The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1882-08-05
Diversified Farming.


New Orleans Times-Democrat.
We have often adverted in these
columns to the advantages of winter
pasturage afforded by our mild eli
mate and winter grasses and other
facilities for dairy farming the win
ter season in the South at a time
when the North is ice bound. With
ample supply of hay saved from
crab-grass, Bermuda, Paspalum and
many other native grasses, supple
mented with Lucerne, the clovers
and velvet grass which remain
green throughout the winter, and
our great variety of root crops we
could easily furnish the North
ern States with fresh grass butter
throughout the winter. The as
founding profits of the dairy bust
ness, conducted properly in ou1
State, will more readily appear
when it is known that notwith-
standing our climate advantage
which affords green food all the
year, fresh milk is sold in New Or
leans for more than three times the
price it brings in the North. Only
recently Jersey butter from diaries
in the vicinity of New Orleans has
sold for 81 per pound.
These items are attracting the at
tention of Western dairymen, and
our own people are taking a new
interest in improved cattle and the
cultivated grasses.
Some of our readers will remem-
Der when hay was universally cut
with a handscythe. In those days,
under favorable circumstances, a
good hand would cut an acre per
day. The cost of making the hay,
cut with the scythe, raked with the
mandrake, tedded by hand and
pitched and unloaded by hand, was
counted equal to half the value of
the hay when cured, and it was not
uncommon for the farmer to pay
the harvester one half for saving
hay by hand then approximated SIC
per ton, but the introduction of the
moving machine, the hay-tedder
the hay-sweep, the hay loader, the
horse-fork and the hay carrier, have
created a revolution in hay making
and reduced the price of harvesting
hay to less than Is cents per ton
The farmers of the North and West
have promptly taken advantage OF
these inventions and largely in
creased the profits and reduced the
drudgery of farm work. The South.
ern planter still continues to dig
darkly in the earth with the i'm,
plements of mis- ancestors, ignoring
the natural advantages afforded by
our soil and climate for diversified
agriculture
The large area of land in the pine
and prairie regions of the South
suitable for sheep raising opens an
other avenue to diversity in farm
ing operations which will insure
our genial climate speedy and am
pie returns for the capital invested
The women in the South are also
opening new fields for their espe
cial work. Large numbers have
become interested in the rearing O
cocoons, from many sources, in tn,
South indicate a measure of sue
cess far. beyond anticipations anC
prove that the South's capacity TO
silk raising is only limited by th'
quantity of mulberry leaves which
may be grown. Efforts to main
tain the silk industry in the Soutl
have heretofore failed because o
the distance to the European mar
kets. This difficulty has been over
come by the establishment of sill
company with ample failures a
Corinth, Miss, aff;ording a hom
market and remunerative prices fo
all eocoons which may be grown
in the South.
An idea of the importance of tn
silk industry may be formed b,
reference to statistics, which SHOW
that the annual silk crop of tn
world is of more value than tn
annual cotton crop of the world
The fact that the rearing of silk
worms is light work carried on un
der the shelter of a roof, renders i
essentially woman's work in ever,
part of the world where it flourishes
Its introduction in the South vii
not only prove an inestimable bool
to women of every degree, but b
giving employment to the small
children, would induce the habit
of labor which would work a new
era in the industrial education o
the rising.generation. If the profit
of silk raising were only little 0
what they are, still, as an industrial
educator of the children of tn,
South, it should be fostered by al
who would see a people becom,
nation 0 7VorkerS. The diversity
OF rural pursuits which would fol
low the introduction of jute, silk
grasses, stock raising, etc. would no
only relieve the South from the evil
of the Pernicious one crop system
but would insure a more certain re
turn for farm labor, and attrac
immigration, to be followed b,
manufactures operated by skilled
labor, increase of values and gen
eral prosperity.
W0rfhu G-o,.,o- A.