What a Difference Fertilizer Makes on Morris Farm, 1945

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as printed in the Wilmington Star, Feb. 19, 1945

Mecklenburg County furnishes a typical example of modern farm management in Watson Morris, who has come to learn about limestone and phosphate. When he started in 1936 to demonstrate the use of these two fertilizing elements, his acre yield of alfalfa hay was less than 3 ½ tons per acre.

Now he gets more than 5 tons an acre. He has brought into profitable production 40 acres of land which was unsuitable for cultivation and he has been able to greatly increase his livestock numbers. Where he had 30 cows, he now milks 81 and every cow produces more milk than any one of the 30 he formerly owned. He has increased his total hay production by 75 percent and J.A. Warren, the assistant farm agent in Mecklenburg, says the whole Morris family has been able to live better. The farm is 40 percent more productive; the owner has spent from $100 to $200 each year on making the home more attractive, and he has added about $2,800 worth of barns for his cattle.

This Mecklenburg farmer is fast learning to be a better farmer. He has increased the value and fertility of his land and he has built two new tenant houses so that he can have more satisfied labor. He has found that where his land is kept in a high state of tilth and fertility that it will pay him for his labor. He has also found that he can do better farming by studying his problems.