Lower coast gazette., 1914-11-21

an intense dppllcdtOn tndL Cdli We U0tVCA given
to a great single crop than can be given to two,
or three or four crops in some of which even
the master spirits of the property may have
little knowledge of. Hogs and cattle require
great care in their production, and yet but little
care is given to them. The breeding Of horses.
SO far,as we know, has scarcely ever been made
anything of in the state Of Louisiana. Mule
raising, tested here and there to a moderate
extent, has never amounted to many thousands
of dollars per annum.
The time seems to have come when the far
Iner is to be the man of the future in the coun-
try and in order to make openings for the far
xner the plantations must be sold out in such
parcels of land as these men will find themsel-
res able to cultivate.
~ A few years ago, up in Alberta in Western
Canada, we asked a Canadian farmer how many
acres of land he cultivated and he said that he
and his brother cultivated 160 acres, that was
80 acres to the man. and in working the land
one man always drove four big hooses 50 that
they got the largest amount Of horsepower with
the least amount of man power and covered the
fields of those great northern prairies with the
immense wheat crops with which they are now
feeding the English while carrying on their
war in Europe. 1t is true that these wheat
farmers are playing with fire as it were, when
they produce nothing but wheat. Some Of
them made enough money in one year to pay
for their lands, happening, perhaps to have a
fine season with an adequate rainfall and good
prices for wheat. Others have become dis
gusted and quit the bushes, not meeting with
such fortunate conditions, or perhaps because
Of having less good judgement in handling
these farming matters.
The one crop idea, however. is palling on
the taste of those northern farmers and just as
our rice and sugar men here find it extremely
difficult to live on their single crops, so the
wheat men find that they cannot now average
any very great success with their one crop, un-
less by accident they have a succession of fine
seasons.
Here in Louisiana we have over SO inches of
rainfall and on the lower coast nearly, or about
70 inches. This amount of rainfall means that
any country wherein the rain falls to that ex-
tent and with an even distribution over the
country, that country is bound to be a grassy
country. We spend hundreds of thousands of
dollars in keeping our cane fields and our rice
fields clean and free of grass and yet in almost
any other country in the world they would
revel in our grass crops and Immediately go in
to cattle raising and come practically into con.
troll Of the cattle market. Our own Lower
Coast is peculiarly well adapted to cattle cul-
ture and were it not for the dread hog cholera,
which our u. S. Department of Agriculture is
endeayoring to get under complete control, it
ought to be a splendid country for hogs, which
would support themselves on the grass crops
until the time for fattening came, when our
corn and low grade molasses would come in
play for finishing them off for the markets.
We are now rapidly developing orange cul-
ture and it will unquestionably be one of the
great businesses Of south Louisiana. At the
sane time, coincidently with the rapid increase
in our crops We must endeavor to secure the
rapid disposal of our oranges, or hold them in
cold storage, or in some way endeavor to utilize
the American market just as the orange grow
ers of California have SO successfully done with
their crops, sent across the country 5000 miles
to US, who could readily grow all Of our own
supplies at home.
The Lower Coast has frequently been spo-
ken of as one Of the best markets in the coun-
try for condensed milk; that every storekeeper
on the Lower Coast has it as . leading article;
today it is in constant supply everywhere, and
in constant demand everywhere. Many Of our
people do not even know how to milk a COW and
although we live in a grassy country, where
hundreds Of thousands of head of cattle are
grown up annually, they are as rule never fed
anything, and are left to Craze where they can
and of course the milk supply from such cattle
raising is very slender, and milk produced in
Texas, or in Switzerland, or somewhere else is
sold to US in tin cans in lower Louisiana, where
grasses grow the year round.
Chickens are great consumers of grass and
also Of bugs and a piece Of newly plowed land
becomes a sort of paradise for them and intel
ligent chicken culture ought to be one of our
great industries. The Acadian parish of La
fayette in western Louisiana ships into New
Orleans eggs and chickens by the car load and