The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-21

condition which confronted the farmers or the south was that we had no mari>ts for many crops which can now fnd d ready market at remunerative prices.
 The growing of live stock and the dairy business was all new to many or our farmers, They knew but little about the value of grasses, and there was no mar kets for fruits and vegetables. all or which now bring great revenue an nually. Farming, then, was almost ike commencing in new country, TOT the farmer had everything to buy. stock to cultivate the crops, all farm implements and all supplies needed for man ana oease had to be bought on a credit.
 No Need for Credit
 make mention of these facts to show the condition our country was in when the credit system on prospective cotton crop was inaugurated, and further to show that there was at that time legitimate excuse for our farmers buying their sup plies in this way. But l ask Is there any reasonable excuse whatever for any farn- o, in the south today to be buying his s,pplies for making his crop on a credit 1!
 We are now enjoying an unprecedented neriod of prosperity. We have ready market, or markets, all over the sou'h for everything that can be produced on the farms. Every chicken, every pig, every fat lamb. every pOuHu ol ddiiS every first-class fruit and Vesetaoie can find d ready cash market.
 Conditions have changed wonderfully and changed for the benefit of the farmer. We now have In nearly all Of our large cities of the south well edited agricul- tural papers. We have the best pracucai educators in agriculture contributing 10 these papers, as well as gong through the country organizing farmers institutes.
 n affDr6ed ampla OD- nortunities for learning the beauties Of |diversifcation, where they are taught wfIt their various soils will produce and what line of crops to grow so as to have ready cash every day in the year, also how the fertility of the soil may be kept up In the growing of these crops.
 Nor is this all they are taught about markets for each and every crop. Here they are also informed what fertilizers or nlant foods are required for the success full production of each crop.
 In the face of all these great opportun- ities we ask again IS there any good excuse for any farmer having to buy all his supplies for market crop on credit? In the past few years l have given our readers an insight to conditions in our great western states where diversi- 1 hcation has been the watchword and has heen practlced from the very earliest eX- istence of these states. IL Is true that the system of diversifcation in many of these states was imperfect or not properly bal anced for some years; some of them like our cotton states. were confined too large ly to the one crop idea
 System in kansac.
 Take the state of Kansas as an ex- ample Less than twenty years ago, she had wheat piled up along the railroads In such great quantities that the roads were unable to furnish cars enough to move this grain. What was the condition | of the farmers under this system? The farms were plastered with mortgages, l farmers were badly in debt and Kansas was known as s country afflicted with mortgages. grasshoppsrs aAd debt These