Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1915-02-19
FOR BETTER FARMING
Southern Farmer Urged to ADOPT
Diversification.
Department Of Agriculture Gives Plan
for Reducing Living Expenses by
Growing Many Things Which
the Family Needs.


The secretary Of agriculture in writ.
ing recently to cotton exchanges in
the South. pointed out that the only
really efficient way to prevent a re-
currence of the crisis which the col
lapse of the cotton market created
was for the southern farmer to diver
sify his agriculture. Hitherto the cash
returns from successful cotton crop
have blinded many farmers to the proof
Of the old proverb that it is folly to
put all your eggs in one basket. They
have devoted all their land and all
their time to the production of cotton,
and have purchased their own SUP
plies at cost much greater than they
could raise them themselves.
The essential weakness in this prac-
tice has long been apparent to agri-
cultural experts, but their efforts to
secure more diversity in farming have
hitherto met with but little success
1t is difficult to change habits Of
many years standing, and the man
who has been accustomed to grow cot
ton and only cotton is reluctant to
remodel his own farm. even after he
has become convinced of the necessity
of so doing.
To help meet this situation, the
United States department of agricul-
ture has prepared a series of articles,
of which this is the first, on the sub
ject of diversified farming in the
South. These articles will treat of
the raising of produce for home con-
sumption in vegetable gardens. potato
patches, etc.; of such crops as corn,
beans, peas and other legumes, which
are both useful in themselves and may
be made to enrich instead of impover-
ish the soil; and of poultry, dairy
products and live stock for home use
and as a cash crop to serve as a
substitute, in part or in whole, for
cotton.
By the adoption of diversified farm
ing, the farmer may reasonably expect
to achieve several important objects:
1. He may very materially reduce
his own living expenses by growing
on his own land a great many of the
things which his family needs and
which he now purchases at the store,
paying, of course, a profit to the re-
taller and the middleman.
2. He should save a very consider.
able proportion of his outlay on fer
tilizers by growing crops that add nj
trogen to the soil, and by keeping live
stock to enrich it with manure
8. He should grasp the opportunity
afforded by the increasing demand for
meat of all kinds to turn large part
of his crops into stock to be sold to
slaughtering houses at a profitable
price. He should place himself in a
position where his entire prosperity
is not dependent upon the demand for
any one article, when the strength of
that demand is determined by circum-
stances entirely out of his own con-
troll. In other words, he should have
more than one thing to sell. All this
seems very simple, but up to the pres
ent time comparatively few farms in
the South have been managed with
these ends in view.
In a speech before the National
Dairy Show association in October,
1914, the secretary of agriculture stat
ed that the average Iowa farm has six
mich cows; the average South Caro-
lima farm has one. In Iowa, the av-
erage farm has IS hogs; in North
Carolina and Alabama, less than five;
in South Carolina less than four. In
poultry the difference is even greater.
One hundred and eight is the average
In Iowa; less than twenty in North
Carolina and Alabama, and less than
seventeen in South Carolina. The re-
suits of one investigation show that
in Georgia the average farm home
produced less than two eggs a week,
less than two-thirds of an ounce of
butter. and twothirds of a pint of
milk a day, and that the cotton crop
of the entire South did not pay for its
food and feed bill. Thus it has been
estimated that Texas imports annual
ly more than $50.000,OOO wprth of
wheat, corn and oats; Georgia more
than $24,000,000; South Caroliisa more
than $20,000,000. and ~ southern
states more than $175,0OO,0OO.: In ad-
dition, more than $4s,00O.OOO Virth of
meats, dairy and poultry prod5SRs are
imported each year.
To do away with this condS lon of
affairs is one of the chief purp Bses of
diversified farming. 1t is not neces-
sary for the South to compete in
these crops with other regions in the
open markets of the world. but the
home demand can be met by home
production, and enough left over to
form the basis of very profitable
stock raising industry.
In this connection it is noteworthy
that already $4,000 square miles, or
an area that is greater than that Of
Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mis-
sissippi added together, has been
cleared of the cattle tick. and that IL
the work is continued at the same
rate Of speed. the whole country
should be free of the pest within fif.
teen years. The cattle tick has, in
the past, been one of the greatest
drawbacks to the raising of live stock
In the South. 1t has now been. con-
clusively shown that It can be COM
pletely done away with, and with the
growing appreciation of the part that
live stock plays in sound agriculture.
there is no reason why this industry