The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1914-02-21


pointed out, there is no comparison
between paying men to harvest your
corn and having pigs pay you for the
privilege of harvesting your peanuts
and potatoes. While this is some
thing the station talks about, it is
far more than a theory-it is a
practice, as Mr.. Cornell and many
others have shown. L. is a practice
for which millions Of Impoverished
southern acres yearn. But the peo-
ple in the main seem to be too
fond of and too considerable Of the
pigs repose to practice it extensive
ly as yet.
If touch Of manure and raw phos-
phate has jumped Mr.. Connells corn
yields on the old one-crop land from
fifteen to forty bushels, or eleven
tons of silage, to the acre, I think
the working of this system for a
few rounds is likely to give him a
great meat output. He plans to feed
all he grows and to buy cottonseed
meal, molasses and phosphate. The
pig is as fond of molasses as is the
steer or the mule.
The morning before I got to Mr..
Connell's tWo-crop-a-year plantation L
was riding through central Illinois
one-crop land. A farmer got On
the train.
How much is land worth here?"
asked.
'Wen," he said, 1--WE got farm
nine miles from town, and I could
get 5000 an acre for it. Out mile
or two from town they are bringing
$500 an acre and even more-just
for farming
It was not city, merely an
Illinois misunderstanding town. That
Illinois land will not pay interest on
that value, and it is hard for me to
see why men continue to pay such
figures for one-crop land when they
can go down a days ride and get
two-crop land for $25, $50, and SIS
an acre. Mr.. Cornell says his neigh
Dor is trying to sell for $75 an acre
and that he is asking too much, for
a few miles back you can get the
same kind of land for S25 an acre.
The practices and success of Mr..
Cornell are all tried and true. They
should be of particular interest just
now to some hundreds or thousands
Of sugar planters who are having
their special privilege removed by
the new tariff. They say they will
be ruined. The boil Weevil has the
cotton field taboo, but Mr.. Cornell
is showing them the way out. They
can have the assurance, too, that the
pig-and-steer business is one the tar
iff is not going to disarrange. We
sell those commodities in the worlds
competitive market, and the tariff
does not affect their price If it
does the city people will take it off.
Furthermore the experience Of Mr..
Cornell should be of interest to the
large number of farmers in the
north central states that are COM
PEELED to emigrate somewhere. l am
very much of the opinion that if they
go to Louisiana and buy wisely they
can sell for as much as they paid if
they find that they don't want to
live with mosquitoes, negroes and
longer and more humid summer than
they are accustomed to. The claim
appears to be well founded that some
of the state of Louisiana is clear of
malaria, although Their are other To-
calities that have it.
The northerner who contemplates
this move should give special atten-
ton to this factor-the kind of farm
ing. 1t is a serious matter to
change your location, your climate
1y; 81 In
same time. It is much safer to go
to a new place and keep on with your
old business. That is what Louisi-
ana really offers-an excellent place
to do livestock farming in high-class
middle-west style.
The man who tries to sell you
Louisiana land will probably tell you
pretty stories about cauliflower, ear
ly cabbage, lettuce and celery. If
you take that kind of bait don't lay
it to my advice, for you belong in
a class with the little fish who jump
ed at the pretty fly. It was his last
jump.
Eight hundred dollars an acre
from early beans-that's the green
fly. One thousand dollars an acre
from celery-that's the white fly.
Four hundred dollars an acre
from winter beets-that's the red
fly. Every fisherman needs an as
sortment of bait, even for so easy
fish as the sucker Those figures
fa5 perfectly true, but they they 81
like the four-pound trout somebody
caught way off yonder in the far
woods at early dawn year before last.
Most trout weigh about five ounces
each. But somehow Or other human
ity likes to be dazzled, and big fig
ures from garden stuff make fine
dazzling, so we will doubtless be
hearing of them for Il long time to
come.
Meantime corn and peas, beef and
pork are much safer. No one can
predict the price caIlifloWer will
fetch by the time an Iowa man has
learned how to raise it in Louisiana.
On the other hand we know some
thing about the future price of corn,
beef and pig. The corn-belt farmer
in Louisiana should by all means
stick to corn-belt farming, and the
long growing season, abundant rain