The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-12-17
FARMER AND PLANTER.
LOOK BEFORE you LEAP.

Raise Grain, See that the Conditions are
| Right.
| 1t has been the custom, since the
writer was boy, and probably for
long time before, to devote the worn or
tired fields to small grain and without
fertilizer. There was some logic in
such practice when it was determined
| to cultivate such lands--without ma
nure, since it is manifestly more eco
nomical of labor to plant on such fields
a crop that requires but little labor.
But it should be considered that fer
tilizers will generally pay best on crops
that make their principal growth in
fall. winter and early spring, since there
is generally plenty of moisture and lit
tie heat. Fall oats are seriously
injured by drought, and, therefore.
the fertilizers applied to this crop are
more apt to yield full results, than the
same amount applied to crop that
must take the chance of the summer
drought. Another mistake made by
our fathers, and still committed by
many OF their sons, was the careless,
slothful manner of preparing the land
and putting in the small grain. In fact,
previous preparation of the land was
hardly thought of. The rough, grassy
corn fields, after being somewhat
CLEANED and trodden by cattle, were
sown with two to four pecks of seed
oats, and plowed in with turn shovels,
leaving the surface in as rough con-
ditiOn as may be conceived. Some seeds
were covered four or five inches
beneath huge tussocks of grass, some
were badly covered, and some not at
all. Even is the land made passable
crop 1t was impracticable to harvest it
with any comfort Tor completeness.
The remedy for this is two
horse plows and harrows. Break
the land, first, turning under
all cornstalks, grass and other lit
ter. Then SOW by hand and harrow in,
or use drill machine. 1t has been said
that corn crop well planted is half
made" and the saying applies equally
to an oat crop, or to any other crop that
is worth planting. 1t means no more
than that in preparing the land well
and planting it properly it pays better
than manur.ng, or any subsequent de-
tail of culture.
We have had an increased number of
private inquiries about the culture of
wheat, some of them from farmers who,
evidently, have had no previous expert
ence in wheat culture. We have some
times thought that such inquirers were
impeled by sort of desperation, in view
of their continued i'll success in making
cotton at present prices. 1t seems part
OF their purpose to produce everything
(possible) that they have heretofore been
buying. and expecting to pay for, out of
the proceeds of their cotton crop. This is
certainly on the right line; but it is well
to consider whether it will be any more
expedient to raise wheat at a cost of
six dollars for each barrel of flour Sc
cured in this way, when it may be
bought in market for five and half
dollars a barrel, than to produce five
and half dollars worth of cotton at a
cost of six dollars, and use the money
to buy the barrel of -four. It seems
about as broad as it is long" But
there is at least one advantage in pro-
ducing the wheat at home, viz, the
farmer can utilize the wheat while he
has no use for the cotton. II is quite
evident that producing the cotton at
loss has not enabled HIM to buy flour.
II the cotton that sells for five and a
half dollars has already cost him an
outlay of six dollars, then he is GER
tainly half dollar poorer, and by that
much less able to buy the barrel of
-four.
On the other hand if he produces
barrel of -four at an actual outlay of
six dollars, when it might have becn
bought in the market for five and half
dollars, then, as business proposition
he is in just as bad fix as before-he
has lost a half dollar or the six dol
lars outlay in time, labor and expense.
But he has something that he needs
and he will not be likely to sell the
food almost ready for his children's
mouth. and buy something else with
the money.
The moral is this: Do not jump ont
of the frying-pan into the fire." in
other words, if he is going to raise wheat
he should bring to bear more common
sense than he has been in the
habit of doing in the cotton
fields He must not sow a large
area of poor land, poorly prepared and
perhaps poorly adapted to wheat, rough
it in any sort of way, without care and
with little or no manure, without refer
ence to the variety of wheat. ETC. -ex-
pending time and labor to the value of |
one hundred dollars and reaping seven
ty-ive dollars worth of wheat. The |
same business sense and arithmetic that |
might have enabled him to make cot |
ton at less cost than the selling price |
will be necessary to enable him to make |
wheat, or anything else, at cost less
than the market price. A merchant |
who, for the want of business sense,
fails in one line of trade will fail in any !
other line, the conditions being the |
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