The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-09-19
AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION IN
THR SOUTH.


er's scrap book. We heartily recon-.
mend it to all our readers. Most of
them will find it worthy of several
readings and an unlimited amount of
thought. Mr.. Dodge's article ap-
peared in the Country Gentleman and
is as follows:
The Southern farmer complains of
poverty, of market returns that do
not pay for the labor of production, of
land values at a very low ebb. He
sees no sunshine in life, is as blue as
the skies above him, and we'll nigh
hopeless of anything better in the
future. He insists that he is growing
cotton at loss, at Al cents per pound.
Prof. Wellborn, Of the Agricultural
College of Mississippi, found the cost
OF an acre Of cotton in one Of the hill
counties was $12; the proceeds of fiber
and seed, So 35; the loss, Sc IS. In a
Southern county, Pike, the cost was
$40. 80; the loss, 81 so, or 81 so per bale,
requiring three acres to produce it.
He estimates the value of all crops of
that State in 1898 at $50, 900 600, and
cannot attribute more than one tenth
Of that amount to every thing produced
exclusive of the staple products Of
time immemorial-cotte and corn.
Instead of two or three million bales
grown before the civil war, the product
now exceeds II millions The increased
COZ resumption of so years might dispose
of two or three times as much as in
1850, but not four times as much: and
it is no wonder he complains that he
cannot make laborer's wages in grow
ing cotton.
Southern teachers of agriculture
compare the products of their States
with those of the upper Mississippi
Valley, and find in some three times as
much value in production, in some ten
times the value of their milk products,
and nearly as great a contrast in the
value of cattle, and the per capita
wealth Of some Of those Northern Cen.
tral States four or five times as much.
Nor are these statements great exag
geratione; they are approximately
true. Then there is good reason for
Southern dissatisfaction with agricul-
tural conditions.
The cause is too manifest for doubt
or uncertainty. 1t is due to excess in
single crop-too much cotton. There
never has been too much corn, the only
other crop that controls with cotton
the supremacy of cultivation. 1t is an
exhaustive crop, not go much from
what it takes from the soil, as from
what is wasted-the clean cultivation
required, exposure to the intense rays
OF the sun in summer, the land re
naming bare all winter destroying the
humus Of the soil, teaching it with
heavy rainfall end washing and fur
rowing the surface, thus wasting far
more than the crop carries away of
soil fertility.
Is there is q remedy2 There is no
doubt of it. It has been suggested for
a generation, and found by a few
planters wiser in their generation than
the masses. 1t is found in a variety of
crops, in keeping the surface covered
with a succession OF forage crops, in
cattle and hogs. beef, mutton and
wool. The conservatism of long Gus
tom and old methods, the ignorance of
the negro of farm practice beyond
plo wing and cotton picking, the mort.
geging of the cotton crop to repay
money and supplies advanced, hold
agricultural labor and effort to cotton
growing by chain that is difficult to
break.
The immense advantage of the South
in avoidance of winter feeding Of live
stock, in abundant winter forage crops
of very low cost, is not generally
realized. The easy production Of nj
trogenous feed for balancing carbona-
cious rations, is scarcely surpassed
any where. Dr.. Stubbs, OF the Louisi
ana Experiment Station, has grown at
Calhoun, on poor pine lands, an acre
OF Spanish peanuts, containing 1872
pounds of nitrogen, worth $25 at COM
mercial fertilizer value; an acre Of
velvet beans, containing 191 pounds,
and an acre of cow peas, containing
1O8 pounds; and it is held that the
poorest land in the State, by a judicious
rotation of these crops, can be made to
yield 40 bushels of corn or bale Of
cotton to the acre. A three field rota
tion recommended is corn, corn and
peas, and oats, followed by peas. The
pea crop with corn may be obtained
by simply sowing just before the last
nlowing of corn. which shades the