The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1911-11-17
TIMELY POINTERS TO
MISSISSIPPI FARMERS
ADDRESS DELIVERED BY G. h. AL
FORD AT ATrALA FAIR.
Weevil Second Only to That of
Raising Variety of Products.

Raising Variety Of Products.
I gladly accepted the invitation of
dress the people of Attala and adjoining
counties on the opening day of your
splendid agricultural fair.
/ am glad that you farmers and bus
mess men realize the fact that agri-
cultural fairs play a very important
part in the development of the farming
interests. l am glad that you have
an agricultural fair and that you have,
to a large extent, introduced educational
features and that you ave in the main
eliminated all demoralizing and worth
less features sueh as to some extent
characterize most of our fairs at the
present time.
I am before you as the representative
of Hon. Bradford Knapp, special agent
in charge of the Farmers Cooperative
Demonstration Work, Bureau of Plant
Industry.
Standing as | do at the geographical
center of the state, 1 am somewhat
disposed to deliver a short message to
the people of Mississippi. I desire to
say in the beginning that I am not
gloomy. 1 am happy. 1 ave sublime
faith in Mississippi and in Mississip-
plans. No state in the Union is more
literally endowed with all the conditions
favorable to agriculture. Every acre of
our Ian is susceptible of cultivation and
high productivity and the rainfall is
enough for maximum crops. Our soil is
of such varied constituency that intelli-
it possible to produce wealth of crops
seldom equalled in all the world. All
advantages which make in favor of agri-
culture apply with equal force to its
allied industry, the stock raising bust
ness.
The state not only contains the great
est variety of hardwood, but it also con-
tains in great abundance and perfection
that most important class of timbers
which furnishes th~ree-quarters of our
lumber consumption-the pine, the cy-
press and the cedar. Thousands of acres
are occupied by oak and hickory, all
of such a chaacter as to furnish the
kind of lumber that the makers of farm
implements, wagons, machinery and fur
niture need. And under the present con-
ditions we will no longer content our
selves with the production Of raw ma
terial. We will manufacture lumber
close to the place of production and
thereby help to create that variety in
industry which makes a state rich and
populous.
There are two problems before us for
solution. The most real and vital prob
lem before us just at this time is to
get our farmers to grow more corn, oats,
wheat, hay, rice, sugar cane, potatoes,
vegetables and fruits of all kinds, to
plant more leguminous crops and win
ter cover crops, use large areas of lane
for thoroughly good permanent pastures,
to raise plenty of poultry, hogs, mules,
horses, cattle, sheep and other live stock
for home use and to sell at a price the
people in our towns and cities can af-
ford to pay. The second problem before
us for solution is to enable our farmers
to make cotton under boil weevil condi-
tions in competition with other cotton
growing countries and at a price the
world can afford to pay for it's clothing.
I call your attention for a short time
to the first problem.
We have been rai:ing cotton to pay
for corn, oats, bacon, lard, mules, horses
and other farm products. bought on a
credit with the profits of several middle
men, railroads and credit merchants add
ed. That practice always means a poor
people. The too exclusive culture of cot
ton has worn out our soils. Poor soil
always means a poor people.
If we will produce corn, oats, rice,
sugar cane, COW peas, soy beans, velvet
beans, peanuts and other leguminous
crops, vegetables and fruits of all kinds,
winter cover crops, grasses of all kinds
for good stock to Craze on, raise plenty
of poultry, hogs, mules, horses, cattle,
sheep, goats and other stock for home
use and to sell the producing capacity
of our WORKOUT cotton lands will be
more than doubled in three years and
the money obtained for cotton will be
kept at home and deposited in the banks
and the rate of interest lowered to say
six per cent, because of the abundance
of money, and we Will behold prosperity
in every department of the commercial
world.
If we want to solve the first problem
we must increase the fertility of our
soils. Our greatest asset is the fertility
of our soil. just in proportion in which
our soils are worn out in that proper
ton is our prosperity diminished. No
living man has ever acquired the art of
growing good crops of grain, grasses,
cotton or vegetables on poor land. It
takes good land as well as good prep
a%ration, prolific seed, and intensive cul-
tivation to make large rcops.
A fertile soil is deep, well drained,
full of humus and contains plenty of
plant food in an available form.