Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1897-03-05
FARMER AND PLANTER.
A PRESENT PROBLEM.


How Shall Farmers Produce Crops Under
Existing Conditions Without Lossf
Extract from an address by John Dymond,
president Louisiana Agricultural association
At the annual meeting ut Baton Rouge
Suggestions us to how we shall be
relieved from our agricultural depres.
sion are easily made, but actual rem
edies are hard to find. We must re-
memb Der that all the world is now
one common field. The time was, and
within my memory, when local
drought in an Ohio country would adj
vance the price of wheat. To-day
drought, flood and freeze may come to
annihilate crops of wheat, OF cotton
and of cane, and yet prices may fall.
The telegraph, the railway and the
steamship make all the world one,
and il wheat be low priced in the Black
sea it can not sell high in Chicago; II
cotton be low-priced at Bombay 1T can
not sell high in New Orleans; if'sugar
be held high in Hamburg telegram
may bring thousands OF tons from
Java or the distant Philippines, and
Louisiana be left to mourn over her
neglected produce.
"Do we not see, then, that we are
engaged in an Industrial WARP If En-
gland wants wheat she may ordinarily
buy it where she pleases, from the
wheat fields of Hungary or Russia,
whence the supply of Europe has come
for thousands of years; from the plains
of India or the pampas of Argentina,
while the wheat farmers of our great
west must meet all these in active com.
potion. This is industrial war, war to
the knife, and the knife to the hilt.
In the conflict some must fail, some
must fall. Who will survive? The
fttest, of course-those most able to
meet the requirements of the times
"Now, let us ask ourselves If we
shall survive in this contest Are we
the ablest agriculturists in the world2
Do we know what is best to do? Are
we familiar with all the solved prob
lens in modern agriculture, and
are we utilizing this knowledge?
Are we struggling with and studying
the mysteries yet about us, seeking
to solve them? Not yet; we have
not yet learned all this, but we are
here, earnest seekers after truth,
striving to dispose of the difficulties
about us; striving for better methods,
for better results. BY your aid here
in this annual meeting, by the rela-
ton of your experiences and conclu'
sions we shall hope, each of us, when
we return to our homes, to be better
able to meet and to solve the agricul
tural problems that confront us.
Few persons are aware OF the i'm
perative necessity for the adoption Of
better agricultural methods. The
trouble with many Of us in the pas
has been that we have been able tC
live, to make some money, notwith
standing our Anticipated, wastefu
methods. When this society was or
ganized ten years ago sugars sold q
81 cents that sell at 81 cents now
This would seem crushing decline t.
meet, but somehow we have met 1t
and are about as able to succeed nov
at ~ as we were ,then at 81 cents
This teaching of our Sugar Planters
association, of our sugar experiment
station, and of our sugar school.
"Now, TO what school shall we x
to learn to produce without loss four
cent cotton and two-cent rice? Thi
problem seems unsolved, though a re
cent writer reported in the columns o
the Picayune claims that he can sue
cessfully produce three-cent cotton
The fact of the matter is that we don
know what we can do until we try
Necessity is the mother of invention
the mother of effective and economi
methods. We have learned how t
produce sugar more cheaply, and W
can learn how to produce all our CROP
more cheaply. That is what we ar
here for. The special papers that wi
be read to you here by gentleme
familiar with their various subject
are directly to the point. They kno'
whereof they write and speak. Th
incidental discussion of these paper
will bring out information of grei
value, and will thus educate us a
rapidly in the right direction.
Before closing this address an
taking up the regular business of I'll
meeting, | should say that apart fro
any desire on our part to solve the al
ricultural problems around us, we fin
that if we do not do it others will, an
we shall be left behind in the march
progress. About us everywhere in q
: ricultural circles we find earnest e
: forts making TO disseminate sound a.
t ricultural data. Experiment station
, schools Of agriculture, agricultur
3 fairs, conventions and meetings a
, the order Of the day everywhere.
zone Of the most successful plal
for the dissemination of agricultur
knowledge in the other states h
been through farmers institutes, NEE
/, Jugs held in various communiti
!. where expert agriculturists, men wi
= have won their reputation by q
= tual results, in the employing
) of the agricultural departmer
. deliver lectures on their specialties, /
= vite discussion, answer questions al
thus do world of good. We shou
u have hundreds of farmers institut
: In Louisiana.
: "ADother excellent plan recent
z adopted in Wisconsin and Pennsy
/ vania, and perhaps in some Of the OF
q err states, is that Of short courses
II agriculture in the agricultural C
l. leges The young farmer who can
h vote six or eight weeks Of his dull 81
n son to the careful study Of his bu
l. ness is given chance. The school
II the Pennsylvania state college h