The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-02-26

who have already commenced to buy pork and feed for their teams on credit.
 Labor Question.
 But in addition to all this comes yet the greatest problem of all, the labor question. Why for the last few years we have been hearing the great howl from farmers that they cannot procure help on their farms. This is true and the la bor question is the most complicated question that the farmer has to deal with today. In view of this fact we would ask how the farmer who has been taxed to his utmost capacity in the past to pro- duce, cultivate and harvest ten acres of cotton, expects to get his help to care for another ten acres this year? If he could barely save ten acres, how is he to maln- age twenty acres? Nor Is this all. for an increased acreage means poor cultivation and neglect; especially so If we should have a bad season for the cultivation of the crop Should we have a rainy sea- son at the time that cotton needs culti- vation, the farmers who have been in the habit of managing say, twenty acres, but who have increased the crop to forty or even to thirty, will become hopelessy lost in the weeds and grass, or else be at the mercy of a shiftless class of labor, which is far worse than weeds or grass on a farm.
 Now instead of increasing the crop one acre let our farmers set to and use scien- tfic methods of cultivation, and on the same acreage of last year, which pro- duced less than 10. GOO GOO bales produce 15. 1000 GOO bales, and with a favorable sea- son it will be asy to do this. Then in 1905, on the same acreage produce 20.000.- o0O bales. With the proper rotation of crops and with the proper care and management of the soil these results may be easily obtained.
 A Friend of Cotton.
 Now I hope that no one will conclude that I have set out to fight the growing of cotton. This is not my object at all, for, as I have repeatedly written, I am friend to the cotton industry where 1t is carried on as it should be and grown in a well defined rotation of crops, and grown in such manner as not to wear out our lands Yes, we need cotton and must have cotton, but we can have it without interfering with our other crops and without checking our great diversif- cation movement
 So trust that our readrs will stop and count the cost before being deluded by the present prices of cotton, in rushing into an increased acreage which can but result in financial disaster, even if the present prices should be maintained.
 Must Be SeIf-Sustalning.
 The first consideration for the southern, or any other farmer for that matter, is to become self-sustaining at home, pro- ducing in his own country. on his own farms, as near what he has to consume as possible. The department of agricul ture the state experiment. stations-every thinking man that I have met-aH agree with me in these statements. and We are one and all fearful of the results which are more than likely to follow such practice. However. I know that our farmers are so excited over the present prices of cotton that it is hard to get them to reason on the subject out here in Texas. All sorts of seed have been sold, and seed gathered from everywhere and sold at exorbitant prices and large acreage will be planted. It Is more than likely that we will see more humble bee cotton in Texas next fall than was ever before known in this country
 Tn 1909, before the boil weevil got so wide spread, the Texas farmer produced more cotton than he could take care of or gather. So if the acreage is increased here to nearly double, and a good crop should be the result. where Is. we ask