to be the most practicable and profitable system that can be followed on farms of like character over a considerable portion of the State. The main feature of the farm is the stock, and from the sales of cattle, beef and milk, the farm expects to derive the principal part of its income. All crops grown will be consumed on the farm except the cotton crop and such crops as may be grown to produce improved varieties of seeds for sale. An amount equal to the returns from the cotton crop will be expended in cotton seed and meal for feeding purposes, and in concentrated fertilizers. This plan will enable the farm to carry a larger number of stock than could be done otherwise, and at the same time increase the amount of manure made on the place. The cropping will be confined to the best land and the poorer land will be used for pasture until the growth of grass, weeds, etc., has added organic matter to the soil sufficient to make it profitable to fertilize and crop. CROPS OF 1884. 85 acres corn, yield 1,900 bushels. 60 acres oats, mostly fed out in the stables. 60 acres millet, corn, fodder and other forage. 33 acres Ensilage crops yield 240 tons. 32 acres Ribbon corn yield 125 gals. syrup and seed. 6 acres Sorghum yield 250 gals. syrup and seed. 41⁄2 acres Cotton yield 31⁄2 bales. CROPS OF 1885. 64 acres corn, yield 2,000 bushels. 11 acres cotton, yield 84 bales of 500 pounds. 35 acres oats, yield 900 bushels. 11 acres sugar cane, yield 180 gallons, and seed for next year. 50 acres millet, sorghum and corn fodder...... 25 acres peas.. 25 acres hay. 43 acres ensilage, corn, sorghum and peas. ............... 250 tons of hay and S60 bushels peas. Estimating men and students' labor at 75 cents per day, and mules at Plowing and planting. 50 cents per day. $ 49 59 Working... Picking.. 275 32 The loss on crop is due to cost of picking by students. At 60 cents per 100 weight of seed cotton, the picking would have cost $81 60, leaving a profit on crop of $92 76. The extra expense of student labor, as compared with regular hands, doubled the cost of chopping, hoeing, etc., which would decrease the $60 00 more. In other words, had the cotton crop been made the present year without student labor, it would have paid a profft of $17 00 per acre. COST OF CORN, Estimating men and students' labor at 75 cents per day and mules' at 50 cents per day. 2,000 bushels corn @ 50 cents. Beef made in corn fields after corn was harvested...... .$108 98 $527 30 $1,000 00 $1,100 00 Profit on crop......... 572 70 The student labor on crop includes a portion of team work and all other labor. With regular laborers we could have grown the crop for $75 to $100 00 less expense. A considerable portion of the corn crop required extra labor owing to the land being full of stumps and roots. This difficulty will be remedied in the next crop and undoubtedly a larger yield secured. The corn crop cost $8 24 per acre for labor and seed, or deducting value of feed for cattle, we get from the corn fields, $6 67 per acre and 22.7 cents per bushel. We expect to be able to reduce cost per bushel in the next years' crop to not more than 19 cents, as our corn land will all be plowed twice before planting, and we will have the land cleared from roots, permitting the use of the two-mule cultivators in working the crop. Student labor is expensive labor, so far as results are compared with the work of average field hands. Nevertheless, I consider money paid for student labor as the most profitable investment made by the College. It forms industrious habits and tastes, without which the mental training of the College would not be of special value to the young men in attendance. To encourage the students to work and make it popular eight cents per hour is paid for good work. In some kinds of work a portion of our students perform work worth more than eight cents per hour, but the great bulk of the work done could be purchased for a considerable less amount. By the use of farm machinery, two and three mule teams, twohorse cultivators, etc., and the employment of a few regular hands, we expect to grow all crops on the farm at a profit, and at the same time pay more for student labor than the work is really worth. Without the student labor system, the College would simply be an ordinary literary innsitution, and there would be no reason for its existence. To make the labor system successful, it is necessary that the student should actually work, and he must be compensated for his labor to make him a willing and industrious worker. Certain work is considered purely educational and is not paid for, but such work cannnot replace the labor that is obligatory and remunerative. Not one of the so-called Agricultural Colleges in this country has accomplished desirable results, without the compensated, obligatory, student labor system. Two or three hundred students, working two to three or more hours per day, cannot be employed in such a way as to make the work instructive and profitable, if the labor is paid for, yet we are nearer that point in this College, at present, than any other institution in the country, and from present indications will soon be able to make the several departments of the College return sufficient profit to the College to more than pay for all student labor. The destruction of our barns by a cyclone in the spring of 1884 called for a large amount of labor during that year in repairing the damage. The classifications of labor for both 1884 and 1885 shows that more labor has been expended in building, ditching, fencing, etc., than on crops. The returns for this labor expended in improvements are beginning to show in the yield of crops for the present year. Our corn crop for 1881-2 produced about 12 bushels to the acre; 1883, 15 bushels; 1884, 22 bushels; and 1885, 31 bushels. A portion of the crop was planted on a narrow hillside, and made but 15 bushels to the acre, and some of the best land suffered from being too wet, the ditches and drains not having been completed. Our average yield on 40 acres was 38 bushels. Our best yield on one acre, with fertilizer, was 61 bushels. Our yield of cotton in 1881 and 1882, with fertilizer, was one bale to three acres. We dropped cotton, except in an exprimental way, until the present year. Last year 42 acres made 31⁄2 bales of 500 lbs. This year I acres made 81⁄2 bales of 500 pounds, notwithstanding the rust or blight reduced the yield on half of the land planted each year. Our cotton was planted this year on land that produced but 10 bushels of corn to the acre in 1882. Our corn crop will be increased to 100 acres, and cotton to 30 acres the coming year, and with an average season the land will be in condition to produce an average of 40 bushels of corn or one bale of cotton to the acre, with an application of two and one half dollars' worth of fertilizer per acre. Experiments with the concentrated fertilizers on our land after it has been drained, indicate that their use will be found profita ble. Experimental plats of corn and cotton of 1-10 of an acre, gave the following results this year: EXPERIMENTS WITH COTTON. Meal. No. of plat. each 1-10 acres. Cotton seed Acid Super Wood Seed Cotton. |