The Louisiana populist. [volume] (Natchitoches, Natchitoches Parish, La.) 1894-1898, 1895-03-01
Some Advice to Farmers.
EDITOR Town TALK:

yOu a few lines, for the benefit OF
your readers, especially the farmers
residing in the hill district.
First, be careful how you contract
debts; for you may have to settle
with 3 or 81 cent cotton.
Second, diversity your crops, so
as to raise everything that will do
to feed the family and stock; or i'll
other words, make the farm self
sustaining as near as possible.
Corn is the most expensive feed
crop that is raised in the hills, and
requires moIe scientific work.
Oats. rye, sorghum, potatoes, Span
ish peanuts and spcckled peas, are
all good feed crops and can be
made with halt the labor required
for g5-r.
Pi-Ntat l-ae- siEE' or ten acres
oe oats ~ t-cs p,Gw horse. Keep
seperaie from otner crops, so that
you use the pasture, which is equal
to one half of the oats.
Plant one acre Of sorghum by
lie oats, 90 that you can cut and
throw over 20 your stock in the pas
ture. Make tour paintings Of Sor-
CHAM. gIie first should be planted
April lst, second Zeth: third 10th
May, AID the last, ,Iunc LIST. Sor-
ghum is one OF The best, as well as
the cheapest feed that we have for
hogs, and is said to be preventa-
tive for cholera. | can say this
much in its favor, have used it for
the past two years. and have raised
IL hogs with out the loss of single
one. There is 10 better feed for
cattle or horses, and the seed is fine
feed for poultry.
/ generally raise about 1000
pounds of pork every yearand don't
feed more than one bushel of corn
to 100 pounds of meat; so you see
Pm going to have hog and hominy
whether / make any corn or not.
Rice is another cheap and excel
lent feed for the hill farmers, as
there is nothing OH the place but
what is fond oft.
We have not only got to make
the farm self-sustaining in the way
OF something to eet, but 4 ] cent cot
ton will drive us back TO the old
tan trough, the old hand loom and
spinning wheel. This will be pref
~ hard ON the merchants and man
ufacturers, for they are more
dependent OF the cotton crop.
So you see, Mr.. Editor, 10y ma
king the farm self-sustaining, we
can make out Oh II very little me-
dunn of exchange that Mr.. Cleve.
land is giving us through the gold
standard.
Well, Mir. Editor, as the farmers
have got into politics III have to
say something more before l close.
Have you seen anything of that
wave Of prosperity that was TO fol
low the unconditional repeal of the
Sherman silver laws / am afraid
it stopped in the National banks,
where it originated.
VIII you tell us, through the
columns OF your paper, what our
Demsera;ic Congress is doing to
bring about the second wave OF
prosperity.
AS the weather is to bad at pres
ent for a man that's afflicted with
the ri eumatism to fish and hunt
ducks, i think Grover might help
Congress little; but now Cleve-
land and Hill have made friends,
and guess they are busy laying
plans for the campaign of'96.
i see the Town TALK says that
whiskey makes tramps. This may
he so, but the tramps didn't get the
whiskey. Grover and majority
of Democrats and Republicans
drank it while demonetizing silver
in '93. Mr.. Editor, if whiskey
makes tramps, why didn't we have
them before the war, when whiskey
sold at 20 cents per gallon, and eve
Iybody had money!