The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1905-02-23
AS to a Canning Factory.
Meridian. Miss. Feb. 6, Is

Dear Sir:-A few weeks ago l no
ticed you took a shot at me about
the egg plants.
/ will say this: two years ago the
people of Scooba organized artruck-
ing association. There were about
twenty present, and / am the only
man of the twenty who put a seed
in the ground. | planted egg plants
and planted them four weeks late
and knew it was late when / was
doing it. They netted me Zoe per
dozen and If / had been three weeks
earlier in the market they would
have netted me soc per dozen. You
can safely grow for early market IA
of a dozen to the hill, and late mar
ket IA of a dozen; and you can have
1910 hills to the acre. / shipped
them to st. Louis, Pittsburg and
Louisville.
Last season this association got
the steam up again and organized;
and / was the only man that planted
a single seed this time. J. planted
beans. | planted them three weeks
late. They paid about rs per cent
on cost of fertilizer, working and
gathering; if they had been put in
earlier they would have paid 100 per
cent. | tried shallots two years ago
and they were a failure in the mar
ket- as New Orleans truck growers
supply the market with them before
we can get in, as they are no trouble
to raise. Now this same association
has organized a stock company
trucking association and are taking
around Il subscription list for stock
to a canning factory. They remind
me of a peach bud in the warm days
of February. They have big swell
on them but are not quite sure If it
is time to open or not! The cotton
is advancing a little and we will
wait and see. Now / will not do
quite as we'll by this canning factory
as l did with HEM the pickle man
of Philadelphia. He wanted to put
in a brining vat for cucumbers at
Scooba and wanted 100acres planted
and no one was getting up the list
of parties willing to plant one and
two acres, &c. SO | wrote old HEM
to name the price and guarantee the
dough" through some bank and |
would plant the 100 acres and give
bond for it, and that was the last of
HEM and his pickles. Now if you
can get twenty subscribers to the
stock for a canning factory who will
agree to plant one acre each in
something to can, l will take stock
to the amount of the engine and
boiler power necessary, the lot, pool
and part Of the buildings and 5000
in cash-capital which,would amount
to at least one fourth of the entire
stock needed to operate one. To
make a success you are compelled to
organize with people who will grow
something to car 1t is useless to
scatter the stock among people who
will not grow anything and and only
want to organize to sell their land at
high prices. Better get the stock
taken by people five or six miles
from town if they will grow some
thing. If, by this means, aproducer
doesn't get what he thinks is a fair
price at the factory he can rest as
sured he will get it back in profits
as he has approximately an equal
share of the stock.
Cotton raising in this section for a
profit is a thing of the past both to
the producer and the merchant.
There is too much land available for
cotton west of us where it is a mat
ter of gathering and not of produce
ing for the price to ever make it
profitable to the eastern farmer any
more; unless by some providential
hindrance the crop is cut short for
one or two seasons and the price is
good. In the Bottoms Of the Mis-
sissippi River and its tributaries n
hand and a mule make ten bales;
in the prairies still further west one
hand and two mules make twenty
bales, and in the east one hand and
a mule make four bales. The con-
sequence is that the negro and the
cotton farmer go next; and the white
people of this county will ~necessari-
ly have to start some otherindustry.
1t may not be for ten years but it
has got to come. Now / will show
you: / heard a merchant cursing a
negro a few days ago about being
sorry and mo COUNT while in fact.
the negro was a good negro and
above the average, and to prove it
he and his wife made six bales of
cotton and four hundred bushels of
corn which is away above the aver
age for that section. The fact was
cotton was a good price up to the
first of the season and the merchant
had sold him goods on Sc cotton to
take up the crop; the price went
down and that the negro was a -
rascal" Now we will land that
negro. He falls behind and gets a
good cursing to start in on the next
A 49,