The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1895-02-09
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NOTES AND suoaEsT,oiss

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Il Is quite likely NO country ever
made . change I'm it's methods aud sys-
TENS until absolutely forced to do 50 |
by calamitous conditions arising out OF |
previous practices. Il this be SO, the
south may be said to have arrived 1t
that period when conditions demand
change, q change Of some kind. That
change may not be specihcany ssa.eo
by anyone. It can only be roughly de-
fined Us going out of special. extensive
culture into intensive, diversified cult
ure. Each man must make his own
selection according to the best
lights he may have and In
It will not do for everyone to do exact
ly the same way. to plant the same
crops, raise the same kind. OF stock and
proportion the same alike. There must
be more or less originality displayed
by each man.
things to do this nlidwinter period is
to think strongly, discuss the situation
with men of hard sense and make
such allotments of the several crops as
best appear to At the present situation.
It is great pity more grain OF one
klno or announcer was uOU SOWh IA O&>SO-
Der. A large crop of oats next summer
would mean q great saving in corn,
| and if appearances are worth any
thing, we'll preserved corn will COM
| mand a good price next spring; will be
| we'll worth saving.
Doubtless there is almost ms much
| clear profit in oats at thirty-dve cents
| a busEel rs there is in cotton at i've
cents a pound; that is, if a man knows
| how to raise oats and goes at it in q
| proper way.
| Over large section of the country
oats when sown in December arc not
| subject to injury oftener than one year
] in three, if they are put in properly
| with harrow and roller; but over the
greater portion this rule may be said to
| apply if the sowing can not be made In
October and by the 10th OF November,
it is better to wait until February be-
fore putting III the crop. In the inter-
val, an extra blowing of the land will
tend 20 increase the yield several BUSH
els. AS 4 rule our farmers bestOw very
little care on the seeding of this crop.
In hundreds of instances the seeds. a
bushel or SO, are broadcasted, moro or
less unevenly on the unbroken soils
and turned under with a plow. the soil
being left in as rough a state as that
kind of an implement can leave it.
Not much Of a crop should be expected
from this manner of treatment. II
the land should happen to he good, q
yield of eighteen or twenty bushels
may be secured. but where, if more
care had been bestowed in the seeding,
the yield could easily have been
doubled. We think there is no exag'
geration in the statement that land
! that yields three hundred pounds o.
, lint cotton can be made to produces
, forty bushels of oats, this yield from .
sowing made early in February. in
) middle Georgia; a few bushels more, i
the sowing is made in October or Sep
teEaber.
1t may be that many will yet decide
) to venture larger sowing of spring
oats than they had originally intended
aud we have no doub: it will be
wise conclusion. If soyvn properly il
February, in January in more south
erly section, and using an acclimate'
: variety-fairly rust-proof-anywher
from Is to 60 bushels may he gathere,
next June. 1t is quite likely the grail
will command price that will max
the result fairly remunerative to tn
grower. If good land is used for thi
purpose, and it should appear Ion
about June that there is a good pro.
pect for cotton picking up i
prices. this land can be planted t
cotton with a very fair chance of NAL
ing a good crop as if it were planted
May or earlier. Farmers who haH
had much experience in planting til
staple in April and Juno are sure thu
there is very little difference in the al
pearance of the stalk in September
two paintings made eight or mir
weeks apart: that is a planting mao
? April Is and another June Is.
course we would not advocate a larS
planting of cotton next year; still,
we said, if the signs were good in III
for cotton advancing cent or two,
crop of oats could be followed by OF
of cotton if a farmer SO desired.
AS a rule peas should follow grain
it is deemed advisable to turn the laI
afresh in midsummer. When the pra
tice of sowing clover with spring gra
of any kind has become moro gener
j in the south, there will be very lit
grain stnbble plowed in June, as Il
clover will come on and take possessi<
of the land without any blowing. Y
would like to see the day when such
practice was common one in o
country.
The only rational and truly cconol
ical way of restoringsthe lost fertili
of our long cultivated soils
. through the medium of leguminio
crops grown specially for manuri
purposes.
There are several clovers that o
southern farmers can use for rcstori
- the humus that has been almost {
tirely burnt out in the past twenty-f
years.
We wish that we could persuade
few Thousand farmers who read