McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1913-08-29
TALKS TO THE FARMER
By ----------------
IF. PECK, Com. Of Agriculture.
What is The Trouble With Ten
nesSee

VCSSCC
We import into Tennessee every
year wheat. corn, oats, hay, rye, bar
ley, apples, potatoes. milk, butter,
meat and cheese, all staple products
in Tennessee, and all can be produced
right here in the state as we'll and as
cheap as they can be produced any
where. The money paid out that
leaves the state runs into millions of
dollars. Why should this money leave
the state when the products it pays
for can be produced better here?
Since earliest childhood we have
heard orators grow eloquent over our
matchless resources, the fertility of
our soils, the abundance and purity
of our waters, the luxuriance of the
grass on our meadows, our fields of
golden grain, our herds of cattle, our
fiocks of sheep. To hear them one
would think Tennessee was a verita-
BILE Ell Dorado.
The pictures they portray are pleas
ing and possible. Our Creator has
made them possible, but what have
we been doing? Have we been using
as we should this possible Ell Dorado?
1t does not appear that we have,
when we enumerate the many things
we are importing into Tennessee. 1t
does not look like it when we travel
over the state and see many evidences
of abuse this favored land has been
subjected to. We see CALLED and
washed hillsides. We see weeds and
briars growing where there should be
waving the golden grain.
The herds and hocks are few and
far between. There is much we find
that does not fit in the pictures we
have heard so eloquently word paint
ed so many times.
| would prefer to follow in the same
vein if the facts would bear me out,
but you know they would not. So
long as we import the staples we now
import when they should and could be
produced here, we had better face the
music, find out the cause, and try to
remedy it.
The cause, broadly stated, is want |
of interest in the agriculture of the
state. There has been much activity
for several years in the development
of our mineral ard timber resources.
This has necessitated increased mile
age of railroads. With the railroads,
came manufacturing establishments.
New cities and towns have grown up,
all increasing the consumption of farm
products and at the same time de-
creasing farm production because the
demand for labor was large
ly supplied from our farms. Then,
too, the public schools in the past
have educated the boys and girls
away from the farm instead Of to the-t
farm. The country schools have been
neglected in measure. The new, in
experienced teachers have been sent
to the country schools. The boys AMI
girls have had held up to them as
ideals men and women who have be-
come famous in some Of the profess
sions and encouraged to qualify them
selves for professional careers.
Farmers, if they secured education
al advantages for their children, had
to move to the towns and villages.
The boy and girl neither had chance
to see or hear anything to encourage
them to stay on the farm. 1t is not
to be wondered at that they wanted
TO get away from the farm and it is
easy to understand why we are i'm
porting so much that we should be
producing In Tennessee, and that be-
fore another five years we will be
producing in Tennessee. |
You have heard it said, "There is
no lane so long without a turn" We
are rounding the turn. The high cost
of living is helping US. The faithful
few have been working long for bet
ter agriculture. They have succeeded
in interesting a few in different por-
tions of the state. Those few have
been improving their land and prac-
ticing modern, scientific methods.
Now with the prevailing high prices
and their increased production they
are prospering.
The newspapers always in the fore
front of progress, are lending their
aid in popularizing agriculture as a |