The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-06-02

TON rows UQdU WOulu udfO SlO"h "AN-
out any labor and been worth three or
four times as much as L realized for
the cotton. That was many years ago,
but the same thing is being done an
nually by others, all over the country.
Some are slow to learn lesson, be 1t
ever so plainly taught.
Any one living within reasonable
distance of a city of any Importance,
will find hay one of the best substi-
tutes for cotton. AS with corn, there
are times when the market is oversup-
piled and prices low, but it can be
stored and kept for better times. AL
falfa makes popular hay and can be
successfully grown on deep soils where
cotton does not die from root rot.
The Colorado grass indigenous to
this section, and the alleged
foe of the cotton planter,
is, if he knew it, and
how to utilize it, one of his best
friends. The black land that barely
averages half bale of scent cotton is
good for two or three tons of hay,
worth obout SIS ton, raised and mar
keted at lesscost than the cotton.
have always protested against the
cultivation of Johnson grass in farm
ing districts, but it is in many in spite
of every effort to destroy it and is
likely to remain. 1t has become SO
widely spread in some fields that it
would pay better to give them over
entirely to the despot than to wage
incessant and unavailing war against
it. But not stalk of it should be fed
on the farm or it will increase the
evil.
Professor Tracy: speaks highly OF
melillotus and advises it being sown
with Johnson. l have small ex-
detrimental patch of the clover, but it
is not making much Roadway. Let
those conveniently situated try hay
as partial substitute for cotton.
DE-TAssELLING CORN.
This is the time to try the effect of
de-tasselling corn. 1t is claimed that
the removal of corn tassels just as
they are beginning to form greatly
increases the yield of grain. Such an
experiment was tried at the Kansas
Agricultural College and it is report
ed that the yield of the stocks from
which the tassels had been removed
10Y. 8 bushels per acre, while the un-
removed yielded only 94.7, a differ
ence of 10 bushels per acre. If this
experiment could be relied upon in
ordinary culture, it would certainly
pay to de-tassel. The same people
tested the value of butt, middle and
tip corn for seed and found the butts
give the best return.
TOWN AND COUNTRY.
Were every man, says the Omaha
Stockman, now dtscontented with
farming, given in spot cash, the full
value of his property and sent into our
towns and cities to engage in bust
ness, in twelve months there would be
the largest harvest of bankrupts the
world ever saw.
Speaking of life in town and coun-
try Bob Ingersoll says: at is no ad-
vantage to live in city where power
ty degrades and failure brings des-
pair. The fields are lovelier than
than paved streets, and the great
forests of oaks and elms are more poetic
than steeples and chimneys."
In the country is the ideal home.
You are thrilled by the resurrection
called spring, touched and saddened
by autumn-the grace and poetry OF
death.
Every field is a picture, landscape;
every landscape q poem; every flower
a tender thought, and every forest a
fairy land. In the country you pre-
serve your identity-your personality.
There you are an aggregation of
atoms; but in the city you are only an
atom of an aggregation.
Commenting on this poetic picture
the Farmers Review remarks:
"Ingersoll, with all his beauty of
thought and poetry of language,
misses in the country life what the
humblest Christian worker in the
fields knows and loves-Nature's
God"
COTTON ACREAGE.
Bradstreet's commercial agency has
been investigating the question of cot
ton acreage for the current year, and
arrives at the conclusion that the re-
duction will amount to 20 per cent as
against last years. crop. The Calves
ton News has been pursuing similar
investigation in Texas and Indian
Territory, and finds that the reduction
| in Texas will amount to % per cent.
If these figures are borne out by facts
at the end of the season, the crop from
shortage in acres will be greatly re-
duced, and it is logical to expect a
slight, if not corresponding rise
in value, even it we have an
average season. But the present pros
poets are not favorable for an average
yield. In this section at least cotton
is fully month late and not in good
shape or healthy condition. A long
succession of cold nights and cloudy
days has returded its growth, cut
worms have reduced the stand to an
improbable extent and in some cases
so completely destroyed it that plant
ing is being done for the third time.
Some crops that have escaped the
ravages of the cut worm are now be-
ing attacked by the web worm If
these tribulations would only have
the effect of causing larger and per-
manent reduction of the cotton crop
then would good come out of seeming
evil. But it is to be feared that any
sensible rise in price of cotton will
cause farmers to forget their present
trouble with pests and low prices, and
rush back, next year to perhaps a
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