Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1910-07-20
STRONG, TIMELY APPEAL.
Citizen of Alabama. Writing in
Manufactur err Record
Makes Strong Appeal to
Southern Farmers.
BY DIR. ]. W. MCCAIN

the high prices of food products, as
nearly all the food products can and
should be made on the farm:
Whether he will or not depends up
on whether or nothe employs cor
rect methods of farming. The writ.
er regretfully states that the aver
age farmer of the cotton States is
sadly lacking, in employment of
correct methods. He must state
that .it.is;his opinion that the high
prices of food products in the U nit
ed States is largely dueto the fact
that the farmers of the cotton States
raise such a small per cent. Of the
food products consumed on these
farms. They could raise the food
products, but they don't do it, and
there is where the trouble is COM
ing from. Why, the cotton farm
,ers are depending almost as much
upon the Middle and Western
STATES for food products as do the
cities and towns throughout the
country, and the high cost of living
is Weighing heavily upon these. farm
ers, who should be in position to
profit by selling at good prices all
the foods that should be made on
the farm. By one-crop system
they are not only injuring and. i'm
poyerishing themselves, but they
are making the burdens heavier up
Son their city cousins by causing the
/ prices of food products TO climb
higher and higher from year to year.
Unless this error in our economic
condition is soon righted it will re-
suit disastrously to greater part
of this nation-to ell, except the
food producer, and he will soon
grow so rich that be will quit and
go abroad to live and we will be
left n a state Of famine, or nearly
$50.
S. Some may think this an over
drawn icture.s z Pjsgsibly IT. as so,
but not much overdrawn. On ac-
count of3the rapi dly-inc creasing city,
population lespec ecialsy, is the situa=
ton fast approaching a very serious
crisis, and it deserves the thought
full consideration of our wisest lead
ers. The sermon ON Investigation
Of crops in the Southern States has
been preached these many years and
has most often fallen on deaf ears,
and without wishing to condone
slothfulness, it must be stated that
there was not while back the in
centive to diversity crops in the
South that we now have. In the
first place we did not have the large
city population in the South few
years ago that we now have, and
the demand was quite limited, ex-
cept on long haul, and many COM
.plications arise from shipping to
far away markets. Secondly, we
did not then have the enormous
city population throughout the coun-
try, and the Middle West and West
were glad to meet the needs Of the
country with food products at a
moderate cost.
But 'sthe times are changed and
we must change with them" To
point out the quickest and most de-
sirable way of bringing about tf .
change in the cotton states should
call forth the profoundest consider
alton throughout the nation. The
writer has lived in the cotton coun-
try all his life. and has been a
close student of the farming meth
DDS, and its lack of methods, and
he begs pardon to give it as his
opinion that the perpetuity of our
national prosperity largely depends
upon getting the Southern farmer to
produce at least ali or nearly all the
food lucts consumed on his farm
and Lrplus for sale to the town
and city population in as large vol
rmes as is possible for him to do
80.
i Habits, and especially bad hab-
its, are hard to overcome, and the
average cotton farmer has fallen in
to extremely bad habits within the
last 40 years. Whether this is
largely due to some one great cause,
or to accumulation of causes, may
be a1subjeetfor debate. The writ
cr beiievesSit is due to a combina-
ton of causes, and that the time is
near at hand when these causes may
be forever set aside. Some of the
causes may be here mentioned: We
were prostrated by the devastation
of war and paralyzed by the
evil days of reconstruction and car
pet bag misrule; our minds and
hearts up to recent date were cen
tered on the preservation of the
white civilization of the South,
which is immeasurably paramount
to the comparatively base consider
alton of the physical needs of the
body. And the fact that the South
hoo r,a;nta;nady yits ciuiliZation and