Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1909-01-08
AC0MM0N ECONOMIC ERROR.

system" and whilethis has been re-
garded as an economical error on
the side of the farmer. by many
merchants it has been thought that
it was q very profitable way of buy
ing cotton.
The farmer realized that as u
matter of safety it was better to
make the food consumed by his
family and his stock upon the farm
rather than purchase it and espec-
tally when he had to promise pay
ment out of a crop which had not
as yet been made. | have been
watching this phase of country life
in the South for many years and
have come to the conclusion that
the advance system" is just as
great a mistake on the part OF the
merchant as it is on the part OF the
farmer, for the following reasons:
First, the merchant takes great
risks, which, of course, he tries to
cover by increased charges. But
though these charges be increased,
the staples of life are not such ar
ticles as a high percentage OF profit
will adhere to, and the merchant is
practically trading gold for prom
Use to pay. If the crop fails, he is
obliged to carry and carry and car
ry and possibly may ultimately, as
in thousands of cases, be obliged to
take the farm. for which he has no
use, and under boil weevil condi-
tons is difficult to handle proftably
upon tenant system.
Under cash system there will
be great reduction in the sales of
staple foods such as bacon, pota-
toes, beans lard, vegetables, can
ned goods, haH corn, ETC., all ar
ticles that carry low profits. The
farmer is rarely a hoarder of mon
ey and if he saves two hundred dol
lars or mc1e by producing all his
food supplies at home he has that
much more to spend when his crop
is made, and it is cash.
Under cash system the farmer
will buy with his surplus more dry
goods, clothing, shoes, furniture,
etc., for his family, better teams,
farm implements, wagons, buggies,
etc., on which there is a much
greater profit for the merchant than
on staple articles of food. The
merchant can turn his money in
thirty days, instead of year. Ten
per cent clear profit turned month
ly is better than 100 per cent gain
received annually. Some of the
farmers increased income goes into
permanent improvement to enable
the farmer to produce more and
spend more annually.
Again, there is something about
raising cotton, tobacco, etc, to
pay debt, that saps the vitality
of the farmer and affects the quail
ty of tillage. 1t really lowers the
grade of farming. If upon the 9TH
er hand the merchants will join
with us in urging the farmers to
raise all their food supplies and try
to produce by better tillage double
the crop per acre they now produce,
the result as it affects the merchant
will be this:
All business will soon be on a
cash basis and the volume will be
three or four times as large from
the farmers alone. The advent Of
more money will bring diversified
industries among the farmers and
eventually will attract manufac-
lures to the market towns.
If there are idle farms in the
county, instead of calling meetings
for the purpose Of, raising funds to
secure immigration, call meetings
to encourage the farmers who know
the country and are loyal to it, to
universally adopt the following
plan: First, provide their own
food supplies from the farm: Sec
ond, double the average product on
every acre under cultivation and
let each worker on the farm by the
use of better teams and tools, till
three times as many acres as at
present, not in the one crop but in
a variety of diversified and prefta-
BILE crops. This would cause an
immediate demand for more land
and would provide the money to
pay for it. This makes every man
on the farm more than six times
the industrial power he now is and
gives him love of the farm. This
is better than to leave him in dis
couragement and secure immigrants
to come and buy him out.
should not speak so positively,
only l have observed for quarter OF
a century that where the Southern
merchants have changed from an
advance system" to a cash sys-
tenn, they have prospered very
much more than in former years
and the number of failures is i'm
mensely less. Of course, it is not
meant that there should be no cred
it's, but practically there should be
little necessity for them until the
crop is actually ready for the har-
vest, then trade becomes a cash