The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-12-07
Experimental Farm on cut-Over Pine
Lands.

Louisiana now ranks second in the
entire United States as a producer
of lumber, and the thousands OF
acres Of land from which the timber
is removed for the manufacture Of
this lumber are left practically bare
and are no longer a source OF rev.
enue after the trees are taken away.
In the western part of the state are
to be found vast areas of the finest
long leaf yellow pine forests in the
, world, but the numerous lumber COM
panies are rapidly transforming them
into lumber What may be done with
these idle, cut-over pine lands in or
der to make them return revenue is
one Of the agricultural problems of
the state.
The Long-BeH Lumber Company is
one Of the largest lumber manufac-
turers Of long leaf yellow pine in
Louisiana, and, therefore, they have
large holdings Of cut-over lands. This
company realizes that sooner or la
ter these lands must be devoted to
agriculture, and in order to demon
strate their value for farming and
frlit-groWing they have established
the Long-Bell experimental farm at
Bon Ami, La, with 7. S. Cranberry
as superintendent.
These cut-over lands are of light,
sandy nature and are not naturally
well supplied with humus and the
three principal elements of fertility
nitrogen, phosphorus and potash.
They are better adapted to the pro-
duction Of fruits and vegetables than
to staple crops, SO the work of the,
farm up to the present time has been
largely devoted to fruit culture. Sew
eral thousand peach trees were put
out, and smaller paintings of apples,
pears, pecans, .plums, grapes, satsu-
ma oranges and figs Were made. All
of these have received good cultiva-
ton, pruning. spraying, etc, and rec
ords of production have been kept.
This work has now been under way
for several years and results have
been accommodating. 1t seems now
that on cut-oyer pine land figs and
grapes are most promising. The
grapes have produced good crops
each year since they have been of
bearing age, and the last (1912) crop
was manufactured into grape juice.
The most promising crop on the
farm is probably the fig. A large
orchard Of the Magnolia variety has
been planted and the entire crop is
preserved at the company's preserv-
ing plant on the farm. The Magno-
liza produces white fig, which, when
preserved, has clear, bright appear
ance and makes a snowy sample for
market. This variety also has
another good quality-when it hap
pens to be killed to the ground by
freezing temperatures it will come
out the following spring, grow off Wig
orously and produce an abundant
crop of good fruit. The trees on this
farm have been killed to the ground
the past two winters, but still fine
crops have been preserved each sea
son following the freeze.
The figs are gathered in the morn
ing and hauled to the Meserving
plant, where they are washed and
weighed. The necessary amount of
sugar is then added and they are
put into a large copper preserving
Kettle, which is heated by steam.
The fruit is cooked until the syrup
caches density of "a degrees
3eaume, when it is placed in fancy
lass containers, principally of pint
ize. These glasses are nicely la
,e1ed, showing what they contain,
where grown and by whom packed.
The entire crop has been sold, here
ofore, on the Chicago market.
The fig is a rapid and vigorous
rover, a heavy and sure bearer, and
good markets can be worked up
or the product, the preserved fig
romises to be profitable crop for
lie cut-over lands of Louisiana.