CHAPTER XIII On the Experimental Farm
The purpose most eagerly sought by the Agricultural Department of the Tuskegee Institute is to demonstrate to the farmers of Alabama, first of all, that with right methods their acres can be made to yield unfailing profit, and that they can win in the fight against the deadly mortgage system. In many of the Western and Northwestern States cheese-making has led the one-crop, wheat-growing farmers to independence. The South has felt that this industry was beyond its reach, and has set small store by the dairy business. At Tuskegee, not only has it been demonstrated that cows can be made to yield from 50 to 150 per cent. on the money invested, but also that every farmer can, at moderate cost, make his own cheese, with a good supply for the market. Not long ago, the graduate of the Institute who is directly in charge of the cheese and butter departments, sent to my home specimens of six kinds of cheese made at the school—Tuskegee Cream, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Neufchatel, Cottage, Club-house, and Cheddar. These were as fine grades of cheese as can be found in any other creamery.
To find out what corn, grasses, pease, millet, etc., are best suited to the Southern climate and soil is the work of several years of earnest labour. At present experiments are in progress with ten varieties of corn, with vetch, clovers, cassava, sugar beet, Cuban sugar cane, eight kinds of millet, the Persian and Arabian beans, and many other food and forage plants. Fifty-five acres of peach orchard are sowed in pease, besides three hundred acres of corn land utilised for this second or auxiliary crop. The vegetable garden covers fifty acres, and there is hardly a day when this garden fails to help pay the table expenses of the school.
Stock raising is carried on more extensively each year. To get the best hog, sheep, cow, and horse for this region of the country is the chief aim. We cannot quit cotton, but we must raise our stock and our meat. The hen and the bee are great wealth-producers, but not more than one in three hundred Macon County families raise bees, and few of them give any special care to poultry. Therefore the school trustees spend a large sum of money each year in teaching the practical lessons of these industries.
CULTIVATING A PATCH OF CASSAVA ON THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT PLOT
Statistical data show that the average yield of cotton per acre throughout the South is 190 pounds, an astonishingly low figure, and, except when high prices rule, below the paying point. Every acre of cotton in the South can and should be made to produce 500 pounds of lint. Should the cotton grower add the trifling increase of five pounds of lint an acre, it would mean for the Cotton States a total increase of 240,000 bales, based on the crop reports for 1902, with a value of nearly $15,000,000, according to the prices realised on the crop of 1903. The experimental station at Tuskegee has appreciated the tremendous possibilities pictured by such statements as these, and the Director, Mr. Carver, has demonstrated the value of scientific cultivation, by raising nearly 500 pounds of cotton on one acre of poor Alabama land. In addition he has taken up the problem of crossing varieties of cotton to increase the quality of the uplands staple. These experiments have been promisingly successful, and already a hybrid cotton has been grown which is vastly superior to that commonly raised in Alabama. In other words, Tuskegee is teaching the farmers how to raise a better grade of cotton and more of it, without increasing the acreage planted.
The subject of soil improvement through natural agencies has been one of much concern to both ancient and modern agriculturists. The ancient Egyptian knew that if he let his land lie idle—"rested," as he termed it—he was able to produce a much better crop, and that crop would be in quantity and quality, all other things being equal, proportionate to the length of time this land had been rested.
At a later period the fertilising value of the legumes (pod-bearing plants) was recognised. But as the population of the world increased and civilisation advanced, it became more imperative that all farming operations should be more intensive and less extensive. Each decade saw the progressive farmer on his journey of progress correcting many mistakes of the past. He then began to see that it was quite possible and practicable to keep his ground covered with some crop; and the soil also became richer and more fertile every year—by reason of this constant tillage—than was possible under the old method of letting the land lie fallow for a few years. As science shed light upon his art, he learned that the crop-yielding capacity of a soil was increased by rotating or changing his farm crops every year upon land not occupied by such crops the year previous.
For seven years Tuskegee has made the subject of crop rotation a special study, and submits the plan illustrated by the accompanying chart as the most simple and satisfactory. This chart and data were worked out by the Director of the Agricultural Department. It was hoped that the experiment would shed some light on the following pertinent questions:
(a) Is it possible to build up the poor upland soils of Alabama?
(b) Can injurious washing away of the soil by rains be overcome?
(c) Are not the fertilisers necessary for the production of a crop on such land far beyond the reach of the average farmer?
(d) Granting it can be built up and made productive, will it not take an average life-time?
(e) Will it pay to purchase such land?
(f) State the smallest amount of such land the farmer should buy expecting to make a living off it.
The plan for rotation as outlined is for a farm of forty acres, but is perfectly applicable to one of any size, even down to a garden patch. In order that our efforts might be guided with the greatest degree of intelligence, the soil was analysed and found to be seriously deficient in three very important elements of plant food, and in the order named: Nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. In addition to this, it was practically devoid of humus (vegetable matter), and otherwise was in as bad a physical condition as chemical. Our first efforts were directed toward correcting the physical condition by deep plowing, rebuilding terraces and filling in washes. This being done, we are now ready to make definite plans for planting our forty-acre farm. In a farm this size we find it is wise to set aside four acres to be used as indicated:
(1) One acre for the house, lawn, flower garden, nut and ornamental trees. (2) One acre for the garden, orchard and small fruits. Upon this all the vegetables of various kinds, peaches, pears, plums, figs, strawberries, blackberries, grapes, etc., should be raised, not simply to supply the needs of the family, but there should be a surplus to market. (3) One acre for the barn, poultry house, pigsties, and other necessary out-buildings. (4) One acre for a good pasture where cows, horses, hogs, and stock of various kinds might be turned in from time to time. The remaining thirty-six acres should be planted as follows:
First year, sixteen acres of cowpease, eight acres of cotton, two acres of ribbon cane, three acres of corn, one acre of sorghum, one acre of peanuts, three acres of sweet potatoes, one acre of teosinte (a green fodder plant), one acre of pumpkins, cushaws, squash, etc.
The second year it will be observed that the peas change places with the cotton, corn, ribbon cane, sorghum, teosinte, pumpkins and sweet potatoes, except in a few instances—and these are where the soil was: (a) Naturally poor, as indicated by the acre where peanuts and cowpease follow each other the first and second years in order to better fit the land physically and chemically to produce an exhaustive crop like cotton; (b) Sweet potatoes following cotton and ribbon cane. Here bottom land is represented, and is, therefore, quite fertile. The fertilisers necessary to produce a good crop of sugar cane and cotton were quite sufficient to produce a good crop of potatoes with but little additional fertiliser. (c) In this we have a different condition—that of neglected bottom soil, deficient mainly in nitrogen. Here the pea is planted the first year to restore the nitrogen; and this is followed by teosinte and sorghum in one instance and pumpkins and ribbon cane in another; the physical condition of the soil being best suited to these particular crops. With the few exceptions mentioned, the third year is identical with the first.
Such a system of rotation has enabled us in seven years to make a net profit of $96.22 from one acre of this land, when in the beginning we lost $2.40 per acre.
In 1897, cowpease were planted, using $5 worth of kainite and acid phosphate per acre—mixing them together and putting in the drill. The seed, preparation of the land, planting, harvesting the light crop of vines, etc., amounted to $6.50, making a total of $11.50. The crop sold for $9.10, leaving us $2.40 behind.
In 1898, this same acre was planted in sweet potatoes and fertilised with $5 worth of kainite and acid phosphate, the same as recommended for the pease. The after-operation cost $6. Fifty-five bushels of marketable potatoes were harvested and sold for 60c per bushel, equalling $33, and leaving a net balance of $22 on the acre.
In 1899, cowpease were again planted and fertilised exactly the same as in 1897. The returns were fifteen bushels of pease, at 55 cents per bushel, equalling $8.25; also one and one-half tons of cured hay, worth $22.50, giving a total of $30.75. Less the cost—$11.50—equals $19.25 gain.
In 1900, it was planted in sorghum cane, fertilised with $5 worth of kainite and acid phosphate, plus fifteen one-horse wagon-loads of swamp muck and decayed forest leaves, at a cost of $3.75; plus the cost of harvesting, etc., $4.25, making a total of $13. Seven tons of hay were harvested and sold green for $5 a ton, leaving a gain of $22.
In 1901, cowpease were planted and fertilised exactly the same as for the sorghum. Twenty-five bushels of pease were harvested, worth $13.75; two tons of cured hay worth $28, making a total of $41.75; less the cost, equals $28.75 gain.
In 1902, it was planted in garden truck—cabbage, onions, beets, squash, tomatoes, melons, beans, turnips, mustard, kale, kohl rabi, rutabagas, etc. Fertilised the same as for sorghum and pease, except half of the swamp muck was replaced by stable manure. The total operations cost $21; the entire crop sold for $60, leaving a gain of $39.
In 1903, it was again planted in cowpease. Fertilised the same as for the garden. Twenty-seven bushels of pease were harvested, worth $14.85, and three tons of cured hay worth $43, equalling $56.85. Less the cost, gives us a gain of $43.85 per acre.
In this same year, a portion of this field, subject to the same rotation, was planted in white potatoes, using the same amount of muck, kainite and phosphate, at a total cost of $9. Eighty bushels of potatoes were harvested and sold for $1 per bushel, equalling $80. Before the potatoes were dug, cowpease were planted between the rows and yielded $25.22 worth of peas and hay, giving a clear profit of $96.22 per acre.
Another acre subjected to the same treatment was planted in early corn and followed by sweet potatoes, at a cost of $16. It gave a crop as follows: $44.60 in corn and fodder, one hundred and five bushels of marketable potatoes, and $4.05 worth of hay; making in all $111.65. Less $16.90, gives a profit of $94.75.
It is important to note that the data for 1903 represent only one-half of the crop, as the land is now in grain and will be harvested in time for the next crop, or grazed, which, of course, will give a net balance according to the yield of this grain or its value in grazing. We think, therefore, that the foregoing facts answer quite conclusively all the questions in the affirmative, and that it is wise for the Southern farmer to purchase a home even of two acres.