St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-01-23
FARM RESEARCHES.
The Best Time for Considering the Claims
of the New and Untried Crops.

some change in their business in spring.
Some propose to give up grain-raising
ON an extensive scale, and to engage in
dairying, general stock-raising. or the
breeding of fine animals. Others are
thinking about engaging in the produc-
ton of some crops that have never been
raised in this vicinity, as hops, broom
corn and tobacco. Some are consider
ing the propriety Of preparing and
stocking fish ponds. Others are think
sng of constructing silo, with view of
preserving green fodder to feed to their
stock next winter Some are consider
ing the profits of poultry-raising on an
extensive scale, with view of supply
ING the market with fowls and eggs.
They have read of the success of others
IN this branch of husbandry, and from
their statements have about come to the
conclusion that it pays better to feed
grain to fowls than to pigs, cattle, or
sheep, or send it to market A smaller
S~sssnber, perhaps, have thought that
there was large amount of honey an
nually going to waste in the district
where they live, and are thinking that
it would be profitable to keep bees that
would gather and store it. As the price
OF nearly everything produced On farms
is quite low and gives promise of re-
manning SO, very many farmers are
thinking Of making a new departure in
some direction, hoping that it will be
~ Tor
1t is often advisable to make changes
I'm the management of farm. Farmers
of small means are generally obliged
to keep scrub animals or none. They
have not the money to purchase i'm
ported stock, and they have not suita-
BILE buildings in which to keep costly
animals. They are generally obliged
to raise grain to sell in order to procure
money to pay for their land, to erect
buildings and fences, and buy imple-
ments. they can not engage in dairy
ing until they have the means to pay
for, or raise, herd of good COWS and
to put up barns that will shelter them.
To raise fine stock requires considerable
capital, as good buildings and improved
pastures as well as expensive animals.
The drainage of low land, the erection
OF wind-nills for raising water, the inn
provement of cranberry marshes, the
saaanting of ornamental hedges, the set
ting out of orchards, the formation of
shelter belts, the preparation Of lawns,
and the making and stocking of fish
ponds can not ordinarily be undertaken
by farmers who have moved upon tracts
of raw prairie and who have families to
In the great majority of cases
the improvements on farms must be
slowly made. One change for the bet
Ter must be made this season and an
other next, till at length the farm is
all that the owner desires to have it be.
Farmers often make changes in their
business very injudiciously. They read
a paragraph in some paper that
farmer has realized small fortune in
few years by raising certain crop, or
by keeping a certain breed of animals
or fowls. They think that they can do
quite as well by adopting the same
course. Without knowledge and with
out experience they embark in the new
enterprise only to fail. They discover
when it is quite too late that they are
mot suited to the new kind of business,
that their places are not adapted to it,
or that the time for engaging in it is
past. The report that farmer some
where realized five hundred dollars per
acre on an onion, celery, or straw berry
crop has had the effect to turn the heads
of many farmers. They neglect their
old standard crops to. plant those with
whose Guilty alton they are unacquainted,
and for which there is no market near
where they live. They become finan-
cially embarrassed. Their creditors
press them, and they are obliged to part
with their places at a sacrifice and to
life over again in new
locality. Every time that hops or
broom-corn happens to reach high
figure thousands of farmers hasten to
engage in their culture, often in places
where the climate and soil are not
to their growth. Those who
succeed in producing good crops find
that the market is overstocked, and that
prices have fallen below the cost of pro-
duction.
No radical change should be made in
the management of farm, and no
costly improvement undertaken with
out due elaboration, thought and study.
Great pains should be taken to acquire
ail the information reRtive to the re-
quirements OF every new crop, and in
Shrinking of introducing it in an untried
locality, the cost of obtaining seed and
the facilities for sending the product to
market should be carefully considered.
The statements of those who have seed
for sale should be regarded with con-
siderable suspicion, as they are inter-
ested parties. The sorghum sugar
spool was inaugurated and has been
kept up chiefly by those who had seed
and machinery to dispose Of. The silk
culture mania is largely the.result Of the
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