Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-11-05
UsEJ!ElL1s3 K<IIUI&lZ573 [ilIl'l.iiit9;}I!Cij
3IIld1ll1

sugar planters? The man who plants corn and feeds it to his cows and hogs should lie awake nights. The llongshoreman at New Orleans who earns his living unloading railroad cars and loading ships is working as hard today as ever. He may not be handling cotton, he may not be stow ing away sugar, but he is loading corn and rice and other products Q! the fields, he is as busy as ever, il not at one cargo. at another. And despite all the talk, Louisiana is sui fering today perhaps less than any of her Southern neighbors as a re- suit of the war. And all because her farmers practice diveSsifica.ion.
 Arkansas farmers today have ths, same opportunity to abandon the old styles and try the new. Corn will grow as easily and be just as prolific here as in Louisiana. The products of the garden-the potatoes, beans, cabbage, and other such stuff for home consumption-are easily ob- tainable. Hogs and cattle can be grown with far less trouble and fac greater cash return, than cotton. All this will be demonstrated to the fac- mo re, iN h0r hu hn agricultural experts who will spend two days in Jefferson county next week, with this one purpose in view ito show the farmer how he can make himself independent. Jefferson county farmers have the chance now, and they should profit by it.
 It is a drite saying that if the farmer is prosperous, everybody else is comfortably fixed. But no farmer can be prosperous. who does not practice diversification-not even the big plantation owner, who depends solely on one crop, and whose fail- |ures are large in equal proportion as his successes are great. The small farmer must eat at home-his tab.e must bear the weight of paeat and vegetables grown in his own field and garden. If he buys in cans, he pays several middlemen the profit. Let him raise his own corn, his own beans. his own potatoes; let him feed some of his corn to his own COWS and hogs. He will then have meat and milk, butter and cheese. It costs virtually nothing to have a/few fruit trees, which furnish something more than shade, and the products of which can be eaten fresh in season land canned or dried the remainder oi 1 the year.
 All this takes work, to be sure. But raising cotton is no sinecMre. Ever the illiterate negro farmer car understand that he is bet r off by living at home. working ten hours : !, day six days a week, through diversi afication, than he is living on eannat land salted stuff. working ten hours { iday six days a week, to raise scottos he sells at 6 or cents-at $25 or 8; ] per acre.
 That tie farmers will be convinced seems assured. The financial end o !, the proposition ought be just as easii' arranged. For generations, there he been a custom for bankers and bi: supply merchants to advance to tn cotton farmer money and necessities while tue farmer is growing his croa To be absolutely fair to both side in such arrangements, it must be aa mitted that the farmer did not masx' so large profits out of such deals, a did the man who furnished thu money. The man who advanced tn sinews of war could not lose, an, most times his profits were iarss because he was able to carry ove from one year to another. if neces sary. the cotton he received in settle ment. The man who raised the cot lton had no choice-whAa sett!einan .ltime came, he was compelled to set tie. whether eotton was worth
 cents pound CT l5 cents. 1'ne year when the farmers received more taaI i9 or 10 cents for their cottoR. durin lthe fast quarter century, can D copnted on ope's fingers.
 But today it seems even the bank;e jaad the supply man are of the opin ion that the custom must be chang .s...--...--$--.a