Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1913-09-26
THE INDUSTRY OF THE FUTURE.

With the experience OF the past
five years before them, 1t becomes
more and more evident to cotton
planters that the industry which has
for SO many years been depended on
as the money crop OF primary I'M
portance is, to say the least, pre-
carious and uncertain revenue pro-
Queer.
That the South's great staple,
cotton, will continue to be planted
and may in time come again to be
planted proftably, we are willing to
concede, but the time is fast APP
preaching when other crops, such
as corn, oats and hay, will be
planted more and more as money
crops, SO that a failure in cotton will
not mean, as it does now, empty
pockets and long faces.
We know that corn and oats can
be grown proftably here, and there
are lands here where today from two
to four tons of Lespedeza hay, per
acre, are being cut off of meadows
which were never seeded to that
crop and which last year were five
feet under water.
And so we have unbounded conf
dence that the problem OF making
money in this section under boil
weevil conditions will be solved
eventually, for with lands of incom-
parable fertility, with genial eli
mate and with an intelligent popu-
lation, it is inconceivable that our
land owners will not find relief in
other crops and industries from the
depression brought about by the
devastation of the boil weevil.
In our judgment, the time will
soon come when intelligent planters
will turn their attention largely to
stock raising, coupled with the grow
, ing of food crops for sale or for con-
sumption by the cattle and hogs.
! There is no more attractive prop
: osition presented today to the Amer.
lean farmer than that of stock grow
q ing, and nowhere in America can Il
< be conducted more successfully thar
a right here in the Mississippi rive
I bottoms. In the last decade the pop
ulation of the United States has in
e creased by Is, 900, 900 and the supply
: of cattle decreased some $1,000, 900
The price of beef and hogs is goinl
/, up year by year until it seems onl.
D a question of time when the masse
e of the people, like those in man.
e European countries, will be unabl
!, to buy meat. Already beef-steak
it and hams have become mxurie
and experts are confidently predict
+ ing that next year beef on the hoo
will be sold for ten cents the pound
With prices at the present level, cat
tie growing is very profitable ant
with a reasonable certainty tina
prices will be still higher, the indus
try presents most attractive feel
r for investment.
y 1t seems to us that this industr
n should receive at once the mos
We serious consideration by our land
re re owners and, by cattle growing W
or mean scientific cattle growing, nc
of the shiftless methods now in vogu
Is by which inferior grades OF cattl
a, are turned out on the range or pa;
a. ture to live or die, get fat or lear
ed as chance may dictate. We mea
D. that, as first step, we should g
ou rid of the cattle tick, import th
best breeds and go to work system
n atically to learn the business an
r pursue it intelligently.
ne Handicapped as we now are, b
- cause of the presence of the tick, n
$, one can deny that money is bein
n made here to-day in cattle raising
" Can it be doubted that there is b
~ money in it if the business is mad
ed a real one and not, as it is, merel
as side-line?"