St. Landry democrat., 1884-09-27
10 the Cotton Planter and
Merchant.
EDITOR HOME AND FARM /:

EDITOR HOME AND FARM
The outlook of this all-cotton- crop
country is not encouraging-that is the
future will get no better than the past,
antil there is change. With many
planters this change will only come
when they can no longer get advances.
They will then be forced to raise their
bread and meat. When they get into
that stvle Of farming, they will not go
back to the all-cottOn and credit system
living one year ahead. The thing that
makes the debt, is the purchase of
bread and meat to make cotton. Make
that bread and meat at home, and you
stop the debt. Thirty bushels of corn,
bought on a credit, eats up a bale OF
cotton. Three or four times thirty
bushels of corn is easier made than one
bale OF cotton, to say nothing of the
valuable time lost out of the crop, with
team and hands, in going for the bought
ehelIed corn, which is frequently dam
aged and often wastes in handling. The
number of stock killed by damaged
corn, yearly, is enormous.
The oat crop is as profitable as corn
crop Follow it with peas, or sweet po-
tatOes, and you have a second crop as
valuable as the first. You can not make
-
sweet potatoes-they are saleable at
some time, or at some point--but far
better have enough stock to consume
your surplus crops. Fat beef cattle,
colts, mule colts, hogs, sheep and p0ul-
try, are always IN demand at tar prices
either South or West. The humble
sweet potato crop has not been gener-
ally appreciated as a stock food. One
acre will feed as far as five acres IN
corn, and is easier made, acre for acre,
than corn, and better relished. They
will also fatten quicker. Bank. them
out in the weather, without any shelter,
in q waterproof or rain proof dirt bank
with ventilation at the top and they
will keep perfectly until they dry up in
midsummer.
A cotton planter can, rent out his
land AS far as possible, and plant the
balance in Bermuda grass for lis stock
10 consume and he will clear more mo- |
aey then be is now doing in making |
cotton. At least, he viii not be I'D debt. |
OF course an active energetic man who |
fills in his time with stock, fruit and /
crops other than cotton, would hay@
still! better results than an idle man
with stock alone In addition to tile /
profits of a diversified crop, it is more
aud life is more pleasant.
Aud You get rid of the vexation and
ola large lot of disagreeabls,
ungrateful freedmen, whose
mottoes are anything to beat the
ooss,n though they are the best labor
this country has had yet.
Some planters will argue: Suppose
everybody goes into this diversity and
neglect cotton ?" The answer is, 1ou
could not induce one-tenth of the plan
+S1 oh thAIp unH
need not be afraid of any such change
sery sOOu. But the man who goes into
it the soonest makes the profit quickest.
Take the cotton country from Mobile
kS far north as you please, and what
has been the result of this all-cotton
policy Simply farming out OF the
3IanteP. His plantation passes out of
Iiis hands into tile hands OF the COM
mission merchants, and they in turn
ret loaded down with these unsaleable
plantations, and they are passed over
af sold to now planters, with q new set
pf merchants, who go through the {
same lnisfOrtnnes, and pass over to an
Jther new set, to repeat again and
again, as long AS they continue the all
lotion policy, Investigate any excep-
ion to the rule, and you find they make
B big supply OF corn or meat, or rent out :
sess that supplies the leak.
Some will say, still clinging to the y
;ottoD, s'enrich your land and make
ew acres bring bale or more to the {
.cre.n That same enriched land will |
aake the value of two or more bales in
ther crops, and in some products two 2
rops with far less labor aud expense
han cotton. Cotton itnow being made g
very year and sold at ten cents per 8
,0and that costs fifteen cents per
Ound tO make. Fertilizing with home u
sade manure and cotton seed is far z
but with commercial gaanO,
is Improbable. This ap-
lies more particularly to cotton, AS g
here are SO many disasters to the crop. p
Time and experience will prove the
sEors Of the past-some will profit by o.
and some will not. There will be
lst as much cotton raised as in the ts
ast many that go into it will think Ie
rat they are just little smarter and =
ave little more energy and skill than q
leir predecessors. 1t is like the pigs e
gting hot swill, each one runs up and
kes a taste. and then sqaeals. d'
Dallas Coaty, Ala. |. SEEMORE. "