The Tupelo journal., 1905-02-24

btI, Iulo vi "oo
on the third day of last June. with
the purpose of doing everything pos
sible toward advancing Mississippi
along agricultural. commercial and in
dustrial lines. The work as outlined
was at once begun and it is for those
who read to say whether it has in
any sense fulfilled the obligation.
Here are some of the things actually
accomplished:
1000 Greater Mississippi buttons
were bought and distributed among
citizens of the State who attended the
fair last yea ana were not ashamed
for the world to know that they were
Mississippians.
A great many thousand bulletins on
agriculture. trucking, health. etc,
have been issued and distributed
broadcast throughout the country.
These bulletins have undoubtedly ac-
complished great good. many OF them
coming as revelations to the people
outside our own State. as to health,
conditions and other important mat
tiers.
$4,000 acres Of land has been sold
directly through the advertising of
the organization. Possibly much more
indirectly. Several bodies of this
land are being cut up into small tracts
and colOnized by thrifty and. good cit
liens who will work it themselves.
Advertisements have been inserted
one time, telling of the wonderful adj
vantages of Mississippi, in papers OF
the North and West, with a combined
circulation of over five million copies.
Estimating that as many as five
people read each copy of a paper pub
lished, twenty-five million people have
then heard of the good things in Mis-
sissippi.
Special articles on the possibilities
of agriculture and manufacturing in
Mississippi, and other subjects of a
pertinent nature. have been prepared
by the secretary and published in
prominent papers in Memphis. New
Orleans, Atlanta, Baltimore, Duluth,
New York and Boston. Descriptive
articles will appear in a number Of
such papers during this year and
should prove of great benefit to the
State at large.
Aid has been rendered a number of
publications for exploiting the advan-
tages of Mississippi, n of such being
the Mississippi Hand Book, which is
just out. and equal to anything of the
character ever published by any State.
Preliminary work for a campaign
of greater energy has been done and
will be put into execution during the
present year. The association is al
ways alert to the best interests of
Mississippi and the cooperation of ev-
cry citizen who has the welfare Of
his country at heart is urged TO aid
in the undertaking.
Several hundred of the best citi-
zens of the State have invested a dol
lar in a membership card and thereby
helped furnish the sinews by which
the war of progress has been kept up.
All are cordially invited to join in this
work and lend every aid possible.
o
A friend from Copiah county sends
the writer a clipping from a Philadel-
phia agricultural paper. warning the
farmers TO let ginseng alone. The
writer goes on TO state that those who
are selling the seed and young roots
at a fancy price are the only ones
making money out of it. and that
farmers should be slow in experiment.
ing with something unknown to the
detriment of a tried money crop.
While the Pennsylvania man may be
right as far as his section is con-
cerned as to it being an experiment,
that would hardly apply to the north
ern section of Mississippi, for the
plant grows wild up there and has
been gathered and sold for a great
many years. Then, too, it has not
been advocated that any known money
crop should be neglected in expert
menting with this new one, but that
small beds be planted to test the
adaptability of the soil and climatic
conditions to its successful cultiva-
ton. Plant just as much corn, cot
ton and truck as heretofore. but give
this a trial to ascertain what can be
done with it on a larger scale. Many
people are raising it with profit and
why not do the same right here in
Mississippi, where the plant grows
wild and is gathered and marketed
with profit?
There is a movement on foot 10 or
ganize a company along with the in
dependent oil mills of the State for
erecting a $500. 900 refinery at some
central point, probably Jackson, where
the crude product can be refined be-
fore being placed on the market. At
present the Independent mills, some
s~eventy-fve in number, are at the
mercy of the Standard Oil Company,
which owns and controls the refineries
and is empowered to say point blank
what they will pay the small pro-
Queer for his oil. The project is along
exactly the right line. When this
plan is put into successful operation
the mills can tell the trust to go
hence, or any old direction. 1t is
high time that we were beginning to
break away from trust influences, for
the longer they are tolerated, the
harder it will be to break the mighty
barrier being thrown around their in
tereSts.
w. H. Richardson, of Louisville,
killed three SiX-months-old pigs that
netted him 472 pounds of nice pork.
1t is safe to say that Mr.. Richardson
never missed the feed necessary to
raise and fatten these three pigs and
that the meat saved was almost like
drawing a pension from Uncle Sam.
There is money in the pig, n the
quicker he will grow to a marketable
weight, the more money there is in
him.
In substantiation of the writer's
o~ft-repeated statements that hogs will
pay in Mississippi, the following rec
ord of big ones killed at Mathiston is
produced: "Prof. A. Graves slaugh-
tered a Berkshire hog two years old