The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1913-03-19

on the business sessions would result
This arrangement would give am
pie time for business and recreation
and would, we believe, meet with the
approval of majority OF the members
SAME COTTON. LESS ACRES.
The Progressive Farmer expresses
more concisely than we could ever
nope to our idea OF the policy which
the southern farmers should adopt in
growing cotton, viz. the cultivation
OF fewer acres but in such manner as
to produce crop equal that now
being raised on the present acreage
Though The Progressive Farmer does
not suggest what to do with the poor
land which is now being worked un-
proftably. we would go a little furth-
er and urge the necessity of cultivat-
ing this by systematic rotation of crops
50 that 1t will in time become equally
as fertile as the good land Is now Says
The Progressive Farmer:
Fewer acres in Cotton-more cot
ton to the acre! This to our thinking,
should be the slogan for cotton grow
ers this year-or any other year for
that matter.
THE folly OF an excessively large
crop has been repeatedly pointed out
and Is now generally recognized. Yet
these excessive crops are planted ev-
cry few years and low prices follow.
These, in turn, are followed by steren-
uous efforts to reduce the acreage; and
whenever the acreage is reduced, or
bad crop year comes, and the price
goes little above normal there is an
other general rush to plant every
available acre to cotton.
1--WE said last week that the only
way to make the cotton crop a steadily
profitable crop. would be to change
southern farming from the single
"sale-crop" basis TO the basis OF
system of diversified farming in which
livestock, food crops, feed crops and
soil-building crops should all be Civ
en- their proper places This we be-
lieye with all our heart; and il any
reader has not laid out his farming
to conform to systematic rotation
which considers first the fertility OF
his soil, he should begin this spring
to work out such rotation
This is the rational way permanent
ly to reduce the cotton acreage to a
reasonable size and to insure reason
able crops from the land planted. Il
is hard to find words ftly to describe
the suicidal folly of planting to cot
ton, year after year, 100000 acres
OF land that cannot reasonably be ex-
pected to produce a profitable crop.
Let us implore every reader of The
Progressive Farmer who has been
guilty of this folly in the past to see
that his part Of it ends this very year.
Plant to cotton this year only land
that will give you paying crop. 1t
only makes you poorer to tend those
low-producing acres
Then. on the land you plant use
every effort to make a good yield.
There is no reason ever to expect cot
ton prices high enough to make the
average yield profitable. 1t is folly
to say that instruction in cotton grow
ing is not needed. Good farming
yes, respectable farming-would dou-
bic the average yield; and as long as
3O.O00,000 acres OF land Is tended to
produce the crop that should grow on
100000 acres, the cotton farmer Is
going to be In poor shape to fight the
battle for scientific marketing sys-
TEN. What the farmer wants is not
SO much higher prices as larger pro-
tits, and his first duty is to make his
crop at reasonable cost. To do this
he must, first, stop wasting labor on
fields that cannot pay, and second,
make the fields he does tend produce
their crops at as loW cost as possible.
When he does this, some profit will be
assured; and he will soon be in
position TO finance his own cotton crop
and to help fix the price for it,"
fyEW