The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1902-07-26
FARMER AND PLANTER.
4 Love For the Work and An Intel
ligent Use Of Modern Methods
Essential to success.

Essential to success.
To succeed on the farm man mast
have love for it. If he detests his
work, no matter what calling it may
be, he ought not to expect TO thrive,
and his failure ought not to be at
tributed to the nature of the BUSH
ness, but to the nature of the man.
One must come to his calling, not
only with love FOR it, but with just
notions and conceptions of its ma
ture and the duties which it imposes,
otherwise he viii be sure to fail.
First comes disappointment. then dis
content, then downright failure.
Character and energy are sure to tell
on the farm as well as in any other
business.
If the farmer has plenty of good
wood ashes and ground bone he need
not despair of raising a good crop
of corn, on any other crop, provid-
ed that other favorable conditions
as season and proper cultivation,
come to his assistance. In ashes and
plaster without the bone he will have
less beneficial fertilizer. The value
OF potash, the most important princi-
pie of ashes, every farmer comedies,
but all farmers do not agree about
the effects of plaster, many of them
insisting that it is worthless. While
ammonia, necessary for the crops,
can not be absolutely free of cost to
the farmer, he can make it farm
product for which he will not need
cash outlay. A crop of cowpeas, vel
vet bean, or beggar weed, we'll fertil-
lied with 400 pounds of potash and
200 pounds of phosphoric acid per
acre, will make large forage crop
for cattle and hogs; the roots and
stubble turned under, and the ma
nure from the stock, will make a bet
ter succeeding crop of corn, cotton
or small grain than SIS of CONNER
cial fertilizer, and leave the ground
in far better condition.
A progressive farmer should be &C
quainted with all the more common
insects that appear in his vicinity,
their names, their injuries and their
habits. He should be able to detect
new insect pests, so that he can
promptly submit them for scientific
study. He should be able to distin-
guish between insect foes and insect
friends. SO that in fighting the former
he will not destroy the latter. He
should be able to refer them to each
one of the several orders to which
they may belong, SO that he can
speak or write of them understand
ingly without grouping them all UNI
der the name of bugs" He should
know the manner OF insect feeding,
whether by means of biting jaws or
with proboscis, so-aSs to be able. to
use the proper class of remedies. He
should experiment with such RENE
dies aud preventives as his own OBJ
servations and experience may sug-
gest. A compliance with these reg
uisites of his calling will not only
yield the farmer and fruit-grower a
pecuniary reward, but at the same
time add to his mental wealth and
accomplishments. The study of in
sect life soon becomes fascinating as
well as useful.
The south as yet is not sharer in
the unexampled prosperity that has
returned to the west. It will never
come so long as money is borrowed
of the broker or the village grocer to
grow the crops. and the lender de-
mands that that crop shall be cotton.
Stop the crop lien interest by raising
the chief food consumed on the farm,
and the cotton question will be
solved. 1t is the credit crop, and when
nocredit to the grow
err. 1t is estimated that the state of |
Georgia spends ten millions of dol
lars per annum for commercial fer
tilizers. Better farming would enable |
her to save one-half this amount by |
animal manures and by leguminous
crops. So long as Georgia prefers
dogs to sheep there will be no spring |
lambs for northern markets. So long
as the south prefers the razor-back |
to better breed of hogs, she will con-
tinue to depend upon Chicago and |
Omaha for her bacon. So long as she |
prefers the scrub COW there will be |
no by-products from the dairy to
grow the better breed of hogs. So |
long as the south reasons that she |
can grow cotton and buy hay, corn,
pork, mutton, butter, beef and other
articles, including horses and mules,
she will be handicapped in agricul-
tural progress.-Frank Sweet, in
Epitomist.