The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-19
(By D. W. NcIver.)

| farmer" remarked . gentleman to me several days ago. referring to my recent articles on farming which have appeared in these columns In the last few weeks. | We'll. the fact Is am not farmer at all in the literal interpretation of what . farmer ought to be. but I think know some things that would be of benefit to our farmers. that most noble and honored I of all our people. and I am willing to tell what know that they may. If they | can, derive some good from 1t. I have often heard father say to his son. "do 1 as tell you and not as do," and that Is what would say to farmers, no mat | ter what my practical knowledge and ex- | perience may be, would say to the | farmer live at home keep out of debt | and be independent. and every one will know that Is sound advice and wise | counsel, no matter whether have fol- l lowed it or not. If the farmers of Ala | bama had done that since the war. had | escaped the clutches of the merchants. l the broker and the middle man this sec | ton would now be fifty years in advance of what 1t is today. There 10 not man who has wits about him and who is in his right mind who will not agree that 1t was the credit and advancing system followed after the war which has been so ruinous to our agricultural interests and set our section back in legitimate advancement and prosperity for fully half century. There never was time In the history of the world in any country
 where a man could make only one crop and depend upon it to buy everything else that was needed and required in its working. That is just what has been done in the South. Cotton has been made to the practical exclusion of every thing else and with the very lowest prices to the producer, with the very highest prices for every article used in it's pro- duction. there could be but one ultimate and sure result-disaster to all who at- tempt it. The story has been told and retold and ding -donsed Into the ears of our farmers. until they all know it by heart and ought to have adopted 1t long
 ago. all acknowledging and recognising it's wisdom. but many of them could not
 stop it. They were at the mercy of
 their merchant and he said make 50 much cotton and buy your supplies from me,
 and 1t had to be done or the business laid down and it was kept up until ruin
 came. How much better 1t would have
 been If 1t had all been laid down years
 ago and a new system adopted. The
 merchant as we'll as the farmer would
 have been better on and the country
 would now be filled up with an indus. trious and thrifty class of farmers. living
 
 smoke houses and the small and not the
 large number of acres being cultivated the rule with larger and better crops and more profitable yield for the same amount of labor expended. I have said that before, but 1t cannot be said too
 often, and have been constantly saying
 1t for twenty-five years, that Alabama can never hope to flourish and prosper
 as she should until the agricultural sec- tta la nA ir,ir ia
 men who farm scientifically and intel- | ligentiy. who raise all they need for home consumption and have to spare for the home markets all the products of the | farm. There are some few men in Ala
 bama who have pursued this policy: go ask them what has been the result of l their experience and they will tell you | that they have made money. are inde- I pendent and prosperous and contented. Raising Cattle.
 There Is another thing that has aston ished me and that is that cattle raising
 has not been more generally followed in Alabama. 1 know within my own per-
 sonal knowledge of many plantations where cane abounds in inexhaustible quantities all through the winter months and with the grass that grows fresh and luxuriant in the spring and summer the
 
 little in March and with little salt. could be raised at practically no expense.
 always demanding good prices in the
 markets for beef and milking purposes.
 There are farms within fifty miles of Montgomery that could be bought for mere song where cattle could be raised in this way, cane abounding in the marshes and swamps, and yet that land Is standing out and the cane grows up year after year and goes to waste. This industry only awaits the wise and thrifty to develop 1t. when it will prove the most profitable that can possible be fol-
 lowed Now and then you find cattle
 raisers who have availed themselves of the opportunities nature has offered them and in every instance they have been well
 paid for their trouble
 Food Crops.
 Along the. line upon which l have writ ten in the first of the paragraphs above. MT. Finch, who is evidently convert to
 the system of farming which have sug-
 gested, writes in this most sensible way:
 Corn is worth about 6 cents in Chica-
 go. but there have been sales In some of the corn centers of some of the great
 corn States at still higher figures. So
 devastating was last summers drought in
 Kansas and Iowa, the two leading corn
 States of the country, that they have not enough corn to meet home consumption An Iowa weekly paper mentions the sale of one lot of corn at 72 cents bushel, where A few years ago the cereal sold at