The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-05-12

w eStern states and Territories, owing
to negligence on the part of their own
ers to provide food and shelter, and the
animals which do survive must neces-
sarily come out in springin very poor
and weak condition, and require extra
care and a generous supply of food in
order to restore health and put flesh on
their bones. Perhaps the coming sea-
son will be so favorable to the growth
of the native and introduced grasses
that no extra effort will be required in
the production of food for stock, but
as it seldom happens that the farmer or
stockman has surplus of food, it may
not be time wasted to make preparation
for raising an extra quastity.
Cattle frequently suffer for food
during the months of August and Sep
TENDER, especially if thoughts occur,
and as matter of safety preparations
should be made for making up any de-
iiciency likely to occur. If the crop
raised for feeding in summer is not re-
quired it is an easy matter to cure it and
lay 1t aside for winter use. If those
farmers and stockmen who are now so
bitterly lamenting the scarcity offodder
had sown some of the annual grasses
last summer or spring and cured them
for winter use they would now have no
cause of complaint. What has occurred
may occur again, and we shall probably
have long summer droughts and severe
winters in the future as in the past,
and as no one can tell in advance the
date of their coming, the only safe plan
is to be always prepared for them when
they do come. The stockmen on the
plains could have had an abundance of
fodder gathered for their animals, and
shelters prepared for their protection
from cold, but they neglected these
precautionary measures, trusting to
luck, and it has turned against them.
1t is not their first loss and in all prob
ability will not be their last, any more
than short supply of fodder among
Eastern farmers is anything new, or
likely to be an unknown condition of
affairs in the future.
But the severe droughts of last sum-
mer and the severity of the present
winter ought to serve as lesson to all
owners of live stock and make them
more diligent in the raising of fodder
plants of ali kinds. Their safety is in
what are usually termed the annual for
age plants, as many of-these thrive in
seasons and on soils where the perennial
kinds utterly fail. We would not of
course, advise any man to neglect his
meadows and pastures, but in addition
put IN few extra acres of drill corn,
mlilet or sorghum, to be fed out during
the late summer months if NEEDED, or to
be cut and cured for feeding in winter.
An acre of corn sown thickly in drills
will yield far more food than when
planted in hills and left to mature the
grain. The sorghums of various kinds
are nearly if not quite equal to corn Tor
this purpose, while millet can usually
be relied upon for sowing little later
IN the season, as it comes forward rap
IDLY during the hot weather, yielding
heavily, and, if cut early and wel-cured
fair quality of hay.
The sOrghums are allexcellent fodder
plants, but the large seeded varieties,
which have recently been disseminated
under the names of rice corn and PAM \
pas rice, are probably better adapted
to dry soils than the smaller sorts;
but the farmer can scarcely fail \
to produce valuable forage from any
OF them, if they are sown at the
proper season and in moderately rich
soils. One acre in sorghums will yield
live to ten times as much fodder "a the
same area in the ordinary perennial
grasses, and while the fodder produced
may not be worth as much per ton, it is,
to use a common Western phrase.
50 very filing and great way ahead
Of straw stack or nothing.
The farmer should take this fodder
question into consideration the comino
spring while laying out his plans for
the summer, and reserve a piece of land
somewhere on the farm for these annual
forage plants. If he has no field that
can be spared then he should use all the
small patches here and there about the
farm for this purpose, putting in some
early and others late. In fact, any plot
of ground that can be spared or piowed
Up, even as late as the first of July. NAV
De sown with corn, and if the season is
It all favorable, good heavy growth
ian usually be secured before the first
rosts of autumn. Corn will usually |
come forward more rapidly than the
nlllets or sorghums when sown late, or
n dry weather, as the grain is larger:
there is more substance
rom which to produce q Young plant.
With the hundreds of excellent FORAGE
plants in cultivation, and our cheap and
1ch lands and favorable climate, it is a
disgrace to the owners of stock of all
,inds that an animal should ever want
n suffer for food at any time or season of
he year. 1t is not at all necessary that
odder should all be consumed during
he year in which it is put up, or in the
GLOWING, for well -cured hay may be kept
good condition for several years; and
his is another good reason for laying
p supply when it is abundant for a
lme OF need. We hope every farmer
will think of this during the coming
eason and not neglect any opportunity1
hat may offer for increasing his stock
I hay and forage generally.-N. Y.
Some fisherman on the west coast
ireland were in the habit of going to
small island few hundred wards
'om the mainland in quest of bait. It
as the abode of large numbers of
abbits, and could be reached at low
de by wadinu As tho G.ho