The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-03-25
FARMER AND PLANTER.
A PRESENT PROBLEM.
How Shall Farmers Produce Crops Chder
Existing Conditions Without Loss?

"SuggestiCns as 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-
member that all the world is now
one common field. The time was, aud
within my memory, when a local
drought in an Ohio country would adj
vance the price of wheat. To-day
drought, flood and freeze may come to
annhilate 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 if wheat be low-priced in the Black
sea it can not sell high in Chicago; il
cotton be low-priced at Bombay it can
not sell high in New Orleans; if sugar
be held high in Hamburg a 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 war? If En-
buy it whore she pleases, from the
wheat fields of Hungary or Russia,
whence the supply of Europe has come
for thousands of years; from tho plains
of India or the pampas of Argentina,
while the wheat farmers of our great
west must meet all these in active COM
potion. I'll is is industrial war, war to
the knife, and the knife to the hilt.
In the conflict some must fail, some
f,,1 Il,a
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 world?
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 u.s.
Few persons are aware of the lon.
perative necessity for the adoption OF
better agricultural methods. The
| frn,, hi q with, of II, ha
has been that we have been able tc
live, to make some money, notwith
standing our antiquated. wastefu
methods. When this society was or.
gained ten years ago sugars sold a.
54 cents that sell at "a cents now
This would seem a crushing decline te
meet, but somehow we have met it
and are about as able to succeed nov
at 81 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 e,
to learn to produce without loss four
cent cotton and two-cent rice? Thi
problem seems unsolved, though 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
t more cheaply. That is what we ar
|. here for. The special papers that vii
be .ead to you here by gentleme
j familiar with their various subject
are directly to the point. They kno,
: whereof they write and speak. TIL
incidental discussion of these paper
will bring out information Of grea
value, and will thus educate us a
rapidly In the right direction.
Before closing this address an
d taking up the regular business of til
r meeting, l should say that apart frol
any desire on our part to solve the az
ricultnral 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 az
ricultural circles we find earnest e
forts making to disseminate sound az
ricultural data. Experiment station
: schools OF agriculture, agriculture
}, fairs, conventions and meetings al
the order of the day every where.
zone of the most successful plar
for the dissemination Of agricultur;
knowledge in the other states hs
been through farmers institutes. NEE
Jugs held in various commupiti.
where expert agriculturists, men VIII
t have won their reputation by a
tual results, in the employmer
of the agricultural department
deliver lectures on their speciality i,
vite discussion, answer questions at,
! thus do world of good. We Shout
have hundreds of farmers institut,
in Louisiana.
"ADother excellent plan reepnsl
adopted in Wtst 3nsin and Pennsv
vania, and perhaps in some of the otl
er states, is that of short courses
agriculture in the agricultural 60
leges, The young farmer who can d
, vote six or eight weeks of his dull Sc;
son to the careful study Of his bis
neSs is uivap a ,l,,.a Tho ..l1