The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920, 1910-06-18


Il conclude my comments on the things we OF
the South can learn from Western brethren
although may have something to say next week
on What the South Can Learn From New Eng
land" setting forth some ideas cleaned on my re-
cent trip to Massachusetts.
"Of course, the West is rich and has all the adj
vantages you have been discussing" some of my
friends have said. but the Southern soil is not
naturally so fertile; and shall we not be forever
handicapped right here?"
My answer is. that don't think So In almost
every case IL is true that thar Is more in the man
than thar is in the land" and John Stuart Mill
gives a striking illustration when he tells us that
Belgium. which with good farming and stock
raising, has now about the richest soil in Europe
was originally sandy, half-barren waste. Then,
too. let us remember that while the West has an
advantage over in natural fertility of SOIL we
have an immense advantage in our longer growing
season and greater variety OF crops that should
Offset the Vests initial advantage in greater nat
ural fertility. Moreover. when we once begin to
grow live stock We shall have immense ad-
vantage In the fact that our great money crop
cotton, is less exhaustive to soil fertility than al
most any other crop men grow. For example,
when restore cottonseed or its equivalent to
the land. and restore slower wheat straw or
their equivalents to the land-in other words in
selling lint cotton only compared with grain
only-cotton. is only one-thirtieth as exhaustive
of fertility corn. and only one nineteenth as
exhaustive as wheat.
And we must grow stock In recent address
| heard Congressman Hobson, of Alabama bring
out this fact very strongly when he showed that
with only one-fourth Southern land now un-
der cultivation. the whole Nation must begin to
look To the South TO make good the steady de-
In live stock production of our Western
ranges. This fact becomes all the more emphatic
when We recall that last year there decrease
Of 100000 in the number of cattle other than
mich cows on American farms. and a decrease Of
h.3s5,000 In number of hogs
We can grow cattle. hogs. and to feed
them. eheaply In the South as in the West
and the only way TO maintain soil fertility Is to
begin doing It. What capital is to a business.
that soil fertility is To the farmer. No apparent
showing OF temporary profit show good BUSH
ness II the capital is being eaten into and man
in doing good farming If the fertility of his land
is not maintained.
There's IA belief out West that there is soon to
he scarcity OF horses perhaps more marked
than the decrease In other classes OF live stock.
\ thoughtful Western man in touch with agricul-
tural conditions said To me: There is hardly
any business which. believe. is going to pay such
big profits In the next ten years horse breed
ing" And this is another pointer the South may
we'll take to heart
Speaking of the westerner's willingness to do
any sort of work instead of looking some kinds
as belonging To servants and beneath him. |
might also have mentioned the big. fine. young
observation-disclosures and ambition showing in
every feature-whom saw sweeping rooms in a
public hall ut Chicago University. wonder how
many of our Southern boys would do work OF that
kind In order to make their way through college I?
have never seen anywhere much tile drain
age as saw in Illinois. Every few minutes we
would pass fields dotted with the reddish yellow