Published  Weekly  by  The  Rural  Publishing  Co.. 
>  OL.  LXXXII.  333  W.  30th  St.,  New  York.  Price  One  Dollar  a  Year. 
NEW  YORK,  SEPTEMBER  29,  1923 
Entered  as  Second-Class  Matter,  June  26,  1879,  at  the  Post 
Office  at  New  York,  N.  Y.,  under  the  Act  of  March  3,  1879. 
NO.  4762 
Southern  Crops  Which  Ought  to  Come  North 
THE  pictures  this 
week  show  typi¬ 
cal  Southern  crops  as 
grown  in  the  poor'  soil 
of  Northern  Florida. 
Some  of  them  at  least 
could  be  duplicated  at 
the  North  if  they  were 
handled  properly.  Fig. 
520  shows  corn  and 
velvet  beans  growing 
together.  These  crops 
were  planted  May  4. 
while  the  picture  was 
made  July  20.  The  corn 
is  a  Southern  variety 
known  as  Reid’s  Early 
Dent.  By  July  25  this 
corn  was  not  yet 
dented,  although  as  we 
see  the  velvet  beans 
had  ‘  made  a  great 
growth.  Both  corn  and 
beans  were  Ifully  ripe 
by  August  10.  This 
early  strain  jof  Ibeans 
was  developed  by  Prof. 
Mores  of  the  Agricul¬ 
tural  Department. 
They  made  from  10  to 
20  bushels  of  beans  per 
acre,  and  this  tangle  of 
food  and  fodder  can  he 
harvested  by  hogs  — 
just  simply  turning 
them  in  to  eat  grain 
and  vine  as  is  done  in 
the  West.  This  short¬ 
lived  bean  ought  to 
grow  anywhere  that 
pole  or  Lima  beans  ma¬ 
ture  and  anyone  can 
see  the  amount  of  food 
it  will  produce. 
At  Fig.  521  is  shown 
a  feed  of  corn  with 
early  peanuts  between 
the  rows — another  good 
combination  of  pasture 
crops  for  hogs  or  cattle. 
This  field  of  poor  soil 
had  grown  kudzu  for 
several  years,  and  the 
only  fertilizer  used  was 
200  lbs.  of  acid  phos¬ 
phate  per  acre.  It  is 
possible  to  plant  pea¬ 
nuts  in  between  the 
corn  rows  asi  here 
shown,  and  then  plant 
velvet  beans  with  thG 
corn.  This  gives  three 
crops  giving .  together 
an  immense  yield  of 
good  pasturage. 
Mr.  Chas.  F.  Leach, 
Jefferson  Co.,  Fla.,  who 
sent  us  these  pictures. 
Corn  and  Velvet  Beans  Crowing  Together.  Fig.  520 
Corn  With  Earlg  Peanuts  Between  the  Rows.  Fig.  521 
paints  the  following  en¬ 
thusiastic  picture  of 
what  these  ■Southern 
plants,  properly  han¬ 
dled,  would  do  at  the 
North : 
Every  farm  in  the  Vol¬ 
usia  loam  of  the  poor  hill 
lands  of  New  York, 
Pennsylvania  and  East¬ 
ern  Ohio  has  sandy  spots 
and  fields  of  considerable 
size  that  would  grow  pea- 
huts  to  perfection  and 
the  velvet  beans  will 
grow  on  any  kind  of 
welfl-drained  land.  Ex¬ 
cept  on  the  highest 
ridges,  where  the  season 
is  too  short  for  dent 
corn,  this  combination 
crop  of  corn,  beans  and 
peanuts  would  be  a  god¬ 
send  to  the  poor  farmers. 
'With  kudzu  hay  and 
pasture  he  could  make 
milk  for  half  the  price  ‘it 
costs  him  now,  and  pork 
for  less  than  5  cents  a 
pound.  We  make  milk 
for  ,$1^  per  100  lbs.,  and 
Pork  for  3  cents.  You 
know  Florida  and  you 
know  that  the  so-called 
poor  hill  lands  of  New 
York  are  rich  as  cream 
compared  to  our  soils. 
There  is  no  such  thing 
as  poor  soils  or  worn-out 
soils.  Land  that  is  poor 
for  corn  is  rich  for  pea¬ 
nuts,  velvet  beans,  kud¬ 
zu  and  beggarweed.  Corn, 
the  small  grains  and  the 
shallow  -  rooted  grasses 
will  starve  to  death 
where  these  deep-rooted 
legumes  thrive  exceeding¬ 
ly.  Why  figure  that  soil 
is  only  6%  inches  deep 
when  kudzu  finds  its 
food  30  feet  below  the 
surface,  and  the  other 
legumes  I  had  mentioned 
(all  poor-land,  acid-soil 
legumes)  penetrate  the 
soil  three  to  six  feet  and 
not  only  find  plenty  of 
food  and  moisture,  but 
bring  up  vast  quantities 
of  lime,  phosphates  and 
potash,  and  leave  it  in 
the  top  soil  for  corn  and 
other  shallow  -  rooted 
plants? 
That  is  a  large  state¬ 
ment,  but  we  think 
there  is  much  truth  in 
it.  Our  experience  with 
some  of  these  acid-soil 
legumes  from  the  South 
shows  that  they  will 
thrive  and  give  heavy 
yields  on  our  Northern 
soils.  Our  climate  is  of 
course  different,  but 
these  plants  will  adapt 
themselves  to  our  con¬ 
ditions  and  give  us  good 
results.  Our  system  of 
farming  has  been  built 
up  on  the  theory  that 
only  the  lime  plants, 
like  Red  clover  or  Al¬ 
falfa,  should  be  used 
