Agriculture for Beginners Part 18

FARM CROPS

Every crop of the farm has been changed and improved in many ways since its forefathers were wild plants. Those plants that best serve the needs of the farmer and of farm animals have undergone the most changes and have received also the greatest care and attention in their production and improvement.

While we have many different kinds of farm crops, the cultivated soil of the world is occupied by a very few. In our country the crop that is most valuable and that occupies the greatest land area is generally known as the _gra.s.s crop_. Included in the general term "gra.s.s crop" are the gra.s.ses and clovers that are used for pasturage as well as for hay.

Next to gra.s.s in value come the great cereal, corn, and the most important fiber crop, cotton, closely followed by the great bread crop, wheat. Oats rank fifth in value, potatoes sixth, and tobacco seventh.

(These figures are for 1913.)

Success in growing any crop is largely due to the suitableness of soil and climate to that crop. When the planter selects both the most suitable soil and the most suitable climate for each crop, he gets not only the most bountiful yield from the crop but, in addition, he gets the most desirable quality of product. A little careful observation and study soon teach what kinds of soil produce crops of the highest excellence. This learned, the planter is able to grow in each field the several crops best adapted to that special type of soil. Thus we have tobacco soils, trucking soils, wheat and corn soils. Dairying can be most profitably followed in sections where crops like cowpeas, clover, alfalfa, and corn are peculiarly at home. No one should try to grow a new crop in his section until he has found out whether the crop which he wants to grow is adapted to his soil and his climate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 182. ALFALFA IN THE STACK This is the second cutting of the season]

The figures below give the average amount of money made annually an acre on our chief crops:

Flowers and plants, $1911; nursery products, $261; onions, $140; sugar cane, $55; small fruits, $110; hops, $175; vegetables, $78; tobacco, $80; sweet potatoes, $55; hemp, $53; potatoes, $78; sugar beets, $54; sorghum cane, $22; cotton, $22; orchard fruits, $110; peanuts, $21; flax-seed, $14; cereals, $14; hay and forage, $11; castor beans, $6 (United States Census Report).

SECTION x.x.xV. COTTON

Although cotton was cultivated on the Eastern continent before America was discovered, this crop owes its present kingly place in the business world to the zeal and intelligence of its American growers. So great an influence does it wield in modern industrial life that it is often called King Cotton. Thousands upon thousands of people scan the newspapers each day to see what price its staple is bringing. From its bounty a vast army of toilers, who plant its seed, who pick its bolls, who gin its staple, who spin and weave its lint, who grind its seed, who refine its oil, draw daily bread. Does not its proper production deserve the best thought that can be given it?

In the cotton belt almost any well-drained soil will produce cotton. The following kinds of soil are admirably suited to this plant: red and gray loams with good clay subsoil; sandy soils over clay and sandstone and limestone; rich, well-drained bottom-lands. The safest soils are medium loams. Cotton land must always be well drained.

Cotton was originally a tropical plant, but, strange to say, it seems to thrive best in temperate zones. The cotton plant does best, according to Newman, in climates which have (1) six months of freedom from frost; (2) a moderate, well-distributed rainfall during the plant's growing period; and (3) abundant sunshine and little rain during the plant's maturing period.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 183. GROWTH OF COTTON FROM DAY TO DAY

In America the Southern states from Virginia to Texas have these climatic qualities, and it is in these states that the cotton industry has been developed until it is one of the giant industries of the world.

This development has been very rapid. As late as 1736 the cotton plant was grown as an ornamental flowering plant in many front yards; in 1911, 16,250,276 bales of cotton were grown in the South. In recent years the soil and climate of lower California and parts of Arizona and New Mexico have been found well adapted to cotton.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 184. COTTON IN THE GROWING SEASON]

There are a great many varieties of cotton. Two types are mainly grown by the practical American farmer. These are the short-stapled, upland variety most commonly grown in all the Southern states, and the beautiful, long-stapled, black-seeded sea-island type that grows upon the islands and a portion of the mainland of Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. The air of the coast seems necessary for the production of this latter variety. The seeds of the sea-island cotton are small, smooth, and black. They are so smooth and stick so loosely to the lint that they are separated from it by roller-gins instead of by saw-gins.

When these seeds are planted away from the soil and air of their ocean home, the plant does not thrive.

Many attempts have been made and are still being made to increase the length of the staple of the upland types. The methods used are as follows: selection of seed having a long fiber; special cultivation and fertilization; crossing the short-stapled cotton on the long-stapled cotton. This last process, as already explained, is called _hybridizing_. Many of these attempts have succeeded, and there are now a large number of varieties which excel the older varieties in profitable yield. The new varieties are each year being more widely grown. Every farmer should study the new types and select the one that will best suit his land. The new types have been developed under the best tillage. Therefore if a farmer would keep the new type as good as it was when he began to grow it, he must give it the same good tillage, and practice seed-selection.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 185. COTTON READY FOR PICKING]

The cotton plant is nourished by a tap-root that will seek food as deeply as loose earth will permit the root to penetrate; hence, in preparing land for this crop the first plowing should be done at least with a two-horse plow and should be deep and thorough. This deep plowing not only allows the tap-root to penetrate, but it also admits a circulation of air.

On some cotton farms it is the practice to break the land in winter or early spring and then let it lie naked until planting-time. This is not a good practice. The winter rains wash more plant food out of unprotected soil than a single crop would use. It would be better, in the late summer or fall, to plant crimson clover or some other protective and enriching crop on land that is to be planted in cotton in the spring. This crop, in addition to keeping the land from being injuriously washed, would greatly help the coming cotton crop by leaving the soil full of vegetable matter.

In preparing for cotton-planting, first disk the land thoroughly, then break with a heavy plow and harrow until a fine and mellow seed-bed is formed. Do not spare the harrow at this time. It destroys many a weed that, if allowed to grow, would have to be cut by costly hoeing.

Thorough work before planting saves much expensive work in the later days of the crop. Moreover, no man can afford to allow his plant food and moisture to go to nourish weeds, even for a short time.

The rows should be from three to four feet apart. The width depends upon the richness of the soil. On rich land the rows should be at least four feet apart. This width allows the luxuriant plant to branch and fruit well. On poorer lands the distance of the rows should not be so great.

The distribution of the seed in the row is of course most cheaply done by the planter. As a rule it is best not to ridge the land for the seed.

Flat culture saves moisture and often prevents damage to the roots. In some sections, however, where the land is flat and full of water, ridging seems necessary if the land cannot be drained.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 186. PICKING COTTON]

The cheapest way of cultivating a crop is to prevent gra.s.s and weeds from rooting, not to wait to destroy them after they are well rooted. To do this, it is well to run the two-horse smoothing-harrow over the land, across the rows, a few days after the young plants are up. Repeat the harrowing in six or eight days. In addition to destroying the young gra.s.s and weeds, this harrowing also removes many of the young cotton plants and thereby saves much hoeing at "chopping-out" time. When the plants are about two inches high they are "chopped out" to secure an evenly distributed stand. It has been the custom to leave two stalks to a hill, but many growers are now leaving only one.

The number of times the crop has to be worked depends on the soil and the season. If the soil is dry and porous, cultivate as often as possible, especially after each rain. Never allow a crust to form after a rain; the roots of plants must have air. Cultivation after each rain forms a dry mulch on the top of the soil and thus prevents rapid evaporation of moisture.

If the fiber (the lint) only is removed from the land on which cotton is grown, cotton is the least exhaustive of the great crops grown in the United States. According to some recent experiments an average crop of cotton removes in the lint only 2.75 pounds of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, lime, and magnesia per acre, while a crop of ten bushels of wheat per acre removes 32.36 pounds of the same elements of plant food. Inasmuch as this crop takes so little plant food from the soil, the cotton-farmer has no excuse for allowing his land to decrease in productiveness. Two things will keep his land in bounteous harvest condition: first, let him return the seeds in some form to the land, or, what is better, feed the ground seeds to cattle, make a profit from the cattle, and return manure to the land in place of the seeds; second, at the last working, let him sow some crop like crimson clover or rye in the cotton rows to protect the soil during the winter and to leave humus in the ground for the spring.

The stable manure, if that is used, should be broadcasted over the fields at the rate of six to ten tons an acre. If commercial fertilizers are used, it may be best to make two applications. To give the young plants a good start, apply a portion of the fertilizer in the drill just before planting. Then when the first blooms appear, put the remainder of the fertilizer in drills near the plants but not too close. Many good cotton-growers, however, apply all the fertilizer at one time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 187. WEIGHING A DAY'S PICKING OF COTTON]

_Relation of Stock to the Cotton Crop_. On many farms much of the money for which the cotton is sold in the fall has to go to pay for the commercial fertilizer used in growing the crop. Should not this fact suggest efforts to raise just as good crops without having to buy so much fertilizer? Is there any way by which this can be done? The following suggestions may be helpful. Raise enough stock to use all the cotton seed grown on the farm. To go with the food made from the cotton seed, grow on the farm pea-vine hay, clover, alfalfa, and other such nitrogen-gathering crops. This can be done at small cost. What will be the result?

First, to say nothing of the money made from the cattle, the large quant.i.ty of stable manure saved will largely reduce the amount of commercial fertilizer needed. The cotton-farmer cannot afford to neglect cattle-raising. The cattle sections of the country are likely to make the greatest progress in agriculture, because they have manure always on hand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 188. MODERN COTTON BALES]

Second, the nitrogen-gathering crops, while helping to feed the stock, also reduce the fertilizer bills by supplying one of the costly elements of the fertilizer. The ordinary cotton fertilizer consists princ.i.p.ally of nitrogen, of potash, and of phosphoric acid. Of these three, by far the most costly is nitrogen. Now peas, beans, clover, and peanuts will leave enough nitrogen in the soil for cotton, so that if they are raised, it is necessary to buy only phosphoric acid and sometimes potash.

SECTION x.x.xVI. TOBACCO

The tobacco plant connects Indian agriculture with our own. It has always been a source of great profit to our people. In the early colonial days tobacco was almost the only money crop. Many rich men came to America in those days merely to raise tobacco.

Although tobacco will grow in almost any climate, the leaves, which, as most of you know, are the salable part of the plant, get their desirable or undesirable qualities very largely from the soil and from the climate in which they grow.

The soil in which tobacco thrives best is one which has the following qualities: dryness, warmth, richness, depth, and sandiness.

Commercial fertilizers also are almost a necessity; for, as tobacco land is limited in area, the same land must be often planted in tobacco.

Hence even a fresh, rich soil that did not at first require fertilizing soon becomes exhausted, and, after the land has been robbed of its plant food by crop after crop of tobacco, frequent application of fertilizers and other manures becomes necessary. However, even tobacco growers should rotate their crops as much as possible.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 189. A LEAF OF TOBACCO]

Deep plowing--from nine to thirteen inches--is also a necessity in preparing the land, for tobacco roots go deep into the soil. After this deep plowing, harrow until the soil is thoroughly pulverized and is as fine and mellow as that of the flower-garden.

Unlike most other farm crops the tobacco plant must be started first in a seed-bed. To prepare a tobacco bed the almost universal custom has been to proceed as follows. Carefully select a protected spot. Over this spot pile brushwood and then burn it. The soil will be left dry, and all the weed seeds will be killed. The bed is then carefully raked and smoothed and planted. Some farmers are now preparing their beds without burning. A tablespoonful of seed will sow a patch twenty-five feet square. A cheap cloth cover is put over the bed. If the seeds come up well, a patch of this size ought to furnish transplants for five or six acres. In sowing, it is not wise to cover the seed deeply. A light raking in or an even rolling of the ground is all that is needed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 190. A PROMISING CROP OF TOBACCO]

The time required for sprouting is from two to three weeks. The plants ought to be ready for transplanting in from four to six weeks. Weeds and gra.s.s should of course be kept out of the seed-bed.

The plants, when ready, are transplanted in very much the same way as cabbages and tomatoes. The transplanting was formerly done by hand, but an effective machine is now widely used. The rows should be from three to three and a half feet apart, and the plants in the rows about two or three feet apart. If the plants are set so that the plow and cultivator can be run with the rows and also across the rows, they can be more economically worked. Tobacco, like corn, requires shallow cultivation.

Of course the plants should be worked often enough to give clean culture and to provide a soil mulch for saving moisture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 191. TOPPING TOBACCO]

In tobacco culture it is necessary to pinch off the "b.u.t.tons" and to cut off the tops of the main stalk, else much nourishment that should go to the leaves will be given to the seeds. The suckers must also be cut off for the same reason.