24 The Bulletin. 



LECTURES DELIVERED AT FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



On the following pages are several of the lectures delivered at the 

 institutes during 1907. They are necessarily more or less condensed, 

 and in being reduced to paper have lost much of the interest which 

 they possessed when spoken : 



PREPAEING THE LAND EOR AND FERTILIZING 



COTTON. 



Bj^ R. J. REDDING, Formerly Director Georgia Experiment Station. 



In view of the gi-eat value and importance of the cotton crop, it is extremely- 

 desirable that the very best varieties of cotton and the most skillful methods 

 of culture and fertilization shall be discovered and developed, to the end that 

 the producer of cotton shall be able to meet the ever-increasing demand at a 

 reasonable profit to himself. 



It may not be denied that the practical problem that first presents itself to 

 the cotton grower is how to produce cotton at the lowest cost, so that there 

 shall ever be a liberal margin between the cost of production and the market 

 price. 



The main purpose in this talk is to discuss the best methods of cotton cul- 

 ture, whereby an ambitious farmer may approximate the production of one 

 bale, or more, per acre at a cost not greater than five or six cents per pound, 

 or even less than five cents. The reader will note that the argument constantly 

 leads in the direction of lessening the cost of production. All efforts to advance 

 the market price in the past have failed, and must of necessity fail, except 

 so far as in the securing more correct and reliable information in regard to 

 supply may cause an upward reaction. The mai-ket price is mainly controlled 

 by the law of supply and demand. The farmers might reduce the production 

 (the supply) by curtailing area, and thus cause an advance in market prices; 

 but such advance would be in obedience to the law of supply and demand. So 

 the individual farmer is not able to influence the market price by so much as 

 the thousandth part of a farthing. But the individual farmer may, in very 

 large degree, control or limit the cost of production of his own crop. Not by 

 cutting the wages of labor ; not by using cheaper mules, and cheaper or worn- 

 out implements; not by foregoing the use of commercial fertilizers, nor 

 even reducing the quantity he will apply per acre. No, not by one of these 

 short-sighted, if not foolish things, but by using the best of everything, the 

 most effective implements, the most judiciously balanced home-mixed fertil- 

 izers in liberal amounts per acre, and in doing these and other things in the 

 most intelligent and skillful manner, aiming to greatly increase the yield per 

 acre, thus making labor (the most expensive factor in production) far more 

 effective and productive. 



KOTATION OF CROPS. 



It is of prime importance in all mixed farming to adopt a judicious rotation 

 system. It will hardly be expressly denied that such a system yields the best 

 and most profital)le returns in the long run; but it is a fact that the large 

 majority of Southern farmers utterly ignore it in practice. It is perhaps not 

 necessary at this time to argue in favor of rotation of crops, but simply to 

 exhort farmers to adopt it in their practice and to indicate the most con- 

 venient and efTective system for mixed farming in the cotton region. 



The three principal field crops grown in the South are small grain, corn and 

 cotton. Perhaps it were bettei' to say that small grain should be one of these 



