The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-11-17
Damage to Cotton by Boil NeeyiI
twenty-five Million Dollars.
FARMERS SHOULD DIVERSITY

Government Experts Say There Is
More Money in Raising Corn and
Hogs Than in Cotton If Land Is
Properly Prepared. Some Valua.
BILE Suggestions.
WASHINGTON, D. C.-Regardless
q whether he wants to break away
rom the exclusive cultivation of cot
ION or not the southern farmer has
got to adopt crop diversification or
lose the battle with the soil This
s not the dictum of a super theorized
mind, but a palpable fact, established
by the unchecked march of the Mexi-
can boil weevil through the great
cotton producing region Of the south.
United States department of agricul-
ture experts say that the damage to
The cotton crop each year as re-
suit of the encroachments of the boil
weevil amounts to $25,000,00Q. w
}. Spillman. agriculturiSt in charge
Of farm management, bureau of
nlant industry, places the annual cost
If the devasting insect above that
amount Therefore. experts of the
department OF agriculture are agreed
That the only available horn of the
lilema thus presented the southern
farmer is crop Investigation. They
insist that in this policy lies the
foundation of a permanent prosperity
among the great agricultural class
that the boil weevil cannot affect
The first step toward crop diversifi-
cation is the abandonment of cotton
as the exclusive money crop of the
south. 1t is argued that the farmer
Of the cotton region will not only get
better prices for his cotton because
IF the decreased acreage, but he will
have more resources of revenue,
through diversity of marketable pro-
ducts and in addition to this pecun-
larry advantage he will be saving his
land by contributing to its vitality.
Professor Spillman, who is a prac- !
teal Missouri farmer, sees in the |
cultivation of corn upon a more lib !
eTal scale panaCea for most of the |
Ills that affiict the farmer whose ex- |
elusive money crop is cotton He
sees no reason why the cotton re-
gions of west Tennessee, Alabama, |
Mississippi. Arkansas and Louisiana |
should not take prominence as a |
great corn producing and live stock |
raising territory. The price of corn, |
phich in the states named has not |
been below 60 cents a buShel in the |
past four years and which is now
bringing stiff prices all over the coun-
try, according to Professor Spillman,
will remain high. The demand for
live stock-notably hogs-is way in
excess of the supply, and the man
Who has hogs and corn to sell is now
regarded as having the edge on the
man whose sole dependence for cash
s his cotton crop.
This may strike some as a strange
aOte in view of the prevailing high
price of cotton, but the man who
plants cotton exclusively exhausts his
land from year to year, and more |
over has to buy out of the returns |
from his cotton the things that the |
man who raises corn and live stock |
mas produced at a decided advantage |
10 his land
Prof. Stillman holds that a man |
With one mule on an average farm |
in the cotton region can make more !
money by cultivating corn intelligent |
]y than he can by cultivating a cot /
ION crop by himself. Unaided one !
man with one mule can cultivate !
twenty acres of corn adequately, and |
forty bushels to the acre ought to !
be the yield, and the price at which |
corn now is selling the money value (
Of the twenty acres would be $500 !
One with two horses can cultivate
Forty acres in corn and make $1,000. |
Prof Spillman insists that one man
cannot possibly do as we'll in making
cotton crop.
But in order to make the average
land yield forty bushels of corn to
the acre the land must be built up
and kept yitalized by intelligent and
methodical treatment. Experts at
the department of agriculture lay