The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-19

The staple crops of a country are the
foundation upon which its farm life and
prosperity rests. In one section of the
South it is tobacco. corn and wheat, as
in Virginia and North Carolina. In the
South Atlantic states 1t is cotton and
corn. In Louisiana il is sugar cane and
| corn and cotton. In another more limited
locality it is rice and cotton. In all these
sections there are also staD.e side crops,
a staple crop of one section being moth
ing more than a side crop in another.
Here in Georgia, sugar-cane being more of
a side crop than staple; so of wheat.
Potatoes and peas are popular side
crops everywhe in the South. For quite
a long time yet = is sure that cotton will
be the staple in Georgia; sugar cane in
Louisiana and tobacco in Virginia, and
wheat in Dakota. If the one or two staple
crops are styled the foundation, the sew
eral side crops may, to continue the fig
ure, be styled the first second or third
stories in order of their prominence. On
this "superstruc,ufe" depends greatly Of
tentimes the prosperity of the farm.
Unfortunately tenant farmers pay too
little attention to these valuable side
crops, their chief concern as a rule being
the staple crop yelept money crop In
the South this class manage, as a rule,
to have a patch of potatoes, sometimes a
little patch of peas, rarely little patch
of sugar cane. The energetic, fairly in
telligent white farmer owning the lands
he farms should not be content with less
than several good side crops out of the
score or more that may be used at one
time or another.
Let us enumerate the most important,
assuming that the staple farm crops are
cotton, corn and oats:
Sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, sugar
cane, field peas. pork, butter, poultry, up
~ VfC 40 rI.1r.k
barley, pop corn, honey, strawberries,
grapes, Japan plums, peaches, ground
peas, artichokes, cabbage. onions, tomato,
watermelons, figs, sorghum, pasture for
use, pasture for rent.
Among what are termed garden vegeta-
bles, there are four that may be classed
as STAPLE" These are cabbage onions,
Irish potatoes and celery. and are worthy
side crops in any locality where they can
be satisfactorily grown. In sections of
the country North and West each of these
are made special crops by many, and they
command large sale in the marts of the
world In these days of trusts and the
tendency to increase the area of the staple
crops in every section: there is enlarged
production everywhere, the inev-
liable result being low prices
and constantly tending lower. 1t
is woeful mistake for the far
mer to depend entirely upon the one or
Two OF tHreS SiriStly Staple ciOpS OI MS
locality.
1t has been fully demonstrated in the
past twenty years that it is not wise
only in exceptional instances are sue
cesses now obtained through following
such a system
The area of the staples must be steadily
reduced and more of it divided among the
side crops, using Judgment in selecting
those most suited for producing cash
money in any particular locality. This
multiplying of crops constitutes divers
fled farming" what the Southern farmer
! has for many years past been urged to
! consider and 10 enter upon.
Our country will not be generally pros
! porous until such condition is the rule of
! her agriculture. Special farming or farm
| ing purely with the staples will not dot
our landscape with the thrifty prosper
Gus farm homes that diversified intensi-
| fed system will surely do if once generally
adopted.
But how little of such conditions Will
ever prevail on the thousands and thou
sands OF acres Fastening to ruin and des-
olation under our present system of ten
| antry! IT'S sad to contemplate.