The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-01-22
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.
EXPERIENCE AND SCIENCE.

I p
sharp sand flint rocks) remain on the
surface. If any one will take the soil
that has been in plowed crops for twen-
ty years, and the same kind of sandy
! soil that has been only in cultivation for
two or three years and examine them
througha magnifying glass, they will
see that the surface soil of the land in
cultivation for twenty years looks like
a pile of small, clean flint rocks down
to the top of the clay. This sand shows
where the mold (plant food) has gone,
for it will be found more abundant just
above tho clay than nearer the surface.
The fresh, sandy soils will show most
mold or plant food on or nearer
! the surface, and very little in
, the clay. On fresh lands-on grass,
clover, cowpeas, etc.-the roots of
these plants catch this substance
in its descent and return it to
the surface in leaves, stalks, seeds, etc.,
each year. For this reason we should
keep some kind of crop growing on the
land all the time. Peas sown in the
corn at laying by tocome in and catch
and retain all the plant food NOT taken
up by the corn from any cause, root cut
ting, drought, excessive rains, bad drain
age or shallow preparation. Nine out
of ten seasons are good, but nine out of
! ten years we guess wrong and curse the
season for our own .short-sigh tedness in
not catching escaping ammonia, for it is
a settled fact that all ammonia turned
loose by the opening of the soil with
the pillow on clean soils, will either be
lost from evaporation by the long sum-
mer and fall heat, Or carried down into
the sub-soil by the winter rains. If
there is no clay foundation or
! growing plant roots to catch
it, ammonia will, in few
years, be carried below where any plant
root can feed. If the soil is filled with
plant roots, the ammonia will be re-
| turned to the surface when the plants
decay; if clay foundation, the clay
| will retain the ammonia, where summer
crops, such as cotton and other tropical
plants will get it, but is lost to the
spring crops of the temperate zone, suah
as wheat, oats, Northern or extra early
! corn, grasses and clover. Why? Be-
cause nothing can decay or be digested
without air, and roots can not feed on
undecayed substances. All the plant
food during the spring is held SUBJ
merged in cold water, which is also held
by the tenacious clay until summer
comes. So all that the spring plants
can get is the very scant sub
] stances left in this bed of very
small flint rocks and the food gath
cred from the air through its little
feeder roots mot the leayes). All Gull
tivation will do much better on these
old sandy soils than those sown broad
cast, because the cultivation stirring
the soil causes more rapid evaporation
| and lets air down deeper. While this
sandy soil on clay foundation is UNI
| fitted for all spring crops, it is COM
| plete soil for summer crops. The land
! acts as a protection against the heat of
the sun by cutting off all capillary at
traction and forming dense shade.
The clay keeps both plant food and
water together just on top of it, where
| all plant roots will be sure to run, for
! they can not catch into the sand or en-
ter the airless clay. There is but little
| danger Of gripping the plant by root
cutting in cultivation, for they are deep
enough to admit of thorough cultivation
with shallow running implements.
Do not understand me to say that
these soils are not suited for any thing
| but cotton and sugar cane. BY no
means. They are suited to a greater
number of plants than the clay soils OF
| the North, open, porous and UNDER
drained. We must confine ourselves to
summer crops, and this is as it should
be. We're it other wise, our summers
would be much hotter by the direct rays
of the sun on the soil protected by green
and growing plants that feed themselves
! and their stalk. In the absense of this
growing vegetation our hot months
would cost us just as much for shade and
stock feed rs the winters do the people
of the North. We have many summer
grasses that furnish us with summer and
fall grazing, and the very cheapest and
best hay for winter, which, if fed to
cattle (and Sheep with cotton seed, will
keep them fat the year round without
any kind of grain.
We have three hundred acres in cult
vation-all in one field. We have one
side in corn, oats, millet, etc. The corn
is pulled early. The oats are thrashed
and the straw stacked. While we do
not get as good a crop of oats as on the
sitter soils, we get a full crop of crab
grass hay, which with the millet is put
in long, narrow shed in the field. AS
soon as the corn is gathered first of
September) we put boy on mule to
herding our cattle every forenoon where
the corn grew. This is kept up until
cotton is gathered and the rye sown in
the cotton shows green sward, then the
cattle are turned loose in the field. The
plows then turn the land where we had
corn and millet under. Generally there
is a good crop of volunteer oats which
helps winter grazing; this we leave
until after Christmas. Our cattle
have access to the straw stack
and hay shed, and the green rye
during the winter. The only feeding
done is with cotton seed Our cattle run
on the outside range all summer. In
March they are generally fatter than
during any part of the year. In March
they go back to the range and have only