The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-11-07
PORK VERSUS COTTON.
Which is the Best Money Crop Pho
Country Can Prosper by the Growth
OF q SpeCialty Alone.

Which is the Best Money Crop9-Ne
| Country Can Prosper by the Growth
Of Specially Alone.
Rowland Black in Yorkyille ENQUIRER. &
1t is usually the case, when you are
reasoning with Southern farmer and
trying to show that cotton, at present
prices, does not pay, that he replies by
asking the question, What else can
raise that will give me ready money in
the fall !" When it req uires practical
ly all that he gets for his cotton tc
produce it, it is certainly poor money
crop.
| We have, in several articles, urged
the advisability Of change in our
| system OF almost total dependence upon
cotton, and resort to system of com,
bined stock.raising and cotton farming
whereby larger yield Of cotton may
using larger quantities of manure,
made from the keeping of stock, and
at much less cost per pound.
10 say that there is no profit in
stock-raising in this country; that we
cannot compete, 40 far as the supply
ing OF our home demand is concerned,
with the rich virgin corn lands of the
West, is mere assertion and is not
true. AS we'll, and perhaps with more
truth, might we say, that with the
present rate of production per acre.
that we cannot compete, in the raising
OF cotton, with the rich lands of the
Mississippi bottoms and the fertile
prairies of Texas.
The United States census shows that
the average yield OF cotton in this
State is about $50 pounds of lint per
acre that is, three acres are required
to produce one bale of cotton. At pres
ent prices, this gives q gross income,
including the sale of the seed, of $l2. 70
per acre. After deducting feed of the
morse. labor, tools and fertilizers, this
must necessarily leave very little, if
any, ready monev. twenty-five acres
OF land, we believe, is considered q
one-horse crop of cotton. To each
% horse will be required at least two
good hands to properly cultivate this
number of acres. A simple calculation
will show that there will be but little
left for the farmer after all expenses
are paid.
The eight bales of cotton, now re-
quiring twenty-five acres for its pro-
duction, should be grown upon eight
acres to be profitable. 1t is of no use
to say it cannot be done. Il has been
done, and it can be done again, if YOU
Will bring your lands up to proper
state of fertility by the mixed system
ot stock raising and cotton.
We assert, without fear of successful
contradiction, that there is more profit
to-day in raising pork thereis in cotton.
Let us suppose, for instance, that any
of our farmers should devote twenty
live acres-a one-horse crop-to raising
hogs, and should set ten acres in clover
and grass, and the remaining fifteen
acres in corn and peas, or better still,
in corn and sofa beans. We know
from personal experience that one
acre of land set in clover-and that
none of the best-will maintain five
hogs in full growth, without any other
feed, from the 1st of April to the 1st of
September. So that the ten acres of
clover will support fifty pigs for six
acres ofcorn and peas will fatten them.
We believe that the labor of one man
and one horse will grow and fatteh
fifty hogs per year upon this plan, that
should average 200 pounds each, and
worth at present prices $500 sum of
money equal to twenty-six bales of
cotton at present prices, as against
eight bales Of cotton as at present
grown upon twenty-five acres.
Here is wide margin for any over
estimation J. may have made. The
brood sows to raise this number of pigs,
as we also know from experience, may
be wintercd upon turnips, beets and
potatoes, and kept in better condition
than on grain. In fact, their keep will
cost very little, as they are good
scavengers and will eat much that
otherwise would go to waste on the
farm.
We hope our farmers will think
seriously about this stock question.
with view to making it part OF
their farming operations, and not dis
miss the whole thing from their minds
as Improbable, without giving it that
consideration which any proposition
that purposes to bring about an i'm
provement in tho present system, de-
serves.
You cannot point to single country
or section, eitht in the present or past
history of the world-and this is cover
ing coed deal of space ana time
whore the farmers have been perman-
emily prosperous when engaged in the
growing Of q special crop. The ono
crop idea has, sooner or later, resulted
in disaster, either from over-produc-
tion, followed by low prices, or from a
gradual impoverishment of the soil
which necessarily follows, when no
rotation OF crops or stock raising is
practiced.
In proof of this fact, we may cite
you to the present condition OF our.
Southern cotton farmers, the tobacco
regions of North Carolina and Vir-
ginia, and to the wheat growers of the
great Northwest, where, from over
production, the price of wheat has
fallen lower this season than ever be-
fore in the history of this country.
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