The Southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1895-1909, 1908-11-14
Stop Making Cotton Your Only Money
Crop.

M seymour. OF Alabama. In our last weeks is
sue says that the way To better prices for cotton
Is 10 grow more corn
think that the best way out il 20 stop WORRY
ing everlastingiy about the price of cotton. and
to 20 TO making more cotton per acre and planting
fewer acres by putting the whole farm into a svs-
systematic rotation of crops for the DEVELOPMENT
of its prodncivencss in all the crops included in
the rotation Then by growing more corn per
acre. more oats per acre and more hay per acre.
the farmers OF the Cotton Belt wiIl be more indie
pendent Of the price for cotton. can grow II at a
less cost, and will realize that there prot for
them in something besides cotton
When a farmer raises manure enough TO
cover a corn-aeld that has already on IL a growth
OF crimson clover. be will be getting towards In
dependence 81 the fertilizer trust and will be get
ting SO much trom the other crops that he wfil
not be compelled 10 pat his cotton on a falling
market. and his cotton will BE- hls profit crop In
stead Of his sole dependence II ss not the sub
sututing Of this. that the other crop for cotton
but the making of every crop he grows n source
of income. while his soil IA all the time improving
instead Of being annually galvanized into a nort
of life by application Of fertilizers merely 10
grow cotton.
The farmer who farms will soon drop the idea
that everything else grown is merely supplies ="
some years ago "ail cotton" farmer boast
cd In the daily paper tina, he had raised corn
INK TO grow more cora Till that crop Tor what
the w~eyila left az tn gone. while he gr~w
cotton. II Is the atavish bondage 20 the one crop
that IL retarding agricultural advancement In the
South. and II il not the mere planting Of more
corn or more Of anything else but the buliding
up 81 tho Hoii. and Ita Increased protnctivcncsa
per acre through good farming that ia needed.
Renilng shares ~ all right suggested by
"Rnars Drow". bat the system Of farming should
be laid 6own and followed. and strictly foliow rd
by landlord and tenant and not the continual
wearing out Of the soft In reasinx merely 90 grow
cotton.
Then notice that Mr. Holmes SAYS that some
of the louisiana farmers say they wili Erow no
more cotton. Hut this f. not the way ou, Cot.
ton iR the natural ieadtng crop ~ the South. and
the Southern farmer cannot afford 90 drop ~. and
he wtn not want 20 drop n when be farms 30 that
whatever price II brinEH II a his profit crop of
the rear Mr. Waiter Clark well says that the
majority have no right 60 hold their cotton be-
II ~ not theirs. That means that they
have gone lnto debt for everything in order 10
raise cotton and 80 1nrg this IN the case. Just
30 long wtll tho cotton belong 20 some one eise
IL means that the tenants. who are merely crop
plng cotton on shares. woald be- better OF work
Ing for waFwa with those who have the means
for real farming IL means that the sooner the
present cotton-cropplng system and the crop lien
iaw abolished. the better II will be for land
lord and tenant both.
Then at the meeting reported In South Carolina
the old idea of supplies again comes 10 the
front. and Senator Smith vent on TO describe In
his eloquent way the part which cotton plays In
the commerce of the world and the economy ol
the South. and hts aposirophes 10 cotton en'Fanced
his hearers" And II II just such talk that has
done the mischief How would the part which cot
Ton plays in the markets Of III. world he lesa u
every farm 10 the South made bale or NOR" pei
acre. and the crop was grown on ons-thrd th'
land II now takeke How much greater the "apos