The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1909-09-22


upon the other hand, what have the
producers done? The farmers OF Ken
lucky who produce practically seventy
I five per cent Of all the Burnley tobacco
raised upon this globe have not mat
erially improved their condition in that
time. The farmers of this State are
not getting richer, as a class. very
fast The farmers of this state. If
they are holding their own, are to be
congratulated. Therefore. 1t points to
something wrong here that the farmer,
the producer, is not getting what Is
coming to him, is not getting his fair
ana reasonable share of this profit that
he makes.
Tobacco Culture Limited in Area.
NOW, they say we kill the goose that
lays the golden egg. | pointed out to
you what our ancestors found when
they came to this country. They found
tobacco produced in Virginia and in
the Carolinas and Maryland and Con
necticut. The Indians were devoted TO
tobacco. as much SO as the white peo-
pie have ever been. Not only that il
was with them the emblem of friend.
ship. the token of peace. the article
by which International agreements or
compacts We're sealed. It was practi
cally with them a religious emblem.
Therefore, ! may assume safely. |
think. that II tobacco could have been
produced any where else by the In
dams, it would have been produced
there, because travel was dangerous
and difficult even to an Indian in those
DAYS, and the Indian was as lazy as a
white man need be. 1t is fair TO pre-
sumo the Indian produced tobacco
wherever he could. and where we
found it produced was the place TO
which it was indigenous.
Tobacco the Money Of coonsts.
What more? The early colonists had
terrific struggle in their experience.
They had not the power to coin specie
or TO establish specie They had to
depend upon the currency that came
from abroad and then they had to send
in exchange for that something that
the markets of Europe demanded. And
what was it? Europe then had plenty
of timber and plenty of live
stock and plenty of cereals. and Amer
lea was not producing those things in
surplus quantities and manufactures
were practically unknown. so that tne
exports at that time we're furs and to-
baccO 1t is fair to presume that the
cOlonists who could produce tobacco
did it because it was the principal
article of commerce and export. II
was the money of the colonists It
was tobacco that bought the wives of
the +. +. VS..
Even Paid the Ministers.
1t was tobacco that paid the passage
of those two shiploads of maids. fair
and pure, imported by the Colonial
Company to Virginia and exchanged to
the planters for $50 pounds of tobacco
mead; and | would think that they
were very cheap. Tobacco paid the
ministers of Virginia and OF Maryland
and of Caroline when they were sent
to the ministry of the British church;
1t paid them in specie for the British
religion. Tobacco was the foundation
Of the specie Of the Revolution. To-
bacco was the means of the first revo-
luton raised in America. 1t was the
first slogan sounded for liberty upon
the Western hemisphere and an agqrc-
cation OF tobacco raisers in Virginia.
constituted the first legislative As.
sembly ever assembled upon the Yves.
tern continent Tobacco has cut
larger and more important figure in the
history of these people than any other
commodity produced alone upon this
soil
Why Not Produced Elsewhere. ,
II is fair to presume that If the
thrifty Dutch OF Pennsylvania. who
came under Penn, could have raised
tobacco proftably and in competition
with Virginia and Carolina, they would
have done it, and so would Massachu-
sets, because the Yankees have never
been slow to take advantage OF good
thing when they could.
In 1853, at the Worlds Fair held in
New York City. Kentuckys exhibit OF
tobacco took the prize over all the coun-
tries on this side Of the Atlantic and
over Turkey, Austria and Italy. Il has
been shown more than half "A century
ago that the quality of tobacco pro
duced in Kentucky is better than any
where else in the world; and NOT only
that, but the rest of America has ceased
to produce It almost altogether, until
the largest amount of tobacco is raised
in Kentucky. not because the rest Of
the country were not willing to raise
tobacco and make a profit out of it,
Dul DtCduSe lutA Nbulu hOl w ~ ~ OA4N
ably and successfully
Kentucky Tobacco Has No Equal.
| assume that you may take this as
true; that the essential Characteristic
of man is selfshness. and if man can
raise tobacco in Ohio or Pennsylvania
or Missouri or Minnesota profitably, ne
will do It, And the reason they have
not done so IS because they couldn't
do it. Yes, We can raise cotton in
Kentucky. we are today raising cot.
ton in Kentucky There has never been
time since the first year of the Com
mOnwealth when cotton was not raised
I'm Kentucky; but the cotton produced
by Kentucky is not a drop in the bucket
as regulating the price of cotton in the
world You can raise a horse where
ever you can raise a white man, but
they cant raise a Kentucky thorough
bred outside Of Kentucky. Ten Brock
showed that, and Molly McCarty. You
can raise bluegrass wherever you can
raise corn. and they do raise it, but
Kentucky bluegrass sets the price OF
bluegrass seed the world over. We
are not a wheat producing state; we
are not strictly a corn producing state.
We are not a cattle producing state.
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