The Green Forest tribune., 1915-03-19
EXPERT ADVICE ON D|VERS|F|CAT|ON L. A. MARKHAM SUGGESTS PROD. UcTS FARMERS MAY RAISE
 WITH PROFIT.
WOULD REDUCE COTTON CORP
Claims 1t Simple Matter to Supply This Year a Market That Other Peo-
 pie Have Been Supplying.
By L. A. Markham.

1t is that other question, What can 1 find market for, and where is the market?"
 AnXiously hundreds are asking these questions; but really, if the farmers of Arkansas rise to their opportunity, we cannot see the slightest reason for alarm. We believe the states cotton crop can be reduced 35 to 50 per cent. and the land put in other crops with out our farmers being under the neces- sity of seeking a market outside the state, or outside of the home even, for single pound of anything except cot ton and possibly live stock - two things for which there is always a market. It is simply matter of sup plying this year a market that other people have been supplying for years and years. For more than a genera tion the meat and grain growers in the central West, the hay raisers of the Southwestern country, and the mo- lasses producers of Louisiana and South America have been finding good and unfailing market here. Why can we not, in the present emergency, supply the same products to the same market ourselves?
 We can, and those products-the products we have been buying and for which we know there is an absolutely safe market at home-are products we ought to raise. From different parts of the state news is beginning to come in that the farmers are preparing to plant big crops of Irish potatoes, cab sage, melons and perishable products of various kinds, and for men of ex- perfence who have an established trade, it is well enough to raise these things. But in our humble opinion the man without experience and with out an established trade had better let them alone At any rate it is ut- terly useless to take any chances on them, if we plant half cotton crop and raise in addition the things we have been accustomed to buy, there will be no land left for perishable products, except for family use
 l. A larger corn crop. We ought to raise enough corn to supply the fam fly bread and to run all the live stock on the place and as many more as we can command the means to buy. If all the work stock are fed on home raised corn, instead of dollar-a-bushel storebought corn and all the family supply of meat is raised and fattened at home, instead of being bought at the prohibitive prices of the retail store the crop will have to be fully twice as large as the average farmer is accustomed to produce.
 2. More pasturage and hay crops. Every farm ought to have a permanent pasture, and a few acres of the farm stead could not possibly be put to better use than to sod it to Bermuda grass for pasture early this spring. The Bermuda pasture would return more clear profit, acre for acre. than cotton would return, even with the limited number of live stock the aver age farmer would have to graZe. A cowpea crop, a peanut crop and a com- bination crop of sorghum and peas ought to be raised on every farm The hay which these crops would make take the place of the hay which comes. by thousands of tons, into the state every year from the fields and mea- dows of Texas, Oklahoma and the West
 3. A crop of cane for molasses. 1 Throughout the southern and central portions of Arkansas excellent crops of fine Louisiana ribbon cane can be grown along the branches and on the creek bottom lands. In the northern part of the state sorghum will have to be substituted, but it makes a good quality of molasses and is an absolute 1 ly certain crop.
 Fourth. A larger and better family vegetable garden. The garden will not take much land, but it is estimated by the best authorities that one-quar- ter of an acre of good land we'll tended in garden will produce more profit than any three acres of common field crops on the average farm
 The garden ought to be started right away. It should be made to take the place, in a very large measure, of the store account this year, and it ought to begin producing things to eat very early in the spring.
 After land has been reserved for all these things-things for which we do not have to seek a market, but have it right at home-the rest of the place. fin our humble judgment, ought to be given to the cotton crop. We believe that cotton, for the great majority oi us, ought to continue to be the prin- cipal money crop, just as it has been in the past, with the vitally important notifications that the acreage ought to be cut in half and livestock ought to be raised in greater and greater oumbers-