The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-10
The Summer Campaign
 About to Begin.
Farmers Institute Conductedsby A. P. | Professors Have Marked Effect on Success of Planters of Farm
 ing Districts.
By WilI T. sheehan.

By wim T. sheehan.
 The summer campaign of the Ala bama Polytechnic Institute is about | to begin. This summer campaign is work of carrying knowledge to the far | mers of Alabama, and of bringing the I farmers to the knowledge of Anburns methods.
 Progress makes changes and changes produce new problems. While so much | Is said of Alabama's remarkable de- I velopDient, of her wonderful advance, 1 but little is said of the new problems | which come In the wake of that ad- 1 vance and that progress Agriculture l is not what it was thirty years ago. Time and progress have rung in their changes. The most serious question be- fore the State and in the opinion of the leading farmers of the state, the greatest question, is the labor ques- tion, with all due respect to the rail- rood rate question. The labor ques-
 tion has not become a political issue and there is no danger of it's being shaped into a political question. And
 in this 1t differs materially from the
 railroad rate question.
 The difference between the two ques- tions is that in the rate question there
 is enwrapped the political fortunes or
 sundry Afabamians who have an abid- ing thirst for ofiice. and in the sat isfying of that thirst they are carry, ing flag and beating drum in the
 highways and the by-ways of the State. The main point in the anti-railroad
 agitation after all is whether certain ambitious ones shall have government tai jobs.
 If the thing were twisted around, and there were loud mouthed agitators going about stirring up excitement on the labor question mailing bushels of circulars and arousing the country ed itors, the people of Alabama could be quickly convinced that there would be no balm in Gilead. that there would be
 no rain in the crop season and that children would go moaning to thelr trundle beds unless the labor question were settled, settled quickly and set tied right.
 An industrial Problem. But a kindly fate has intervened. It is an industrial problem, a vital one and it Is of no earthly use, for polit- icaian to ride into ofice on. The labor question. the thoughtful farmer VIII say, especially if he lives in middle Alabama, or in any part of the black | belt, will tell you Is vastly more inter woven with the interest of agriculture | in Alabama than the vague and evanes- 1 cent issue of cutting and slashing | freight rates by somebody, somehow, | in some way.
 1 The Alabama farmer is face to face with the labor spectre primarily De- cause of the unparalleled development l of the mineral section of Alabama. lie has to have 1t out with the unpleasant l thing secondarily because the black l man is trresistibly fascinated with | town and city life, where there are plenty of places to sit and gossip ana | where one able bodied cook can sup | port whole family and make money besides. The hegira of negroes to the cities and the hegira of negroes to the mines and railroad hay been at the cost of Alabama agriculture. There
 are today untold thousands of acres l given over to weeds and lobiolly pines | because the negro cabins not far away are Asserted There are communities | in Alabama, where thirty vars ago l hundreds and hundreds of bales Of COL | ton were produced which now nave empty cabins and deserted "big houses while the land about Is unscarred oy
 the blow from one years end 10 the | other years end.
 | The old plan tations with their far- | flung borders grow fewer and fewer | each year. Tenant and worker, eacn | wear in greater number go from the plantation to the mines, to the rail roads and to the public works. The | problem for labor each year grows
 more and more accute, AS tne l,npUl. | tance of the old fashioned plantation with its tenants and its lease system
 grows dwindles in importance, the la l bor problem increases and becomes | more insistent.
 | But what is the connection between I Auburn and the labor problem? 1 Supplanting the old System. | l. AlA l. | cant. It means that the agrlcuiturai | denartment of the mechanical and ag- rieultural college of Alabama is just now devoting itself to the solution or l this great industrial problem Whlcn faces the people of Alabama. But now
 In the most practical manner posslole' | The lack of labor most serlously al | fects the old style of Alabama agrlcul- l lure. the plantation system in oogue | in those sections of Alabama, where the negro has always been an industrial | factor.
 Where labor is lacking, labor can not be supplied, not even by Auburn | But an agricultural system. dependent upon a large number of laoorers can be supplanted by system which does not demand such a great number or Ia horers Farmers and planters who have heretofore been dependent upon negro laborers can be taught to farm succ essfully under a system unoer | which there is no necessity for great l number of farm laborers.
 The Alabama farmer can De instruct ed in the great value of forage crops | he can be instructed in soil preserVa- ] ton, he can be instructed in the Vaiue | of enlarged pastures and stock raislns | ana he can be instructed in the pest system of intensive farming. In thls
 latter he can be taught. how to m crease the yield of cotton although
 the acreage is reduced. He can De
 instructed in the intelligent use ol
 fertilizer and in crop rotation system
 Tn all of this there runs the govern
 ing thought, that Alabama farm laool
 farming is to be deducted with 4ess labor than has been available Tn tnt
 past. Tn the pursuance of the same
 purpose. the general agricultural m
 structfons of Auburn is teaching the
 use of improved farming naenlneIy The white farmer Is being taught the
 value and use of farm machinery, as | is understood and used 1 nthe western
 States. He is being taught the gTeal
 economical problem of riding ah'
 blowing at one and the same time.
 There are several ways in which Au'
 burn is doing this work. The prln
 ciple means is the Agricultural Experl'
 ment Station, under the direction ol