Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-08-18


pOrtnnities are constantly flashed
} upon ms, we must he on the alert to
seize always the best in sight.
In 1898 indigo was the chief crop
of this section of the country, selling
at seventy cents per pound, bnt
cotton made its appearance among
the farmers and at four dollars per
hundred (no gins at any time be-
ing thought Of was considered
more remunerative, and it slowly
increased until the gin was invent
ed, and then it became the crop Of
the South, overshadowing all others
to such an extent that the One-crOp
system became baneful, and it is
now a recognized fact that diversity
is the farmers slogan that should
be sounded all over our Southern
land; it is the "shibboleth" that
will open the doors to prosperity,
but selections for diversified crops
should be seriously considered. The
soil pd climate are factors that
should not be overlooked; the
adaptability to Southern cultivation
would be another consideration.
and now, after eight years actual
observation, after careful examiDa-
ton into its merits, we unhesitat-
ingly recommend soy beans as one
crop that should occupy a promi-
nent place ON every farm in the
State of Louisiana.
1t is practically a companion to
cotton; its similarity in culture is
its first recommendation, and we
trust that it will not be long before
it is known as one of Louisiana's
great staple crops.
The introduction of anything new
is sometimes attended by slow
growth. Sugar cane for instance,
was first introduced by the Jesuit
Fathers into Louisiana in 1851, and
no real developments took place
until fifty years after. and to-day it
10 grand among our agricultural
interests.
Rice, too, slowly travelled along
as small adjunct to our other
products until Southwest Louisiana
forced it into our first lines.
Thus we see that it took the in
vention of the gin to place cotton
upon its proper pedestal; the crush
ing rollers of the mill was the first
key to unlock the doors of the
worlds great storage of sweetness;
and irrigation placed rice as one of
the great products of Louisiana's
soil, but all these developments took
time and study. but in recommend
ing soy beans no such delays are
necessary for besides the great feed
ing qualities of this product the
cotton seed oil mills, with only
few small changes, care ready to
convert into oil and meal.
The oil mills of Forth Carolina
have already begun to crush the
soy beans, have this season crushed
over a hundred Thousand bushels,
making 2.4W tons of meal and
"a 500 gallons of oil.
The average extraction from
ton of cotton seed is about 500
pounds of meal, 800 pounds of hulls,
35 to 40 gallons of oil and 80
pounds of litters. From soy beans
900 to LOO pounds of meal are
procured, and 35 to 40 gallons of
oil made. The average yield of
cotton seed per acre is from one
eighth to one-Quarter ton, whereas,
the beans yield from 25 to so bush.
els per acre. The cotton stalk is
valueless as feed and expensive to
get rid of, while the soy bean vine
yields about one ton per acre of
feed that is equal to wheat bran or
alfalfa. Cotton takes from the soil
while beans add to its fertility.
If we stop a moment and think
of cotton seed, the despised product
which the ingenuity of man was
strenuOusly used to get rid of,
when we think of the envied looks
of many owners of gins when they
found neighbor had located upon
a running stream and had the
double satisfaction of possessing
cheap motive power and at the same
time gotten rid of great nuisance
by dumping the seed into the
stream below, to-day one of the
South's great assets is that once OBJ
noxious product that has developed
into commercial importance that
ranks high indeed.
Strawberries. too, that have been
only one Of our garden luxuries in
the past, to-day bring into Louis
lana several millions of dollars, and
the accomplishment of this great
development was produced only by
cooperation between farmers and
railroads, and now by cooperation
between farmers and cotton seed