The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-01-08
AND PLANTER.
EXPERIMENT STATIONS.

ITO be or not to be, that is the ques-
ton. Whether tbs nobIer in the mind
to suffer the sting and arrows Of ouN
rageous fortune, or to take arms against
sea of troubles and by opposing
them"
While my grievances are in no way
like "Hamlets," still the above solilo-
guy has of late often come up in my
mind when reading the reports of our
Recommendations in the South. These
stations have been of inestimable value
to mo, and the whsle South, in some of
their reports.
But their testing the different varie-
ties OF cotton is certainly a mixed,
motley business that is doing
much harm, and the idea of test
ing improved seeds with the scrub
work seems to me very unscien-
tifc, and beyond doubt will every time
show up the scrub seed or those nearest
! TO scrub, as earliest most prolific,
best quality of lint, etc, because i'm
proved seed were not produced by scrub
work nor by physicing, but first, by
either judicious crossing, or carefully
selecting the fitest of a certain type for
seed each year for a number of years,
and giving certain routine of work,
and improved for certain purposes, the
same as stock.
Our professors at the experiment sta
tions would boot at the idea of testing
/ short-horn cows with Jerseys for but
ter, giving the same feed per cow;
would also deride the man who would
suggest the testing of Jersey with the
Holsteine for flow of milk, each hav-
ing the feed necessary to support the
larger frame of the Holsteine And
they would call man a natural
idiot that would talk about a Jer-
sey steer making the same quality of
! beef as a short-horn, both having all
the feed necessary to bring them to
greatest perfection and kept until short
horn was fully grown. Nor would they,
in their reports show the Jersey beef
cost twice as much as the short-horn
because the individual Jersey was one
half as large as the individual short
horn.
On the same score, does it look reason
able that the little early varieties of
northern corn with stalk five feet high
three-quarters of an inch in diameter
would require the same number of
square feet per stalk as the largest
Southern varieties with their 10 to 10
feet high stalks to inches in diameter,
or giving the same distance to the ''old
mans pea or pea of the backwoods''
they would to the whey unknown pea,
or the six weeks bunch bean the same
as the pole bean; or the little 12-inch
Tom Thumb pea vine the same space as
the late to feet high varieties
(These comparisons are no more err
roneous than the way the tests Cf vari-
eties of cotton at our experiment sta
tions.) We would not expect the Berk-
shire, Essex or Yorkshire hogs to make
as much pork as RED jersey" Ches-
ter White or Pollen China; but we would
expect them to make about two-thirds
as much at less than half the cost and
in two-thirds the time. Because we can
have our pigs dropped in March, and
Kill them in December fully matured. |
We get the full benefit of the grass, |
most peas, potatoes, ETC., and the hog
does his own harvesting, without hav.
ing to tide over a single winter This |
explains to fraction the difference be-
tween the varieties that have been i'm
proved to make before drought and |
worms appear and those that have been |
improved to stand them All cluster |
varieties can be made ANIMALS bv /
pinching off the top and the two /
to four side shoots about the time |
the early summer rains are over,
which is from 5th to 18th of July in |
northern portion of cotton belt, but ear
lier as we go south. The richer the |
land the quicker they will come through |
if the land is prepared and cultivated |
according to natural laws. This can
only be done by deep winter blowing /
and shallow spring and summer cultiva-
ton. This puts the soil and subsoil as |
In the woods; loose, non-capilIary soil. |
with firm tbut not hardy capillary sub |
soil II the land is broken in the snrinp |
we have non-capillary subsoil. This |
causes the roots to have to start out so |
deep that the plant gets off very slow, |
except we physic the soil If we wait
until spring before blowing, and then |
pillow shallow, the effect on the soils win |
be the same as where drastic doses of |
anti-fat acid phosphate is used. The
fertility of the surface and the capillary
or natural functions Of the subsoil viii |
soon be seriously impaired. While |
the reverse effects will be seen bv
the winter breaking process, and let |
nature furnish the base" except where
we pillow under vegetable matter where |
nature has mixed in proper proportions.
this anti-fat will prove detrimental to
any prolific variety of cotton, because to
be prolific the fruiting should be com I
pact on the stalk and foliage scant.
Such plant would produce little shade.
therefore would gather very little of I
the active elements Of plant food from |
the atmosphere; and such plats as do /
not shade the soil will be dispropor.
toned by the use Of phosphates-exc |
the soil has excess OF undecomposed /
vegetable matter. But where plants |
shade the soil, such as clover, eowpeas
and the prolific varieties of our expert /