The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-11-11
vox PoPULI.
NNNANAANANAo = =
AGRICULTURAL BANKS ARE
NEEDED IN THIS COUNTRY

Editor Pensacola Journal.
| Mr.. Gillian SCOTS interesting letter
published in your last Sundays issue
under the heading Every acre of land
| should be cultivated" is quite in line
with what is uppermost in the minds
of Escambia County farmers
Mr.. Scott says the department Of
agriculture should take this matter up
and advise farmers what to grow right
away" which is very good indeed so
far as it goes, but what the department.
of agriculture, the chamber OF COM
merce, the Greater Pensacola club. the
bankers OF that city, The Farmers Tn
ion and every individual who has any
influence ought to do is TO keep work
ing hammer and tongs until some
means is provided to finance tie farm
ers Of Escambia County so that he can
put into practice a few chapters of the
many volumes of advice OF which ne is
now the recipient
Everybody is generous to a fault
with advice to the farmer and loud
in declarations of the fertility of Es-
Gambia county soil and a Greater
Pensacola" as soon as the country
back of it is settled up and developer
all of which listens welP' and we hope
to live long enough to see some of
these dreams materialize but I some
times wonder if the people who are
most outspolzen in their assurances
truly have the faith in the fertility of
our soil which they profess to have
and If they really know what our
farmers are up against How much
of all this talk is sincere and how
much pure dub-dub?
Everyone knows that we need more
acreage planted and cultivated under.
improved methods which our state AMI
county agricultural officials are ably
and effectively teaching We all know
that we need more hogs and cattle
of better breeds and that we should
raise our horses and mules at home
instead of sending away good money
each year to pay for a bunch of non
descripts and worn out plugs that are
discarded by buyers north of us Also
we need canneries to prepare cur
products for market
We know all this and much more
Even IL the farmers had never thought
of it themselves they have been told
of it for years by practically every
speaker in every organization in the
state which has had anything to say
on the subject Of agriculture
All this advice has been appreciated
and assimilated and many OF our FsS-
Gambia farmers are duly prepared fer
the next degree.
They are ready and eager to set
busy if somebody will just show ITEM
how to do the financing. The naS>sl
stores men, the lumbernen, the mer-
chant, the butcher. the baker and all
the balance of them have to be
and the bankers see that they
are taken care OF but when the qties-
ton of finance comes up IN the inter
est Of the farmer that seems To be
the dead-line where friendship ceases
and faith in the soil dissolves into
thin air.
Mr. Malone stated at the Greater
Pensacola luncheon that deposits in
the Pensacola banks are nearly as
great as in the big year of 1871 How
many farmers III Escamhia. county
could get dollar of this money on
the best OF security. admitting the land
to be worth anything?
II we are going to develop an agri-
culture country around Pensacola. we
have got to have agricultural banks
and il is up to the wise ones to sec
that we get them.
The farmers OF Escambia county are
hard working and astonishingIy pro-
gressive considering their handicaps. /
but they are the poorest farmers in /
the matter of funds that / have ever
seen and their poverty is nothing TO
be wondered at when we consider that
they we're poor at the start and have I
been systematically robbed for gene
rationS uE=eee the old order OF things |