The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-12-18
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THE COTTON FIELD.


The Problem that ConfroDts the Cotton
Planter.
1t would be an easy metter for the
cotton-growing states. without the ad-
dition of single piow. to raise every
bushel OF corn, wheat and oats, every
ton OF hay, every pound of beef, NUT
TON and pork, every mule and horse,
every pound of lard and butter, wool
and leather that are used in those
states; and in addition, make q large
profit out of 7.0Oo.0OO bale cotton
crop Than we now get out of 10, OO0,-
0oO one But somehow we just won't
do It, Conventions, resolutions, re-
monstrance or advice have not sue
ceeded in limiting the crop. The
clouds only have been successful in
doing this.
The mule plows from sunrise to sum
set, and can not do more or eat less.
Inc plowman's wages are not high
enough to be reduced.
The land is the only other element
In the cost that we can deal with. and
unless we can lessen the cost of pro-
ducing pound of cotton, then we
must give up in despair. We can not
blame the land, for it does the best it
can do in its poor, feeble, half-starved
condition. The mule is well fed, and
the plow-hand has full rations, but the
land is half-starved, but yet is expect
ed TO furnish full supplies for mule, la
borer and landowner. 1t doesn't do it
because it can't do it. We have put one
bushel of corn in the hopper and
expected two bushels to come out of
1t. That is not Gods law. Some
thing for nothing" is the gamblers
rule. Value received" must be the
rule OF him who trades directly with
the Creator Himself, and receives his
crops from His beneficent hands. No
man expects a skimperly- COW to
give her full flow of milk, or half
fed mule to do full work. The same
principle is absolutely true of land,
and Tor exactly the same reason.
AS l stated in former article, in its
last analysis farming is feeding. What
is the difference between rich land and
poor? Why will one field an average
year produce 80 bushels of corn to the
acre and another barely eight BUSH
els-nubbins at that? Why will
one acre produce 1900 pounds of
cotton and another only 500
pounds? Even an ignorant labor
err knows it is because the one
field is poor while the other is rich.
Rich in what? Poor in what? In fer
tility. in available plant food. If poor
because plant food is lacking, then
why not supply it and make it rich?
The only thing hungry horse needs
is food; the only thing hungry land
needs is food. Other than some of the
rich bottoms, there is hardly field in
Georgia that has not been hungry a.
most to exhaustion ever since its third
year from the forest. Sometime ago l
saw in comic paper a picture of an
exceedingly lean horse standing before
agrocery store with this placard on his
side: Oats Wanted Inside" If we
only had the eyes to see it. there is not
CALLED spot on the red hills of Geor-
gia, nor worn-out field in the south.
that does not bear the label: Am
monia, Acid Phosphate and Potash
Needed Within
The question with the southern
farmer must be not now many bales of
cotton he can raise, but how can he
raise q bale cheaper. He only cares
for how much money stays in his
hands, not how much die handles. The
man who takes in $40 to-day. but must
pay out - tomorrow, is not as well off
by 100 per cent as he who takes in SIS,
but has to pay out only S3' The
farmer, who. to make a profit Of SIS,
must raise two bales Of cotton, while
his neighbor makes profit of Sis in
raising one bale, is not only the poorer
farmer, but is Internationally an
enemy to his neighbours prosperity in
crowding the market with one bale too
many, and thus forcing down the price.
Except in time of war or great
drought in the south, cotton will.
never sell fer ten cents again in Geor-
gia, and the present outlook is that
from now on even eight-cent cotton
will not have as many birthdays as a
boy born on the Goth of February. Six
and seven cents will be the prices in
the future, end the farmer who can't
profitably raise six-cent cotton had
better quit trying to raise cotton. /
am sorry this is true. Iwould order it
differently If l could. But being
fact, the only wise thing to do
is to look it square in the face and pre-
pare to meet it. 1t will do no good to
complain. We haven't time to COM
plain, if we meet it successfully.
What one man has done. another can
do. If . one-acre patch has been made
to produce at profit two bales of cot
ton, then by the same treatment 20.
acre field can be made to produce 40
bales with the same ratio of profit If
this 10 not true, 1t is only because 30
times two Is not 40
Except in the larger expense of fer