The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1906-09-01
FARMER AND PLANTER
A TRIP THROUGH THE SOUTH.
Some of the Things Seen by the way
side-Thoughts Suggested
Thereby.

Mrs. Farmer, some weeks ago this
old hayseed took ride over all the
cotton states east of the MISSISSIPPI
river. Went to see about cotton and
other crops so that / could tell you
Just how things are.
saw the mother and little chill
dren in the field at work, Just as we
see it in our state. | saw the IN
painted house with the window glass
out and the dilapidated barn or pole
stable and fence down. l saw the
farmer in town or on the cars dressed
In his cheap suit of clothes.
AS | noticed these familiar sights
I thought the down-south folks do
not make any more money raising
cotton than we do; anyway, they
have a mighty poor way of showing
their prosperity.
oh. yes, saw some fine places,
and when possible, made inquiry
about them. Usually l learned that
the finest farms with good buildings
belong to farmers who believe IN
mixed farming-grains, grass, corn,
cotton, hogs, cattle, etc. Such places
had a home-like "heartsome' look.
fYour home will look that way, too,
when you shake old hayseed away
from "allcotton.")
| saw very few strong negro men
at work in fields. The blacks that
saw at field work were old Uncle
Joe. the women and children.
/ saw great crowds of strong negro
men at railroad building, saw-mill
plants, at sewer jobs, or other city
work. They are paid $3.50 to s2.Oo
per day.
To induce that labor back to COT
ton farms will require cotton to sell
at 25 cents per pound.
Railroad building, cutting down
grades. strengthening crooks In roads,
and double tracking can be seen
everywhere. And the town and city
building is something big. Every
village town or city has hustling ap-
pearance.
Saw-mills, one after another, with
great stacks of lumber, are round
wherever there is timber.
And cotton pays for all these in
dustries. Does Old Hayseed get his
share of profits?
L am one of these inquisitive kind
of fellows. I ask questions OF ricn
and poor, farmers or bankers, men,
women and children. By so doing l
learned that more oats had been
sown and more corn planted than In
any year since the war. These crops
were fine, oats being harvested-and
what pleased me was to see SO much
of the crops being cut in the dough
to make hay.
Invariably, every town or city man
who talked to me about cotton SAID
there was an increase in acreage over
l905--some putting it as much as
IL per cent. Every farmer or farm
er's wife, said there was scarcely any
increase, or said there was a de-
crease. Who should know about this,
the town people or the country peo-
pie?
The prettiest sight saw Except
the pretty women) was on Mr.. Walter
Clark's farm in Cohoura county,
Miss.,-fifty acres. of red clover
twenty inches or more high and thick
as it could stand Just across the
road from the clover was field OF
| 1870 acres In alfalfa-one crop cut
and gone to market and another
growth of fifteen inches ready to cut.
Mr.. Clark told me he made great
deal more clear money from his al
falfa acres than he did from cotton
acres, even at eleven cents per pound
| for cotton.
When one farmer begins to SOW
grain, grass and grow pigs and calves,
It Is catching. Neighbors see the ad-
vantage of the mixed farming and
they take the disease found this
to be the case about in spots in every
Subsidiaries Cotton Moore. in Pro
gressive Farmer.