Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1921-10-27
Transform Vernon Parish, Fertile
Fields And Fruitful Gardens

smaller than wheat. Vetch is high
priced and hard to get good and clean,
but it is a small seed and pound goes
long way. IF you could buy stable
manure at $500 per ton to put on the
farm, you would have to expend five
to fifteen times the price of the seed
to be of an equivalent tonnage to the
rye or vetch.
These lands here have not been Gull
tivated, being mostly cut-over lands,
and, while not rich virgin soils as are
produced by the hardwoods. they have
yet all their original mineral elements,
only, unfortunately, we are at the tail
ing out of big wash from the North,
that biologists tell us was made some
10000 years ago, and all the large
grained sand and heavy material were
dropped far northward, and only the
clay and fine sand settled here. How
thick this deposit is, is not certain, but
it ends from 40 to go miles south;
hence it is that underneath this clay,
upon the original surface quicksand Of
ten occurs, and at Sulphur, La, the
difficulty to get at the sulphur was
the quicksand; and the method Of
melting the sulphur with superheated
steam and pumping it out or forcing
it to the surface was the only practical
way to deal with it. Also, the fine
gray sand on top of the clay is awfully
short of lime, phosphate, and potash,
and the pine straw did not create much
humus, SO that naturally this soil is
poor; but, if these elements are pro-
vided, and deep blowing resorted to,
it will respond and can be made into
the best of soils.
Alfalfa cannot be grown here until
these elements are supplied. and there
are other crops that will never do well
until the soil is reorganized; but alfal-
ia can be grown here and / purpose
to grow it on the Llano Colony lands,
and when you see it you will be forced
to believe, unless you are like the far
mer who saw his first camel and, shak-
ing his fist at its keeper, said: mis-
ter, you cant fool me. There just ain t
any SIGH animal" Sugar cane will
grow well in sour lands and bottom
lands here ought to grow good cane,
as they do. Neither rye nor vetch are
particular as to soils, but if anything
seem to prefer light, porous, and open
soils; but, where lime, phosphate po-
fash, and humus are deficient, even
rye and vetch cannot do themselves
justice, and other crops are sorry in
proportion.
Speaking of the blowing under Of
crops, Peter Henderson, the most sue
cessful market gardener the country
has seen, the author of Henderson s
Gardening for Profit, which has had
II editions and more copies sold
than any other agricultural book off
the press, tells that on taking up a new
piece of land, he used as high as 100
tons OF stable manure to the acre the
first year and never less than 20 to 50
tons every following year; but that,
with all this lavish amount, in 8 to s
years, the soil would seem to go sick
and yield neither quantity nor quality
for profit. But, by dividing the land
into five parts and putting that in rye
or vetch in the winter, blowing it UNI
der in the spring, and all summer grow
ing either corn broadcasted or some
heavy crop and blowing that under and
again the next winter to rye or vetch
and again blowing that under early in
the spring, the land was as good as
the blacklist hardwood clearing with
the stumps pulled out and burned on
the ground. Henderson, with manure
in abundance, had to throw the manure