BRINGING UP POOR SOIL.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3021, 2 March 1881, Page 4

BRINGING UP POOR SOIL.

_ All agricultural journals, (says the American Agriculturist) have articles, off and on urging farmers to increase the productiveness of their lands, and endeavoring to impress them with the fact that the way to do this is to apply large quantities of manure, frequently mentioning instances where it has been found profitable to apply from fifty to seventy-five dollars worth of manure at one time to an acre. This is all quite true : but most agricultural writers do not consider that tbe majority of the farmers of the country have very little working capital, and cannot possibly afford to spend any important sums of money for manures. Most particularly is this the case with the farmers of the South. They know generally that money spent on manure is well spent, but they have not the money ; all that they can make is required to support their families. Such advice as this does more harm than good, as it is only theory ; true enough, but so totally unpractical that it is apt to prejudice tbe minds of farmers against all agricultural writings.

What is needed at the South is the knowledge of a method of improving poor land at very little expense, and at the same time receiving from it its usual crop. It has been found by actual experience that this can be done effectively by the combined use of cow peas, lime, and gait, and can be facilitated by that of cither alone at very little expense. A few years ago a correspondent of " Home and Farm " had a very poor, sandy field of thirty acres that did not yield the first year over ten bushels of oats, or six bushels of com per acre. In 1877 it was planted in corn, and in 1878 in oats, with the above result j as soon as the oat 3 were cut in tho latter year, it was sown broadcast with cow peas at a cost of thirty-five cents per acre (one-half bushel being used). The pea vines were ploughed under in the fall, when another crop of oats was sown. This crop, when cut in 1879, yielded nineleen bushels per acre, by measurement. The field was again treated with cow pea vines, at the small expense, and the vines ploughed under last November ; and this year it was planted in corn, and, although the season has been a very unfavorable one for this grain, the yield has been an average of eighteen bushels per acre, a three-fold increase in two years.

The most economical and equally certain method of bringing up poor cotton fields is much the same. In January and February the land should be thoroughly ploughed deep, not less than nine inches ; for this purpose a large two-horse plough should be used, but if a farmer cannot afford to pay for such an implement, then ho should run two common half shovels, one behind tho other, in tho samo furrow. In March the cotton seed for manure should be put down, whatever there is of it, if only four bushels per acre; and early in April a mixture of one bushel of quick lime, worth 70 cents., and 100 pounds of Lisbon salt, worth 70 cents., should be distributed in tho rows, This manuring

-~-.;- j ~,. . f.,. i .4.nrlf»l. per acre, -;: - 1 -:..-'. ..-. ;:-■ .:.:;--.io'-;. jX .• :'.ore that he usually now yaja wr r-iiusphate, and will in the first-year increase the yield fully one-third. In the montli of July, when he purposes to lay by, a furrow should be run in the middles, between the cotton, and cow peas sown at the rate of onc-lialf bushel per acre, and covcroii i.-y the sweep that gives the last working to the -..tin crop. Tho pea vines will grow well, but at such a late period cannot injure the cotton, and when they die on the land will furnish cheap and most efficacious manure.

Vegetable matter, salt and lime are the constituents most needed by the poor soils of the South, and by their application in the manner described, those soils can be steadily improved more certainly and more cheaply than by any other method that lias been suggested. This opinion is based upon practical experience and observation ; and we are satisfied that there is scarcely any land in the South so poor that it can not be brought up in three or four years to the production of 400 pounds lint cotton, or twenty-five bushels of corn per acre, by the yearly application of a powerful twohorse plough, supplemented by one bushel lime, 100 pounds Lisbon salt and one-half bushel cow peas. It must not be supposed that tbe advantages of compost and stable manure are to be slighted. These manures are most valuable, and as much of them should be made and saved as possible ; but it is simply impracticable for farmers planting out in the country to obtain much of them, even at any cost. Only farms situated near, cities, can obtain these manures in large quantities. Most farmers do keep up one or two acres of land with compost, but where the needs of 200 acres have to be provided for, a cheap means must be found, aud the only one that can be considered effective and practicable is the treatment fully described in the foregoing. When land is reduced to great poverty .it is often found that cow peas will not grow upon it. When this is the case an application of one bushel of lime and 100 pounds of salt must be applied in the furrow at the time the peas are planted. This manure will iirsure a growth of vines, which will furnish some vegetable matter to the soil, and afford a basis for a more luxuriant growth the next season. If farmers- do not wish to break up with the plough t.heir cotton fields ' every year —• as they should do, to secure the best yields —the next best thing to do is to run a shovel plough between the rows in December, or as soon as the cotton crop is picked, and cover the pea vines with a slight bed, thus preserving them from from cattle, and insuring their decomposition by tbe spring. When the next crop of cotton is planted it should be directly upon the top of tho vines-

The system that many Southern farmers pursue, of pulling up the vines from the fields, and curing them for forage, is simply suicidal, and indicative of ignorance of themost essential principles of agriculture. Under no circumstances should these vines be taken off the land ; at their best, they make very inferior forage, and do infinitely more good on the land than off it.