The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1914-11-14
Sou western Reflections.

| HVu uSDCtln NtNI iIiUaiSs
| We hear great deal of edify-
Ing talk, and no little piffle these
days about the conservation of
our natural resources. To the
1ar'rer there are few more vital
SUBJECTS than the conservation of
his soil. That is his premier as
set, md by proper treatment he
can not only conserve this
great asset but can increase it's
potential value from year to year.
How? First, by giving back to
the SOIL as much as possible of
that which has been produced up
on it. In the rice districts hund.
reds OF thousands of dollars worth
OF fertilizer is burned up or sold
for less than its fertilizing value
every year. In the sugar cane
fields the leaves and tops of the
cane are destroyed each year,
thereby robbing the soil of humus
that would be of the greatest
value. In the cotton and corn
fields the same thing is as true
the land iSput through a process
OF publication by fire, as it we're:
or, to be more accurate, it is steri-
lied by fire and ignorance.
The sane thing to do ia to turn
under deeply everything remain
ing on the land in the fall and let
it decompose; in that way sup
! plying a certain amount of humus
and giving back to the soil little
| of that of which it was robbed by
the growing crops. Try it this
fall. Get a heavy team and big
pillow and turn under everything
left on the land after the crops
were gathered. And do it now.
OF course, all this presupposes
that your land is we'll drained, for
with out thorough drainage farm
ing is hazardous venture.
Then there is the matter of barn.
yard manure, not an ounce of
which should be wasted. No farm
should be without its compost
heap into which all sorts of waste.
trash, yard and setable sweepings
should be thrown to decompose
and add to the soil fertility.
Those who live near the woods
can find hundreds of tons of lcaves
which hauled out to the farm.
spread over the land and turned
under will add enormously to the
fertility OF the soil, especially i'll
used in connection with 36OI
pounds OF acid phosphate to the
acre.
Then there are the legumes:
cowpeas and soy beans for sum.
mer crops and clovars and vetches
for winter. What pity it is that
ten thousand farmers did not hear
Professor D. N. Barrow g intensely
instructive address on Winter
Cover Crops at the recent Annual
Convention of the Southwest |
Louisiana Development Bureau at
Crowley. To the practical South
west Louisiana farmer that speech
alone would be worth several
years subscription to the support
of the Bureau.
hS OulNSh VI ClllS WEEK b mes |
sage is:-Conserve your soil.
Improve it. Do it now.
In his fascinating book. Farmers
OF Forty Centuries, the late Pro-
lessor King relates the infinite
pains with which the Chinese
farmers save and gather up every
conceivable waste article to put
back upon their soil, The result
is seen in the contrast between
the productive capacity of their
soil and that OF our own. Four
thousand years of continuous
have increased to a
wonderful extent the soil of China:
hundred years, fifty, twenty
i've sometimes, have worn our
soil out. And still we are wont
o apply to these farmers the cpl I
hat, 1.-The Heather Chinee."
From an agricultural standpoint |
Who appears to be the heathen? G
ohm Chinaman or Henry Jones? I
And the reason John Chinaman t
8 so far ahead of US is, because {
lie wastes nothing; he fertiiizes a