The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1911-06-23

TNHE writer Is confident that
there Is no more effective
process by which to seize and
hold the attention of farmers
and thinking men generally than that
of well considered, conservative COM
parlson.
The thought should be to CLEAN facts
from results developed and present
them in a plain. good sense manner.
Leave out exaggeration. Use facts
that will bear investigation and stand
the severest test to which any one
may desire to subject them. Alongside
the merchant and manufacturer, the
farmer needs to know at the close Of
each year the percentum of loss which
wind or weather or bad seed, unwise
methods and insects have caused him.
To consider business from that view
point will be to take stock or, If you
please. to make an accounting with
oneself. There is nothing like in
trospection. 1t Is good for the soul.
The same Is true Of business.
Business? Pray, would you declare
farming business? Assuredly. If
you know a praiseworthy pursuit in
life that involves a wider range of
business principles than farming,
name 1t.
Let us see What did the farmers of
the nine strictly cotton states-the
Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Missis-
sippi, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and
Oklahoma-accomplish in haymaking
In the years 1902 and 1909?
Those years are used for the reason
that the results won are of record
By comparing the results Of 1902 with
those of 1909 we may determine the
degree of progress attained and the
possibilities as to the future.
Here is a statement which tells a
farreaching, highly important story,
as newspaper men would designate the
array of facts:
1909 1902 Increase
Acreage ....... 2.261,O00 1169,OOO 1,O92,OOo
Production,
tons .......... 100000 1,s14,OOo $4,000
Average yield
per acre, tons LIS LA f.16
Value of crop. $26, 1740OO s14 900 $ 443, 600
Percentage Of increase, acreage, 1874;
production, 491; average yield per acre
I'LL; value Of crop, TIC.
Decrease.
1t will be remarked that in 1909 the
average yield of hay per acre was
sixteen one-hundredths of ton less
than in 1902. a decrease Of Iii per
cent. The record shows that the aver
age yield per acre in Louisiana in 1902
was larger than that of every state in
the Union except nine; that the yield
in Louisiana and Arkansas was great
er than in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and
Michigan; that Alabama's yield per
acre was larger than that of Ohio, In
diana, Michigan, Kentucky and Ten
nessee; further, that in 1909 the aver
age yield per acre in Alabama and
Louisiana was larger than in Ohio, In
diana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas
and Kentucky.
This comparison is presented for the
sole purpose of directing the attention
of farmers In the cotton states to the
fact that they can if they will make
all the hay they may need and hundreds
of thousands of tons for sale. All that
is necessary to be done is reasonably
to increase the hay acreage and by
fertilization increase the average yield
per acre.
There is no excuse in the world for
the purchase by cotton producing farm
ers of ton of hay grown outside their
own territory.
But what about the quality Of the
hay made by cotton producers2
Let's group few southern varieties
side by side, as it were, with the va
rieties Of hay producing grasses popu-
lar in the western states. Here is a
table which speaks for ITSELF
CURED PRODUCT, DIGEsTIBLE NU-
TRIENTS TO 100 POUNDS.