The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-10-19
Cotton Or Grain.
Correspondence Of the Herald


Duck CREEK, TEXAS October - ISL,
wish some one would tell me why it is
that so many newspapers of the south are
down on cotton-growing2 We can't under
stand how it is that SO great an industry as
cott0n-growing should be so constantly and
Professionally beaten down, Suppose that
every cotton grower should take the advice
given by great many persons and drop
cotton have nothing more TO do with it,
and should take to grain exclusively,
what would be the result ,
If good crop, no money
poor crop-a great tract of land
to grow up in weeds during the summer,
and little cash, farmers with long faces,
and merchants looking down their noses,
thinking over unpaid bills having to lay
over. Cotton growing Is paying industry.
1t distributes hundreds of dollars over the
country to where grain would one There il
no crop grown, neither can there he any
grown in the south, that can equal cotton
in distributing money so generally among
the different classes and professions of
our land. suppose now, there had been no
cotton planted here in Texas this year, and
all had been grain, what would have been
the result Why, hundreds of families
who are now making from three TO five
dollars n day, picking cotton, would have
been seeking for work and finding none
hundreds Of little boys and girls who are
now making from fifty cents 20 one dollar
a day, picking cotton, would have been
running idle, haltclothcd and half
fed. Whereas they are now nc
they have been industrious and
saving, able TO buy themselves good, warm
.tl. ttHtt
factor possessed with large and liberal
views, friend 20 the poor man as well As
rich man. Cotton culture is an easy bust
ness. There is no knowing the amount Of
cotton one man can plant and cultivate on
clean land, with the advantages offered now
in improved farming implements. Ii is
true II takes good many hands TO pick Il
large crcT Of cotton, but doesn't
that give employment to a class Of people
who otherwise would bc idle And dom
II bring money and scatter it generally
throughout the country, so that almost
every man and child can put his his hands
in his pockets and rattle the shining silver,
And II the producer has been industrious
and economical ho need have no fears but
that he will have a fair margin left him
after expenses have been counted out
Take cotton growing from Texas and
pun Wl lltT luIIlclN u grow
NJ grain exclusively, and in five
years the immigration to Texas would not
exceed Onc-tcnth what it is now. II is the
shccrcst nonsense for Texas to talk about or
even think about giving up cotton fUr grain,
whenit Is well known that for any less
than fifty cents bushel for corn will not
pay us, and that an average crop of wheat
will pay the producer only very small
margin, II lac gets less than one dollar a
bushel for it, and oats, ii general good
crop prevails, will be drag on the market
at twenty-five and thirty cents q
bushcl The time was when these things
paid well, but that time has past Since
the advent of railroads into Texas from the
north there has been q downward tendency
in our grain markets except on rare occa-
siOns, and to-day the northern states can
put grain down at our doors Us cheap as We
can raise il, Then, five 20 to raising grain
exclusively, what are we going to do with
it? We can't consume It all at home, and
We can't compete with the northern mar
kctS in prices,
TIL, hest way to settle this question is to
ask every farmer of the south who raises
cotton, are YOU willing to give up cotton
for grain, depending on it for an income?
Yes or no. think the answer would soon
decide the question as to whether cotton
was n curse To the south or not. No, let us
raise our bread and meat, and all the cot
ton we can manage, and leave grain grow
ing for market to those who live where cot
ton will not grow. MARION MURPHY.