St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1914-11-14
Southwestern
Reflections

DAYS about the conservation OF
our natural resources. To the
farmer there are few more vita
subjects than the conservation
of this soil. That is his premier
asset, and by proper treatment
he can not only conserve this
great asset but can increase its
potential value from year to year.
How? First, by giving back
to the soil as much as possible OF
that which has been produced
upon. In the rice districts hun
dreds of thousands of dollars
worth of fertilizer is burned uE
or sold for less than its fertiliz'
ing value every year. In the
sugar cane fields the leaves and
tops of the cane are destroyed
each year, there by robbine
the soil of humus that
would be of the greatest value.
In the cotton and corn fields the
same is true-the land is put
through a processof publication
by fire, as It were; or, to be
-. - @
more accurate, it is sterilized by
fire and ignorance.
The sane thing to do is 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 hui
mus and giving back to the soil
a little Of that Of which it was
robbed by the growing crops.
Try it this fall. Get a heavy
team and a big ploW and turn
under everything left on the
land after the crops were gath
cred. And do it now.
Of course, all this presupposes
that your land is well drained,
for without thorough draining
farming is q hazardous venture.
Then there is the matter of
barn-yard manure, not an ounce
Of which should be wasted. No
farm should be without it's com
post heap into which all sorts of
waste, fresh, yard and stable
sWeepings should be thrown to
decompose and add to the soil
fertility. Those who live near
the woods can find hundreds Of
tons of leaves which hauled out
to the farm, spread over the land
and turned under will add enor-
mously to the fertility Of the
soil, especially If used in connec-
ton with 300 pounds of acid
phosphate to the acre.
Then there are the legumes;
COW peas and soy bears for sum
mer crops and clovers and vetch-
es for winter. What a pity it is
that ten thousand farmers did
not hear Professor D. N. Bar
rows intensely instructive adj
dress on Winter Cover Crops at
the recent Annual Convention Of
the Southwest Louisiana Develop
ment Bureau at Crowley. To
the practical Southwest farmer
that speech alone would be
worth several years subscription
to the support Of this Bureau.
The burden Of this weeks
message is: Conserve your soil.
Improve it. DO it now.
In his fascinating book, Farm.
ers Of Forty Centuries, the late
Professor King relates the in
finite pains with which the Chi
nese farmers save and gather uI
every conceivable waste article
to put back upon their soil. The
result is seen in the contrast be
tween the productive capacity
of their soil and that Of our own.
-Four thousand years of continu-
GUS cultivation have increased to
d wonderful extent the soil Of
China: a hundred years. fifty,
twenty-five sometimes, have
worn our soil out. And still we
are want to apply to these farm
ers the epithet, the heather
From an agricultural stand
point who appears to be the
heather? John Chinaman Of
Henry Jones? and the reason
John Chinaman is SO far ahead
of Us is, because he wastes moth.
he fertilizes continuously.