St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-07-21
The MERCANTILR SIDE OF IT.
Tac SeIlinx Of the Crop ~ the Pre-
Sscer ~ - Mech 1nDsFtanee
as the Raising.

More than this, every class is making
mere money out Of cur produce than
We make.
Take cotton. the most important
money-producing crop we know. We
have given lnore thought to this than
any other. And how does this stand?
Everybody gets better pay than the
producer.
The picker gets good wages for
picking. The ginner gets good pay for
ginning. The bagging and tie men get
immense profits furnishing the cover
ing. The warehouse men get good rrof-
its weighing and storing. Many or
them have accumulated large fortunes
in this business. The insurance COM
panies make large money from every
crop. The sampler and street, or wag-
ON buyer make good wages. The rail-
road and ship companies make larger
profits than on any other class OF
freight. The compress men get I'M
mensely rich. -s4iuee7ing' the badly
packed bales. The larger buyers, start
in business with little of nc money,
and get to be millionaires. Bankers
get handsome profits, furnishing the
cash ard pay ing the bills. The man.
ufacturers double their capital. and
pay large dividends. Lastly, tut most
ly the speculators-a- vast army OF
SHARP traders and schemers, who deal
in cotton in sight and out OF sight,
and gamble in options to the ruin and
hurt Of thousands Of honest men. often
roll in wealth, when they should be
toiling in chains. Thus we see these
Is classes of men all making profits.
sometimes immense fortunes. and
many others incidentally getting q
good living, while we often cell 1t less
than the cost OF production.
Take the manufactured goods and
follow them back to the consumer,
and the man who grows the cotton is
. very liberal consumer, and find al-
NEST a many profits attached. We
sell a pound of cotton for from six to
eight cents, and sew ON our buttons
with thread that VIC pay y dollSr per
pound for.
None of these people are to blame for
making what they can and do. They
are only looking out for self interest.
But we are TO blame for srlling them
our cotton, without fret getting prof
1t for ourselves.
How can this be done? First VIC
must control the sale Of = mortgaged
crop, or q crop made upon provisions
bought ON time. We must raise our
own supplies; and own the cotton.
This has been often said. But we have
not vet learned what it really means
Then we must distribute the sale
through the twelve months. BY doing
this VIC will avoid the numerous 90 be-
tweens and get nearer to the manu-
factories. In this way we can get
what our cotton IL worth to the manu-
facturer. We can thus stop the forced
sale we have been making. We can
avoid the annual glut of warehouses.
railroads and money markets.
When we have done this we can
have q voice in the price. We have
. practical monopoly Of growing this
great and essential crop Of American
cotton. We lose all the immense adj
vantage for want Of business methods
in selling.
When we get in this shape many Of
IN, when we found = cotton crop On
hand for which we could not get
satisfactory price, We would hold it
and quit making cotton, and give our
attention to something else, until the
price was satisfactory.
OF course this means . great revo-
luton in our methods. But that j.
Just what We need and must have II
we are ever to get fair prices for farm
products.
What we have said about cotton In
equally true of many other crops. The
seed of the cotton il another illustra-
tion. Most Of us sold our seed this
past season for about fourteen cents
per bushel or less. A few who held ON
got twenty-five cents to thirty-five.
All could just as well have gotten
twenty-five cents If we had waited.
Cotton seed are worth twenty-five
cents to us. They are worth over that
to the oil mill men. Why should we
sell them at fourteen cents?
We sell the seed at less than one
half CENT per pound, and then buy
the oil back in lard At eight cents
per pound. the meal at over one cent
per pound for feed and manure, and
the hulls at nearly one cent, and the
lint brings from three to four cents.
It is time we studied the mercantile
side of farming more.
We have no fight to make upon any
honorable business or any honest bus
mess man. But we have great fight
on hand for self-defense and better
methods in selling our farm produce.
We might extend this article in
definitely, but We hope this win help
to awaken farmers to its importance.
We must continue the line Of investi-
cation, begun At Il Grange and en-
larged and emphasized At the conven-
ton at Macon, Ga. We must free our
selves from the domination Of the
compress men. the roundlap bale
trust; the bagging and tie trust; the
option market gambling trust; the
cotton seed oil mill trust, the fertilizer
trust and every other trust.
Study markets and marketing.
Cease to &C "a debt. Be freemen, and
then we caA Be independent and hap
Py.
We must Be independent own our
crops. sell for more than the cost Of
production. We are under no obliga-
ton to support and enrich every other
class at our fexpense.-Sou Cult
Gator. -
Assure the colt that the thing II 4
frightened at viii not hurt it. This
will add to its value when It . ~.