St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1880-07-24
What Crops Shall Farmers Grow :

This question presents itself to the
farmer every spring as one OF great i'm
portance. He very naturally wants to
raise such crops as will pay the cost of
growing and leave him little profit
besides. If there is any particular crop
that promises to be in excess of demand
with prospective prices too low to pay
cost of growing, he would wish to re-
duce his ordinary acreage; and on the
other hand, if any particular crop is
likely to be little scarce. and conse-
quently in demand, he would probably
be disposed to plant or sow in excess of
his ordinary acreage. But this is hard
ly safe rule. Many farmers have suf-
fered loss by adopting it. If any ex-
listing causes point to a prospective de-
mand for any particular product, in this
age of rapid and general diffusion of in
formation among the people, large
proportion of the farmers of the country
will know it and extend its culture, and
the result will probably be disappointing.
Such a result has been realized repeat
eddy with potatoes. From partial fail
ure of the crop on certain years, pota-
toes have brought high prices and their
culture been SO extended the following
year that they became drug and
hardly paid for handling.
The better way is for the farmer to
determine what crops in regular demand
are best adapted to his soil and climate
and also to his own abilities, what pro-
portion of each he can grow to best ad-
vantage and then continue, with little
variation, to cultivate about the
same number of acres of each crop
from year to year. The one who pur-
sues such course for series of years
will meet with fewer losses and accu-
mulate more than the one who chang es
from one crop to another according as
the prices have ruled the previous year.
Corn is always safe crop for afarmer
to raise if he has good corn soil. He
can feed it to something that will prob
ably return its value and leave a great
proportion of it on the land to sustain
its fertility Then it is a good crop to
pulverize and clean the soil with. Just
consider the great variety of products
the farmer can manufacture out of corn,
by using different kinds of animal ma
chimes: Eggs, chickens, turkeys, ducks,
geese, pork, veal, beef, milk, butter,
cheese, lamb, mutton, wool and horses.
Out of this great variety he must be able
to select some that will pay for the out
lay. The rules for growing corn are
very simple: Make the ground rich,
pillow a moderate depth, harrow fine, Sc
lect the best of seed, drill in rows from
three and half to four feet apart and
harrow as it comes up till properly
thinned in the drills; or, if you prefer,
plant in rows three and half feet each
way, and after the corn is up, cultivate
it and keep cultivating it so long as a
horse can go through without breaking
down too much corn Ii you are not
able to cultivate so as to destroy weeds
in the hill, use the hoe. Phosphates
can generally be drilled in with the corn
proftably, or when planted in hills,
dropped over the seed when half enough
soil has been drawn upon them, and
then the remainder placed above the
fertilizer. We prefer putting it over
rather than under the seed, because
light rains will reach and dissolve il
there that would fail to reach it below
the seed.
Oats, one year with another, is pay.
inc crop, if as much care is exercised in
selecting and preparing the soil as is
usually shown other crops. But if you
SOW with oats poor. water-soaked, cold
soils. and do it in a slovenly manner
you have no right to expect paying
crops.
Barley is more risky than oats, one
year with another, but when soil, season
and prices are favorable it pays better
The claim that barley is less exhaust
ing than oats has never been proven
Their composition does not differ very
materially and we can see nothing il
the plea that barley roots are more cir
cumscrbed and draw their nourishment
from limited portion of the soil. A
to the moral question, every farmer
must decide that according to the die
tates of his own conscience. We pre-
ferred, when a farmer. to raise those
| crops that would benefit and bless
rather than curse, debilitate and destroy
mankind, SO to speak.
Potatoes, in favorable soil and local.
ties, are about as profitable crop a
any grown by the farmer. On sand,
and gravslly loan, near markets, abou
as much money is made by potatoes a:
by any other crop on the same humble
of acres. They are heavy handling
and will not pay to haul very far tt
market. Some seasons they are yer,
low and hardly pay expenses, but then
very likely the next season they will b
unusually high and pay better than an,
other crop.
We have always been of the opinio,
that farmers generally should keep I
few sheep, both for the wool and TO
the sale of the young lambs to the
butcher when proximity to good mar
kets makes them in demand. A goo'
flock is high merino grade ewes TO
breeding and long wooded rams. Thi
gives good large lambs at ten or twelv
weeks of age and good wool for market
The present is not a good time to com
mence a flock, as dock-masters are ex
cited and prices exaggerated.
The number of acres to be devoted t.
pasture and hay is, of course, to be de
termined by the stock kept on the farm
Sowed corn or some other green fodde