St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1893-10-21
FARMER AND PLANTER,
MIXED FARMING.

10D1 E06D080 WIN U0DS WIN y W.
rSsty q PreAsess.
While we would not discourage any
one from engaging in special farming,
providing their locality and soil were
sach ss to enable them to grow some
one product to perfection, and place it
on good market where competition
was small and paying prices assured.
best to grow q variety Of products 80 -
to have home supply Of nearly every
thing and something's to sell Of many
things When the farmer depends upon
a specially. and from failure Of crop. or
prices 50 low as to be unremunerattve,
he fails on it, he has nothing to fall
hack on. but with a variety of products
the income is quite regular. IS il some
things are deficient in yield or price
others are likely to make MP for this
deficiency.
1t was our privilege, recently, to
spend day on a small farm. less than
100 acres, which the present owner has
cultivated for forty years. following,
more than most farmers do. mixed
farming. and he has been unusually
successful. An inspection of his ac-
count of sales from the farm for many
years proved the truth of his theory
that mixed farming gives regular In
come.
We were Interested to note the many
sources of income, and will enumeratc
them to give an idea Of his plan Of man.
agement. lie grows an average OF If
teen acres of wheat year, not so much
that he has found wheat prOfita bic ~
that he wishes to sow clover and needs
the straw to make his stock comfortable
in the winter, and he sells from
zoo to 200 bushels of wheat each
year. Three brood sows are kept and
two litters of pigs year raised, which
are sold for pig pork 1T four and . half
to six months old. In 1892 f0rty-one
pigs were raised which brought IN
average of q little over i've dollars
each at less than five months old.
Three cows are kept, and . small
amount of butter is sold after supply
ing a family of six persons with all the
butter and cream they will eat, per
haps not more than twenty-five dol
lars worth, but al the heifer calves arc
raised and the males sold for veal, and
as only three COWS are wanted, one or
more is sold each year and . veal or
two. The work Of the farm is done
with team of mares and colts raised,
and every year one or more horses
or mules are sold. The owner found
difficulty in selling horses until they
were five or six years old, and this in
volved keeping larger stock than he
wished. and SO for two years past he
has grown mules. rs they are sslable
at any age. A liberal berry patch. TO
furnish fruit fer the family, is kept.
and the surplus sold. This summer
from these the income was over forty
dollars. One or two acres of Irish p0-
tatocs give some income besides fur
nishing the family, while sweet pota-
toes are grown to . larger extent, and
are quite q source of income. About
one hundred hens are kept, and these
are fed literally three times day.
summer and winter, on wheat, bran
and oil meal mostly, and rs con-
sequence they lay literally. and can be
depended on for an income Of about
one hundred dollars, In addition to the
family supply Of eggs and chickens. A
field Of clover is cut each year and the
seed forms quite an item of income,
while the hay Is fed to the cows, and
this, with the corn fodder. carries the
stock through the winter leaving the
timothy hay for market, and ~ ten to
twenty acres Of this is ont each YER Il
is q &SeSRRortant item Of income.
An acre Of this farm was planted in
Bartlett peaR trees some twenty years
kgo, auA mesa have proved quite .
kourcc of income ~ they miss . crop
bnly once In four or i've years. and usu-
aNA61DeaDz601se 100 to $50 bushels
Of. ft1bp64upa years half acre
ot.svtop16oe6 ..are grown. or an
acre or. Two. Of navy beans,
rs the owner of the farm be-
lieves in utilizing all the vacant spots,
aud these crops can be planted late
and still make good yield, and this
year we found quarter acre Of onions
which were grown n IN experiment
and promise . good yield and profit
We asked this farmer IL he did not find
that this kind Of management Of his
farm took . mnch larger amount Of
labor than would be required in grow
ing wheat, corn, hay and stock, rs
most of his neighbors did, but he said
his books would answer that question,
and SO we examined them and found
out that &sxoo had been paid out for
help besides the work of the farmer
himself. but eight dollars Of this was
for cutting grain, rs no binder is kept
On the farm, and about rs much more
was for picking berries. the re-
mainder being for extra help in
the sweet potatoes and in the
hay harvest with an occasional
days hoeing. There are several things
about the management Of this farm
which seem to us commendable: First,
the owner has put thought into his
plans, and, consequently, has greatly
reduced the risk of failure, Just rs .
prudent man with . valuable property
TO insure divides the risk among several
good companies, SO this farmer has
chosen = sufficient variety Of products,
SO that he says that not once in thirty
years has his farm failed to produce .
fair income. Second, this variety of
products furnishes his family with table
Injuries which many farmers do with
out. and At the same time the surplus
brings . steady income during . great
part of the year, 50 that he has been able
to adopt the rule, pay - you CO." and
he has no debts to pay at
the end Of the year. Third, he has
adopted simple system Of book-keep-
ing so that he knows just what he pays
out. and what IL is paid for, just what