Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1911-10-25
HOW TO CONTROL COTTON.
MIR. P. N. Lott of Johnston, Farm
Demonstration Agent, Makes
Valuable Suggestion to
His Fellow Farmers.

There are very strange things in
this world. The products of nature
in her varied and multiplied form
of adjustment and re-adjustment
strikes one with awe. The ingenuity
of mans inventive power strikes us
with wonder. Yet the strangest of
all strange things under the sun is
the southern farmer; he digs his pit
and straightway falls into it, then
complains about conditions.
1t is, however, matter OF ex-
treme qualification that the bankers
OF the south have offered to assist
the farmers in holding their cotton.
We note however that very few In
this section have accepted the propo-
sition, due to the fact that obllga-
tions made in the early part of the
wear are due and as honest and
honorable men, they will meet them
at any sacrifice. They do not care
to risk borrowing money on their
cotton. 1t is their only money crop
and they cannot afford to take chan
ces ON marketing it. 1t is hard to
toll all the year and sell your crops
for less than it cost to make 1t. Ii
this was the first time that we have
been subjected to these conditions
we might cry out in distress and do
something rash.
Most of us remember when we
were forced to take 4 cents for our
cotton-provisions were high, flour
$500 per barrel and everything else
in times were hard and
the future looked gloomy; but in
few months things had adjusted
themselves and We found that four
cents cotton was a blessing; nearly
every one sowed some wheat that
fall, more oats than usual were
sown; the shoats were not butchered
but kept over for brood sows; roller
mills were built; the mist had rolled
away and the farmer was again hap
DIV, not so much because he had
plenty of home raised rations but
because he had taken one step in
progressive farming. These lasted
until flour came down to $4.00 per
barrel. meat 6 cents and other sup
plies In proportion and s;oStolr sold
for Is cents, everybody had plenty
of money. The step taken a few
years previous was lost, the roller
mills were silent, the hog supply
dwindled to one or two for Christ
mas sausage, and butchers bought
their beef ready dressed from the
cities, pine thickets and old fields
were plowed up and planted iu cot
ton, guano liens ran up into mil
lions, we must just glut the mar
ket with cotton and we did.
This 1911 crop has performed the
feat we have been trying to make ii
perform for eight years. Now how
many of us see ourselves as the cot,
ton speculator and cotton mill men
see us. Viewing our present situa-
tion, let us thank Mr.. J. L. Minis
for his patriotic effort to keep us
from sinking even deeper. His prize
offered for the best acre of corn
has kept some of US from having
to buy corn.
Let us look at the situation and
see if our system is not rotten and
unstable. An all cotton crop il
ruinous from the fact that we have
us control our production, price ol
marketing. The cotton crop must
pay our bank account, our grocery
dry goods, guano, taxes, tuition anc
every other account. Now how is il
possible to meet all these bills with
8 cents cotton when it cost IL cents
to make it. Echo answers how!
1t is a fact that any farmer tha
does not raise his home supplies Ii
not farmer but planter. 1t is al
so we'll established fact that an!
agricultural country that is deficient
in live stock is not in progressive
way. One of the commonest thing
the writer observes, as he makes hi
rounds through the country is Gov
staked out on a terrace and the cal
has been sold for veal. This farm
may be two-horse or a l0-hors
farm but more than one COW is rarel.
seen. If we talk to the boss of thi
farm we find the question upper
most in his mind is the price of cot
ton, nothing else interest him. /
we should look around this planter
premises we will see one or two Ions
nose pine rooters in a 4 by 5 pen
this is his chance for meat. He ha
made his calculation on his cor
acreage. If he makes full crop
will be enough to last him until oat
come (if they Gomez. In the sout
west prior to the coming of the DO
weevil lands were worth twelve I
fifteen dollars per acre. Those peopl
up to that time, had never raise
anything but cotton and they, lik
us, were always up against som
hard proposition. With them, g