St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1922-01-28
MAKING DAIRY
DISTRICT OF ST.
I TAMMANY
PARISH
By A. E. Briggs.


about it in the right way, we car
establish a dairy business here whicl
will be enormously profitable. Al
this time when all over the country
and especially in the cotton, wheat
and other staple one-crop sections
times are hard, money is scarce, and
business failures are frequent, tie
dairy farmer, according to the Dairy
Division Of the U. S. Department OF
Agriculture, is making about the
same considerable -rot'ts which! h.
has been continuously, max ing 3i7,cs
lAi;. THIS does nnt n&s-;tn If sn,s.s:5
! that eterN tUan Ws,n is mi. .Aiag s.nSs.
Is making lnones. A scrub herd Is i
money loser Good cows badly cared
/ for viii not pay any profits on an in
| dairyman buys all his feed, his profits
will not be large. So, under present
conditions St. Tammany parish could
not be profitable dairy district. But
proper treatment of our pineywoods
stump land to make it over into
farm land is the, first step toward
building up the industry i'll this
parish.
! One person who has the idea and
the business capacity to carry it out
is Father Joseph Colombo, in charge
Of the Chinchuba Deaf Mute Instl-
tute. Three or four years ago when
Father Colombo came to Chinchuoa
he found most Of their cows tubercu
l.. - Cn
which distinguishes him he promptly
had them killed despite the protests
of his people. To-day he has four
teen good grade cows, and he is not
depending on pineywoods pasture
and the shelter Of trees to care for
them Every night his cows are
housed in the big barn and well fed.
This fall he had 80 tons Of good hay,
about third of it cowpea hay, ana
he has silage besides. BY cutting
the pineywoods hay while it is i'll
bloom he finds it makes good hay.
OF course his hay field (at Ozone
Park) is fenced and the meadow is
not fired. 1t has improved with ever
cutting.
So far he has had little time and
less money with which to experiment,
and being wholly new to the country
he has had to learn step by step
how to utilize the peculiar cond.-
tions here. But these very handi-
caps make his experiment the more
valuable for our consideration, be-
cause he has no more advantage in
his favor than the average farmer.
and because of lack Of capital he has
to go slower than would most of the
landowners in this parish. His work
is valuable for the parish because he
is blazing the way, showing how it
can be done. The Ozone Park farm
will this year be in charge Of a young
Hollander brought up in the famous
Friesian country where the Eolstein
COW is queen Of industry, and this
young man apparently knows the
business. At any rate understand
he has made an auspicious beginning
for the first thing he is doing pre-
paratory to planting crops Is to coa-=
struct drainage bitches. Father CO.
lombe further testifies to his capacl-
ty by the fact that through the in
stitution of better feeding system
he has considerably increased the
yield of milk from their cows. The
clearing of stumps and drainage pre-
paratory to farming the Ozone Park
land is surely evidence that at Chin
chuba Institute is an experiment sta
tion and demonstration farm which
everyone interested in farming de-
velopn1ent in this parish can profit
ably watch and take lessons from.
Yet Father Colombo tells me am
the first person who has made in
quiry concerning the marked inn
provements in farming which he is
putting into effect there.
Prof. Eekles, of Missouri, who is a
famous dairy expert by reason Of
having built one of the finest dairy
herds anywhere which is owned by
the Agricultural College of Missouri,
says that what the dairyman must
do, in order that the production of
milk may be the largest, is to im:-
tate summer conditions as far as
possible throughout the remainder Of
the year, which he describes s
"(11 an abundance of palatable food,
- a balanced ration, l3) succulent
feed, "a moderate temperature, 81
comfortable surroundings He also
peihts ta pasture conditions as the