The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1905-01-07
FARMER ANDPLANTER.
FOUNDATION FOR SUCCESS.
What Farmers Must Do to Insure
Permanent Success On
Their Farms.

ilDeTdteIy maue out plan 10 farm Dy.
They do as their fathers did or as
their neighbors do, or as some sudden
impulse seizes them. This unfortunate
habit stands in the way of all real
progress. Everything IS done more or
less temporarily. If we wish to be
permanently prosperous we must
| change our methods in this respect.
We must plan for the future as we'll
as for the present. 1t is perfectly
plain to every thinking man that
permanent prosperity in southern
farming must embrace cattle growing.
We can not hope to nave rich soil
without the aid of the cattle to fur
nish constant supply of real manure.
Chemical fertilizers can not and will
not make permanently rich soil. But
to succeed in the cattle business we
must go at it on definite plan. We
must first make good pastures, then we
arrange to grow ample supplies of
forage. Then get the best breeds of
cattle for the line we desire to follow,
whether 1t be dairying or beef-raising.
IL We plan well, in q few years we will
find that we have profitable business.
If we have a rundown farm and we
wish to bring it up to high state Of
productiveness we must lay a plan
and work to that plan. We can not
build it up permanently with fertiliz-
ers. We must begin by controlling the
water and deepening the soil. We sup
plement this by growing peas, and
clovers, and beans and auch plants as
produce or procure their own supplies
of nitrogen. These must be wisely ro-
tated with crops of small grain and
grass. By well planned work along
this line we can, in a few years, make
the poorest old farm rich one.
If we desire to go into fruit growing
wo must go at it with well developed
plan. Suppose for illustration we take
this plan:
Plant pecans in rows 100 feet apart,
then plant three, rows of apples rs
feet apart between them. This will
give us three rows of apples. Now
plant peaches between the apple rows
and between the apples and the pecans.
This will give us four rows of peach
trees. Plant the pecans 10 feet apart in
the rows, and the apples 20 feet and
the peaches 16 feet. Then plant rasp-
berries and Strawberries between all
the rows. Any other small fruits may
be used, or some vegetables.
If this ground is thoroughly pre-
pared by deep breaking and high
manuring and the crops well cultivat-
ed, these small crops will pay ex-
penses the first year and make clear
money after that until the peaches
come in. Then the peaches will pay \
good profit until they die out. BY this
time the apples will be bearing paying
crops and will continue to do so until
pecans will be large enough to call for
all the land. Some of all will be pay
ing at once.
We have written the above for sew
eraI reasons. We are getting many
letters from young men saying they
are going back to the farm. They ask
for a great deal of information. This
will answer some of their questions.
The small fruits and berries will pay
all expenses and often Z good profit
while the peach trees are getting ready
to bear a crop. There will be So peach
trees per acre. These average 81 per
tree for five years-$104 per acre. BY
this time the apple trees, thirty in
number, will now be giving about two
bushels per tree, which at 81 would
be $50 more per acre. These would
rapidly increase up to five bushels and
s. per tree, or $50 per acre, and the
pecans would be supplemcnting this at
an average of S. per tree, of $50 more,
making 5000 per acre. These are very
safe figures at from fifteen to twenty
years. At twenty years the pecans
should be giving ten bushels each. One
hundred bushels worth S. per bushel,
or $50 per tree, or $500 per acre. The
apples should now be giving at least
ten bushels per tree, or $500 per acre.
We would thus be getting an income
of $500 per acre.
You think these are large estimates.
Well, so they are but they are not too
large. We know of trees that are bear
ing more than the amounts we have
given. OF course we have based these
figures upon the idea that the trees are
given the very best of treatment. The
soil must be kept in ,5ood condition
and the trees well sprayed and the
f~,,;t x,olI bapdlod
Perhaps not many of our readers are
prepared for the figures On the apples.
They are accustomed to think the
south is not an apple-growing section.
That has been true and is yet largely
true. But it is not because the climate
and soil will not produce apples. The
few experiments made prove that 1t is
simply because we have not made an
intelligent effort to grow apples. The
finest apples in the world are grown in
southwest Missouri and Arkansas. If
proper varieties are selected and prop
er attention given them we can grow
good apples almost anywhere in the
south.
Young men wake up and think up
and plan we'll and execute wisely and
you will find farming in the south the
best business that there is.-Southern
CuItiyator.