The Progress., 1894-01-20
For The Progress.
HAY RAISING ON RED RIVER.

How many carloads of hay are
shipped to Shreveport every year
l don't know, but / do know that
several brokers look like they are
making a good part of their meat and
bread out of it, and good many of
our merchants make it medium
through which to circulate, a part at
least, of their money. Think of pay
ing IS per ton by the carload for
Arkansas sedge-gras dried and baled,
Who buys this hay? The greatest
part of it is undoubtedly bought by
the planters on Red river, and by
them fed to mules; which are kept
busy six months of the year killing
grass that would make far better
hay than that they are forced to eat.
All-at least almost all-of us are
agreed that we ought to raise our
own corn-but very few of us seem
t, have even sobeIly tbOught OF
raising our own hay. Why? Can't
spare the land! it's too valuable 10 pat
anything on but cItton.
Some, who read this, will laugh at
this burlesque on the value of cotton,
but their actions speak for them.
Ask ten men on Red river what Is
the crop best adapted to the land, and
consequently most profitable, and
nine of them, after they are through
pitying your ignoronce, will say
cotton of course" Now, I'm young
in years, but I've given ten years OF
close study to Red river farming
and in the stiff red lands too-and l
am almost persuaded that taken by
and large cotton is about the least
profitable Of the staple crops that can
be grown on It-except corn. Rank
heresy, I'm talking, but l believe 1t.
There is a large percentage Of every
plantation on Red river that won't
pay expenses in cotton one year IN
five, and yet they are socked into
cotton year after year. This sam
land. if drained and put in peas. oats,
millet, or alfalfa, will produce lots OF
feed. l believe it is possible for us
instead of picking our very best land
for corn and then putting all the
balance in cotton, to put our very
best in corn, and less of it, all the
other good land in cotton, and then
use this hitherto Improbable lard tc
make the bulk of our feed in oats
millet, peas and alfalfa, as stated
above-thus making all our land
productive of profit.
am not undertaking to teach any
body anything, or spring anything
new, simply to freshen up thei
memories on what they have read ol
heard before. A few Illustration
may be pardoned.
October 26, 1892, On land tha
wouldn't average bale Of cotton t.
less ~ $~"o acres, l planted fifteeI
acres in Red clover and OrcharC
grass mixed, and ten acres of severa
other grasses for experiment. Al
during the Spring and Summer
pastured on the twenty-five acres tel
to fifteen COWS, about 125 hogs an,
shoats all the time and twenty t,
thirty mules at night and on Sun
days, and then got a fine cutting o
hay, that Mr. LeyI Cooper pronounced
better than most sny hey tha
comes to this market. And there
now a fine pasture of it, on whicl
our stock is turned when the groun,
is not too soft.
} Again on February 4, 1898, plantet
four acres of alfalfa near our lot, o.
. land that will average about one-hal
bale of cotton per acre. On May q
months and 20 days from the tim
the seed went in the ground-I cut j
3 feet high; again it was cut on Jun
20, also July 29,and the fourth tim
September l. 1 did not weigh any q
the cuttings, but l am satisfied tina
my estimate of 3 tons per acre for tn
four cuttings,is under rather than owe
the correct amount. In addition, a
the calves within a mile of it, mad
their bone on it almost from th
, time it came up. 1t is now 6 to
inches high and furnishing dali
feast for those yearlings, and abou
80 pigs that seem to prefer it to any