The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-17

With cotton picked out earlier than usual this is a favorable season to at- tend to the fencing, repairing ana building needed on the farm Il tis true that in hiring this work done now tne hours of labor are short. but the JOSS from short hours is preferaole 70 tne upcertainitv of getting such Worh done at all if postponed until the days are longer and the demand or otner farm work more imperative.
 It Is almost too late to urge prompt ness in putting in order the houses occupied by the laborers with Vlew to making sure of an ample suppiy oi labor for working another crop. Cons fortabIe houses are probably the ehieA con-. -eration with many of the best laborers and judicious work on these. is one of the most effective means or attracting the most desirable hands Tn these times of comparative pros perity and of scarcity of labor, IL ls more difficult than formerly to secure the services of day laooreIs .t needed. To be sure of these they must usually be housed on the land where fhey are to work To domicile the day laborer as well as the regular hanos means an expense at least equal 10 tne interest and annual depreciation on the value of the premises occupied by them and an increased consumption or WOOD,
  limited in amount to justify the great est care to make 1t last as long as pos sible.
 Tine price of lumber has advanced so ranidly in recent years that the build ing of new houses is much more ex- penstve step than it used to be. But if a house Is needed 1t will probably cost less to build it now than a few years later, for the price of building materials seems unceasingly upward. An investment in a house Is perma- nent improvement making the property more valuable and usually increasing the annual revenue from the farm. As an agricultural people we have been so poor. our agriculture so simple and labor so abundant and easily housed, that the value of buildings on Southern farms represents an abnormally small per cent, of the total value of the farm real estate. Weqnay be sure that in future we may have to increase the investment in buildings if we are to follow the most profitable agricultural methods and retain on the farm the necessary labor. Let us set about 1t while we are able. whiie cotton is sell ing at a good price, provided of course the. necessary capital is in hand.
 AS to the character of houses for farm laborers, that, of course, depends upon circumstances. In some neighbor-
 
 rooms will not attract the most desir- able negro families. A house should be built not only for the use made of it within the next few years, but It's construction should also have refers ence to it's probable use five, ten, or twenty years hence. Therefore 1t would seem wise to put up such houses as white immigrants would be willing to occupy. The general absence of such dwellings has heretofore constituted a real difficulty in settling immigrants among us. Those farmers who build such houses now will be the first to benefit by the wave of agricultural immigration that must necessarily flow Southward in greatly increased volume within a few years.
 If houses are needed as one means of prosperity for a new order of agri- cultural conditions, equally needed for a diversified and more profitable agri- culture is the, more general use of fences. No country ever has reached 2 high state of agricultural develop nent that permits its livestock to run it large, even for a few months in winter. It matters not whether this running at large be by reason of statute Sr of common consent locally to sus- pend a statute. The b1ighting effect is the same; no extensive fields of small grain to bring It's quota of revenue and to save the land from wasteful winter