St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1898-07-23

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well and is propagated quickly and
successfully by transplanting the
vine, and besides being good food
crop for stock it is an excellent ed
ible for the table, almost as sweet
in fact as the Yam, but producing
double the quantity. I consider
the Queen OF the South potato the
most valuable root crop that has
ever been brought to this
country, especially for feeding
stock. Those who have tried it for
fattening cattle much prefer it to
corn or any other grain, being
equally as valuable as food for
horses. Beef fattened for market,
except such as is driven directly
from the grass pastures to the
slaughter pen, is rarely seen in our
local markets, even in the months
of January, February and March
when grass fed beef is nearly all
ways very poor and tasteless, yet
beef fattened upon root or grain
crops always readilysellsat a remu-
.nerative price during the months
mentioned, the supply however for
that quality of beef not being equal
to one tenth of the demand. Ii
our farmers were to give their at
tention each to raising and fatten-
Ing a few head of beeves or cows
for the home market or for sale to
the cattle merchant the aggregate
result to this parish would be an
enormous increase of prosperity
and comfort to the farmer class.
Unfortunately however the farmer
here almost universally neglects
this easy source of wealth that lies
at his door - a source Of revenue
and wealth that the farmer Of the
Middle and Western States fully
appreciates and utifizes. He de-
rives an annual revenue from this
industry and yet he has not near
the same facilities and a6van-
tages of climate and soil that
we have here, especially in the
matter of climate and of root CROPS.
Our farmers seem to think that
their exclusive business is to raise
cotton for market, and If they hap
pen to have a surplus ofeorn they
do not like the Northern or West
ern farmer think of feeding it to
stock for market, and thereby reap
ing a much greater profit than he
would obtain from the sale Of the
grain, but the corn is sent to town
and sold.
In considering the industry Of raising
and fattening beef cattle for market and
the advantages which we have over 9TH
er sections larg1y engaged in the indus
try, we should not overlook cotton seed
and oil cake as food cropof inestima-
BILE value; product of our soil, and
which of course can therefore be used
more cheaply by our farmers than by
the other sections which have to buy
that product from MS. So little alive are
our people to the profits of fattening
cattle for the market here that no one
seemed to think of utilizing the vast
output of meal, hulls and oil cake OF our
local mill for that purpose until Texan
came to our parish, rented the vacant
ground adjacent to the mill, erected
enclosures and water troughs and mon
opolized not only the business of fatten-
ing cattle for market on the products OF
these mills but monopolized almost en-
tirely the purchase of beef cattle from
the cattle raisers Of the parish, SO that
now scarcely any cattle are left for sale
in the parish and the butchers have
some difficulty in getting enough beet
cattle to supply our town market. The
party in question fattened many thous-
and head here at the oil mill, then
shipped them 1900 miles to market
by rail, and yet am informed that this
party made large profits from his ven
tnre, so that he will greatly extend the
| business the coming season. This
same party also bought up all the young
cattle and all the old cows and oxen he
could find, shipped them by rail to the
Indian Territory to be pastured, then
reshipped to the Kansas City and Chica-
70 markets for sale. Do not these state
ments conclusively demonstrate the
profitableness of the business, and that
our farmers could and should realize
this profit, which lies so certainly with.
| In their reach? Certainly no one can
doubt but that raising and fattening beef
cattle for market is a neglected industry
among our farmers, and thatit should
| no longer be such.
| The next subject is thatof hog raising
All that has been said in reference to the
facility for raising abundant root crops