Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-10
RELIEF FOR FARMERS.
THEY HAVE PLACED BURDENS
UPON THEMSELVES.
Too Much Cotton aad Not Enough Bacon
and Lard Has Been One Grievous
Mistake of the Farmers
WRENs, GA, Aug. "a, 1891
To the Gazette.

To the Gazette.
Nobody doubts, nobody denies that the
farmers need relief, immediate and per
manent relief. Burdened with debts, with
mortgages and liens on the land, stock and
growing crops, while cotton is actually sell
ing below cost, it should not excite sur
prise that they so eagerly discuss the
merits of every scheme of relief that is
presented.
The sub-treasury plan has been discussed
from every possible standpoint. The stay
law even has been seriously considered by
some, and it is not putting the matter in
too strong light to say that necessity. if
nothing else, VIII compel US to make a
change.
have no substitute for the sub-treasury.
but | know that | have something better
than the plan which too many of our farm
ers are now pursuing, tO-wit: bnying corn AT
81 to l.25 and meat at 10c to l2c on time
and expecting to pay the debt with &C to SC
cotton.
In common with all true Democrats sin
cerely believe that the legislation of the
Republican party has been unequal, op-
pressiye and burdensOme to the great agri-
cultural masses and interests of the
country, and trust that the present agita-
ton and discussion of the various measures
of reform and relief may result in the abol-
ition of all unjust and vicious laws.
Yet it is true also that we, as farmers,
have placed burdens grievous to be borne
upon our own shoulders, and we need re-
lief from these while we are striving to
throw off the other, and unless we change
the present system of making cotton to buy
food for ourselves and stock, the wisest
measures of relief will not save US from our
own ruin.
Cheap money has been strongly advo-
Gated by some and strongly opposed by 9TH
ers, but know that cheap lard and bacon
will be indorsed by all l have demon
strated on my farm that abundance of meat
and lard can be raised almost free of cost
by planting the Spanish chufa. On the
18th day of last September turned eighty
head of hogs on chufas grown in the mid
dies of my corn rows with no extra work.
The corn was fully as good as if peas had
been planted in the middles. From the
18th of September to the. 18th of March l
kept from eighty to 120 hogs, including
pigs, on chufas and fed in this time less
than thirty bushels of corn to them. l
killed fifty very fine hogs.
l believe so firmly that the chufa is an es-
sential to successful farming that l have
now growing on my farm eighty acres of
them. l have never known them to fail of
making a full crop. Planted alone
N rows four feet apart and drop
MANFRED lightly they will produce.
on light. fine land from twenty-five %
seventy-five bushels per acre. About ole
peck of seed will plant an acre They do
well planted in the middles of corn rows
without extra work. When planted alone
one, or at most two. light plowings and one
hoeing will suffice. They keep well through
the fall and winter in the ground They
have no equal as a food for fowls Hens
continue laying through the winter if al
lowed access to them. When hogs are fat
tened exclusively on chufas the lard is not
quite so firm in warm weather. but for
home use this is no objection. a finishing
of on corn for few days will remedy this.
While we continue TO knock at the doors
of our state and national legislatures for
all necessary reforms and better laws, let
US plant less cotton, introduce chufas and
other cheap food-producing crops on every
Southern farm, and in less than three years
we will be the most independent and the
happiest people in the world.
j, N. OLIPHAST,s