Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1906-06-19

Il
DAIRYMAN-INCREAsE VALUE OF
corToN-AN IMPORTANT LESSON YET
TO BE LEARNED.
A trip in Southland, covering q period
of nearly four months, has enabled me
to make some observations and compari-
sons of southern with northern farming
m ethods that may be of interest to many
of the readers of the Tribune Farmer.
I went to Western North Carolina about
the middle of November and remained
there most of the winter. To the visitor
from the northern states the winter eli
mate is great Improvement over that
of New York and Pennsylvania. The
average temperature is about 25 to 80
degrees warmer than in the states men
toned. There were only few weeks
during the winter when ploughing was
not practicable.
Entering Virginia, the visitor from the
northern and eastern states is struck
with the contrast of southern soil as
compared with that with which he is
familiar. The color varies from light
red to dark brick color. The land is roll
ing in every direction, and most of the
streams, aside from the rivers, are wind
ing. The railroads have fewer sharp
curves than those in the north and are
mostly cuts and fills, going from cut
on to a fill and Immediately into cut
again. The grading of these roads must
have been very expensive, although
there is comparatively little rock cutting,
the cuts being almost wholly in dirt and
clay. Western North Carolina is largely
rock turned up on edge. One may 60 a
| few rods from rock outcr0p and 90 down
one hundred feet or more in the red clay
soil and find no rock. Biologists tell
me that western North Carolina is a
geological enigma. The rules that apply
elsewhere do not control here. A great
variety of minerals are found. Gold,
tin, iron, graphite, manganite and a
dozen other minerals are found here in
greater or less quantity. In several of
the counties manganite mining Is an i'm
portant business. Millions Of dollars
have been brought into the state by this
product. A large proportion of the
farmers, after the close Of the cotton
season, 60 upon the "branch," or small
creek, running through their lands and
wash the gravel and sand for manganite.
After the gravel has been washed over
the rains bring in a new supply, and the
following season the "branch" is, again
worked with equally favorable results.
Two men frequently take out from IS to
100 pounds day, worth from 80 to sl2
hundred pounds. This industry affords
profitable labor the year around, and has
increased wages for day labor fully lOO
per cent in the last few years. Man
ganite contains thorium, the incandes-
cent element in the Welsbach burner, or
mantle, in gaslight. The product of the
United States comes mostly from this
district. Thousands of tons are mined
annually. The streams do not freeze up
and the mining or washing continues
all winter and up to cotton planting.
Cotton raising is the leading industry
of Western North Carolina. How to in
crease his cotton production is the ever
present problem with the farmer of this
section. While not, strictly speaking,
within the ''cotton belt'' yet that indus
try is absorbing everything else. The
price of land has advanced 100 per cent
within the last i've years, and no won
der. "Ten cent cotton" enables the
up- to-date southern farmer to make
more money from his cotton field than
the northern farmer can from any crop
he raises. / am informed that 1t costs
about S22 an acre to produce well till
ed cotton crop. A good crop Is one bale
of 500 pounds an acre, which at 10 cents
a pound is $50, or over S25 an acre clear
profit. This is about the present aver
age price an acre of cotton lands In
Western North Carolina. In short, the
profit from a well titled acre of cotton
will in one year pay for the land on
which it grows. These conditions have
not long prevailed in the south. That
they are likely to continue, at least to a
marked degree, is apparent. Formerly
the eastern and middle states and Eng
land manufactured most OF the cotton
produced In the south. To-day all over
the south large cotton mills are being
built and the product is being manu-
factured at home; Eastern and Engiish
manufacturers have to offer higher
prices for the raw material in order to
secure sufficient supply from the south.
ern operator. Mills now being built will
tend to increase this condition and hold
I'D the price of raw cotton. The aver
ACE investment in q cotton mill, am
informed by those posted on the ques-
ton, is about Sl50,000. Millions OF dol
lars are at the present time being invest
ed in new cotton mills in North Carolina
alone. The same condition Is SAID 10
exist all through the cotton states. IL
needs no prophetic eye to see what the
result of this policy must be IN the
"New South" in the very near future.
Wages for manual labor will be doubled,
but improved methods OF tillage will 80
utilize that labor that the intelligent,
progressive cotton farmer will so in
crease his acreage product that the per-
cenrage of profit will not be decreased:
It is common in the north to hear the
returned traveller from the south say
that southern farmers are twenty-five
wears behind the times" This state
ment is not true. It il q fact that the
average farmer Of that portion OF the
south / have visited is not up to the
farmer of the advanced districts OF the
north, where the grange and farmers
institutes have been putting In their
educational work in the northern states.
| Not over ten years have elapsed since
the terms, nitrogen" "potash, "phos-
phoric acid" and "humus" were un-
known to the average farmer OF the
northern states. "Proteine," 'carbo-
hydrates," .sfat," and "dry matter"
were not more often heard on the stock
farm than now In the south. The south
ern farmer Is already conversing on
these subjects quite a. fuently IS the
farmer of the north, and in many dis
tricts the matter of scientific farming Is
receiving intelligent attention. In my
| Judgment, If the state agricultural de-
partments and experiment stations OF
the south do their duty in disseminating
agricultural information, five years, or
ten at the farthest, will see the southern
farmer close second to his northern
neiphbor. His opportunities are better
and the same degree Of progressive en-
terprise will bring moro favorable re-
suits south than north. There is one
word, the Importance Of which the aver
age farmer Of the south has not YET
| grssped, and that is ''humus."
Lands are ploughed year after year
| for successive crops Of cotton, corn,
wheat, oats and sweet potatoes until the
| humus in exhausted and the land refuses
Il l.