St. Landry democrat., 1890-07-26
THE BEST PLAN OF COOPER
ALTON.

present the subjects upon which this CO.
operation may be had.
Farmers should choose that branch of
business which promises the greatest sue
cess. The general tendency is to engage
in mercantile pursuits but these are often
hazardous, and except under peculiar cir
cumstances, can at best furnish but small
profits. think the policy of the farmers
should be, through combination and CO.
operation, to use as far as possible the
channels of trade already established
buying the more bulky articles from their
own State Exchange. When a store is
established some of the best farmers are
selected to manage it, which is nothing
more nor less than making merchants out
of farmers. Then, again, it takes great
deal of money to conduct mercantile
business, thereby employing capital that
might be 0sed with better results in other
directions. If, then, we can control the
capital already invested in mercantile
business by keeping it in the proper
bounds of legitimate profits, it is wisdom
to pursue that policy. In small places
where but little money can be brought
together, the establishment of store
might be advantageous. l do not wish to
be understood as denying the right of
farmers to engage in the mercantile or any
other business. I simply hold that where
they can do So they had better engage in
the more lucrative business which shall
point out, and bring the mercantile world
to understand that we can well use its
channels in connection with the Exchange
if it treats US right.
recommend, first, the establishment of
cotton warehouses. Twenty-Five cents per
bale for weighing cotton, and twenty-five
cents per month for storage, Is about as
cheap as warehousemen charge for this
part of the business. And yet, on ten
thousand bales, their charges amount to
virtually $4,000 on receipt of the cotton.
In some places commissions for selling iii
immediate sales are bad) add other large
amounts to the expense column. Then
the sampling of cotton and the handling
of cotton, including the drayage to the
cars, may be done in such spirit and
manner as to iniure the sale. if parties
wish to reship to other markets. The
raising of cotton IN Central Asia, Australia,
Egypt and South America forces the
Southern planters to come forward and
have their own warehouses and handle
their cotton as nicely as the merchant
handles the cloth from which cotton is
made A good man with q salary of $1,000
and good house, costing say $4,000, will
enable farmers. cooperating in the estab-
lishment of warehouses, to make lou per
cent on their investment the first year, if
they can get in as much as ten thousand
bales of cotton.
would next establish ginnery, fully
equipped with the best gins (say or 10),
and with the best elevators to be procured
Il like the suction elevators). have ar
engagements completed to take the cotton
from the wagons, and gin and pack bale
in 15 minutes. To such ginnery, farm
ers can bring their cotton direct from the
fields. The cotton will be taken up on one
side from the wagon by suction, and on
the other side of the house, conveyors
should put the seed in the wagons. Such
a ginnery, rightly managed, at present
prices, will make so per cent on the in
vestment.
would establish guano factory. The
prices of guano have been entirely too
high. Millions of dollars of profits have
been made out of the farmers of the South
since the war. Give me the money that
Georgia has paid out in twenty years
above the cost of making fertilizers, and |
could build city as great as Atlanta. A
good fertilizer should cost about $50 to sell
at $23.
With So profit per ton, we would have
$4,000 on every thousand tons we sell.
Guano machinery, exclusive of the
engine, will cost say $500, and suitable
house, $1,000 You see clearly there is
a profit of nearly 100 per cent on the In
vestment.
/ would next erect an oil mill, if l
could see my way to get the seed, say
from 5000 bales of cotton. Oil mill presses
generally press from 10 to 10 tons each per
day.
The presses are the most costly part of
an oil mill, and, therefore, it is often best
to get the other machinery with capacity
for three or four presses, but use few
presses better add presses in from season
to season as may be needed. Begin with
two presses, and work up until that mum
Der is reached necessary to press the seed
of the section where it is located. This
machinery will cost from $1,000 to $500,
and engines and houses $4,000 more, and
will press, say 90 tons of seed per day. Ii
on each ton we get profit of 81, the mill
should make in month, say in the neigh
borhood of thousand dollars, or during
the season, $500, showing profit of from
4U TO on per cent.
Iwould next erect acid chambers and
manipulate my own acid phosphate.
These chambers cost about fifteen to
twenty thousand dollars, depending on the
size, and will also net at least 40 to 30 per
cent.
These enterprises to be perfect, should
be constructed adjacent to each other, and
operate with single engine. Have your
ginnery, oil mill and guano factory so
near each other that the seed may be car
ried into the oil mill from the ginnery,
and the meal from the oil mill into the
guano factory by machinery.
Now, these are the matters, Mr. Editor,
that would have farmers to cooperate
together and construct and operate.
haye maintained, since investigating
the subject thoroughly, that the farmers
of the South should deliver their products
in a manufactured state, and not as cheap
raw material. We have tried the latter
plan and while we dig and sweat and toll,
we find that the manufacturer rides by in
his carriage, and he has'means to keep his
family up in good style and educate them
in all that makes refinement and culture
do not blame the manufacturer for that.
commend it in him. That man who does
the most to make his family happy, and
who educates his children well and dresses
them neatly, without extravaganza is liv-
ing to some purpose. have no sympathy
with the demagogue who calls the farmers
s'wool hat boys" Farmers are as good as
any one else, and have as much right to q
fur hat as the city gentleman.
| simply wish to impress upon the farm
ers that if they will put their productions
upon the market in a manufactured state,
they will also reap the greater profits
which others now enjoy. Mr.. Editor, I'd
rather bring prosperity to the farmers of
Georgia and elevate and ennoble their fam
iIiae than On inv the hinhast hnnors fhav