St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1914-03-28

offer instruction in every subject
needed by any Louis ana teacher.
Those who are looking for good
business to engage in should send for
the Normal catalogue.
THE STORY OF A SUCCESSFUL
FARMER.
It was in February when on one
bright sunny morning l decided to
go to town to attend to some very
important business. l lived some
ten miles out and near a neighbor
who was a successful farmer. He al
ways made plenty OF corn, hay, oats,
meat and lard and had some to sell.
had not gone over half the dis
lance before l overlook my ne1ghbor
whose name was l. Madeit. He had
his wagon loaded down with the pro-
ducts of his farm-corn, hay, bacon
and canned goods. l passed him and
went ON down the road and before l
got to town | overlook several farm
ers with empty wagons, not tn ng
in them to keep the old wagon box
from making such a rafting, rumbl-
ing noise as the teams went trotting
down the road.
/ passed them and arrived IN town
before any of the farmers did. At
ter attending to business and taking
dinner l went around to the court
house yard and found a, very interest
ing crowd of men. They were talk
ing about farming, how they plowed,
planted and cultivated their crops.
Some did not have anything in the
implement line to farm with but a
combinat ON stock and a turning
pillow. Others had turning plows and
Pope side harrows, and did not want
anything better. Still it took twice
as much hand labor to make crop
as it should. All hands now changed
the subject from the implement to
use to the moon and it's influence up
ON growing crops. This point every
body agreed to but l. Madeit, who
was in the crowd now as well as the
other fellows who came to town with
the empty wagons.
Some said that they would wait q
week to plant corn, or potatoes, in
order to catch the moon right. It
they did not the corn would make all
stalk and the potatoes all vines.
They had tried it too many times
and knew what they were talking
about. At this point old man l.
Madeit got interested and asked if
the land was prepared and the wealth
'er nice and warm and good seed was
ut hand If they would wait for the
Iaoon to show up. All said mos. as
s,,redly so as their fathers before
tn EN- did so and they knew if there
we're any mistakes in It they would
have found it out before now. Made
it tsked what they would do if bad
wea Their was ii come along with the
moon and remain bad until the moon
was out again, all said they would
wait Cor it again as it would not do
to think of planting any other time.
Madeit now wanted to know what
success they had been having with the
moon making their crops and asked
how many in the crowd had corn to
sell. Not one answered. How many
has hay to sell? Not one answered.
How many has meat and lard to sell?
Not one answered. Well what have
you to sell, then? Some said the
''old lady" sold some eggs and chick
ems once in a while and that was
about all, excepting scrub yearling
once in a while out of the woods.
A few had barely corn enough to last.
Some acknowledged that the wind
was blowing through the cracks of
the crib unmolested. even this time
of the year.
"A 10 1>S% mt IN
have talk right here with you and
explain to you fellows the secret of
farming here in this coun-.
try in which we were born and rails
cd. The moon is not engaged in the
business of making crops for us at
all. She has her mission to fulfill
mad does not have time to lend any
of her power towards the growing of
crops for us. She is too far from
us-about 10000 miles-and we
should be thankful to get her light.
We have agricultural schools all over
this country. We have papers and
bulletins, ETC.. sent to us
and We do not read thing in them
relative to the planting of crops on a
certain time of the moon. They all
recommend a well-prepared seed bed,
one that has plenty of humus in it,
one that has been plowed as it should
with clods all pulverized, one that
contains the proper amount and the
right kind of fertilizer. Then the
time to plant is when you have good
seed and the weather is warm, re-
gardless to the condition of the moon
at the time / never notice where
the moon has her face or whether she
is smiling or grinning when get
ready to plant.
Now boys we will take up the
essential points to be observed in
farming and see if we cannot all
reach the same conclusion.
First, to make success in farm
ing one has to make a study of his
business: know what he wants to do
and when to do it.
Second, a successful farmer knows
the food content of the idfferent kinds
of feed such as hay and all kinds
of grain, grasses, etc, and knows
how much to feed a steer or horse to
get the results sought.
Third, man must treat his soil
az he would his bank account-keep
adding to it if he expects it to hold
out with his needs If we keep TAX
ing from the soil and never add any