The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1870-04-23
MISCELLANEOUS
: Gotten as A Surplus Crop.

g CO1CVNh us n
We extract the following from the
report of the Department of Agriculture
atWashington, for January:
The folly of planting all cotton, and
buying all farm supplies, was exhibited
OIL an extensive scale before the war:
and has been a~bundantly exemplified
since: l. It is a precarious. Deepen
dence; it is carrying an entire stock OF
very fragile eggs in one basket over ex-
ceedingly rugged roads. 2. It involves
heavy expenses for transportation and
commissions on bulky supplies for men
and animals of the farm. 3. II pre-
vents the, adoption Of any system of
rotation and the most economic means
of fertilization. 1t is a folly that. IN
1866 and 1867, plunged thousands OF
struggling planters into utter blankrup-
cey. The wisdom of the opposite course
is we'll illustrated by the following ex-
tract from a letter written by a repre-
sentative of a very large class, who
found, themselves at "the surrender"
without money OF business, or the
means of living-in this case a mar
with d large family Of small children,
Calvin C. Jones. of Wetumpka, Ala:
. I will now give you the history of
nv proceedings from the surrender to
the present time. At the surrender l
had ninety dollars in hard money.
There were ten Of us in family, myself;
wife,a and eight children. [ had no
provisions, but had two horses and one
hundred and sixty acres Of poor pine
land--plantation gone down. i went
to work for what we could eat, as it
was too late in the year to try to make
q crop The 1st of January, 1866, l
went to work to make a crop. L took
my hard money and bought provisions
with it, and planted all my land, about
fifty acres, in corn and peas. Ny neigh
boIs wanted to know why / did not
plant cotton ; they said they could raise
cotton enough on one acre to buy as
much as would grow on five. told
them that the first thing with me-, was
something to eat and then I would raise
some cotton! It proved to be a bad
crop, but I raised corn and peas enough
to make my meat and to do me for the
year 1870. I then planted about halt
nv land in cotton and the balance in
corn and, peas, 7 made five bales of
cotton, and corn and peas and meat
enough, to do me for. the year 1868. I
then sold my poor land for $500, in
three payments, and bought a planta-
tioneon the Coosa River, ten miles above
Wetumpka, for which / promised $4,000,
IN two payments. I and my children
went to. work myself and n son big
. enough to pillow, and four small ones
NOT large enough to pillow, were my
force. We made 400 bushels of corn
and $1400 worth Of cotton. I had
. corn, peas and meat to do me for the
year 1859. My eldest sor quit me and
went to work for himself. had one
above eleven years Of eye and put him
to the plow. and we have this year
made III bales Of cotton, 800 bushels
of corn, 800, bushels Of oats, IS bushels
Of wheat and some potatoes, and 1900
q pounds of pork. During the last five
years I have lost four head of horses !;
still I have not bonded any cotton. My
neighbors that went to making cotton
to buy corn and meat with, are still at
it, and they are just year behind.
They have to sell their cotton before
u they make it at ten or ~twelyescents per
g pound, in order to buy meat and bread.
and just as long as men pursue that
course they viii always be behind. /
have not worked any freedmen at all,
and I think | came out best for those
who do work them in this neighborhood.
generally. come out losers, with difficult
ties and lawsuits. During the five
years since the surrender, I have not
used az h1anures, az my means have
been limited. If everybody, both white
and black, would gosto raising their
own corn and meat at home, we would
be a happy people. rir,
~ 4b 1fu -~-.~~~+-A@%4-~~c~~5HsY s3
How 70 OBTAIN Rich MrLK.-If you
desire to obtain rich milk and in abun-.
: dance, give yonr, cows three times q day
Ia mixture of salt and water, slight-warm-
ed, in the proportion Of one pint of salt
to, two gallons Of water. In practicing
this operation regularly, Iyou will remark
that your cows will give immediately,
from the effect Of this drink, twenty-five
per cent more milk than. before and at
the same time they will become attach
ed so strongly 10 it, and hat unless
very thirsty, will refuse clear cold
water. One bucket full, morning, noon
and night, win be suficient.--Journa
D~aAgriculture. tpb sss
tTfhY8a1 4g~~~~~~-~~@s--~~,~-~~ .sfea 81
4 SwEET PorATo PUDDrNG.-Boil one
pound Of sweet potatoes very Gender,
when cool enough rub them through a,
lcolander, beat six eggs very light, and
add to the potato, also three quarters of
pound Of white sugar, and the sam
quantity Of good sweet butter, half a,
e$ratnd saa4hsnaaS N fauv .dyops .of wlomon