Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-03-01
MORE FOOD CROPS
AND LESS COTTON

own food crops, with a sufficient sur
plus to supply the demand of non-pro-
ducers in the south.
The first is it would insure a high
price for cotton every year. 1t would MI
the barns and smokehouses with plenty
and enable farmers to work on a cash
basis. Being free and Independent or
debt, the cotton crop could not be forced
on the market and could always be sold
at a reasonable profit. 1t could not be
cornered by spectators.
AS it is, debt forces the majority of
farmers to rush their cotton to market
as soon as ginned. As the market gradu-
ally advances, Nthe middleman gets the
profit.
Southern farmers consume more cotton
goods than any class in the south, and
get less profit out of the crop than any
class through whose hands it passes. IN
less the south produces its own food
crops, provisions will get higher every
year, farm labor will get higher and other
expenses will increase. Living will be so
expensive that the farmer will be as
hard pressed as if cotton we're 5 cents
a pound.
AS the population of the United States
Increases the demand for food crops in
creases.
northwest are brought into cultivation
and made into beautiful farms, the sup
ply of meat-beef and pork-will decrease.
AS the great cities of the west enlarge
there is less grain available for the
southern market.
We must live at home. Depending up
on the western market for supplies. the
southern farmers would be ruined, If the
railroads of the west should be tied up
IL big strike for long time.
The base of supplies would be cut on.
and actual suffering would follow.
Only a few months ago considerable
alarm was felt along the line of the Geor-
gia road on account of a strike tying up
the trains.
There was much talk of food panic.
This is but a drop in the bucket to
big strike tying up all the. trains of the
great west.
With our barns and smoke houses full
of corn and bacon, the south would not
feel the effect of the strike.
An abundant supply of southern food
crops would insure higher-priced cotton,
cheaper provisions and cheaper labor.
One argument 1 have heard advanced
against the southern farmer making his
own supplies and a surplus for market
is that he could get nothing for his pro-
ducts-that the price would be so low it
would not pay him to sell them. This is
a falacy. If corn should drop to 80 cents
a bushel and bacon and lard to cents a
pound, or less, it would pay the farmer
to make his own supply and a surplus.
His remuneration would come in high
priced cotton, cheap living for everybody
and cheaper labor. Cotton could be
grown at half of it's present cost and
would never sell for less than 10 cents.
nj "a rot net0
of the Spectator.
The farmer who raises his own supplies
and makes cotton as a surplus crop is
always in a better shape than the farmer
who buys his supplies.
Another thing the southern farmer
should do: Raise his own stock. 1t ls
much cheaper than to pay $500 apiece for
mules, and more. With the wiregrass
of south Georgia and the bermuda grass
of middle and north Georgia colts can be
raised as cheap as calevs.
Rye pastures andeha will carry them
through the winter
In south Georgia, in addition to rye and
other green crops, stock can pasture on
velvet beans.
They make the finest winter pasture
and keep hogs. cattle and stock as fat
as a mole.
I have known wagon loads of hogs and
beef cattle taken right off the beans and
butchered for market.
No western meat is finer.
The situation is up to the farmers. The
problem of living at home and raising
home supplies must be solved by them, or
remained unsolved.
The best thing they can do is to heed
the keynote of the Farmers union: More
food crops and less cotton" Then they
can '1ive at home and board at the same
place" w. c. DAVIS.