The Green Forest tribune., 1910-05-06
COTTON TO MAKE SOUTH RICH
Because of Splendid Soil and Excel lent Climate Southern Farmers
 Have Many Advantages.

The Progressive Farmer and South ern Farm Gazette has always advo- cated crop diversification by southern | farmers, and because of splendid soil and climate suited to the profitable [ production of large number of crops, the farmers of the south have superior advantages for money ma king. Discussing the question how cotton growing could make the south rich, that paper says:
 Did you ever realize that the south all history, asked President Charles Barrett the other day. And he went on to point out that we cannot only grow all the great staple crops that farmers grow everywhere else, but we have virtual monopoly of cotton, the greatest money crop. in the world. With such conditions southern farm CTS should indeed be among the rich est and most contented farmers on earth. That they are not is not the fault of the crop, or of the land they live in, but of the wrong methods that they have followed
 Let us suppose, as the children say, for little while. In the first place, let us suppose that every farm CT in the cotton belt would begin this year systematic rotation of his crops; that he would plant at least one-third of his land to legume crops; that he would feed these crops, along with his corn and stover and cot ton seed meal to live stock, and re- turn the manure from the stock to his soil. Let us suppose that he would begin to take care of his soil, to study it's needs and to labor for It's enrichment; that he would as fast as possible fill it with humus, drain or terrace it if necessary, get rid of stumps and ditches and other obstacles that hinder successful cul- tIYation with improved implements and more stock. Let us suppose that each acre planted to cotton this year would be we'll ploWed and thoroughly pulVerized before planting time; that the seed would be of the best obtain able strains; that the fertilizer ap- piled to the crops would be chosen With special reference to the crop needs on that particular soil; that cultivation would begin with a Weeder or light harrow before the grass started and would be kept up till late in the season; that the land would be sown in a cover crop next fall, and next years cotton crop I,,ho crop had grown this year. Let us suppose that these things were kept up tor ten years, or even five years At the end of that time would the south, 1n your opinion, be a poorer or a richer country than it now is; would cotton farmers live in better houses, or poorer ones; would they have more money, or less; would re- tlnement and culture and progress and aspiration be more or less in evidence than at present?
 Every farmer in the cotton belt is not going to do these things, but why should not every reader of this paper so far as is in his power work toward this ideal? With first consid- eldlion gwen dlWayS to the upbulld- ing of the soil, with due attention given to food and feed crops and the growing of live stock, with a careful, painstaking study of the great prob- lens of soil preparation, seed selec- tion, fertilization and cultivation, with every acre of cotton made to produce just the largest yield prac- ticable, cotton is bound to be a profit able crop-a wonderfully profita ble crop, bringing wealth untold to the men who grow it, and despite boil weevils, bad seasons, spectators and the chronically shiftless and indiffer- ent, making the south the fairest and richest agricultural land upon which the sunshine falls.