The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-27
THAT REMINDS ME
Editor Frank Adds Good Word the Plea For More and Better Farmers Who Will Reduce the High Cost
 of Living By Producing More Food Supplies
By4WALTER HARPER.

The following is from the esteemed Wallxer County News of which Frank ". Evans is editor;
 That Reminds Me-" Walter Harpers interesting department in The Age-Her- aid, Is always full Of pith and point therefore always readable.
 Recently the writer of that department gave vent to the complaint often made by farmers and truciers that the com mission merchants do not deal squarely with them in handling their products
 Ehis is no excuse for inattention to or neglect Of cultivation and production Of food crops, if one is seeking relief from the high cost of livingl
 Alahama farmers and gardeners can produas in this climate and on this soil anythimg and everything needful to sus- tain lise and provide comfort.
 When a man can go to his own corn crib his own wheat bin, his own pig pen, his own cattle pasture, his own poultry yard and his own orchard and garden and there obtain anything and everything he needs for home-supplH what care ne for the cost of these things in markets He need no6 sell for he Is not forced to buy.
 wfth cotton as a surplus crop, he al- ways finds an open market for his staple. Cotton is always spot cash money commodity, and the farmer with ms Iartier full can hold his cotton for req sonable price and aosoiney coaieioi 'Ae cotton market.
 Tbera was a time when the commits sion merchant or n1iddreman, was not in evidence Then the farm wagons sold direct to tho consumers Tn the towns and elites at prices more pemuneratiNe 10 them and less expensive to the consumer If will be a happy day In ABapsIna When this system returns. It WIFI soiVe the
 a.4ior of +he high cost of living in this country.
 wo,,Id not discourage any movement of more people to the truck farm' the cornfield or the hen patches.
 We need more producers of foodstuns' We must have them. but it, is a business requiring capital and brains like any other financial enterprise.
 The man must be adapted sto the worK' know something of the science ot plant ing and cultivation and last but not least by any means, he must takeIcare of the marketing.
 There are scores of men in the Birming- ham district who are becoming independ- ent by growing vegetables for~the local market
 I know of one man who failed utterly on a cotton farm in another part of the state; became so deeply involved that there was absolutely no hope for him.
 On a dark night he stole away from his home, his miserable home, and leaving his wife and children to follow on some other dark night, he came to Birning- ham and went to work on truck farm.
 He "struck rich dirt" and now he ia independent. In just few years he re- turned to his old home and paid up all the debts he had deserted at midnight Now he Is educating his children, putting nice dresses on that faithful wife and can face the world with smile.
 His check Is good at the bank for good, round sums and he dug it out of the caIikered, cinder-scarred dirt in Jones' valley.
 He is not the only man here that is getting rich. And there is room for more