The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-02-02

and thus virtually throw money away.
We ask the candid reader if the picture
is overdrawn.
We shall not stop now to discuss the
terrible mistake of raising Cotton to
buy provisions, Everybody sees and
admits that, and it is very encouraging
TO note that the tide is rapidly setting
in the opposite direction. 1t Is the
most hopeful sign of the times More
than anything else It will contribute
to correcting the first two mistakes we
have mentioned: Whenever less cotton
is cultivated less poor land will be kept
under the pillow. With greater substi-
tuition of grain crops for cotton, an In:
crease rather than decrease of humus
in the soil will follow. Give up your
faith In d great numbe of poor acres.
Year after year you have tried them
and they have been found wanting.
Try a smaller number of acres of your
best land and cultivate them better.
Every farmer knows which are the
most productive and reliable fields on
his farm Plant these only and Guilt
vate them better; place emphasis on
good land, good preparation and good
cultivation rather than on the number
of acres planted; you will gain every
turn. You will need less labor both
of man and BEAST, less manure, less
provisions because fewer acres call
for smaller numper of work
animals), fewer plows and other
implements, and, moreover, you will
4 L.
stand drought better. Since the use of
commercial fertilizers has become gen.
eral, the tendency is to rely on them
too much, and on good cultivation too
little. Good cultivation brings out the
latent fertility of the soil, and it is
upon this, after all, that our chief
reliance must be placed. Fertilizers
are only helps and aids, and are rapid.
ly settling down to their proper place
Us supplementary additions to the
compost heap Consider the soils of
the older countries of the world, of
China, England, France. They have
supported dense populations for hum
dreds OF years, and yet it is only with
in the present century that England
has imported guano from South Amer
lea, bones from the continent, or
utilized the phosphate coprolites from
her own formations. The same is true
of France and Germany.
This brings us to another mistake of
most southern farmers, to-wit: The
not using of the best implements for
preparing, seeding and cultivating
land. Before the war the pre-
vsiling habit of clearing fresh
land gave the one-horse scooter and
shovel precedence over all other
plows. They were we'll adapted to
stumpy. rooty land, also to the care
less, needless negro. So firm a foot
hold did those plows obtain. so strong
the force of habit, that they still hold
the first place on most southern farms.
Now it is impossible to break land
deeply and Thoroughly with one of these
light plows when the land is at all
foul. They choke up and are constant
ly thrown out of the ground. After
the land is thus broken, it is usually
bedded with twister or shovel, If in
tended for cotton, and that is all
the preparation it receives. Con-
|
done. With a heavy two-horse turn
pillow, or, better still. with sulky
plow, all the trash can be buried out
of sight, at any depth desired, from
three to ten inches. The clean sur
faces thus obtained may, by alternate
rolling and narrowing with a disc
harrow, be brought into finest filth
from three to five inches deep. If de-
sired, it may then be thrown into beds
by riding or walking cultivator, GO
ing once to each row. With the i,nple-
ments named, this greatly-superior
preparation can be given with the same
Tor less) labor, both of man and horse,
that the imperfect breaking and bed
ding with one-horse plows require.
Imperfect preparation increases decid-
eddy the labor of subsequent cultiva-
ton. Northern farmers who have had
free labor for long time, who have
learned to appreciate its costliness,
and the vital Importance of economic
ing it, use these improved implements
almost universally. Though they cost
more at the beginning, they are cheap
in the end. 1t behooves the farmer to
advance cautiously and prudently in
this direction. He must not purchase
implements unsuited to his work or his
lands or his crops, or to his laborer. He
must become somewhat of machinist,
to be able to manage the more compli
Gated implements. He must observe
and study their working at the fairs
and on the farms of his more advanced
neighbors. He might have to visit re
mote parts to see them work and even
, then get we'll paid for his trouble
Take all wise precautions, but i'm
. proved implements he must have, tc
! keep pace with the times.
. Farm.