The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1914-02-20
''''" "''''' PRofI1AbLf.
". J. Davis Declares Stock Raising
More Profitable than Cotton
In Mississippi.

Much is being said at the present
time about the possibilities of stock
raising in Mississippi. Everybody knows
that Mississippi pastures are az good
snd last longer than those of the North
and Middle West. The winters are
much shorter and not 30 severe here;
the price of meats and the boil weevil
are waking the people up all over the
Gotten belt. Below is what w. J. Da-
Wis of Jackson, Miss, said at a recent
meetind of cattlemen. Davis is ne the
orist. He has succeeded. His success
and his fame extends far beyond Mis-
sissippi:
"Now, my friends. l belonged to the
cotton grower class for IS years, and I
feel that have a perfect right to say
what please about them. They are a
shiftless, Indifferent, careless, waste
to make a crop of cotton is a 6-inch
Brlndley pillow and a sweep; part of q
set of harness; a piece of barbed wire;
q 3Oc negro, and a cheap mule-and
they are ready to start a crop, after
arranging for a line of credit made
easily obtainable by the all-evil posi-
bility of the worst law ever entered on
our statute books, the crop lien law.
As you can readily see, education as
farmers is necessary.
The farmer builds up and improves
his land yearly.
A cotton grower with his method
makes his land poorer and less valuable
c' cry year.
All our objects are to make money.
With no cotton boil weevil, price of
cotton 13c pound, plenty of no-account
negro labor and mules, cotton planters
can all sit on their front galleries and
all get rich, but the reverse is looking
all Mississippians squarely in the face.
l don't think the government experts
can live long enough to repay the dam
ages done in south Mississippi, advising
our people to continue to plant cotton.
They can do, l admit, what they say,
at a cost of zoe a pound.
Many of our old men are set in their
ways and nothing can ever be done Or
said to help them. My advice is to try
and educate and induce the young men
to return to the farm. Now l don't
mean to the cotton patch. If this can
be done We are on the road to success
in agriculture and cattle raising.
There has never been q time when
the Southern states had an opportunity
offered them equal to cattle raising.
Now that the West has abandoned the
ranges, the beef of the world will have
to be supplied by the small farmer.
You should raise cattle on a farm if
only worth half they are now worth, as
with cattle your land improves and year
by year makes more crops. Without
this your land grows less and less of
anything you plant.
Educate your young men to be farm
ers, not cotton growers.
Now, l have been farming for four
years, and am no longer a cotton grow
er. make corn, oats, hay, peas and
sorghum. l use four large silos for en-
silage, and l keep a large herd of cat
tie. l raise W good crops On the same
land. My cattle are well wintered, moi
on zane brakes, but on good corn, 81.
lage and hay. My horses are fat and
able to pull Pinch plows 6 inches deeK
in the fall of the year. ] do not use
.barbed wire for traces any more. My
oats are now looking fine; expect t
grow them all the winter and this viii
make me good calves.
OF course, you understand, l dom
raise any ticks. They are very unprof
table to a farmer. In many cases the!
suit cotton growers"