The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1908-12-30
The Great Speech Of Capt. Merry.

Capt. ]. F. Merry, industrial agent
of the Illinois Central and Yazoo and
Mississippi Valley railroads, deliv-
cred in Greenville on Wednesday
evening should be read by every
farmer and business man in Missis-
sippi. It bristles with facts and
figures, showing what can be done
in Mississippi in the way of diver
sified farming. During the deliv-
cry of the speech letters were read
from successful farmers and stock
raisers in Mississippi, showing that
rs bushels or more of corn has been
raised, splendid crops of oats pro,
|duced, the finest alfalfa hay in the
world grown and much net profit
earned in truck farming, cattle
raising, and in the production Of
other things besides cotton. In
closing his great speech Capt. Mer-
ry said:
Mr.. Chairman, /, have no apol-
ogy to offer for this long address.
The subject is one that should in
terest every citizen and especially
of this commonwealth. The vast
area of tiaable yet non-productive
acreage of land in Mississippi
should stir within US love of state
that will find expression in imme-
diate action toward its develop
ment. Let me again repeat-you
must make more net money on your
farms than in the past. This can
certainly be done by an intelligent
fertilization. cultivation, diversifi-
cation and rotation of your crops.
The Mississippi valley is the gran
ary, the corn crib, the packing
house, the cold storage the cotton
shed, the sugar warehouse, and the
rice = storehouse of the world.
Within few years the farm prod
ucts of Mississippi and Louisiana
may be loaded into steamers at the
docks at Greenville, Natchez and
New Orleans, and without breaking
bulk pass through the Panama
Canal to the markets of the Orient.
You and / may not live to see it,
but the generation to follow will
see every foot of land in this great
State thoroughly and scientifically
drained. Your public highways,
many of which are now next to i'm
passable in winter, will become
like city boulevards, as they are in
many countries of Europe. The
boil weevil that is now ravishing
your feelings far more than your
fields, will be but a memory, and
your fertile lands, now in the
market at from $40 to S25 per acre,
will be in demand at prices rang.
ing from $100 to $500 per acre, as
is the case in illinois and Iowa to-
day. These desirable conditions
.wiHsDe broughtaabout, as | verify
believe, because you have a soil
and climate that insures the
profitable cultivation of cotton and
nearly every variety of food prod
-ucts which the markets of the
world must have, because in the
future a part of your autumn fields
will be golden or green, instead of
all white, as in the past; your
farmers may not grow less num-
ber of bales, but a less acreage of
cotton and more of corn, oats, al
falfa, vegetables and fruits. The
present remunerative prices for
far products, with the exception Of
cotton, have not been equalled in
the past forty years, and from pres
ent indications have not as yet
reached the high water mark. In
deed there is everything to encour-
age and nothing to discourage the
farmers of this territory. In, con-
clusion, how ! covet the eloquence
of a Prentiss, that ! might impress
upon your minds and hearts these.
great truths. That mother earth
has been generous in the bestow
ment of her best gifts upon the
farmers of Mississippi; that the ma
tural resources and possibilities of
this agricultural commonwealth are
beyond computation; that your
market facilities are all that could
be desired and that it is simply in
credible and ludicrous to even sug-
gest that the boil weevil or any
other pest is going to rob you and
your posterity of this goodly herit
age"