The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1917-02-03
BEWARE OF The
ONE-CROP SYSTEM!
Why Not Play Safe?

on the program was that deliver
ed by Hon. Bradford Knapp, Chief
Office of Extension Work in the
South, whose discourse in the main
went to show the fallacy of hold
ing to the one crop system, Tegsrd
less Of the temptation due TO high
prices; for, as he showed, along
that path destruction lies.
In beginning his address, Mr..
Knapp pointed out that notwlth
standing high prices on the chief
staples, figures indicate 10 very
material area reducing iD the ma.
jor food producing crops of the
South in 1916. Food and cotton
kept swinging up and in the wind
up of the 1916 cotton crop, debts
contracted at low prices were
Iiquidated with cotton that sold at
high prices. This was factor
greatly favoIiDg the farmer, and
constitutes a popularity that can
not be relied on applying again
during 1917. That he had been
fearing for some months past the
danger Of farmers slipping back
into one'crop dependence, the
speaker said caused him uneasi-
ness, and his pleasant tour of the
South is to awaken the cotton
man to the grave economic error
of not continuing the plan of liv
ing at home by the production of
food for the home and feed for the
stock. He said he is not asking
or advising that we cut the cotton
area, not asking that We produce
less cotton, but only asking that
we sustain the cotton crop by
proper provision of food and feed.
In determining whether to take
another fling at practically al
rice, cotton or sugar cane. the
farmer should first consult with
himself as to the gravity of Che
food situation. Mr.. Knapp said
that be has talked to about five
thousand people at II number Of
Southern points during the last
few weeks, and he regrets to ob
serve that there seems to be a
lack Of appreciation of the true
status Of the food situation.
Some years ago one of the great
thinkers of the South said that no
one crop would ever make a peo.
pie prosperous; no one crop can
constitute permanent, enduring
crop We hear people talking
much about this being the great
est nation and our people the
greatest people on earth. But
unless we mend some of our ways,
we are mighty apt not to be great,
and the holding to the One-crOp
system is surely to be pointed to
as one of the factors that will
work our undoing.
Inquiry into just what the one
crop proposition is will readily
. show us, declared Mr.. Knapp, the
dangers we run in holding TO the
|! practice.
First, one crop is open to crop
or market failures. In 1914, for
illustration, the South raised q
record crop, but the market failed.
In 1916, on the other hand, the
crop brought magnificent price,
but there was little crop. Going
over records of past years 1t is
seen that always whenever there
is q large crop the price is small,
or vice versa.
Unfortunately, there is the ten
dency noted of farmers being &C
tually intoxicated with the cotton
spirit. That ls what the farmer
! really is when he decides to plunge
into cotton. It's a good deal like
gambling on the races. The
wheat farmers of the North, too,
are actuated by similar plugging
disposition at tnlS Time.
Mr.. Knapp said he wants every
cotton producer to say to himself,
and weigh carefully the true i'm.
ports of the words:
"If l this year decide to raise
all cotton, Pm laying a wager
with myself that the boil weevil
will not destroy; that can pro
duce a crop; that If the war stops
| 1t will not matter; and III wager,
also, that the South won't raise q
bumper crop this year."
The inquiry presents itself then,
"Wby not play safei"
After asking himself the above,
Mr.. Knapp said the next query
should be: "What Is 1t that limits
my plan to grow ali cotton aud
buy all suppliesi" But IN such
purchase, let it be remembered
that it is the retail, not Wholesale,
prices that govern -Ex.