The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1884-05-22
The Value Of SOiIing Crops.

All industrial and mechanical pro-
gress is marked by an economy of labor.
In fact this economy and greater per-
lection of labor, as it is made possible
and practicable by the ingenuity and
inventive genius OF thoughtful and
enterprising men, are the springs from
which this progress flows. For, as ex-
perience and ability enable q practical
man to do so, he is constantly improv-
ing his methods, adding new device,
better plan, a quicker and more
effective process, here and there, until,
by dividing the labor and securing
greater perfection of it, the products
are increased many fold with either no
greater cost or a much smaller expense
in proportion to the advantages gained,
and thus by gradual steps, and some
times by happy discovery which leads
to a surprising and sudden advance,
have all the industries progressed so
rapidly as they have done in the last
twenty-five or thirty years. Let us con-
slider Just one fact which is of surprising
interest to farmers. This is the inven-
ton of the Bessemer process of making
steel, by which the cost of steel rails
has been reduced to about the common
price of iron rails few years ago, and
their useful life has been prolonged
about ten times, thus decreasing the
actual cost of the rails, in effect, to one
tenth of the cost of iron rails, and the
result to farmers has been to double the
value of their corn, wheat, beef and
other products which come from the
West. Old farmers remember when it
cost one bushel of corn to get another
to market. But now the ruling rates
of freight are lower than ever, and ten
bushels of grain can be carried to the
eastern markets for the price of one.
In many other ways farmers are now
enjoying the benefits of these improved
industrial methods. But, to use a
common expression, they must ''follow
suit or they will be beaten after all.
It's indispensable that they must at the
same time cheaper their own product
by the same methods, because this
cheapening process referred to is gen
eral and affects every industry. Farms
must be made more productive so that
grain and provisions, milk, butter,
cheese, fruit, etc., can be offered at the
reduced prices which are unavoidable.
and yet the farmers make more profit
than before.
just now we call attention to one oil
the greatest Improvements in agricul-
tural practice, viz, the growth and use
of soiling crops as a substitute for pa s.
turing. This consists of growing a
succession of crops, as rye, clover, corn,
millet, oats and peas mixed, and roots,
with several others which have local
advantages, for the purpose of cutting
them green and feeding to stock of all
kinds; horses, cattle, sheep and swine,
by which the area of ground required
to feed the stock may be reduced one
fifth, or even more; or, which is equiv
alent to it, the same area can be made
to support five times as much stock, or
even more, as before. But while this
practice is most advantageous where
land is high in value and labor is cheap,
it is nevertheless found useful in par
tial way, even where land is cheap, as
a help to the always falling pasture
during the hot, dry months of July and
August. 1t is then that cows fall of
in their yield. from which loss there is
no recovery for the rest Of Tire season;
it is then that grazing cattle and horses
suffer greatly from flies and the dry,
aot weather; and the seeds of future
disease are sown in the swine, to pro-
duce costly harvest of death and loss
when the later feeding on grain begins.
IN T. Times.