Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1914-11-18
TIMELY ADMoNITIoN.

County Demonstration Agent
Lott Deplores All Cotton
System And Urges Diver
ffiication and Live Stock.
zks our people are going through
8 trying ordeal for the second time
Iinsthe last decade, we deem it time
Ilysxo offer some advice, not that
Iwesfeel competent but because of a
Iconsnming desire to be of some
l5serSice 10 our fellow farmers. In be-
l:ginning this article we have search.
led our vocabulary for word ex.
pressive enough to describe our
system OF agriculture and nothing
occurs more explicit than rotten, !"
mot on the surface only but through
and through.
This the greatest of climates, sea.
I,sons long enough to grow anything
texeept tropical fruits, soils, adapted
tofall crops, yet we have only one
money crop, cotton. Cotton to pay
grocery bills. bank notes, interest
Ton mortgage notes, tuition, taxes,
church expenses, labor, etc, and if
sanything happens to this all impor-
liant and expensive crop the bottom
falls out at once, just as it has done
Ithis fall. Our patience becomes
Unread bare and we almost have
nervous prostration when we hear
farmers abusing the Federal govern
I5ment because, it won't flood the
south with millions to take the
present crop OF cotton off our hands
Eand give us an opportunity to buy
millions of dollars worth of fertili-
aI|sers to make millions and millions
l5more of cotton to fuss and rangle
hover in the fall Of 1915.
The remedy lies in the realm of
l|conmon sense-diversify. Any
Ifsfarmer who depends upon any other
Isaction of the country TO supply
him with rations for man and beast
Isiis not afarmer but planter. A
IIcitizen of Johnston recently told
iane of an incident that came under
This observation. Two men planted
tcrops after their notions, one made
+ one hundred bales of cotton and the
Iothef one bale. The hundred bale
I'D not pay ont, the one bale
+ fnan had his and did not owe one
cent on it. Who vas the farmer?
EThe one-bale man raised every
thing he needed. The hundred
bale man bought everything.
Present conditions have caused
our people to set up and take notice.
1t means better agriculture than
The south has ever had. This sys-
tenn, even if it did come by law,
means more grain, oats, wheat, corn,
more hay, more live stock, all
money products, something to sell
every month. Now don't stop to
think about how many yearlings,
,I,igs, kids and lambs you can fur.
nish your local butcher-cut that
out and make your calculations on
,ow manv Won can furnish for the
first car load, shipped from your
nearest railroad station to some
larger market. You won't have to
ship on uncertainty; whenever there
is car of marketable live stock in
your community let the fact be
known to packing houses and buy
ers will come after it.
Make every thing you need on
your farm and some to spare DR..
all the cotton as surplus, was and
Seaman A. Knapp's idea what a
farmer should and could do. Those
of us who knew DR.. Knapp, remem-
Der him as the greatest friend the
farmer ever had and his work as a
great benefactor, is now carried on
lin South Carolina by Prof. w. w.
Lor g. Prof. Long and his men in
the field are working a revolution
| in the system OF agricultural in this
state and if the farmers Of the state
will heed the good advice given
by him through his men better
times are sure to com, in the near
future. Cover all your land with
something green for the winter,
save all the winter legumes you can
get, plant all the peas you can.
grow your nitl logen. Plant QUE
+h;r1 CORN ono.third Grain and the