El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-10-05

| the people have been compelled to en-
| brace any new teaching that might
! bring results. In Texas it has been
| different Up to a few years ago, we
/ had more wet" land than we knew
/ what to do with, and it has only been
| in the last few years that the arid
| part Of the state has been farmed at
| all And the few settlers who have
made their homes in that region and
are gradually pushing west where the
/ rainfall grows lighter and lighter, as
! they continue to make success after
/ success with their farming ventures,
| are meeting with much opposition from
| the cattlemen, who have controlled the
region since the time of the red man.
| Practically the same condition applies
| in the Panhandle section of the state.
West Texas Fights Alone.
Tine people of west Texas are forced
| to fight their battles alone They
need Dry Farming; they need mining
| laws and they need many legislative
| matters which the state legislature,
Overwhelmingly composed of farmers
| from the BLACK land region" refuses
to assist Our state senator from FL
Paso recently made the statement in
Austin that he was going to fight for
the segregation of west Texas from the
rest of the state because of this i'll
treatment on the part of the majority,
and all west Texas will be with him
when the time comes for secession.
1t is all very nice to talk about having
J the biggest state in the union, but when
this very condition works to the detri-
ment of a large part of the state, rem
edy is necessary. We would have some
Dry Farming experiment stations anu
! a mining law that would enable us TO
develop our vast mineral wealth if we
were to carve a new state out of the
west. 1t seems our only salvation.
Even with all our setbacks and oppo-
sition, however, Dry Farming is ad-
vancing in the state and at the last
| meeting of the Texas Dry Farming
organiza ton, we had an attendance of
over 200. Many of them said they had
never before attended a farmers meet
ing of any kind; many others had been
regular attendants on the state farm
ing gatherings. All were unanimously
of the opinion that Dry Farming was
going to do much for the state. We
will get some good advertising out of
that meeting, for those men are going
back home to spread the news. Two
neigh5ors came to the convention to
snow US what they had accomplished
this year. One had cultivated his cot
ton in the old method and the stalks
were about 10 inches tall. Another
had plowed his cotton lightly nine times
and had followed scientific principles
and had cotton stalks as tall as his
waist to show US.
Too Many Cavalry Farmers.
Another drawback TO our farming in
the west end of Texas is that we have
too many speculators-men who buy
land and try to raise a crop without
working it, hiring cheap labor and
trusting to luck, hoping to make a good
crop by chance and to dump the land
onto some sucker who will pay a big
advance on the purchase price. One of
these men was seen riding along his
fence recently, booted and spurred.
looking over at his crops. Ny good
friend, H. P. Attwater, industrial agent
of the G. H. railroad, saw him and
asked who he was. He is one of our
farmers" native said. He's a cav
airy farmer" remarked Attwater. That
is what is the trouble in a great many
ca SeS-We nave too many cavalry farm
ers and not enough infantry farmers.
With all the faults of its largeness,
Texas is a great state, and there is
room for a great work in Dry Farming.
1 believe with the education that the
newspapers are able to give the farm
ers and the information that the Dry
Farm organization, state and national,
can spread, along with the gospel
which Judge Kone and his assistants
are preaching, that it will not be long
until Dry Farming takes its place in
Texas as it mas done in other states.
Two years ago they didn't know what
Dry Farming was. Now they know so
much about it that they stay awake
at nights in some sections denouncing
it, l don't care, so long as they talk
about it. A Salvation army officer
asked me once to say something in the
paper about his work and he declared
that he didn't care whether it was good
or bad, so long as l made the people
talk about him and come to his meet
ings-once ne got them there he would
do the rest. That has worked out well
with US Many have come to our meet
ings to scott and have gone away to
praise.
Many Are Learning.
Last year at Alpine, president Callan
of the Texas Livestock association,
came to our meeting with the an
nounced intention of eating us alive"
and he went away declaring that he
believed we would accomplish some
thing. and that if we did the cattlemer
would welcome us as long lost broth
ers. He said we could produce the feed
that the cattlemen wanted and save
expensive shipments to Missouri and
Kansas grass if we were successful.
And speaking of cattle, 1 have been
urging every man who tries farming
in west Texas to combine it with live
stock raising. Forage is easiest to grow
on a given amount of moisture and by
raising maize and peas and articles of
food for the cattle, a farmer can feed
his products and depend on his beef
to make his living-at least, he can
greatly augment his earnings.
Great Is Texas.
Texas is big enough and has opportun-
tiles enough to support a dry farming
movement and not injure any of the
other movements. Texas grows prac-
tically everything needed for consump-
tion and it has often been said that
we could be cut off from the rest of
the world and fare better than the
world would fare without us. l don't
know how true that is exactly, but
Texas is a great state of varied re-
sources. We grow oranges in the
Brownsville region as sweet and large
as they raise in Florida and California;
we produce the only six-swallow oys-
ters in the world on the Texas coast
it takes six swallows to get one down;
we raise the best long staple cotton
under the sun, the biggest ears of corn
not even excepting Kansas; strawber-
rio no 1o1t in h h.