The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1918-12-06
Editor Sentinel

GcUIlUcl.-
Permit me, please, to make som'
observations through the columns O.
your paper about farming condition.
in Mississippi and particularly in thi
section and still more particularly il
Grenada county. We. have heard {
great deal of talk about what needed
to be done on our farms during thu
lost dozen years and volumes have
been written on the subject. / CUES.
there are but few who would say thai
all this has not borne some good fruit
But certainly it is true that while
there has been some farm progress
the business f farming has not kept
pace with the developments of Other
lines of activities.
We have wasted energy enough in
our methods of farm business (anC
learning that farming is a business
but putting into practice what we
learn) to make us see the necessity to
adopt different order Of procedure
We are pulling and tugging at the
base of the mountain, as it were,
when shorter and more convenient
road leads around the mountain
We suffer our selves to make a noun
tain out of successful farming when
as a matter of fact it is the shortest
and easiest route for the farmer to
travel 1t is the one nature intended
he should travel. We have been max
ing a pretense of late years of trying
to be progressive, but most of our ef-
forts in that direction remind me of
the man who undertook to lift him
self over the fence by his own boot
straps.
Many of rs have thoughtwe were
following scientific methods in the
last few years, but our efforts in this
respect call to mind the subject upon
which the vaccine did not "take." F."
Whether we are responsible for the
nOn-taking or whether it has been be-
cause of those who have been doing
the administering of scientific" farm
ing did not have good points" and
were not throughly skilled in using
even what they had, is matter of
useless speculation in this article.
Perhaps should say, however, that
we ought not to keep repeating an er-
rOr.i
Common sense, if we will just stop
and give it sway, will make us know
that We cannot continue much longer
in the path we are now following. Of
big prices for cotton and cot
ton Seed and other things that the
farmer raises may keep things BOOM
ing for a few years. longer, but while,
raising this stuff for market, most of
rs are impover:shing our lands and
,hus destroying the very bed rock of
Earrh prosperity No farming people
.an have any permanent success who
10 not make the care of their lands
he first consideration in their farm
business. What does it count if per-
:hance a farmer makes a crop where
~ he is enabled to put 500. in the
'ank If the lands which produce the
me thousand dollars are depleted 10
Der cent by the crops. In ten years
IN this basis the productive capacity
# the farm will be gone.
Farm renovation needs to be made
he first thing with our farmers. Ma
ure has wisely provided for the re-
uvenatiOn Of our farm lands if we
7ill but follow its teachings. Our
ands can be kept young, they can be |!
ept fresh, by a rotation Of crops and |
y the cultivation of those crops |
fi1ich leaves the soil better than when |
hey were planted in it. Every piece |
+ corn should be sown in soy beans.
'hese beans are not only the very
est of fertilizers but they are fine
tock feed. They beat the ordinary
cas- all out Of hollow, Then there is
'spedeza which can not be beat for
ay and better still, it leaves the soil
realty enrichened. Besides this, les
edeza brings a ready price and with
le seed it is a fine money crop. The
eed alone saved from a lespedeza
eld will pay for its planting and har-
estlng. 1t beats cotton even at 80
ents. Our people must give more at
'ntDn to the care of our soil. will
ager that fully one fourth of the
nd that is cultivated in Grenada
'unty is so impoverished by the one
'oP loea and by the lack of care for !
'e SON that it does not pay the actual [
,st of cultivation. ;
we must look further ahead than
he year or even two years. Let rs |
st acquainted with what we need to
and think less about what some
by else is not doing for us. or is
,eplng us form doing. There is a II
OF hobgoblin about the old gag
at everybody else is depressing the T,
rmer: The farmer is depressing {
mself far more than anybody else :
depressing him.
With the care of the soil and with
e raising of feed stuff naturally !