The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-22
NEED INFORMATION
 ON AGRICULTURE Cotton Puts Blight on 0iversi-
 fled Farming TAKES YEARS TO RECOVER Modern Methods of Farming Will Probably Be Many Years In Spread
 ing Throughout the
 Whole South.
BY JOHN M. BISHOP.

4 PRIME necessity of the south is a
 A better knowledge of agriculture
 century of cotton has left blight on diversified farm life throughout the southern states. Recovery from this stag nation will not be achieved in day. national habit does not spring up over night.
 The souths agriculture has required many generations to sink to its present depths of fogyism, and many generations must pass before the worlds best agri- cultural methods come into full sway in the south. This problem by no means stumps the simplest comprehension.
 During the slavery period cotton was the moneymaking crop of the south. The profits from an acre of cotton would pur- chase more breadstuffs than could be grown on number of acres With plenty of money from cotton the south found IL better to purchase its general supplies than to produce them from the soil. The mules required in cultivating the cotton plantations of the south were bred in the states of, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennes- see. Hogs, cattle and sheep were like wise driven on foot into the south from states lying outside the cotton belt
 Until recent years the south imported practically all of It's food supplies. Dur ing all the serene and luxuriant period antedating the civil war the south had neither shop, spindle nor loom. Agricul- tural decadence in the south has followed the well-known physical law. under which decline comes to neglected member. This Is automatic and needs no argument. Thus it is plain and easy of comprehen- sion why the south Is deficient in it's knowledge of farming, horticulture and iS n a h0nad that full force and import of this painful truth will be promptly recognized by the
 south. It is direful handicap, not alone to the southern people, but to the indus trial zone beyond the limits of the south
 ern states, because that which reduce the souths productive powers also re- | duces it's consuming power. These facts
 are painfully true. The south's duty is to
 seek a remedy.
 What every southern planter and every southern farmer and gardener and truck CT needs Is a lot of new neighbors to set | tie around him-homeseekers from the 1 outside world New neighbors from the
 outside world are noted for their new 1 ideas and the different ways in which they do things. Every new neighbor Is 1 an educator If he halls from Germany 1 he will be able to impart a lot of new | ideas about field crops. He will set the country around talking about the kind
 
 l his cows at night with a view to having a compost heap for next years crop. If one's new neighbor ecnes from Switzer- land he will set the fashion for small | fruit growing.
 | A farmer transplanted from England or France to the southern states will | bring with him more than his household 1 effects-he will bring as an asset the fund | of Ideas and customs which have come down to him bv heredity from his ances- 1 tors The stable peoples of Europe have 1 put many centuries behind them in ac l uuirng their present fund of knowledge
 of farming and gardening, as well as their
 stores of knowledge of art and science. I France in her progress present an ob- I feet lesson well worthy the attention of our own country For five hundred years | France has been bringing into her coun- | try the best talent and the best objects of art to be found in every outside land. | She has drawn on Italy. Persia and all 1 known sources of agriculture. In her in- | comparable galleries. France has in her statuary bronzes paintings, tapestries | and mosaics exhibitions of inestimable value from the standpoint of education. l The new ideas thus garnered from for eign lands have made France great. The south must follow practically the same course in order that her agricultural meth- 1 ods may be brought to the highest state of efficiency. The southern farmer Of to- day is land-poor It is bad business to
 go on paving taxes on land which Is nei- ther yielding products nor increasing In | value The motto of our people should
 he smaller farms and better culture. If | every big farm in the south were sub
 divided to make room for an additional
 family from one of the more desirable countries of Europe 1t would mean new era In Dixie.