The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-28

the territories. besides other Southern
States, and those from implement
manufacturers and dealers come from
practically the same Southern terri
tory, as we'll as from Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, New Hamp-
shire, New York, New Jersey, Ohio,
PENNSYLVANIA and Wisconsin. The
implement interests note that South
ern farmers are buying more free III
their special lines, and while few of
those outside of the South seem to be
in a position to judge from their in
creased business with the South,
whether or not it means less cotton
acreage. and while some of them in
cline to the belief that the movement
for reduction will be hampered by sell
fishness on the part of men who eX-
pect the other fellows to do the re-
ducing, practically all of them agree
as to the fact of greater diversified
ton of crops.
Their Southern brethren closer to
the cotton fields venture upon more
definite statements, which are, how
ever. not always harmonious. For in
stance, one Alabama dealer expects
that if the acreage is no more reduced
over the whole South than it has been
in his immediate vicinity, there will
be 12,0t0,000 or 100000 bale
crop, while one at the capital of the
State looks for a reduction of from
Is to % per cent. A Kansas City firm
has reports of reduction in Oklahoma,
and a Nashville firm with forty-tw
statesmen on the road covering. the en-
tire South expects a reduction in acre
age Of 1 5 to % per cent, this agree
ing with the estimate of q Louisville
,Ky), firm, whose 100 statesmen make
reports averaging a 20 per cent. re-
duction. And so the estimates vary in
North Carolina, South Carolina, and
other States.
Though it is difficult for fertilizer
dealers to tell positively the uses to
which their products are to be put. the
general consensus of their opinion is
that the acreage will be reduced, even
where extensive cultivation will not
reduce the amount of fertilizer bought
The estimates of reduction in acreage
not unaffected in Mississippi, Louis
lana and Arkansas, for instance. by
the backWardness of the season, range
from 10 to l per cent in Alabama ana
South Carolina to 20 and IS per cent
in Georgia and Louisiana, balance
perhaps being slightly approached in
Georgia between en- increase in Sea
Island and a decrease in upland, while
in one part of Texas cotton is almost
tabooed and the local papers are ridi-
culing any planter who openly talks
VI FTlSlii.. COltOll.
Both classes of correspondents find
a general tendency to give more at
tention to diversified crops. These
crops vary in different localities and
include sugar cane, hay, peas beans
corn, wheat, alfalfa. barley, millet. to-
bacco, peanuts, melons, cantaloupes,
truck of various kinds, strawberries.
sweet potatoes, oats, Irish potatoes
and rice. while many farmers are turn
ing their attention to poultry and to
hogs and cattle, to forage crops and
to orcharding. This modification in
agriculture is indicated by increasing
sales of improved implements of var
ious kinds, of wire fencing, pointing to
a greater number of cattle, and of
highest grade of fertilizers going into
truck-raislng and the growth of other
crops than cotton. And, after all, di-
Nersification is the ley to the whole
lotion SITUATION, for with more heed
given 10 the raising of home supplies
or to fruits and vegetables IS money
crops the cotton situation will be
largely self-adjdsting especially with
an expansion in the use of labor-sav-
ing machinery, including steam plows
in the fat land, mechanical cultlya-
t. rs. aud as p'. correspond = points
out, the mechanical cotton-picker, for
Wiz, II he with many othats * look
i:.i;.'