Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1897-05-07

NEW ORLEANS, La,
audubon PARK.
April 81, 1897.
Mr.. III. A. Garrett,
Editor Tensas Gazette,
81. Joseph, In.
. DEAR SIR:-Your letter OF 18th
has been received. You and your
people have the profound sympa-
thy of the rest of Louisiana, and
we sincerely mourn that after
heroic fight you should be forced
to face an overflow.
Now, as to the subject of your
letter. If the floods subside suf-
ficiently by the middle of June, !
see no reason why you should not
utilize your fields for the planting
of cotton, corn and peas, if it be
properly done. You can immedi-
ately follow up the overflow with
cotton, and if you viii nse some Of
the earlier varieties, and if it be
possible to obtain seed grown in
North Carolina, Tennessee or
Southern Virginia, you can easily
make crop of cotton in the. re-
mainder of the season, provided,
of course, that the frost does not
come earlier than in an'average
season. The varieties of cotton
known as King, Tennessee, Gold
dust, &c. are used in the Northern
portion of the cotton belt, and if
seed can be obtained of the vari-
cites grown in those localities,
there is no question whatever of
the fact that it will produce good
crops in the time allotted you.
This seed can be planted as the
water subsidies.
With corn and peas I would sug-
gest an entirely different course.
Before preparing for the planting
of corn, l would see that the water
has been entirely removed from
your soil, your drains and bitches
we'll opened, and your land
thoroughly bedded and dried. If
this be done, and varieties of corn
of the earlier sort, grown perhaps
as far North as Missouri, Kansas
or Southern Indiana, be used, and
sown IN the drill rather thickly, /
do not think that you will fail in
q crop. 1t is true that
cut worms and wire worms are
most abundant at this season of
the year and on overlooked soils,
but if our land be well drained be-
fore the corn is planted, and the.
corn put in the drill rather thick
Iy, the depredations of these ami
mails will be reduced to q mini
mum, and the excessive quantity
of corn used will still. leave a
stand sufficient for q good crop.
The same may be said of peas,
with this exception: that all peas
planted late in the season upon
dry, good land, will make pods
of vines, and hence your
planters can easily make crop
of peas after June Both.
1 speak advisedly when 1 write
the above remarks. l have plant
ed cotton after an oat crop late
in June, and made an average of
over a bale to the acre, using
homegrown seed.
I usually make the second plant
ing of peas in July, in order to
obtain, upon our .elluvial lands,
seed peas for the next year. When
We plant here in May or early in
June, our peas go to vines and do
not produce seed enough to re-
plant the land, ard by resorting
to the later planting we obtain
seed peas for another year.
BY corresponding with the Alex
ander Seed &-Drug Co., Augusta,
Ia, t. w. Wood & Son, Rich
nond Va. and other reputable
iced houses, they can furnish you
With the cotton seed desired; or if |
not, can put you in communica-
ion with farmers or planters in
heir neighborhood who can sup
ply you.
The acquaintance of your people
perhaps, with st. Louis will en-
lble them to select their seed corn
rom that city, preferring the New