The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-12-01

cotton acreage would have resulted IN an even
more serious predicament for the cotton painters
during the summer season.
Another reason for the decline in production has
been the strong pressure brought to bear upon
the South to practice diversified farming. This
has resulted In some states in a considerable de-
crease in the cotton acreage in order that more
corn, wheat, oats. hay and other food crops might
be grown, though these conditions are more or
less local. The government is engaged in a CAM
paign to interest the South in feeding itself, and
many thousands of farmers who planted cotton
almost exclusively have embarked in diversified
farming in the last two years.
The idea back of the diversified farming move
me1t in the South is to make cotton the money
making crop, and to utilize corn and other staple
farm crops to pay the expenses of operating the
farm and to enable the South to produce enough
foodstuffs to feed itself. Thus, a tenant farmer
who has 40 acres in cotton would, provided he
p~racticed diversified farming successfully, make
from $500 to $4,000 a year, all from the sale of
his cotton. This would be net profit, but would
not, of course, include the increased value given
the land through the enrichment of the soil by
the corporation plan. The average tenant farm
er who practices crop rotation well can double
his cotton production within two or three years, 1t
has been demonstrated.
This gives food for speculation as to the posi-
bility which would follow the general adoption
of crop diversification throughout the South. The
average tenant farmer can grow barely more than
one bale of cotton to the acre, though with
proper farming and fertilization he can increase
this yield to three bales an acre, according to
farming experts. However, not all of the South
ern cotton fields are soil impoverished and 1t
would be doing the better-class cotton planter
an injustice to say that by proper farming he
could double or triple his cotton crop. OF the
35,OO0,O 900 acres planted in cotton this year, a
large percentage of the acreage could be so in.
creased In fertility as to double the yield by
1919, provided crop rotation was followed out
along the most modern lines.
With better farming the South will thus be
able to make its 80, 1000 acres or more do the
work of from 45, G, 900 to 50,OOO,O 900 acres under
the old plan. Any important reduction in acreage
therefore, is not to be looked upon with alarm
for there is certain to be a consequent increase
In production, barring unforeseen weather calami
ties. To this increased production must be added
the millions Of dollars added to the wealth of the
South by the other farm products grown in In
creased quantities.
The slogan, "The South Must Feed Itself" IL
the outgrowth of this campaign for crop rota
ton as ~practiced in the North and West.
The realization Of this dream would add hun
dreds of millions of dollars to the wealth of the
South alone, for almost all of the states will be
come producers instead of consumers. Despite
the enviable climate and the good soil possessed
by Alabama there are many counties which spend
one million dollars or more each year in import
ing outside foodstuffs. With the practice of di
VerSlHeu IdrHlnR II VIII De possible TOT every
county in the state to export as much corn ant
other farm crops as 1t now imports.
Some observers have taken the view, especially
since the entry of the United States into the
war has resulted in increased activity in the di
versified farming campaign, that a serious blow
is intended at King Cotton, but such is not the
case. The whole idea of the campaign is not to
uproot the chief Southern crops for the Northern
crops, but to rotate such crops as have soil
%enr1ching values, so as to enable the Southern
soil to produce even greater cotton crops. Be
cause of its revolutionary character, the diversi
fed farming campaign has not made much prog
ress except In Alabama, Georgia and neighborinl
states, which have been adding tens of million:
Of dollars to the value of their farm products
each year In recent years.
When the war sent corn and wheat to sky
high prices along with cotton, 1t proved much
easier to enlist the sympathies of the Southern
farmer, and many thousands of farmers are max
ing more money growing high-priced corn ant
wheat than they did in growing cotton. This IL
due chiefly TO the relief given the soil by croI
rotation, and such conditions will be even more
common next season, when the soil REBUILDING
process adopted by nature is given time to ge
well underway. Impetus has alone been giver
crop diversihcation by the shortage of labor. tn,
most of these crops require less labor than cot
ton and can be tended more ef1cientlv than nUtto,,