Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1903-02-19
fARMERANDP PLANTER
OF INTEREST TO M
The Farmer, to BE sucees.ful, MuAt
Apply Business Methods to the
work of His Farm.

Every successful hdh WORKS ny
some plan. Very often his plan may
not be very definite to others, but in
his WI mind he has one.
Farmers have, as a rule. less bust
ness system in their work than other
classes of men. We have been trained
to go along happy-go-iueky. The re-
suit is that very often we miss and
then we are neither happy Q lucky.
We have missed both, because W. did
not aim definitely at either.
Every farmer should have his plan
or system and work by it A poor
plan well followed is better than a
good plan poorly followed. And
either is infinitely better than no
plan. Keep accounts with every crop
and see which pay and which do not
pay.
The all-cotton craze which we'll
nigh b~ankrupted the south would
have been impossible if we had kept
our business in business shape. We
would have learned long ago that cot
ton cost about seven cents to raise
and market. That with provisions all
bought on time. at time prices, the
cost was generally near nine cents.
When cotton sold below these figures
there was a loss. There was 10 room
fer profit unless it sold above these
We would have seen this so plainly
that we would have planted less cot
ton and got better prices.
Again. if we had kept books and
balanced accounts we would Y
learned long ago that the cost OF
growing cotton could not be reduced
as long as it took three acres to make
one bale; that the only hope was in
making each acre produce more. This
would of itself have cut down the
acreage planted. No acre of cotton
pays that does not yield about half a
bale of lint.
Again, if we had kept accounts we
would have learned that as the ne
eroes could and did live on less than
the whites, they could grow cotton
for less. This they did do and this
they are still doing. and they are
producing so much cheap cotton that
they can and do keep the market
down.
White men must grow more cotton
an acre or quit growing cotton.
As long as the negro laborer can
live ~contentedly in a ten-doilar house
with five dollars worth of furniture
and two and a half dollars worth of
notions, he has the practical monopo-
" of cotton growing.
The reason is plain. The white
man furnishes the land, stock and ra-
tions, all the expensive part of the
business. The negro furnishes a few
months of desnltory labor.
Svstematized book keeping would
have emphasized these and other
points. and as a result we would have
been seeking for and finding other
and more profitable crops. The rule
holds good that the crops which pay
best are those which require more in
telligence to produce them. Hence
the great-necessity of better 'edu-
cation for the farmer.
we urge Nou W
on business principles. If a mer-
chant finds that he can not sell a r
tain line of goods without a loss he
quits selling that line If the rail-
road finds that hauling certain
freights at a given price does not
paw. at nee the price is advanced. So
the farmer, finding that any particu-
lar crop does not pay him, should at
once quit raising that crop. Or If he
finds that he has been selling certain
things at a loss he will at once raise
the price.
We have gone into this idea for this
reason: There is every indication at
present that we are preparing to
plant too much cotton for 1908.
At present prices there is more
money in cattle. hogs, chickens, hay.
corn. sugar cane. wheat and almost
anything than in cotton.
If we go blindly into buying large
quantities of fertilizers and plant an
extra large area in cotton, the result
will be five or six cent cotton next
fall. What does that mean? 1t means
loss to nearly every farmer in the
cotton growing business. 1t means
trouble and debt and worry. 1t
means prosperity and profit and
peace and plenty to those who do not
plant cotton.
Calculate before you plant for 1908.
Southern Cultivator.