The Forrest City times., 1909-04-16
FROM A FORMER ARkANsAN
An Interesting Letter From 0klahoms Which Contains Some Excellent
 Advice for Our People.
DAVIDSON. OKLA. April F, lsea.

readers. and will also be of help in showing that il is best to plant va- riety of crops
 Diyersifcation and specialization each offer great success 10 those who are faithful in the practice of either. For the ordinary farmer, however. believe that diyersitication offers the surest means of becoming independ. ent. That is what is practiced here.
 Tillman county has at present about 5oo,000 acres of land, most of which can be and Is cultivated. With. in its borders are five towns of i've hundred inhabitants each. There Is also one town as large as Forrest City
 Frederick is the county seat and principal town. It has a large oil mill, four large gins, an Ice plant, 3 laundry and several smaller indus. tries. A s20,0o church building and a s2o,oo0 public school building are the most conspicuous buildings in the town. The public school has an en- rollment of 1000 pupils.
 The farmers do not depend upon one crop for 8 living Corn, wheat, oats, cotton and alfalfa are the most important crops. Two years ago the small grain crop was q total failure, but the corn and cotton crops kept the people from suffering Last year the cotton crop was very short. Some farmers did not make more than one bale 10 ten acres. \ fine corn and small grain crop made the loss of the cotton crop easily forgotten.
 From Frederick there were shipped last season 7000 bales of cotton, 5S7 cars of corn, amounting 10 nearly ], ,ooo, 900 bushels; l0l cars of wheat, a5 cars of oats, G2 cars Of hogs, 10 ears of cattle, 6 cars of broom corn, l25 cars of hulls, 5s cars of oil cake. ? cars of oil, l0 cars of seed and cars of hay. Davidson. Maniton and Gran6eld are nearly as good shipping points IS Frederick
 What is done here can be done else where. Ten years ago this country was cattle ranch and no land was in cultivation
 This country has its faults, how ever, and anyone coming out here 10 invest should be very careful or he will get something that will not suit him. Some time ago l noticed that there was some talk or trying to get flour mill located in Forrest City. This mill and cotton mill would be Of great value to the whole of Eastern Arkansas. and 1 believe that the citi- zens should not stop till these mills are secured. St. Francis county soil will raise wheat and good mill right 1 at home will make the cost of flour some cheaper than it now is. If the farmers would plant wheat and follow 1t with peas they could make money and improve their land at the same time. IL would not be surprising to me to hear that you people are paying eight or nine dollars per barrel for flour before the new crop is made. l We sold our corn for from 70 cents to 55 cents per bushel last fall when corn was selling in Memphis for 70 cents to 8 cents per bushel. It costs 2l cents per bushel to ship a car of corn from here to Forrest City How 8 man can make money and pay 70 cents to sl.25 per bushel for corn to feed his horses cannot see. IL looks to me like foolishness.
 Now. when the boil weevil seems to be ready to enter Eastern Arkansas at any time, it should be the aim of the planters to so arrange their affairs that the i'll effects of his advent may be enumerated by prosperity along other lines of work, such as diversif. cation will bring.
 With the packing houses al St. Louis and good prospect of one al Memphis in the near future. 1t seems to me that stock farming In Eastern Arkansas. especially St. Francis county, will be very profitable Here alfalfa is the great forage crop. It is wonderful, too One of my neighbors has seven acres of it, which he has pastured for more than six months. having at present l50head of hogs and pigs on it, and now it is pretty and green and growing faster than The hogs can eat it.
 IL is thought that alfalfa will not grow in St. Francis county l believe it will. Bermuda will take it's place as a summer pasture and wheat will do for winter, So even il 1t will not grow there it is possible to raise pork profitably.
 We were very sorry to hear Of the
 Brinkley cyclone and the damage done. These things are terrible and should be guarded against as much as possible. Al should dig storm eel lars; don't put them under inc house