Growing three bales of cotton to the acre and how it is done

Hollinger Corp.
pH 8.5

(Reprint from the June, 1903, issue of COTTON, publighediat 4 tlaktasGa’.]’ ”
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Growing Three Bales of
Cotton to the Acre and
How It Is Done. DG o@&

By G. H. TURNER, of Burgess, Miss.

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The Story of How One Farmer Makes Three Bales on a
Single Acre of Ordinary Land, With Directions
for Those Who Wish to Follow His Example.

In round numbers, on a conservative basis, the South
plants about 25,000,000 acres in cotton each year and gets
about 10,000,000 bales, thus taking two and a half acres on
an average to make one bale of cotton. When we consider
that on an average all of this land is capable of making at
least one bale of cotton to the acre under ordinary careful
farming, we realize what an enormous amount of useless
labor is expended annually in the cotton growing states from
the direct cause of ignorance.

For a number of years, on ordinary land, I have made
4,200 pounds of seed cotton per acre, or three bales, in other
words, and knowing the ease with which this can be done, if
the average farmer only “knows how,” has led me to write
this little book, giving my fellow cotton growers the benefit
of my experience and observation. Had I known what I
know now thirty years ago when I commenced growing cot-
ton, the knowledge would have been worth many fortunes to
me over and over, and now that I give this experience to oth-
ers my one hope is that the cotton growers of the South will
make practical use of it and profit thereby, as this experience
is now profiting me.

One of the reasons for the past extremely low average in
cotton production in the South per acre is owing to the fact

{Mr. Turner is a large, influential and successful planter of Burgess, Miss., whose
well known success as a cotton grower is recognized not only in his own State, but
in the entire cotton belt of the South. Anything along this line, therefore, com-
ing from his pen, cannot fail to command the interest and attention of every

e South who is engaged in raising cotton, and who earnestly desires

farmer in I
7a improve his methods and materially increase his yield, while at the same time
neurring comparatively immaterial extra expense.—EDIToRs. ]

CORON
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-therk NOt’ One, fapmier but at ten ever takes the trouble to study
‘his-own’ ‘fad? “and learn whit it needs in the way of fertilizer,
Another reason is that cotton growers are content to plant
one variety of cotton on all kinds of soil, when it is so essen-
tial that different varieties should be planted on different soils.

Take the average cotton planter in the South today and
he never stops to ask what kind of fertilizer he should buy
or what kind,of seed should be planted on this field or that
one. He buys a brand of fertilizer because some one else
buys it, or it is recommended by his merchant. He plants
the same seed on all his fields and even plants the same seed
for years without selecting improved varieties.

This is all wrong, and so long as it remains so the South
will continue to grow cotton at the rate of one bale to three
acres, instead of making three bales to one acre, which I have
been doing for years, and which the average farmer can do
himself.

My farm, like thousands of others in the South, is outrage-
ously poor, but a portion of it is fairly strong land. On this
farm I have considerable poor upland, yellow, or so-called
mulatto clay. It is on this land that I obtain my largest yield
of cotton, but to do this I use a complete fertilizer, by which
I mean that I adapt the kind of fertilizer that the land natur-
ally demands for cotton growing. Directions for the different
fertilizers for the different soils I will give later.

In beginning your cotton crop bear in mind that thor-
ough preparation of the soil in the winter and the early spring
is very essential to a large yield of cotton. Plough the land
very deep and put it-in thorough tilth before you plant. This
is half the race. Cotton does not take much work after it is’
up and starts growing. It then needs only surface scraping.
That is why the negro is such a success as a cotton grower.
He is too lazy to plough deep in working cotton, and the plant
is one that needs only light culture. Therefore I give this
caution to have the land well prepared before the crop is
planted.

To get the best results in cotton growing rotate your
crops. Cotton is a clean crop, by which we mean that it is

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generally cleaned in the late summer and no growth is left on
the land except the cotton plant itself, which does not leave
enough on the !and to help feed the fertilizer the following
year.

In selecting fertilizers each farmer must be largely his
own judge, as to the needs of his land, but a few general rules
will show any one of ordinary intelligence how to use fertiliz-
ers intelligently.

If the stalk growth of your cotton is excessive use a fer-
tilizer in which the percentage of phosphates is large. This
will largely increase the fruiting capacity of the stalk, and
give you the very best possible result.

If the stalk growth is weak, puny and spindling, and the
foliage of a pale, sickly, yellow color, use a brand of fertilizes
that is made up with plenty of potash in it, which stimulates
the stalk growth. If the bolls are small and inferior and
show a disposition not to mature fully, potash is the one in-
gredient that will remedy the evil.

These rules simplified mean that where your land is such
that the stalk needs stimulating use nitrogen and potash
largely,and where you need more fruit depend largely on the
phosphates. .

If you wish to hasten the maturity of the crop, so as to
escape frost, use phosphates; but if you wish the cotton to
keep on growing late you will reach your end by the liberal
use of potash.

The average cotton grower, who will keep these simple
rules in mind, cannot make a mistake, for he will well know
from experience just on what field he needs more stalk
growth, or on what field this stalk growth needs retarding.
It is the following of these rules which has enabled me to
increase my yield of cotton on the same land from 1,000
pounds of seed cotton per acre to over 4,200 pounds.

In striving for the best results in cotton growing and to
make two or three bales to the acre, of course the farmer
must fertilize heavily, but it pays best. It will not do to de-
pend on 200 pounds of cheap fertilizer per acre; you can never
reach the best results in that way. I use as high as 1,000

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pounds of high-grade fertilizer, and even more at times, but
in doing this I get the very best results. I have found that by
increasing the amount of fertilizer, say from $7 to $9 per acre,
I have been able to get an extra bale of cotton, which I claim
is a good investment, when you consider the fact that it takes
no more to cultivate a well fertilized acre than one that is
poorly fertilized.

If you find that your land is of the heavy alluvial char-
acter and contains much feeding substance and an excess of
nitrogen, depend entirely on the phosphates as a fertilizer,
and on such land you can use the largest quantity, and be
sure of getting the very best results.

One of the great mistakes which many farmers make in
the South in cotton growing, and in fact with many crops,
is that they apply all the fertilizer at the time of planting, or
before, and then leave the crop to grow or mature with that,
failing to give it another application. A moment’s thought
will tell any sensible man that this is wrong. Every cotton
grower knows that every year his cotton puts on enough
squares, or shapes, to make three or four times as much as it
does, but that the plant sheds the greater part of these shapes.
What is the reason for this? It is want of strength in the
soil. The shedding, which always goes on in July on crops
not properly fertilized, comes from a weakness which the
wide-awake farmer will remedy. This is done by applying
fertilizer to your cotton as you work the crop. By adding this
strength to the soil at the cotton plant’s roots, you enable it to
retain the shapes. In other words, you give it strength to
hold its fruit.

Here lies one of the great mistakes which the majority
of cotton growers make. They never think of feeding the cot-
ton plant but once. This is in the early spring. Sometimes
the fertilizer is put in the ground in February. By July, when
the plant needs strength to keep the fruit it is taking on this
fertilizer is exhausted. It has been used up by the young
plant, or washed away by the spring rains. Just when the
plant needs strength most it has least. This is the time when
the proper fertilizer should be applied as you work the crop,

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No. 1.—CoTron FROM SMALL AREA WHERE NO FERTILIZER WAS USED.

putting it close to the roots of the plant as you plough it, then
covering with a light furrow. If your plant has plenty of
stalk at this stage but needs more shapes or is shedding its
shapes, use a strong phosphate brand. If the stalk is small
and needs pushing, use a brand that has a good percentage of
potash in it and also plenty of phosphates.

It is this simple feeding of the cotton plant at the proper
time that helps me make three bales to the acre. This could
not be done in any other way that is practical.

In planting my crop I give the plant good distance, both
in width of rows and in the hill. You cannot crowd cotton
and get the best results. Consider the quality of your land.

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GATCHEL ¥ MANNING PHILA. >

No. 2.— Corron FROM SAME AREA AS NO. 1, BUT FERTILIZED AND CULTIVATED
e
AFTER IMPROVED METHODS DESCRIBED HEREIN.

You know about what size stalk you will get. Thin the crop
according to the quality of your land.

In this connection I wish to say that a great many farm-
ers allow their cotton to grow too thick in the row, often
allowing two stalks in the same hill. A little care in this
simple matter will add several hundred pounds of cotton to
each acre, as the best results cannot be had where the plants
are too close.

Years ago I used to make an average of 1,000 pounds of
seed cotton per acre and thought I was doing well. On
twenty acres I usually got about fourteen bales. I commenced

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along the lines I have indicated in the foregoing pages, and
the result was soon 2,000 pounds per acre. I continued to
add the right fertilizer to the land, to apply it at the right
time and it was not long before my crop went beyond 4,000
pounds per acre, and all done by the simple methods which I
have tried to make plain to my friends in the business in these
pages.

It is a simple thing to do, but to do it you must be watch-
ful and observant. You must watch every part of every field.
If you have a part of one field that is wearing away, plant peas
on it, or haul in humus, or rest it. Do something to bring it
up to the average.

When you plough your lands in early spring don’t be
afraid of getting too deep, and when you apply fertilizer don’t
feel that you are throwing away money. You are simply
planting money that will come up a hundred fold.

' Study each part of every field and put just the kind of
fertilizer on each it needs most. Don’t be content to apply the
same fertilizer all over each field. One part will likely need
a different brand from the other.

When ihe plant begins to fruit in July then add a light
application of fertilizer at each working. If you find the plant
is holding the fruit, then withhold the fertilizer until it shows
signs of failure. Then apply and continue to do so until you
feel that your cotton plants have taken on a full crop, and
-will be able to mature same in good time before the coming
of frost.

I know a great many farmers will say that to grow as
much as three bales of cotton per acre is what they call
“fancy farming,” but I know from experience that it is practi-
cal farming. If I am anything I am practical, and I believe
in getting the most out of your iand you can. I used to think
it was impossible to raise two bales of seed cotton per acre,
but I found by experience that it was an easy matter not only
to grow that much, but more.

I am honest in the belief that the great majority of cotton
growers in the South, if they will follow the directions I hav«
here laid down in the simplest language I know how, can in-

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crease their average of cotton per acre at least 100 per cent. in
a single year, and if they will continue to follow the directions
given the time will not be far away when every acre that is
planted under the directions given will yield an average of
over one bale per acre, instead of one-third of a bale as at
present. The experiment is well worth trying. Plant fewer
acres and make more; that should be the policy of the cotton
growers of the South from this time on. It will pay every one
who starts out to follow this rule.

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————

A NEW ERA DAWNING IN COTTON CULTURE.
CHECKING COTTON.

G. H. TURNER.

Scarcity and general unreliability of farm labor, together
with the comparative low prices obtained for the fleecy sta-
ple, even if no other causes were in operation, will force a
change, whether said change is agreeable to the bulk of the
cotton raisers or not.

Each-year sees a greater number of farm hands being
drawn off to work in cities, in factories, warehouses, on rail-
roads, to do odd jobs generally, or to still further increase
the already large army of vagrants and loafers who wear out
the pavements on street corners and unceasingly watch for
a chance to pick up something belonging to somebody else.

Things seem to be evening up al around. While our cot-
ton raising brethren are engaged in studying the labor prob-
lem, our city friends seem to be just as busily engaged in
studying the vagrant problem, the only feasible practical so-
lution of the problem in either case being to render ourselves
independent of either or both. This means the abolition of
the share system, or cropping on the shares, and substitut-
ing therefor the hiring of hands by the year. It also means
the gradual, or possibly speedy, colonization, and consequent
deportation of the negro. Again, it means a more syste-
matic as well as more inteligent, skillful and scientific sys-
tem of culture in the future than he has been heretofore. It
means-the more rational fertilization of the cottton plant and
the saving of labor, time and money by the cultivation of

cotton
In Checks

instead of continuous drill culture.

Hoeing is an element of cost excessive to bear. Under
the present system of cultivating in drills the hoe is often
used unnecessarily, while in cotton, as in all other crops,
the hoe should be used as little as possible. Grass is an

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implacable and very persistent enemy of the cottton planter.
Grass can be more speedily, more cheaply, consequently
more profitably as well as far more satisfactorily, eradicated
by the many really good and efficient plows and cultivators
that are to be found in the market than could possibly be
done by the most determined and persistent use of the hoe.

Markham’s picture of The Man With the Hoe, although
not intended to represent the Southern cotton raiser, will
answer very weil the purpose of representing the past and
present era, as compared with the future, of cotton culture.
The back-breaking hoe will largely have to go, and Cuffy
and Dinah, together with all the little pickaninnies composing
the trash-gang, will be relegated to the rear and will have
to take a back seat along with it.

We do'not make the slightest pretensions to being a
prophet or even the son of a prophet, yet we unhes itatingly
assert that it is just a question of time when check culture
of cotton will be the rule and drill culture the exception; it
is only a question of time, and a very short time at that.
when practicing drill culture will be considered as showing ~
a lack of intelligence, business tact and up-to-date ideas on
the part of those who willingly adhere to such antiquated
and obsolete methods. Drill culture of cotton is proof, posi-
tive as holy writ, that the man practicing it has but little
actual knowledge of the plant he cultivates; it proves that
he has no confidence in it, no confidence in his soil, and no
‘confidence in himself as a cotton raiser.

The man who crowds cotton in the drill vainly believing
that a multiplicity of stalks per acre means a multiplicity of
bolls and a correspondingly large yield per acre, shows an
utter ignorance of the very first principles of successful,
profitable cotton culture.

Three feet by eighteen inches, and but one stalk in a
place, is as close as cottton should be allowed to stand, even
on the very poorest of land. Where land is so poor that
cotton cannot be profitably cultivated thereon, when given
that distance, it is too poor to be planted in cotton at all;
‘better sow it down in cow peas.

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Cotton is a plant that will readily adapt itself to cir-.
cumstances. If crowded, it may have six to twelve bolls per
stalk, while, when given due distance, it may just as easily
have sixty to six hundred bolls per stalk.

We have just passed through a period of drouth lasting
two months and twenty-one days; yet our cotton at this
writing, August 18th, will easily average one hundred bolls
per stalk, with no telling how many more in perspective.

One difficulty in checking cotton is the liability to miss-
ing hills or stalks, through clumsy animals, clumsier and
still more careless hands, and clumsy and careless methods
generally. The remedy for this is obvious; dispense with
the services of clumsy hands, avoid clumsy and careless
methods and ways of doing business, and put a premium on
carefulness and skillful methods, whenever and wherever
exhibited by the employee of the farm.

In other words, encourage a good hand when you get
one, by paying him for his goodness, being sure at the same
time to let him know what you are paying him extra for; then
discourage carelessness by striving to correct a careless
hand, and if he fails to be corrected pay him off and dis-
charge him on the spot; never pay a careless hand for care-
less work; it simply encourages carelessness.

Another hindering cause to the checking of cotton is the
universal inequality of the fertilitiy in soils, the cotton
growing quite large in spots, and very much undersized in
other spots looking somewhat like a series of oases in a desert.

We know of no system whereby lands may be perma-
nently improved faster than by a judicious fertilization of
cotton, when checked and cultivated on the intensive plan.

This is the very place for a man to exercise his skill in
fertilizing, putting his nitrogen and potash freely on the
poorer portions of the field, and his phosphates everywhere,
but putting them on most liberally in his best soils, and more
especially where cotton inclines to make excessive growth of
weed. The poorer spots in a field may receive a dressing
of stable manure with manifest advantage, may be sown
down to cow peas broadcasted in the cotton at last working

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the whole field sown to crimson clover, or intercultural fer-
tilizing practiced, until the entire field becomes of approxi-
mately the same degree of fertility throughout.

In checking cotton the land should be liberally fertilized
where fertilizers are needed, thoroughly prepared, cotton
planted with a planter in a continuous drill, the stand se-
cured, then checks made by running across rows with sweep,
heel-sweep or so-called “scrape,” expanding-harrow or culti-
vator, being sure the plants are thinned to final stand by
June Ist to 5th. Cotton should stand on poor land, about
three feet by eighteen inches; on medium land, making, say
about a bale per acre, three by three feet; on good land
capable of making one and a half to two or more bales per
acre, four by four feet apart would probably be a good dis-
tance, and where long and medium limbed varieties are
planted never but one stalk in a place. ‘““Limbless” or very
compact “cluster” varieties might be left two, three or four
in a place, according to the discretion and judgment of the
cultivator, the proper distance of the hills or checks apart
being determined in each and every instance by first the
productive capacity of the land, and second its ability to re-
tain moisture. Of course where the growth is very rank the
distance to be allowed must be greater, and where the weed
growth is medium to small it may be proportionately anc
correspondingly less.

It is a fact that has been long established by accurate
experimentation and experience that cotton planted on the
square, or equal distances apart each way, will turn out
more cotton per acre than when planted any other way.
What folly then to fool away both time and money in hoeing
a continuous row in order to get a stalk three by three or
four by four feet apart, or to annually cut one’s self out of a
half-crop or possibly more, by leaving the cotton too thick
as is now almost invariably done throughout the entire cot-
ton belt, the width of a hoe and two, three or four, and even
more stalks in a place being the rule.

Under ordinary circumstances and with ordinary culture
the yield of either cotton or corn would be practically abou‘

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\

the same, the one advantage being that in either case the
crops checked are invariably more economically cultivated
than when drilled; second, check culture admits, facilitates
and though not necessarily or essentially so, seems to almost
demand a more intensive system of culture, said more inten-
sive system being invariably followed by increased satisfac-
tion, largely increased yields and consequent largely
increased profits.

There is no profit in a crop of any kind unless said crop
is above the average. To have large crops, we must have
better farming. This better farming does not mean more
work, but better work, and better work means that the brain
must be used to facilitate and enhance in value the labor of
the hands.

There is something more in farming that is imperatively
necessary besides hard work and plenty of it. A knowledge
of the business is of vastly greater importance; it is possible
to make the brain save the hands. It is also possible to so
unite brain and brawn, mind and muscle, as to double, treble
and quadruple the value the work performed by said mus-
cle, by doing better and more profitable work, and doing
that better, more profitable, hence, more valuable, work, to
better advantage. |

The secret of success in cotton raising is no exception to
the general rule, that the grand secret of success in any and
all callings lies in the know how.

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RARY OF CONGRESS

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