The Mena weekly star., 1916-12-28
DON'T GAMBLE ON
 COTTON FUTURES
Farmers Should Raise Everythino Possible to Be Consumed on
 the Place.

DOuIH has it been of greater importance that the farmers of the South enter the new year with a determination to ap- ply safe, well established principles of business to their farm manage ment, says W. c. Lassatter, acting al, rector of the Extension Division of the University of Arkansas and U. S. De partment of Agriculture. With the unusual high prices prevailing for corn, oats, hay, flour, meat, lard, butter, eggs, potatoes and all other products no cotton farmer can afford to buy any of them, even with cotton at FOG, when they can just as well be produced at home This era of high prices for all food and feed products makes it imperative that every farmer enter the new year of 1917 with the determination to grow at home everything possible that is to be consumed on the place
 Cotton, too, is now bringing high price, but what assurances have we that the price will be high in the fall of 1917? The man who this spring plants his entire farm to cotton with the expectation of high prices in the fall is gambling just as surely as Is the man who deals in cotton futures. Every man should be determined to start the new year right with the de- termination to avoid gambling on 1917 prices. Cotton when produced must be held or sold and cannot be con sumed These other food and feed prod. ucts needed on every farm must be consumed and it matters little how high the prices go so long as every farmer has produced an abundance of these products for his own use.
 The Successful Farmer Must Apply
 Business Principles
 It is imperative that the farmer make of himself just as successful a business man as his neighbor in town who sells him the goods and deals in his products. He should bear in mind therefore the following facts with ref erence to good business:
 The profits from a business are in. creased by reducing the cost of ope- rating the business and by increasing the cash income from the business. Producing at home the corn, oats, hay and other feed stuns, the meat, lard, milk. butter, eggs and vege- tables needed on the place very materially reduces the cost of making the cotton crop. These things, therefore, enable the farmer to secure greater profits from bis cot ten pseaaetian. To increase the cash income on the cotton farm it will be necessary to provide other sources of cash income and not depend on cot. ton by itself Live stock, and all live stock priducts are now unusually high, and these offer a splendid field for the progressive farmer. That this fact is recognized by farmers in Ar kansas is evidenced by the fact that over 1,500 head of breeding cattle, mostly registered have been introduc- ed into Arkansas in the last ten months Cattle, hogs. poultry, mules and horses offer good sources of in come for the cotton farmer who will use them as side line 10 his bust ness of cotton farming
 New Years Resolutions For Arkansas
 Farmers.
 So much of the success of the farm depends upon the system of manage ment that the College of Agriculture of the University of Arkansas believes that every farmer should start the year 1917 with the following New Years resolutions. not to be broken, but to be lived up to strictly through out the year:
 I hereby resolve to grow sufficient corn to do me twelve months.
 l hereby resolve to grow sufficient oats to last twelve months.
 hereby resolve to grow sufficient hay to provide amply for my stock for twelve months.
 l hereby resolve 10 provide a gar den that will furnish fresh vegetables twelve months in the year
 l hereby resolve to keep sufficient live stock to furnish milk and butter and meat and lard for the family
 I hereby resolve to keep sufficient poultry to furnish chickens and eggs for the family and perhaps a few to sell
 Above all I hereby resolve to so manage my farm this year that at least portion of it will be richer next year than it is this.
 With this creed borne in mind any good cotton grower can feel safe in putting the remainder of his land into cotton because the cost ol production will be less and the profits greater
 Play safe and start the new year with that system of farm management that will always insure living re- gardless of the price of cotton.
 FARMERS, ATTENTIoNl