The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-12-28
MESSAGE TO PEANUT FARMERS.
Plant Soy Beans and Make the Pea
nut Trust Pay Fair Prices.

At this time peanuts are bringing
very little more per pound than cot
ton seed, and not in the least keep
ing pace with cotton and tobacco IN
price, l write therefore to remind
our peanut farmers Of the import
ance of cutting peanut acreage an
other year and devoting a part OF
the land to soy beans. This season
has demonstrated that the peanut
trust, which completely controls the
price, is determined not to give the
farmer a fair price, compared with
other staple crops. With cotton SELL
ing at 20 cents per pound, cotton
seed at 81 per bushel, and tobacco
correspondence high, peanuts should
bring 5 cents per pound. The farm
ers would have been satisfied at a
price of to 1-2 cents per pound,
but they are not satisfied when they
are Disseminated against as at pres
ert.
In fact, it is rather ''bitter pill'
to grow crop as completely con-
trolled by the trust methods as are
peanuts. The writer knows of
case in which farmer visited sever
al large cleaners and tried to get
a price on several thousand bags OF
peanuts he controlled for the Union.
The cleaners would not even make
him an offer, but told him they had
buyers in that territory, and if those
farmers wanted to sell, they could
sell to their agents. This indicates
the attitude of the trust towards the
farmers. 1t shows how essential it is
for the farmers to, own the cleaning
establishments if they are to be in
dependent.
The territory in which peanuts are
grown is especially suited to grow
ing soy beans. 1t is much easier to
get stand on sandy loan soil. Lime
is not so necessary as for peanuts.
The cotton seed oil mills are adjust
ing their machinery for crushing
beans. The bean meal is even rich
er, both as a stock feed and fertilizer
than cotton seed meal. The soy
bean oil is rapidly growing in popu-
larity as culinary product, and in
the manufacture of paints, soaps,
etc. The short crop OF cotton will
cause the mills to be short of seed
for crushing. This will necessarily
increase the demand for beans.
want to urge the farmers in the pea
nut territory where peanuts are be-
ing grown so extensively, to intro
duce the soy bean into their rotation,
grow it on the same commercial scale
as peanuts, decrease the acreage OF
peanuts and at the same time pro-
vide a rotation which is great deal
more conducive to maintaining soil
fertility than the system of growing
peanuts on the land every second
year. For man who plants twenty
acres to the horse I can think of no
better rotation than five acres each
to corn, peanuts, cotton and soy
beans, with a winter cover crop in
troduced into the rotation whenever
possible.
This rotation is especially we'll
adapted to Eastern North Carolina.
It will certainly add to the fertility
of the farm, and can be made ex-
ceedingly profitable. With the in
vention of the soy bean harvester,
which saves from Is to 80 per cent
of the beans, the, soy bean industry
has received a great impetus. The
waste beans, after the harvester has
been over the field compare quite ia
vorably with the waste peanuts in fat
tening pork, and can be consumed by
the hogs with a great deal less in
jury to the land as the hogs don't
have to root for them. Beans are
easily cultivated, take from the soil
practically the same elements of
plant food as peanuts, and leave the
nitrogen fixing bacteria where they
grow. From 20 to 40 bushels per
acre can be grown with little diff
Guilty. And beans are selling at