The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1906-04-04
The Lexington Dispatch.
Wednesday, April &, 1906.
piversifcation and Dairying.

the present period of prosperity,
should be diversifcation for the farm
ers. Lets have less cotton and more
truck, more grain, more cattle and
stock farms, more dairying and lit
tie more of everything that can be
grown and tended on the farms. The
following remarks made by Congress-
man Lever before the agriculture
committee when it had under con-
sideraticn his ''bill to further pro-
mote the dairy industries of the
United States," We think we'll worth
consideration by the farmers of the
south:
"Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of
the committee, I recognize the fact
that We have authority in the general
appropriation bill to do this work as
set out in this bill of mire, and my
only purpose in introducing it was to
call attention of the committee to the
special need for work along this line.
It is not necessary, I believe, for me
to enter into any lengthy discussion
of the matter, and I shall not do so.
It is sufficient, I think, to say that
the peculiar characteristic of the
south, characteristic Inherited, l
think, from our slavery system, is tie
one-crop idea. With US it is all cot.
ton system Ever since l can re-
mem Der, and long before the civil
war, our energies have been devoted
chiefly to the raising of cotton. We
have not broken away from that
habit even now, although in manu-
featuring we are developing very
rapidly. In an agricultural sense,
however, We are still absolutely a cot
ton country.
The department Of agriculture,
through Doctor Spillman's bureau, is
endeavoring to teach our farmers the
idea of diversifcation, and this idea
is indorsed by the most intelligent OF
our farmers, and it is in keeping with
this idea that this bill of mine has
been introduced-the idea of diversi-
fed farming. I take it We have the
climate, we have the soil, We have the
natural advantages in the South for
dairy purposes. That We have the
markets is certainty to me also, and
that fact will be brought out to you
more fully by Doctor Webster, who
will touch upon the market.
It is q new industry with us; our
people know very little about it. I
would say, too, that our farmers are
extremely conservative; you must
hit them hard before you can make
them open their eyes to the posi-
b,lities about them. I do not be-
lieve there is q section in the world
that promises more than the South.
and yet our people are continuing tc
plant cotton as their fathers and fore
fathers did years and years ago.
OF course, we are getting rich at il
at 10 and IL cents and IA cents q
pound, but I know of the time in my
own experience when I was selling
cotton, and my father was selling
cotton, at 4 cents pound, actually
below the cost of production, and in
view of the fact that the experts OF
the Department tell US that the boil
weevil is bound to come sooner OF
later, think it is incumbent upon
the Congress of the United States in
every way possible to help our people
to prepare for such an emergency,
just as it is aiding US in the matter
of diversified farming, through Doc.
tor Spillman. There is no use for
the committee to think that they can
send bulletins down there and teach
those people to 90 into the dairy
business, because that can not be
done. Bulletins are all right for the
fellows that already know their bust
ness, but they do not amount to a
ro,p ~ ,,;ne in nv Indictment. in in