The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1911-09-28

sand, 1t Is the "gold mine of th'
SOUTH" especially so in the alIuvia
lands. Pastured to well-bred cattle
lie will return a rental equal to thai
of the best cotton land of the state
venture the assertion that there
is not an acre of blue grass north
or south of the Ohio river that viii
carry as many pounds of beef as
we'll set and decentiy cared for acre
of Bermuda in the loamy lands or
the Mississippi river; rid these
lands of the cattle tick and vel
bred cattle weighing 1900 pounds
can easily be produced at three
years old without other feed thar
the stalk fields In the winter and
Bermuda the rest of the year.
have myself raised a 1900 pound
steer at three years old In this way.
We can raise, and I am doing 1t,
hogs as cheaply as any section OF
the country. We can pasture them
every month in the year on green
crops, such as oats, .cIovers, vetch,
soy beans. peas, peanuts. etc., a
small amount of corn being fed all
the time. They can then be fn-
ished either by hogging off the
corn and pea field or in the dry lot.
I am raising over 700 hogs this
year, each one being fed some corn
daily. Ny hog crop will exceed
the value of my cotton crop for the
present year. Good hogs and cat
tie, when our section gets supply
of them. will soon bring the large
packing houses to us and they will
then be as much of a money crop"
as cotton is now.
I don't think that there is a
reasonable doubt of the fact that
cotton raising. as formerly practiced
In the valley, is thing of the past.
Live stock and diversified staple
crops must find a large place in our
agricultural system and cotton
place, but not the all important
one. Every planter, no matter
what his circumstances, should be-
gin at once to inform himself both
on the raissss and marketing Of
live stock, and when he feels that
be knows something about them,
should buy some well bred cattle
and hogs.
Another thing I must call at
tention to, Is that no man can ex-
pect to make profitable grain crops.
either corn or oats. from an old
cotton plantation until he has i'm
proved the land by leguminous
crops. such as COW peas. clover,
soy beans. etc.; the clean culture
of the cotton crop has robbed the
land of Its vegetable matter and
profitable crops of corn cannot be
raised without this. I believe it
will require at least three years to
make such cotton land profitable
corn land.
am convinced that any man
who makes study of his business
and who adopts modern methods
has nothing In the present situa-
tion to be discouraged about.
I believe that I have successfully
transformed a large cotton planta-
ton into a profitable diversified
farm. For staple farm products,
my conditions are certainly no more
favorable than those of the average
cotton planter. At no time in the
past ten years have I felt more op-
timistic about the future or more
to put my money into diversified
farming in the Mississippi valley
than right now.
This Is the time for courage,
hustIing and thinking and not for
bemoaning the fact that radical
change of method has been forced
upon us. w. S. Lowell In Vicks-
burg Herald.
Sues Road for sSO.OOOO Damages.
xy.-a-a 49, &C.