The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-04-08


crops be worth in obtaining advances
from banker or merchant. and what
will another 5000. .00o-bale crop of
cotton, on top OF the 1000. 900 bales
of last seasons crop which we are
carving over. be worth to the banker
or the merchant as basis for ad-
vances to the farmers?
On the other hand, where can YOU
find a better credit risk. Mr.. Banker,
Mr.. Merchant. than the man who
next fall will have plenty of corn.
hay. meat, molasses, canned stuff.
poultry, and milk and butter-who,
in short, will have everything he will
need right under his own vine and
fig tree? If neei be such man can
turn loose the last pound of his cot
ton to pay his banker, his merchant
and his doctor. But if he has raised
nothing to eat he must have the cot
ton to buy his supplies with, or ap-
plying it on his debts. He must go
straightway and make another and
bigger crop Of debts. Surely this is
plain. Business men ought to think
seriously about these things before
refusing to advance money and sup
plies to the home-liver because he
proposes to raise less cotton than
heretofore.
We believe every banker and every
merchant in the South ought to study
this question thoroughly. We believe
the bankers money would be used a
great deal more safely by the farmers
in buying few good animals. in pur-
chasing a supply of hogs. and in fenc-
ing and planting some good pastures,
than in financing the production of
big cotton crop or Of big crop OF
potatoes. cabbage and other kinds OF
perishable produce crops.
Need Permanently Changed System.
Let the cooperation of the business
men with the farmers be cordial and
helpful; but, instead of being de-
signed to merely tide them over a
temporary crisis, let it be directed
along the lines of permanent and sub
stantial change for the better in the
agriculture of the whole South. We
do not know how long the present
conditions are going to last; quite
possibly they will last for number
of years; but even though we knew a
change would come today, since we
are compelled to build new agricul-
ture in the South, let us build wisely
and we'll for all the years to come.
Such a system should be based upon
livestock, cotton. grain, forage and
farm dairying, and not upon a tenn
porary and extremely uncertain con-
glomeration Of vegetable. truck and
novelty crops of a dozen kinds.
This change can be made. Chang
ing a States, or even a nations agrl-
culture, once the right forces and in
luences are powerfully at work, is
not half so great task as might be
imagined. Denmark, for instance, at
the middle of the nineteenth century
was almost as great slave to wheat
as the South is to cotton; but today
dairy COWS, hogs and poultry have
taken the place Of the wheat, and
Danish bacon, butter and eggs are
being sold all over the British Isles
and continental Europe. But the
Danish farmers. we see, have been
diversifying along safe, sane and con-
servative lines. They began, in other
words, with things they had to have
at home and have stuck to those very
things from that good day to this.
We must do the same thing. There
must be system, concentration. intel
ligence, discernment, permanence
and safety in all that we do or under
take; and this sound and substantial
business policy on the part Of the
farmers must be backed up by the
loyal cooperation and the material
support of the bankers and the mer-
chants. Then let US all-farmers,
merchants and bankers and all hands
concerned-get together and make
long. steady determined pull along
these conservative lines of safety for
the agriculture of the South.-Pro-
gressive Farmer.
FOUR CARLOADS OF FORDS.