The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-12-26
FARMING FOR PROFIT
Two Things in Agriculture Bob Burdette
Would Like to Know.

Two Things in Agriculture Bob Burdette
Would Like to Know.
Talk about disse lsions in religion.
about warning creeds and battling
churches, if you want to get knee deep
in swamp of conflicting views and
opinions, wade through file of agri-
cultural papers. Now, there's nothing
vague, intangible, invisible and alb
stract in agriculture The ground is
real and the crops are sometimes real;
in the case of an amateur gardener who
moves out of town because he can save
years rent on June peas, I grant you
there is a degree Of abstraction that
makes the science ofaerated metaphys-
les solid as football match. But in
the soft and thawing weeks Of spring a
loan farm in clay country is about as
real as they make 'em. But now, l
read in my favorite agricultural paper
the other day that d man who chad q
patch clay over trap rock basted it
heavily with coal ashes" and my!
Talk about richness! And crops! Such
Don't talk. l went straight away to
the kitchen and gave orders that every
handful of coal ashes was to be placed
in fruit jars and kept in the refrigera-
tor until such time as | could have it
applied to the garden. No matter
what price the neighbors might offer
for it, not an ounce of it was to be
sold. Then l went back to the desk
and turned over to the next page of the
paper and a farmer and market
gardner in Hennessy County said that
a mixture of pounded glass, rock salt,
alkai and birthstone. poured on red
hot, was far preferable, as fertilizer,
to coal ashes. He said he had killed
every tree in healthy orchard, and
made the fairest kitchen garden in the
Pomona Valley a bowling waste, by
light applications of coal ashes. My
blood ran cold as l fastened but once
more to notify the seueschal that if
found one fake of coal ashes about the
castle within fifteen minutes from the
ukase (oo-kaz) would hang a few
traitors, more or less. from the fourth
story hook in the Martino Tower.
Then | went back and read that any
man who kept hens and wanted eggs
must be prepared to spend most of his
income on corn, but it would be the
best investment he ever made. Moth
ing like corn, not cracked, but fed in
whole grains, for making hens lay; it
made them lay seven times a week
when nothing else would, and in fact
it was the only thing that would make
hens lay, all the year round. Straight
way ordered a carload of corn to be
purchased for the cackling denizens of
Crocus Hall, but before the messenger
had set forth to corner the corn market
read from another expert that Rough
on Rats" was much better for hens
than corn, inasmuch as it killed them
at once, thereby saving great ex-
pense Of keeping and was quite
as productive when viewed as an
egg plant. He closed a narrative of
his experience with corn by piously
hoping that the man who first suggested
the destruction of all the poultry in
America by the use of corn as food
might never, in this world or the next,
be permitted to eat pullet, or taste
custard, omelette, egg nog, or any
thing else in which the hen or her
product entered as component part.
He said you must feed little else
but pounded bone. While l was
wondering whose bones would like to
pound my eye fell upon the testimonial
of one of the leading poulterers in
New York State. who said that he had
lost about ninety-eight of the finest
hens that ever acted the fool in their
sanest moments, by the ignorance or
malice of hired man, who had mixed
spoonful of pounded bone in their
feed one Sunday morning, while he,
the owner, was at church. He said
that when he came home and found
what had been done. he chased the
soulless imbecile clear across the
township with neck yoke. and if he'd
caught him, he'd kicked him to
death with a hay tedder. So let up
on the corner and the market broke all
to pieces. am now feeding my hens
on any thing they like, same as | have
been doing all summer. They wander
around the place and make their own
selection, and if there is any thing
that particularly don't want them tc
have, they use it for dessert. However,
there are just two things in ag and
poultri culture l would like to know
What is good to put on land, and what
is the best kind of feed to scatter about
you estate to 1lake your hens lay and
poison your neighbor' s.-Burdette, in
Brooklyn Eagle.
Sunday No Day for WhistIing.