The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-26
EXPERIMENTING WITH TOBACCO
 CULTURE IN PERRY COUNTY
Farmers Are Becoming Interested and Good Results Show from Their Work--Acreage Will Be Largely Increased For
 the Next Crop.

tilitv of the soil for growing early Dutch cabbage or ribbon cane.
 tAnt field % for their s' ect,wity. % y 0"s Thers is for instance. the diversifcation farm on the place of General Munford near tuniontown: and there Is here in Marion which are being worked out under the auspices of the agricultural department at Washington.
 The work of the department in brief is to show that tobacco can be grown successfully and with profit in Perry County: The experiments have caught UnionEown and they are studying ceaselessly the work of the department men who are experimenting the to- bacco culture. and showing the farm CTS how 1t should be raised and gath cred.
 The department men announce that a clear profit of $7o an acre can be made from tobacco culture in Perry County. Their first announcement was rade with the qualification that the land should be suitable The first year around Marion suited tobacco quite as well as they suited cotton, and they gre among the very best cotton lands of
 The third year of the experiment is On. and firm basis has already been established. The land suits tobacco iorlng farmers are interested and fha department of agriculture is ouita sat acreo asnea' This year, pernaps. fifteen aaTe e so The who own the land on which the tobacco is being cultivated have asked that the acreage be increased and those who their purpose of having some put in next year. The department represen- tattves are confident that next year the acreage will be five times as large as 1t is now.
 The growing of tobacco In this section came about in this way. The movement was inaugurated under this circumstance. Some four years ago the government made a thorough sur vey of the soil of the gulf coast. The soll survey was made from Texas on the west to South Carolina on the east It went inland as far as 150 miles. All classes and conditions of soils were analysed and commented upon by the experts of the government.
 ports of the experts dealt with the rich soil of Perry County. In the allusions to the soils of this section the expert called attention to their similarity to the soil of the Pivar Del Rio. the great tobacco growing region or Cuba. Not only were the soils compared and found similar but the resemblance of the climatic conditions or the two regions was pointed out. Because of these circumstances the ex- pert felt Justified in venturing the pre- diction that Perry County was adapted for the successful and profitable grow ing of tobacco.
 Now Perry County is in the Ninth Congressional District. When the soil survey report was published 1t was closely read by Oscar Underwood, who represents the Ninth District in Con- gress. He read the page on the to- bacco, growing possibilities of Perry County: He hurled over to the Agri- cultural Department. filed. the request and set in motion the machinery which resulted in the establishment of the tobacco culture experiments around Marion.
 This in short is why the represen- tatives of the Agricultural Department are delving in the soil about Marion. The present head of the Agricultural Department, James Wilson, is not only a practical farmer, but he has a big one of these ideas which he constantly advances with the great resources which are at his hand is that diver sihcation of crops is a good thing. He does not believe that the prosperity of any section will long indure where only one crop Is cultivated, whether lt\ be a crop of wheat, of corn or of cotton It is the expansion of this idea which ing bugs o ffthe plants around Marion and which sends each month agents of the department to the Munford place to take notes and records of what the diverse crops there are doing. The bug experts and the soil experts of Secretary Wilson may not be delv- ing in the Ice and snow at the foot of the North Pole as the cartoonist face- tiously intimates. but they are at work, when results are to be had and when benefits are to be derived
 And If this be paternalism in gov | ernment, then so much the better for paternalism.
 But to get back to the share of bene- fits that Marion is drawing from this paternalistic policy of the government. The supervisory work of the tobacco L. W. Ayers. assisted by R.. 8. Epiey. The government furnishes free of charge the seed and the expert super | vision of the planting and growing of | the tobaco. The land owner furnishes the land and the ordinary labor The
 products of the crop is given to the
 land owner free of all calm by the gov l ernment.