The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1878-04-27
Farm Notes.

square 1eeC Oh lanu planted Will d
good selection of flowers, all of
which can be secured at trifiing
cost, will give flowers every day
from early spring until late au-
tumn, and will also be a constant
source of pleasure.
Any farmer that has small
pond or lake on his farm, or a
never failing spring, so situated
that by damming up the gully or
hollow below it, pond can be
formed, may make an acre or two
thus located the most profitable
part of his premises, by stocking
the water with fish. This can now
be done with little expense through
any OF the different State fish COM
missioners.
Every farmer knows it is suici-
dial policy to starve his stock. The
greatest profits are made by the
most generous feeder. Why then
should not the soil be fed literally
to enable it to yield abundant
crops? 1t is worse than folly to
attempt to cheat the soil; and it
should receive no niggardly amount
of advances" if it is expected to
yield to its full capacity. Feed it
with manure.
A Southern paper says the tall
Fesure is very valuable grass for
the Soath, and adds: ut contains
more nutritive matter than clover,
orchard, timothy or blue grass,
having a tenth more than timothy,
twice as much as red clover, and
nearly three times as much as or
chard grass. 1t should be sowed
in the fall early, though it can DE
sowed in the spring. 1t takes two
bushels of seed to the acre. 1t
grows in the shade or sun"
To drain depression in a field
where a clayey or hsrd-pan subsoil
prevents the sinking of rain water,
and the lay of the land is unfavor-
able for ordinary methods of drain
age, first dig hole, AS fer well,
through the lmpervious stratum at
the bottom of the hollow, fill it mp
to the brim with large stones, re-
move the excavated earth SO as to
allow the surface water free access
to the pit, and standing water win
never injure the grass or grain
crop in that part of the field.
A farm differs from almost every
other kind of property IN its Ca
pacity for perpetual production. A
horse or COW lives but few
years, and the problem for the
farmer is how to produce the
greatest profit from them for the
short period Of their lives. But a
farm never dies, and never should
die. 1t is possession for all time.
and should be farmed with refer:
ence to its perpetual productive
ness. The man who, for immedi-
ate profit, skins his farm" by in
judicious cropping, is as short
sighted as if he should skin his
very best living COW for the profit
in the hide.
For an ornamental hedge, the
arbor-vita is one of the
most beautiful, as it is compare
lively easy to be transplanted, and
bears shearing in any form. The
however, makes a hand
somer screen, from its lively green,
but the plants are harder to pro-
cure and more difficult to trans
plant. The buckthorn aud privet
both form handsome deciduous
hedges. The p1vet forms a more
dense wall of verdue, and will grow
best under the shade of trees. As
/ single shrub, and regularly kept
Down by the shears, the hemlock
s extremely beautiful; nothing, in
Iced, can be more ornamental.
Upland Rice. The New Orleans
Home Journal says: ave earn
sstly recommend the culture of
rice upon the upland farms of the
Gulf States, not for sale so much
rs to supply the local demand. As
We asserted in an article upon the
subject, not long ago, rice does not
necessarily require to be flooded
20 perfect its growth and ripen the
grain. Water is used to tighten
he labor of cultivation, and we
ire very much inclined to believe
hat it fails to do this. Plant rice
N drills and cultivate with harrow
i l.