Lower coast gazette., 1909-04-17
Intensive Agriculture.

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By intense cultivation we don't mean that we shall stir
our crops every day and hour and pull the potatoes out of the
ground to see if the young tubers have come, but we mean the
very best cultivation that we know OF as proper for the growing
crops. Many of US doubtless do the best we can with the resour-
ces we have, but we are over cropped and we can't practice inten-
sie agriculture.
Many years ago some of our Lower Coast sugar planters planted
Irish potatoes in the cane middles in January hoping to harvest a
successful crop of potatoes by the time the young RATION canes
needed dirt in April and May. The ventures were not successful.
Now we find some of our cane growers planting cucumbers in the
cane middles and they have been successful, getting good cucum-
Der crops and good cane crops. The secret of their success seems
to lie in their use of large quantities of cottonseed meal tor fertl-
izing the crop. This in addition to the previous excellent prepar-
alton of the land forces first the garden crop and later the cane
crop to satisfactory results. Sometimes as much as a ton Of cotton
seed meal is used in such fertilization, and those who use the most
claim that the results Justify this large use.
Years ago in a certain field we had corn and peas growing and
after the corn was harvested the peas were plowed under with six
mule plows preparatory to planting sugar cane in the autumn. A
change of plan led to the abandonment Of the land for cane grow
ing and to it's use as a rice field. The reader will note then that
this land was six mule fall ploWed and with an ordinary crop Of
cow peas plowed under. The result on the land handled in this
way was a rice crop Of 30 to IS barrels per acre. While Carolina
seed rice was used and the yield was in barrels Of 1872 pounds of
rough rice.
The intense culture that this rice got by accident or by a
change Of plans, secured to US double the yield OF rice expected.
And yet we doubt if any one now ever dreams of blowing rice land
with six mules and much less to plant peas in rice land as a ferti-
lizer for the rice crop. The new rice experiment station at Crow
ley may teach US all to fertlize rice lands as carefully as we do
cane lands. The results h%ereinbefore referred to would seem to
indicate it,
In a recent discussion of fertilizers at a meeting of the Louisi-
ana Sugar Planters Association, the fact was brought out that in
using cotton seed meal as a fertilizer for sugar cane, a ration of
300 pounds per acre would not be as proportionatey profitable as
a ration of 600 pounds per acre. In other words it actually pays
better to fertiize heavily than to fertiize lightly.
Intensive agriculture s not confined to fertilizing alone. The
handling of the soil is perhaps the chief feature of successful agr-
culture. Deep blowing came very much in vogue three or four de-
cades ago and then fell from grace. 1t has been found that the
old soil in any given field was the best. If new soil be thrown up
as on a ditch bank, it will hardly grow weeds for a year. Soil
must become full of the microbes incident to plant life and growth
and these microbes are in the top soil. Deep blowing, however, IS
coming into vogue again, but now for a reason quite different from
that formerly given. The lands to raise good crops must be we'll
drained, and then be plowed deeply in order to allow the rainfall
to penetrate deeply into the land where it does its work by carry
ing its ammonia into the land and from its lower levels supplying
the moisture that the growing plants must have. Hard, compact
lands and hard pan lands don't allow the rainfall to penetrate and
benefit the land. The rain must enter into the land to accomplish
its good work. This is so we'll recognized that the Dupont Powder
Co. is advertising dynamite and other high explosives to be used
in h breaking up the hard pan of the soil. The air and the rain will
do the rest.
Some of our own experience comes in apropos in considering
this matter. In answer to our inquiries years ago we were told
that the best treatment for orange orchards was to let the Ber-
muda grass grow in them; that any cultivation hurt the roots of
the trees and that we couldn't we'll improve on natures methods, so
far as oranges were concerned. Farmers from the North focked
into Florida, fortified the soil about their orange trees, kept down
the grass and weeds, and made wonderful crops. One acre of
duuVld LOulSIdHd LdWu is WuEM DIS WuC d w W Un acres
of Florida lands, and yet for a while Florida was it, in orange
culture and Louisiana wasn't in the game at all. w learned,
however, what Florida was doing. We began to pillow and to fer
tEze our orange orchards and to plant cow peas in them. The
old method was gone and the new was come. Now our orange
growers have their groves as clean as their kitchens, everything in
fine order and at the proper time cow peas are planted and the
whole situation is thus kept in hand and our orange crops are
doubled and the trees are scarcely able to support their immense
loads of fruit.
We owe much to our truck gardeners and to our orange growers.
They have taught us the value of intensive agriculture and better
cultivation is prevailing in every direction. When the parish of
Plaquemines becomes one vast truck garden as it will in the course
of time we must build a monument to the Meyers, father and sons,
who set the pace for all the rest of us. The work was hard, but
they accepted the burden of the man with the hoe,' and accomp-
lshed it, They demonstrated the possibility of producing on an
acre of Plaquemines parish land double, triple and even quadruple
the money value in their crops of our crops of sugar cane, rice and
corn. Garden culture has come to stay in Paquemines parish and
the present show on Woodlawn plantation from end to end, in Mr..
Movers fields at Pointeala-Ha ch in Mr.. Perez fields in the 9TH
ward, farther down in the Moore, Bayhi and Becnel settlements,
Home Place and in the 9Th ward and including the whole orange
country ought to make every citizen of Plaquemines parish feel
glad of his citizenship and proud Of his parish, the land of the
orange and the sugar cane, Of sweet figs and head lettuce, of crisp
cucumbers and delightful muskmelons, of luscious oysters and
seductive shrimp. Surely we live in the land of the lotus eaters
I1