Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1911-04-12
HOW TO MAKE COTTON A REAL
KING.

Raleigh, y. c., Progressive FarmerO
Cotton is the greatest crop Of the
South and mus, remain so. 1t is a
definitely assured fact now that the
coming Of the boil weeyil, while It
means in most cases a great change
in methods, will not stop the raising
of cotton. Diversified farming must
follow in the wake of the weevil, and
should precede it in the sections not
yet infested; but diversified farming
in the South means, not less cotton,
but mora smaller acreage TO be
sure, but a much larger yield per
acre and a gradually increasing total
crop.
We have said before, and we be-
lieve it still, that cotton is the great
est money crop in the word, and We
have also said, and still believe, that
when the farmers of the South once
realize the possibilities Of this crop
when properly grown, the Cotton Belt
will become the richest agricultural
section of America.
Before this can come to pass
though, there must be some radical
changes from the methods of farming
now in general use. Not only must
the one-crop system be abandoned,
suitable rotations adopted and more
live stock raised, but there must be
much better methods Of handling the
cotton crop itself There is a widely
prevalent idea that the average South
ern farmer knows all there is to learn
about cotton growing; but one may
well doubt if the facts in the case
sustain this view. The average cot
ton crop is not profitable crop; and
the increase in the average acre-yield
of cotton in the last fifteen years has
been only 3.8 per cent Almost every
other crop in the South makes a bet
ter showing. The boil Weevil accounts
for some of this, it is true, but in
states not yet reached by the weeyil,
the average yield has increased very
little. More to blame than the boil
weevil is the old notion that cotton
will grow anywhere and that anybody
can grow cotton. Haven't we believed
that the negro, with one scrubby
mule, an excuse for a turning pillow
and a sweep or two-that any negro
thus equipped and with just enough
intelligence to scatter the seed in a
furrow, chop the plants to a stand,
and run around the rows, was fully
competent to make a crop of cotton ?
Have we not said that the negro could
not learn to handle improved machin-
cry and was unfit to work any animal
except a mule, and so made practical
Ideally no efforts to teach him better
methods of farming, but allowed him
to go on running the land with his
slipshOd methods, raising little crops
of cotton at great expense? Then has
not this cotton been forced on the
market in the fall and so helped to de-
press the prices Of the entire crop?
All this must be changed. We have
no patience, in the first place, with
the idea that the negro-the average
negro on the Southern farm-can not
be taught TO handle better stock and
more complicated machinery We even
believe that he can be taught to take
interest in the maintenance of soil
fertility, and can learn the essential
factors in the working out of this
problem. But these things the white
farmers Of the South must chiefly
teach him, and before they can do this
they must do two other things: %
They must learn them for themselves,
and (2) they must abolish the ire
sponsibie negro cropper, quit turning
their lands over to him to be worked
with inefficient equipment and in any
sort Of manner. If the land is to be
worked by tenants these tenants
should be furnished proper equipment,
they should be compelled to farm the
land, not merely work it in cotton,
and the lease, wherever possible,
should be for a term of years instead
of for a single season.
Big cotton crops can never be made
on poor lands, with one-horse equip
ment, and by men who have no knowl-
edge of any save the crudest methods
Of ia runinp