The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1903-03-14
FARMER AND PLANTER
OF INTEREST," 10 N
TIE Farmer, to BE Successful, Must.
AUply Buainess Methods to the
work OF His Farm.

Every successful man works by
some plan. Very often his plan may
not be very definite to others, but in
his own 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-golucky. The re-
suit is that very often we miss and
then we are neither happy MOI lucky.
We have missed both, because we 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 e which pay and which do not
pay.
The all-cotton craze which we'll
nigh bankrupted 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 no room
for profit unless it sold above these.
We would have seen this so plainly
that we would have planted less cot
ton and got better p~rices.o
Again, if we had kept books and
balanced accounts we would have
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
groes 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 COttoT
an acre or quit growing cotton.
As long as the negro laborer car
live contentedly in a ten-dollar house
with FIVE dollars worth of furniture
and two and a half dollars worth o.
notions, he has the practical mOnopo
Iy of cotton growing.
The reason is plain. The white
man furnishes the land, stock and ia
tions, aIl the expensive part of tn
business. The negro furnishes a few
months of desultory labor.
Systematized book keeping wOul,
have emphasized these and othe
points, and as a result we would hay
been seeking for and finding othe
and more profitable crops. The rul
holds good that the crops which pa
best r those which require more in
telIigence to produce them. Henc
the great necessity of better edu
cation for the farmer.
We urge you to conduct your farr
on business principles. If a mel
chant finds that he can not sell a Gel
tain line of goods without a loss b
quits selling that line. If the raj
road finds that hauling certai
freights at a given price does No
paw, at cnce the price is advanced. 5
the farmer, finding that any partic1
lar crop does not pay him, should g
once quit raising hat crop. Or if h
finds that he has been selling certai
things at a loss he will at once rails
the price.
We have gone into this idea for tn
reason: There is every indication {
present that we are preparing I
plant too much cotton for 1908.
At present prices there is MOI
money in cattle, hogs, chickens, ha,
corn, sugar cane, wheat and almo'
anything than in cotton.
If we go blindly into buying larg
quantities of fertilizers and plant a
extra large area in cotton, the resu
will be five or six cent cotton ne1
fall. What does that mean? 1t meal
loss to nearly every farmer in Il
cotton growing business. 1t meal
trouble and debt and worry.
means prosperity and profit az
a and plenty to those who do n
plant cotton.
Calculate before you plant for l9I
Southern Cultivator.