SOIL BUILDING
• When suitable varieties are used,
the soy bean in a much hotter hay
crop than cowpea*. ft makes more
hay, it is earsier cured, and if cut
when just out of bloom ordinarily
makes a better hay than cowpeas.
Tlie mammoth Yellow is the standard
variety. It seems tw do well all over
the South except high in the moun
tains, and it makes good yields and is
of fair quality. Some newer varieties
promise to be bettor than Mammoth
Yellow, although it is not yet well
known whether these other varieties
hove as wide range af adaptibility'.
The Tokio is a promising variety that
makes finer hay and more of it than
Mammoth Yellow when conditions
are favorable. The Laredo is attract
ing a great deal of interest now and
seems to be a valuable variety.
As to the comparative value of
soy beans and cowpeas as soil im
provers, neither of these crops is a
soil improver if they are grown for
hay and the crops are harvested and
sold off of the farm. If soy beans
or cowpeas are to be used to im
prove the land, they must be past
ured oil or harvested or fed to stock
in the barn and the manure returned
to the field that grew the crop. When
either of the above methods is used
1 would expect the improvement of
the soil to be proportional to the ton
nage of the crop grown, provided
that both crops were equally well in
oculated . Soy beans are not ns well
inoculated as we once supposed they
were when grown on land the first
time. This is especially true of other
varieties than Mammouth Yellow.
This variety seems to be inoculated
fairly well the first time grown en
land. With many varieties, at least,
it will he advisable to inocnla-te the
land or the seed the first time they
are planted on the land. This one
fact is probably largely responsible
for the poor reputation the soy bean
has as a soil improver. Vnother rea
son that crops do not do so well af
ter it as after cowpeas is that the
Mammoth Yellow, which >s the vari
ety usually grown. is a late vigorous
grower and it uses up the soil mois
ture more closely, as well as the a
vailable mineeahle plant food in the
soil. The wheat that follows can not
grow off well unless the soil is uaus
nallr good or moisture more than
coninionly abundant. For tUsae rca
s>'-u, and possibly from others not
wall known, wheat or other fall crops
will will do better after cowpeas than
after soy beans.
Southern Agriculturalist.
FARM organizations in
ACTION AT WASHINGTON
Not content to wait while the spe
cial committee is amassing and di
gesting this enormous mass of ma
terial the various farm organizations
ji'ivc made a concerted move on con
gress, looking to the enactment of
measures that have been long to the
fore at tie Capitol. Here are some
uf the outstanding mearures to be
urged:
1 . The McNe.ry-Haugen bill pro
viding for the formation of a feder
al export corporation to handle ex
portable surplus of farm products.
2. Legislation assuring the far
mers the continued development of
Muscle Shoals and fertilizer at ft
fair price. Because of the many
btlli and bids pending befora the
h(>nse and tto withdrawal of the Ford
bid, it is probable that a joint com
mittee of the twi? houses will be
formed to agTee on a method of op
erating the plant.
2. The Capper-Williams bill, pro
viding <Yr a federal system for coop
erative marketing of farm products.
It would create a marketing board
outside any government department
or bureau and set up cooperative
commodity boards bhruout the coun
try.
The Capper-French truth-in-fab
rics bill which a special committee
of the house was instructed t have
ready for congress in December.
5. A measure providing increased
appropriations for state agricultural
experiment stations.
6. The McNary-Vestal bill stand
ardizing cantainors for fruits and
vegetables.
7. The Keteham bill, to lodge the
foreign marketing of farm products
and all work therewith connected, in
the department of agriculture.
It is to be understood, of course,
that the special committee may ren
der some of these measures unnec
essary .
CROP ESTIMATES FOR 1924
According to the estimates made
for the annual report of the depart
ment of agriculture which is about
to be made public, the gross income
from agricultural products for this
year will be around $12,000,000,000
as compared with $11,500,000,000 in
1928-34 and $9,550,000,000 in 1921-
22. The point is made in the report
that the year's harvest was the best
in five years and altho not greatest
in point of volume it was the finest
from an income standpoint.
“The showing of 1924,” says the
report, “brings agricultural prosper
ity nearer, altho the improvement it
represents has not yet lasted long e
nough to produce any marked better
ment in the finances of the farmer.”
What Does Twelve Billion Mean?
“Twelve billion dollars” sounds
very very big. If only for tins reas
on the department of agriculture per
formed a good service in interpreting
this gross in terms of dividends to
the farmers on the capital invested
in his land . It means only 8.8 per
cent on the investment, which fig
ured in terms of percentages is much
less than the returns on Class One
railroads for the same period. Here
is the interpretation of the depart
ment of agriculture. It is also a sig
n ifiant commentary.
“Income from agriculture has not
in any year since the price declined
in 1920 sufficed to allow both a com
mercial return on capital and ade
quate rewards for the farmers' labor,
risk and management. Yet it has
jhown a gradual improvement in
the last three years. In 1920, after
deducting operating cost and a wage
allowance for the farmer's labor, and
' efore payiag interest on debts, the
net income on the curnent values of
agricultural capital was only 0.6 per
cent. It increased to 1.4 per cent in
1921. It made a further gain to 3.1
percent in 1922 and 1923. The indi
cated further improvement to nearly
percent f<w the present crop year
does represent a very substancial ad
vance from the low point of the de
pression period. These returns, how
ever, are made on a capital valuation
that has been scaled down. Thus the
real gain is not as large as the ap
parant gain. ”
IKE OANIELSVILLfi MONITOR. UANIELSVILLE. G*.
BEAR WITH YOVR. PFU-OWMtd-j
ETVEM lf= -YOU A.VL-E A J
Road Tax Notice 1925
r I
Georgia Madison County
Commissoners Office January It). 1925.
George 0. Griffeth Commissioner, Sitting for coun
ty purposes, at this time proceeded to fix the number
of days of Road Work for the county, the present year,
and the Alternative in money, as follows:
Time of Work Eight Days
Money Alternative Four Dollar
But to all who pay before the first day of June,
Three and One Half Dollars will be excepted as pay
ment in full and receipt will be given in full.
Age Date
October first is the date fixed, All who are fifty years
old before the first day of October are exempt. All who
are twenty one years old on the first day of October are
subject.
Owing to the condition of the roads arrangement
can be made with the Commissioner to work outßoad Ex
emption if the work is done at the earliest convenience,
The Commissioner in person or by proxy will between
the first and fifteenth days of October goto one or more
places in each militia district in the County for the pur
pose of receiving road exemptions and giving receipts
therefor, from all who have not previously obtained a
receipt and desire to be exempted from the Eight Days
Work.
The Eight Days Road Work under the authority ot
the Commissioner will begin in each district in the
county about the fifteenth day of October.
Previous to that date all payments made for Road
Work exemption must be make at Commissioners office.
Solvent Checks, Post Office Orders, and Currency
may be sent through the mails and receipts will be
mailed at once, If the mail is used, a slip should be
sent therewith giving the name for whom the pay is
sent, the district, his age and color, If check or P. 0,
order is sent it had best be made payable to G. O. Griff
eth, Com,, but it had best be mailed to
S. C, O’Kelley, Clerk
Geo. O. Griffeth, Com. R. &. R.
Madison County
Guaranteed Wrist Watches
IF YOU WANT AN INDIVID UALISTIC WATCH THEN LfiT
US SHOW YOU SEVERAL OF OUR EXCEPTIONAL DESIGNS,
ALL STANDARDIZED MOV AMENTS AND FULLY GUARAN
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GIVE YOU EXCELLENT SERVICE.
M- F- FICKETT JEWELRY CO.
, Jewelers—Optometrists
268 CLAYTON ST. ATHENS, GA*