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t Slatt jjman aitb Southron uATUKuAY, MARCH 20. 190?. !?> Rumtsr Watchman was found a !?>* and the True Southron In k the Watchman and Southron has Ike combined circulation and snaca of both of the old papers. IS manifestly the host ad vert lain g IMS ftm am inter. ho Dsssjooratio Congressman who ?Sod thser party and mads it pos I tar oed Joe Cannon to remain In trot *f the House should he read of ti e party. ? ? e aa Cannon brand of Democrats is aodlg mors objectionable than the I sort,, And Oeorgia seems to have m a ooHsctlos of both sorts, not avoatsm the Jos Brown sect and Watson Populists. from ths newspaper re *y Southern msn or woman i oesatntt* a crime or becomes lo? ad as a scandal belongs to one of "boat old families" and is prom I t socially If this sort of thing as ap ths outride world will be med n regarding ths best old Rias ulth suspicion. aiiL.ni..._ .j ar Nicholas Is restly an Olden I. althosgh he is accepted as a saooff. If his name were to be sal through ths paternal Uns It Id ho found thst the founder of family was sn Oldenburg. But in rd with ths generally accepted It Is traced through the feminine A I >| saps ihr tie 1? largo tosring automobile con sag a man and hit wtfs met a of hay In a vary narrow road. wosaaa declared thi.t the fsrmer I each oat. hut her husband con? sul that she was unreasonable, hat yoa can t back ths auto mo - an fat." ska said, and I doa't ad to move for anybody. Be s, as ?hoald have seen us." ha aaesaai pointed out that this laaposslbie. owing to an abrupt t sa Um? road. I doa't care," she Insisted. T ft saovo if I have to stay hsrs all a* far hasimml was starting to argue matter, when the farmer, who Utting quietly oa the hay. mlad. sir!" hs exclaimed. "I'll try to back out. I re fust Ilka her at lioms." a i a Farmers' Union News -AND Practical Thoughts for Practical Farmers (Conducted by E. W. Dabbs, President Farmer?' Union of Snmter County.) The Watchman and Southron having decided to double its service by semi-weekly publication, would Improve thst service by special features. The first to be inaugurated is this Department for the Farmers' Union and Practical Farmen which I have been requested to conduct. It will be my aim to give the Union news and offletal calls of ths Union. To that end officers, snd msmbers of ths Union are requested to use these columns. Also to publish such clippings from the agricultural papers and Govern? ment Bulletins as I think will be of practical benefit to our readers. Ori? ginal articles by any of our readers telling of their successes or failures will be appreciated and published. Trusting this Department will be of mutual benefit to all concerned, THE EDITOR. All communications for this Department should be sent to E. W. Dabbs. Mayosvllle. 8. C. Koine Random Thoughts. I trust those of my readers who do not seo the originals, will carefully road the articles on corn growing and how lands grow poor, that I think worthy of these columns this week. Our unions are invited to make use of these columns, to communicate with each other. Have they not each a scribe who will give us the news? Corn planting has begun In this section and before many days the birds Hon. James Henry Rice la fuming over will be having a picnic eating the sprouted grains. The remedy in use plenty of seed, ft la always cheaper to thin corn than to replant. By all means protect the birds and feed them too, for the great good they do, and ths pleasure their sweet songs and dainty ways give to those who can appreciate the beauties of nature. And also that we may have a rest from some of ths hysterics of some of their self-appointed4 protectors. How Farming Lands Grow Poor. A msn when he applies 200 pounds 8?S?2 fertiliser to a cotton crop (there Is In that sixteen pounds of phosphoric acid, four pounds of nl trogen, and four pounds of potash), and soils the seed containing more of these plant foods than he applied in the fertilizer, is it not evident that the plants have drawn on the soil for more than was furnished in the fer? tilizer? Then he finds that the same amount of fertilizer will not give him as much crop on the same land, and he concludes that fertilizers are only stimulants. And, as he uses them, they do amount to that very thing, enabling the plant to get a start that enables It to draw more heavily on the soil, and the soli gets poorer. I Then he lets the land He with only ' i the dead cotton stalks on it all win I ter, and the rains wash out more sol? uble plant food, when a crop of crim? son clover would have saved the waste and would have added not only some extra nitrogen, but a lot of or? ganic matter to form humus and help i restore the waste. A good rotation of crops Is not, as some suppose, to rest the land, but to make It produce heavier crops. We are thus enabled to get constant? ly Increasing crops while maintain? ing and Increasing the productive ca? pacity of the soli through the res? toration of the wasted humus. In the annual cultivation In cotton we use up the humus (the home of the bacteria that promote nitrification I In the soil), and the constant expo? sure to t the sun, the greatest of all sterilizers, completes the killing of the bacteria, so that we have left on ty the old dead skeleton of sand and clay, robbed of its life, the humus. Such a soil is really a dead soil, and while a little application of fertilizers may temporarily galvanize it into a sort of life, it soon goes back to its dead condition, deader, if we may so speak, than before. This condition has been the result of small applications of low grade fertilizers solely for the purpose of getting more crops from the dead soil and the farmer is continually apply? ing to us for a formula that will cure it, when no fertilizer formula that was ever compounded will restore the life of the soil. The only way to do this Is to use the fertilizers for the purpose of re? storing the humus, the newground conditions In the soil. Used for the increased production of the legume crops, we need not buy the costly ni? trogen, for by a good rotation of crops with the legumes to feed, and the manure properly saved and used, we can Increase the nitrogen content In our soils without buying a cent's worth of nitrogen In a fertilizer. The Minnesota Station found that after ten years of rotative cropping without any purchased nitrogen, there was 300 pounds per acre more nitrogen in the soil than when the rotation began. And yet, all over the South men are selling many times the nitrogen in their cotton seed that they apply afterwards in fertilizers, when they could have had an abundance of ni? trogen without buying an ounce. Our cotton lands are kept poor, and grow? ing poorer, because we will not let them get rich by giving them the proper chance through good farming. The only way to reanimate our dead soils is by restoring to them the life giving humus, and this can only be I done through a good short rotation In which legume crops come in fre? quently on the land and are fed to cattle to make manure.?Progressive Farmer. Find What Your Corn Cost?. To those of our friends who are en? amoured of the Williamson stunting mode of growing corn, I have a pro? posal to make: Measure your field exactly, so thai there will be no guess work. Then measure off one exact acre of the same quality of land in part of the field. Give this acre the same pre ! paratlon as the remainder of the field I'and cultivate it regularly, clean an<i shallow without any stunting. Ther practice the Williamson method if you choose on the remainder of the field. Charge the acre, and all the \ other acres, with the rental value of the land, and the actual cost of the work put on it, and charge the part treated with the Williamson methods with the fertilizers used at their ac? tual cost to you on the land, hauling and application included. Put no fertilizer at all on the one meas? ured acre. This will give you the I means for finding what the land will I do with good cultivation, and will I give you a basis for calculating with I out guess-work, what the increased crop on the Williamson part has cost you. It would be still more in? structive if you measure off another acre and treat it exactly as in the Williamson method, with the excep? tion of the stunting. Then you can find what the stunting has done for you. We have entirely too much guess? work in our farming, and we cannot get at the actual cost of results with? out some means for accurate compa? rison. Now, do this thoroughly, and see just what your corn actually coats. ? The value of the time of every horse or mule and man should be ac? curately kept day after day, and the crop weighed, both corn and fodder, from a sample acre of each. The mere getting of large crops is not always evidence of good farming. A crop of 100 bushels per acre may pos? sibly show less actual profit than one of 50 bushels per acre. We should have the matter of profit in view in all of our farming rather than a special effort to get big crops regard? less of expense. The same rule will apply to all our crops, for all farm I Ing should have the economical pro? duction of the crops constantly in I view. It is easy for a rich man to i ______?.-1 spend more on the making of a big crop than the crop is worth. But that is not farming, and it is never good farming unless the PN rk shows a good profit, and the ?oil It growing in productiveness at the same time. This is Ju3t the difference between real farming and the dependence on big applications of fertilizers to produce sale crops without any ref? erence to the future of the soil. Now. I hope that farmers all over the South will make the testa indica? ted In the most careful manner, and let us have the results.?Prof. Massey I In Progressive Farmer. Lee County Court House. The handsome new court house of Lee County, which has recently been completed at a cost of about 180,000, will be dedicated with appropriate ceremonies when court convenes at 10 o'clock Monday morning, March 23rd. The Lee County court nouse while a trifle smaller than the Sum ter court house, is very similar in de? sign and appearance, and Is said to be In some respects a hand better finished building, mission that had charge of tion of the building was co the following well known i Lee County: R. W. McL? A. James. J. R. Segars, A. M J. A. Thomas. -* The Columbia dope wrltt that there Is to be a State L that Sumter is dead sure to mix-up. Perhaps so, but th much baseball talk in this to Booth, Ansley Harby, Clau? George Ricker, Hugh Ha. Jim Blanding, and the rest of the of? ficial fans are keeping mighty quiet on the subject of they have any base on the subject of they have any base Cash Prizes For Farmers. For the stimulation of intensive effort and diversifica? tion among the Farmers of Sumter County and its farmer customers in other counties The Bank of Sumter Offers the following cash prizes: $50, in gold, to the farmer showing highest yield of corn on one acre. $25, in gold, for the second highest yield. This contest will be c^-.ducted the auspices of the State of South Carolina. FULL PARTICULARS CAN BE OBTAINEO AT THIS BANK OR WILL BE MAILED UPON REQUEST TO EXPECTANT CONTESTANTS. 1909 SPRING 1909 1909 T MILLINERY DISPLAY Tuesday, March ?BS. L, The Leading Millinery Place. 1909 IIS. t ? 1909