The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1909-10-30
PRACTICAL AND PROFITABLE
REMEDIES FOR HARD TIMES.
(BY JOHN BURRUSS McGEHEE. }

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omitted nothing: not financially, TO
monetary losses can always he re
couped. In 1871, France, a nation
having more than one-third of Tn
present population of the United
States to support on an area of yer,
old soil but fOurth-ffths that of tn,
state OF Texas, found herself utterl,
crushed and at the mercy of relent
less enemy, Il large portion of hel
own population in active revolt. two
OF her most prosperous provinces con
tanning a million and half of popu
latlon wrested from her, and a wal
debt of billion dollars liked on her
shoulders. Before due, all had been
llquidated and France had resumed
her position as leader in culture
and in science. All Frenchmen sim.
ply pulled together-another object
lesson for us.
But temperamentally we are in utter
rout. Men cry LO, here! and Lo, there!
and the simple rules of common sense
seem generally disregarded. The GUS
tom appears to be to suggest untried
experiments. Now, who in West Fell
clana has either the time or the means
for experimentation?
On the other hand there are several
thoroughly tried and wellproven ex-
pedientS that promise in all reason
abundant success, humanity speaking
OF course. The first requisite is i'm
mediate application of actual labor
to the task, always difficult but gen.
orally SurmOuntable, of doing things
in the right way. 1t is the purpose of
the writer to discuss thoroughly in sew
eral articles the crops of oats, corn
and hay, in West Feliciana, all of
which have long since passed the ex-
perimental stage, and later other
products will be taken up.
Oats are taken first, because right
now, to-day, is the time, not for re-
greet, repining, or speculation, but for
just plain Old-fashioned ploughing.
The best teacher on earth is expe-
rience and the writer proposes to
state his own experience for thirty
years so plainly that he who runs may
read--if he desires. This experience
covers about thirty successive crops.
In all that time he has had but two
failures and in each of those secured
about fifty per cent of a crop. Both
OF these reverSes were due to continued
+ a in during harvest Considering
farming as an occupation, that is dis
experimental patches, it is
doubtful if any section of all this big
country of ours can Surpass that rec
ord. SO it seems reasonable to as.
sumo that in West Feliciana
OATS ARE A SURE CROP.
And we must ever bear in mind
that to attain this success, although
surely within our reach, certain pre-
Iiminary steps are essential. First
and most difficult of all is
OBTAINING GOOD SEED.
a careful estimate places the losses
Of the parish from poor oat seed dur
ing only the last two seasons at about
100000. Could we afford to lose it?
is included in the above fig
lres for that other loss no less real |
because purely exemplary, and we
hear some men already declaring that
pats are too uncertain for standard |
crop.
The writer has for the past half doz-
an years found it simply impossible
10 secure a genuine rustproOf oat ex-
,ept hOme-raiSed seed, after earnest |
and persistent trial in many directions.
He would regard it as simple dis
honesty to encourage any one to plant
q single acre of oats except with seed |
that had been grown in the parish
and even these proven extensively.
This point 81 proper seed cannot be
too strongly accentuated and while
we have no desire whatever to depre-
'iate any ones merchandise we con-
slider it mere folly to attempt crop
Of oats here with commercial seed, by
which we mean anything not grown
and proven right here in the parish.
The limited supply of such seed con-
'tituteS one of the grayest of prob
ems at the moment. Next comes
HOW TO PLANT OATS.
There are farmers and farmers, and
almost as many opinions expressed as
armers. Thirty years experience has
the writer that there is Just
me sure way. AS is generally the