A Safe and Sane System of Crop Rotation in Boll Weevil Territory
Absolutely Necessary
When the boll weevil first appears in a territory, the first efforts at
breaking away from all cotton usually consist in going largely into
another single crop system of farming rather than the production of a
variety of crops. The evils of the new system are usually as great as
those of the all cotton system. Many farmers rush into the truck business.
Of course, truck crops should be grown on every farm in the weevil
territory, and, in some particular localities, they may constitute the
main reliance for cash, but it seems that the truck business is a gamble
for the average cotton farmer. Trucking has lured many a farmer to
financial ruin.
The crop rotation for the average cotton farmer should include oats, corn,
some cotton, and at least one leguminous crop. Along with this should go
the growing of hogs, mules, horses and cattle instead of having to buy
them from other sections of the country.
It is not possible for the farmer in the boll weevil territory to entirely
supplant cotton as a money crop, but this crop should be supplemented with
the growing of home supplies, as well as other crops which will produce
cash returns.
Cotton is one of the greatest cash crops, and while it should be the main
money crop in the boll weevil territory north of latitude 32, it should
not be the only cash crop grown. The safest plan either within or without
the boll weevil territory is to follow a system of diversified farming.
The cotton farmers, especially those in the boll weevil territory, cannot
afford to depend entirely on cotton as a cash crop. A system of rotation
suitable for cotton belt farmers should include some of the following
staple crops:
_Oats are probably_ the surest and best paying small grain crop that can
be grown over practically the entire cotton belt. The same soil that will
produce one bale of cotton per acre will grow 60 bushels of oats. At the
average price that has prevailed for oats during the past five years, the
60 bushels will sell for $36 to $40, and the straw, when baled, will often
pay the larger part of the expense of growing the grain.
_The bale of cotton per acre land_ will produce about $30 worth of oats,
at least one and a half tons of lespedeza hay, and five bushels of
lespedeza seed. The lespedeza hay will sell for about $12 per ton and the
lespedeza seed for about $3 per bushel. The total is $63 per acre. We are
personally acquainted with a farmer who has averaged $65 per acre for
eight years.
_Thirty dollars worth of oats_ and twenty bushels of soy beans at $1.50
per bushel, and one and a half tons of soy bean hay at $8 per ton, means
$72 per acre. These are very conservative figures. At the Mississippi
Delta Experiment Station in 1912 the land produced ninety bushels of oats
to the acre, twenty-two and a half bushels of soy beans, "after losing a
good percentage of the beans by shattering," and 5,200 pounds of soy bean
hay. The average yield of cotton on the same land was about 500 pounds of
lint per acre.
[Illustration: Oats in a three-year rotation with cotton and corn]
_Oats and vetch_ sown together furnish more and better grazing and better
hay than either when sown separately. There is no better hay than oats and
vetch cut in the dough stage. Few hays will sell for a better price on the
market. The oat and vetch hay provides a much more satisfactory ration for
horses and mules than corn or leguminous hay.
_Oats may be followed by cowpeas._ When the cowpeas are planted in rows on
good land, well fertilized and cultivated, the yield is usually from ten
to twenty bushels of peas and one and a half tons of hay. The peas usually
sell for about $2 per bushel and the hay for about $12 per ton.
_Ninety bushels of oats_ and sixty-seven bushels of peanuts were produced
on the same land at the Mississippi Delta Experiment Station in one year.
At the present prices for peanuts and peanut hay, it is a very profitable
crop to grow after oats when properly handled.
_When corn is planted_ on fertile soil thoroughly prepared, _properly
fertilized_ and cultivated, the yield is usually about fifty bushels per
acre. The average price per bushel is about 80 cents. Peas planted in corn
at the last working will usually average about eight bushels of peas and a
ton or more of valuable hay. The peavine hay can be harvested by live
stock.
_The growing of live stock_ will help to create extensive home markets for
roughage and leguminous crops, keep the money at home that is usually sent
to the north and west for pork products, mules, horses, hay, beef, and so
on, and at the same time add greatly to the fertility of the soil. Pork
can be produced in the cotton belt more easily than any other live stock.
It would not be wise for the average cotton farmer to devote his farm
exclusively to hog raising, yet it will certainly pay him to produce
enough pork for home use and some to sell to supplement the money formerly
obtained for cotton.
Chickens, turkeys, ducks and other poultry sell for good prices and every
cotton farmer in the weevil territory should raise some poultry for sale.