The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-09-11
Better Farming and Better Marketing


On the whole, insist that the av-
erage Southern farmer can make
$500 more a year by better farming
methods and $500 more a year by
better methods of cooperation and
marketing-and what l want us to
do is to get both $500 gains. An
extra $1,000 a year per farm is what
we must have to build up great
rural civilization in the South.
And instead of the man who is try
ing to get the extra $500 by co-opera-
tion and marketing throwing stones
at the man who is trying to get the
extra $500 by better farming, letthem
work together. That's what the
Farmers Union says, and it is tho
policy The Progressive Farmer is
always going to fight for.
To make our meaning clearer;
let us give another illustration. Cot
ton manufacturing is like farming,
in that in both industries there are
continual improvements in methods,
in machinery, and in marketing. Now
suppose a Southern cotton manufac-
turer were losing money and should
join his brother manufacturers to
market his goods comparatively.
That would mean more profit,
no doubt, and would be wise move,
just as it is wise move for our
farmers. But suppose this same
manufacturer kept on using out-of-
date machinery, unscientitic methods,
an uneconomical system of produc-
ton, while Northern manufacturers
kept on improving their methods,
using better implements and machin-
cry, etc., etc. And suppose his manu-
featuring paper kept on telling this
Southern manufacturer of improved
scientific methods Of production, of
labor-saving implements and machin-
cry that other manufacturers were
using and kept saying to him, We
must use as good methods as North
ern and Western manufacturers use
or we VIII be put out Of business.
But suppose he should then say, Il
am going to.stop reading that paper.
am tired Of so much teaching about
better methods OF manufacturing.
All | want is a new marketing plan.
/ can use the same sort OF manu-
featuring methods my grandfather
used" The best system OF market
ing on earth wouldn' t save that
manufacturer from bankruptcy, pov-
erty, and ruin.
It's the same way with our South
ern farmers. They may adopt the
best marketing system on earth, but
they must do better farming or lose
out in competitor with other sections.
We sometimes seem to fall into the
foolish notion that Southern farmers
are the only ones that are on earth.
The truth is, that the locomotive and
the steamship make us competitors
with farmers all over the world. A
man can get plenty of labor in India
to work cotton al ten to fifteen cents
a day and our Southern cotton must
compete with Indian cotton. In corn,
wheat, and all food and feed crops,
we must compete with the wide
awake farmers in the North and
West and in Canada. In growing
cattle, we must compete not only
with them, but with farmers in South
America-and it is said that next
year South America will even send
corn to the United States.
What The Progressive Farmer
wants us to do, what the Farmers
Union wants us to do, is to equal any
other section or country both in pro-
duction and marketing. Moreover,
we also have to consider another big
fact that cannot be too strongly en-
phasized. This is that we can never,
never market cotton or tobacco effec-
lively until we get better farming,
so farmers can grow their own corn
and feed and so escape the mortgage
and credit system. For it is an ad-
mitted fact that the system of buying
supplies now throws our staple crops
pell-mell on every autumn market,
and ruins every attempt at regulated,
systematical, scientific selling of
these crops.
Better farming, therefore, will help
us get better marketing, and both
plans mist go along together, as the
Farmers Union founders so wisely
foresaw. Clarence Poe in Progress
i've Farmer.