Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1910-03-03
FARMERS OPPORTUNITY.
Edite rial FROM Macon Tele'
graph Giving Some Interest
ing and Significant Facts
and Figures.

The stock of money in this coun
try is today approximately s3,l3O
100000. Ten years ago it wa
50, 34O,ooO,0OO. This is a gain o:
$3.50, 100000, or approximately 81
per cent.
Authoritative statistics show thai
the 1909 wheat crop was s.3 bush
els per capita, against s.63 bushels
per capita ten years ago; the corr
crop dropped from a4.9 to 3o.s
bushels per capita; the oats croI
from 1914 to Ill bushels per capi
ia; the hay crop from l ton to 3-4 Of
a ton per capita; and the number Of
food animals, swine, cattle and
sheep, fell from 2.5 to l.9 pei
capita.
In the matter of meats the gov.
ernment returns issued on the 25th
of January show, under the head of
swine (hogs) that the total supplies
in 1900, of 54,ooo,oOO fell to 47,-
600, 900 in 1910, decrease of
nearly Is per cent. Other cattle,
in 1909, 49,ooo,ooO, fell to 47,000,-
900 in 1910.
The number of cattle killed un.
der the inspection law in the United
States in 1907 was 7,62l,7l7, in
1909 it had fallen to 7,325,sa7 du-
ring the same period there was an
increase in the number of calves
killed from 1853, 574 to 2,o46,7l3.
The receipts of hogs at the markets
fell 1873 per cent. from 1908 to
1909. When the panic of 1907
came on many of the farmers in
the West sold their hogs because
food was too high to feed them and
these broodipg herds have not been
replaced.
In the matter Of the production of
fruits. the leader and standard (be-
cause it keeps longer) apples, in the
United States, have fallen from 6s,-
100000 barrels in 1866 to 2l,o0o,-
900 barrels in 1909!
s8H Here is money, per dollar, de-
cseasiGg in its pnfch haslng power
'bubaIses esio 81 d 80 per cent. increase III
volume. Here is an increasing de-
fcit in the field food crops per
capita. Here is a marked decrease
in hogs and cattle supply. Here
is a decrease in the leader among all
the fruits (apples) of approximately
10 per cent.
On the top of all this is an aver
age tariff of 80 per cent. on all for
eign food stuffs.
As result of all these things-the
increased supply of money, the de-
creased supply of all food stuffs, and
the tariff-the prices of beef, pork
and it's by-products, mutton, chick
ems, eggs, butter and milk, and all
other food products-taken on an
never been as high
as now, barring of course the war
prices of the CO.'S. Is not this the
Southern farmers golden oppor-
tunity?
All of these figures are amazing
but they are collected from the most
reliable sources. They call to the
farmer with irresistible eloquence
and force. They cry ALOUD to
them to plant less cotton and more
grain; to raise more cattle and hogs
mot as patriotic thing, but as
profit-making business. 1t is the
farmers opportunity. His day
has come if he is wise enough to
read the signs of the times and take
advantage of it.
Food is the first and the last of
the natural man. All men must
eat. Everything else is secondary.
We can go naked and live in the
woods as the heathens do, but we
must eat. 1t takes pound OF cot
ton to buy pound of meat. A
pound of meat can be raised more
than a pound of cotton. A
farmer can eat his meat but he can
not eat his cotton.
The money supply has grown
faster than the food supply. The
farm production for the last four
wears have been low in comparison
with the increase in other forms of
value. Manufacturing enterprises,
manufactured materials, stock and
bond corporations have more than
tripled in value in ten years Tho
farmers have not kept pace.