The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1907-08-10
BY H. e. BLAKESLEE, JACKSON.

There is nothing that should be of
more interest to the people of Missis-
sippi in general than the description of
an improved farm that is making for
the owner a liberal profit and getting
better year by year. w. F. Lagrone
in the West Point Leader recently
wrote interestingly Of a trip to a farm
of this kind, and the communication is
reproduced here because it is worthy
of a careful reading by all:
Recently a friend and l left West
Point at 2:3O in the afternoon, and at 4
o'clock drove through a gate into a
grove of beautiful oaks, n hundred
yards from the home of Mr.. J. E.
Evans.
"On our arrival his young son in
formed us that his father was at a hay
barn, 200 yards distant, beyond a skirt
of woods west of the dwelling. We
drove to the barn and found the wagons
and hands storing away as beautiful
mellilotus and red clover hay as you
ever saw, the same being cut from a
pasture. In the distance we saw Mr..
Evans watching with delight his now
ers and rakes run and the hands load
the we'll cured hay on to the wagons.
We drove to him, and in his happy way
he greeted US and said: Boys, how is
this for a pasture?' Now, right here
you will pardon me for giving his ques-
tions and his answers in their success
sion without reference to the style and
arrangement that characterize a we'll
written newspaper letter: Mr.. Evans,
this is mighty fine land to u in a pas
ture.' Yes, but that is what | wanted,
and not a barren waste owe which
stock work all day to live; you see l
cut fifty tons of hay here and furnish
pasture for my dry cattle Don't you
like Bermuda grass? 1 see you have
none here L only like it in its place;
my grove is we'll set in it, and it is the
only grass that will cure standing up in
the field, and l let my dairy COWS Craze
on it all winter, for it aids their diges-
tion and gives them variety. Come
along, boys; | want to show you over
the place. This hay is nothing: you
ought to see my alfalfa and thirty acres
sown to mellilotus in March, How
are the crops between here and town?'
well, they are small but clean, and [
think we will make the biggest crop we
have made in years. Do you see that
nineteen acres over there? / made fif-
teen bales there last year, and L put [
do not know how much manure there
this spring, and 1 am counting on
twenty bales from the nineteen acre
cut this year. 1t was clean, a good
stand, and in a thrifty, growing condi-
tion. He said: L keep this barn over
here for my dry cattle; l avoid crowd
ing too many together at night. Do
you see that pasture over there? 1t
contains thirty-fve acres, and [ am
now grazing one hundred and seventy
five head of stock on it, including hogs.
Do you see the mellilotus, red and
white clover going to seed?' And it
was so; you could hardly tell that it was
grazed at all. L get my pastures in
shape just as l do my cultivated fields.
/ SOW all the good pasture grasses and
keep all stock off tbs pasture at night.
Come, let's 60 to the house; this is my
gasoline engine and laundry room, that
is my tank house, across there is where
[ churn and mold my butter; l heat
that stove for my irons in the laundry;
nv engine churnS and runs my sepa-
rator and pumps water to all the pas
lures. and l have installed in my dwell
ing a complete system of waterworks
and sewerage, and ever my wash tubs
are connected with my sewers. You
See thAt cement floor in there and that
tank is what I heat my water in and l
clean my hogs in here. [ don't have
negroes kicking wood at a washpot and
shivering. A hog-killing time is a
hog-killing time in deed and in truth
on this place. This is my horse BARN
and it was filed with sweet alfalfa hay,
and his mules and horses, were as sleek
as moles. Did you ever see a hog
barn? Well, here it is: and the floor is