Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1917-01-26

| NAASS ~ 0O4ANP lCAAAO " III
plenty of humuS requires very
\ little cultivation, and Fortunately
: these lands are rich in humus
; material.
| intend also to try to make OF
every man | work with a sort OF
seed improver by personally
helping them in harvest season
tag the choicest stalks. My
plan for another year is to have
four or five assistants; and each
assistant cooperate with from 5
to s farmers, and no demonstra-
tlon more or less than 10 acres.
use 10 acres because it is a
good unit to use where oxen are
worked, and is almost what one
team can well handle. For each
demonstration the state lends
the farmer | plow, l disc har.
row. section harrow. l planter,
l Gee Whizz cultivator and |
Georgia stock cultivator. | am
expecting these demonstrations
to average close to 1000 pounds
of cotton per acre, and | am con-
{ fident they will do it.. The third
year | hope to have 20 assistants
and cooperate with from 100 to
$50 farmers. The greatest les
sons to teach these people are to
use good seed and prepare the
land thoroughly. If l. fail in my
work here to satisfy the govern
ment it will not be because |
neglected these two factors. And
you farmers of Mississippi who
have access to splendid farm
journals, could have good farm
ers' Institutes every year, if you
wanted them, need to prepare
the soil better and to improve
your own farm seed. How many
farmers in Mississippi who read
this letter could fill an order for
100 bushels of fieId-selectad seed
corn-corn planted from care
fully chosen feld-selected seed?
| want to repeat what I've said
before: that this is the most de-
lightful climate I've ever eXper-
fenced The days are fine and
just warm enough to make the
shade,a little inviting, and the
nights are cool enough for two
lankets. Every day seems to
try to attain a nearer perfection
than the one before it. The at
mosphore is full of the fragrance
of yellow magnolia blossoms and
the sweetness of orange flowers.
The hills are green for miles and
miles with splendid grasses for
thousands of cattle. When |
travel along the railroads | spend
hours on every trip day dream
lng of the greatness of these
hillf some day. | see them, not
as they are now, rugged with
balo growth shrubs and gnarled
and twisted little trees, but clear
ed of this short and scattering
growth of shrubs and smooth and
green with grass grazed off by
cattle and sheep in every valley {
and on every hill. This state
could produce cotton enough to-
lay on the lands already we'll {
'odded in grass to give an in t
,ome more than six times the !
yalue of Mississippi's cotton crop. I
3efore many years Brazil will be &
to feed the congested i
sections of Europe. Ten years
rom now you will read of a de- q
'elopment in this country that j
will read like a romance. | am t
,lad | am here. | am glad I've '
cen a little Of this immense S
euntry, so that when the whole a
world knows and reads about the C
marvellous progress being made a
lere, | shall be better able then t
o appreciate it all. 7
An English engineer told me n
hat he had just finished a sur t
ey of the iron deposit in sight
f this city, and that there are b
early 400 million tons of iron e
re within ten miles of here il
he highest grade ore he ever a
aw. There ale lots of other O
lch iron fields. The water power fl
unlimited, and thousands of S
hese hills have gold, silver, cop "
er, diamonds, etc., so say men o
Tho are in a position to know. o
'aazll exports about 300 million t
ollars worth of rubber annually, c,
nd that resource has merely 81
cen touched. Brazil alone could 81
lpply the world with rubber, f,
offee, sugar, tropical fruits and
otton. Yes, | am glad | know
as it is now-undeveloped and
lightly in potentialities.--a con-
erved country as if by Gods !,
rovidence to feed the millions in o'
orn-out lands like ours are be- fl,
lminp. for We are facinn ahont