The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-10

A notable interesting letter has just been received by Booker T. Wash inEton from John w. Robinson, one of charge of the experimental cotton raising under the bluspices of the Ger man Government at Muatya. Lome, Togo. wcs: Africa. Responsive to certain r, ..,:.-. ,-..,i farsighted com ment is determinedeo Q discover whether cotton can be successfully raised on a l.. Se scale in Africa: and. finding the difficulties many and various. asked cotton experts from Tuskegee. This he did. placing the expedition in charge of Professor James N Galloway In Calloway's report for 1900-1, he out lined a policy which has been severely tested and proved sound: and. since his return to resume his duties at Tus-
 kegee, the work. now under the charge of Robinson. has followed the princi- ples and to some extent even the de- tails of Calloway's report.
 'Tn my letter to you" says Robin son to Principal Washington, T shall deal with the subjunctive if and the CO., ordinate and Generally speaking. am unable to see many impossibilities are conditions to be righted and ob- stacles to be overcome. So. after one years experience with our undertak ing here I felt convinced that 1t was possible for us to accomplish our pur- pose: so we set to work to extirpate the ifs root branch!'
 "If- Number One.
 The first essential to success in the work was to win over the natives to
 hearty sympathy with the undertake ing. Such an enterprise can only be counted successful to the degree that
 1t is supported, developed, and sus- tained by the people. It was plain
 that 'ff' Robinson and his men could F. G..s l%z
 orally so that they would feel that
 the industry is pre-iminently of the people. for the people, and by the
 people. tho first '1f' would evapo-
 rate.
 But, at the outset 1t was very dif-
 ficult to arouse any popular interest:
 illumined by costly experience, the
 natives dfstrust every proposition made
 them by foreigner. and in the begin
 ming would not evsu accept gifts of
 men feared the Greeks even bearing
 gifts. They argued that should they
 accept the seed, the foreigners would
 como again and claim their own with
 cruel usury. Certain Europeans. ini-
 tiated into the mysteries of native
 psychology. confidently predicted that
 the natives would never become inter-
 ested in the movement and that on this
 But" says Robinson, i've worked on.
 and already the farming districts are
 dotted with hundreds of native cotton
 farms. Now, they no lcnger mistrust us
 but come and eagerly ask for cotton
 seed. A conservative estimate places
 the incoming native harvest at the 1000
 bale mark"
 Of course the native methods are
 antediluvian and grotesque. and they
 cultivate cotton exclusively as se-
 condary crop. But. the foreigners
 are contented at the outset to
 let them follow if they must.
 their own lights: he process will
 known, from shortsighted habits to inn
 proved methods. The new must. as in
 all other teaching be grafted upon the
 old. Thus, the days of If" number one
 are numbered"
 'Tf'' the Robinson party could sue ceed In stimulating the people to take up the culture of cotton heartily and seriously. and then offer them cotton plant that would pay them. well for cultivating 1t. the experiment would have transcended the experimental proved especially arduous: 1t required more than mere earnestness in general procedure. It required an amount of technical knowledge that could be dis titled only from experience: it required
 a period of years to put that dearly acquired experience into successful
 we find distributed through the colony" writes Robinson, mot less than three distinct species of Gossy- plum (cotton), with some hybrids and
 varieties; but none of these are indi-
 lected state for centuries, are not far | removed from the wildness of nature and. even when put under the best cul- ture. are not particularly profitable.