Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-10-09
NATIONS HOPE
 IN THE SOUTH R. H. Edmonds Says It is Destined to be Great
 Meat Producer.
REGAINING PRESTIGE
He Agrees With Secretary Wilson That Small Farms Must Solve
 The Problem.

Baltimore, Md Oct. 7.-Richard Il. Edmonds, editor of the Manufacturers Record, in reply to an inquiry as to the probable correctness of the pre- diction of Secretary of Agriculture Wilson in The Sum of yesterday that the South is destined to become a large meat producer, said:
 Secretary Wilson's prediction Is already being fulfilled. The South is already becoming live stock country, and in this respect it is merely returning to the conditions of ante-bellum days. Prior to the war the South was a great hog, sheep and cattle raising country. The destruc- tom wrought by the war changed az ricultural conditions throughout the South and practically forced that country to abandon the system of well-rounded agriculture existing up to 1860, and to concentrate it's atten- tion on cotton growing to the eXclu- oioI oI oNHNi tAiHoo' 1AiiA' "eeh' AoA many years the greatest handicap un- der which the South labored. Gradu- ally the South is returning to ante bellum conditions of grain produc- tion and live stock raising.
 Civil War a Great Blow to the In.
 dustry.
 ''In 1860, with a population of about one third of the total for the country, the South has over 40 per cent of the total value of live stock in the country, and it produced that year over A per cent. of the corn crop. So great was the decline in the productian of grain and in the raising of cattle after 1S65s that it was not until within the last few year that the grain prodution of the Central South from Virginia to Lou Iisiana reached the figures of 1860; and though the South s population is nearly three times as great as it was in 1860 there are not now in the |Central South as many cattle, sheep and swine as in 1860.
 Even Maryland has fewer meat cattle now than in that year, the to- tai i'm this state in 1910 being 13S,- 1000, against 153,77S in 1860. Alabama now has 52S,000 meat cattle, against 542,S 800 in 1860. Kentucky has 665,- 900, or just 100000 less than 50 years ago, while North Carolina has 16,- 900 less and South Carolina 100000 less. Georgia has 33,000 less. Virgin ia and West Virginia combined have cause West Virginia has of recent years become a great cattle raising State. Of course, Texas shows a heavy increase, because in 1860 that state was a new country, having less than 3,000,000 head of neat cattle, while at present it has over 7,0o0,00O head.
 Fewer Sheep Than in 1860.
 Tn 1s6o the South had 6,o94, 900 sheep. Today it has only 60S4,O00, though Texas shows an increase of 100000 the Central South from Virginia to Louisiana showing a great decrease. North Carolina, for in- stance, had 546,000 sheep in 1860 and 215,000 in 1910, while the number in South Carolina declined from 233,00O to 56,000, and in Tennessee from 773- 900 to 347,O00
 ''The same conditions prevail as to the raising of hogs. In 1860 the South had Is 2S0,000 hogs, or largely more than one half of the total in the Uni ted States. In 1910, notwithstanding the great development in Texas and notwithstanding the fact that popula- tion was nearly three times as great as in 1860. the South had only 15,- 100000 hogs, or less than one third of the total in the country
 If it had been possible for the South after 1865 to restock its farms with cattle and hogs and sheep, the supply of which had been exhausted by the war, and to continue the diver sified farming operations of those days, it is safe to say that it would have recuperated from the effects of the war in one half the time it took, and that its wealth would now be at least double what it is.
 ''The destruction by the war and the disorganization of labor, and the tenant system of farming with the negro no longer directed and con- trolled in his farm work as in the olden days, the fact that money could be borrowed in advance against the cotton crop and not against corn or diversified products, all combined to