The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-01-31
FOR TEXAS FARMER.
TE%yMEN
YOU ARE EARNESTLY RE-
QUESTED TO READ THIS
COLUMN.
You are About to Plant Cotton, and the
Following Advice is Given You in
Addition to What the Statesman
Has Preached for Years.
Editorial in The Times-D Democrat of
COTTON ACREAGE.

COTTON ACREAGE. #
Elsewhere will be found an article
from the Atlanta Constitution OF
Wednesday on the expediency to South.
ern farmers of limiting the acreage
planted in cotton, and of devoting more
space and attention to the raising of
other crops, so that they shall have nc
part of their absolute necessaries to pur-
chase outside, and of stock.
Apart from its referring to all the agri-
cultural ills of the country to the
British gold standard" the Constitu-
TONS article is an eminently sensible
one; and if the advice given in it is
followed, the probabilities are strong
that year hence the farmers who have
hitherto depended ON cotton for living
will be in much more prosperous condi-
ton than if they devote themselve en-
tirely, as heretofore, to the cultivation
of that staple.
A reduced acreage, as the Constitu-
ton says, does not necessarily mean q
reduced crop; but reduction of the
acreage will mean at any rate that the
farmer will have spent less in putting in
the, crop, and that he will have more
acreage to lay out in corn. sorghum. POI
tatoes and other truck, the production
of which will make him in measure
it may command So. @iI.
But if the southern farmers, disregard
ing all the teachings of the last few years
experience, and the fact that for several
years the production of cotton has greatly
surpassed the worlds consumption--if. we
say, the southern farmers, shutting their
eyes to these things, make cotton their
only crop and plant as much of it this
year as in the last few years. then may
thar lou IL IN fhnir in az
that not only will it not sell at higher
figure than 5 cents. but that it will not
reach 3 cents-selling much more probably
at 4, and perhaps at 3 cents a pound.
1t would be needless to dilate upon the
disastrous effects on all the Southern ter
ritory, urban and rural alike, that cents
or even cents cotton would have, partic-
ularly in Louisiana, whe1tt@ me prevailing
low price of sugar is already paralyzing in
dustry: the farmers must be as well aware
of it as we are, and will surely not com
NIT the suicidal mistake of helping, by
planting the usual large acreage of cotton,
TO depress the price of it below the pres
ent figure.
Diversified crops, without the painful
dependence Cd cotton alone, which has
hitherto been practically the rule in the
sonth. are among the solutions of the
agricultural crisis now affecting this part
of the country. By raising, instead Of
buying, all the hogs, cattle, corn, sorghum,
ncfatoes, ETC., needful for their domestic
support, and planting % or 81 per cent
less cotton than they have. been doing,
the farmers of this and other Southern
states will in the first place have assured
themselves a livelihood, and, in the next
place, raising no more cotton than, is
needed for the worlds consumption, they
will probably take as much money for the
contracted, as for the past two or three
years inflated, crop
REDUCING THE COTTON CROP.
Atlanta Constitute !, Jan. %.
The movement ~ reduce me acreage