The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1892-06-09
FARMER AND PLANTER.
OVERSEEING CROPS.
In Selecting Substitute Choose that on
which There Is Probability of Profit.

In Selecting Substitute Choose that on
which There Is Probability of Profit.
There is a loud call from southern
farmers for crops to take the place of
cotton, that commodity having been 50
much increased within the last few
years that the money it can be sold for
is less than the cost of production.
Among new crops to which attention
has been directed are broomcorn and
castor beans for field crops, and for gar
dening and truek-patching, among 9TH
ers, celery and asparagus. For these
latter kitchen crops there seems to be an
almost unlimited demand.
While it is gratifying to note a dispo-
sition to limit the production of cotton
and engage in broomcorn and castor
beans, it may be well to warn those
who undertake them, that in the
worlds markets there is but limited de-
mand, and if ten per cent. of the lands
now or heretofore in cotton are given
over to them, the profits would be less
than now on cotton. For broOmcorn
growing there are thousands of acres
in Kasas well suited to it, and more
thousands in Illinois, where unlimited
acres of the crop with one years notice
could be planned. The soils of Kansas
and Illinois are very fertile and easily
cultivated, the summer climate is adj
mirably suited to the growing of corn
and broomcorn alike, and the after sum-
mer and early autumn are of that dry
and windy character that favors the
cutting, curing and other handling of
the crop. In favorable years as in 1890
the crop both in Kansas and Illinois
was large one and prices of the brush
fell below the cost of production, and
many quilted the business.
II 1892, with the limited area and the
long summer drought in Kansas, the
production fell off so much prices,
after the bulk of the crop had left
growers hands at low figures, suddenly
bounded up one hundred per cent, and
the best brush that sold for three to four
cents pound in 1890, went up to seven
and eight cents in the fall of 1891, and
at these figures prices now remain. The
result will be the doubling of the acre
age of broom-corn in Kansas and Illinois
this year, and sooner or later drop in
prices below the cost of production.
These facts are stated that cotton
growers and others who would engage
in the new business may know before
hand the competition they will have to
encounter and the fluctuations in the
prices of the product, as in all products
for which there is but limited de-
mand. Besides growing a fair quality
of broom-corn, skilled labor, extensive
drying houses, presses and considerable
other machinery are absolutely essen
tial, and, at the same time, the work
must be done just at the right time and
within few weeks, or the brush will
have little or no value. So long as corn
and other grains, grass, forage and hay
are maintained at anywhere near pres
ent figures it would seem that it were
better to prefer these crops for diversi-
fcation, rather than to undertake the
hazardous enterprise of growing broom
corn.
In castor beans we have more conf
dence, because there is no such compe-
tition to encounter as in the case of
broom-corn, because the climate and soil
of the south suit the semi-tropical plant,
and finally because, for some reason
not well understood, two or three crops
planted on fairly good but partially ex-
hausted land, resulting from repeated
crops of corn or cotton, one or both.
performs the miracle almost of nearly
completely restoring lost fertility. In
some respects castor beans do for worn
lands in warm regions, what red clover
and Alfalfa do for similar land north,
but whether, as in the case of the for
mer, the deep roots of the plant, the
complete and long shading of the
ground, or the seductive power it has
for drawing to it the infinite small
germs that make soluble nitrogen, are
still matters in controversy. Still there
are difficulties in the way of castor-bean
growing. Preparation must be made to
cure the beans as fast as ripe and TO
keep them from molding afterward, and
last but not least, the entire castor bean
plant is so deadly poison to stock that
readily eat it, the fields where it is
grown must be guarded by strong and
high fence.-B. F. j., in Home and
Farm.