The Little River news., 1919-12-20
lT IS TOO EXPENSIVE
 TO BUY FEED STUFFS
Doctor Butler Decries One-CrOp Sys- tenn at a Meeting i'll Little
 Rock.

Little Rock Dec. 1 Arkansas bus i mess men should use their influence to induce the farmers to raise their own food and feed stuffs again this year for the simple reason that it is good business policy.
 This was one of the points emphas ized by Dr. Tait Butler of Memphis, editor of the Progressive Farmer, the South's leading agricultural publica- tion, in his address at the weekly luncheon of the Little Rock Board of Commerce yesterday noon.
 ''I have had many big planters sit 1 down with a pencil and paper and figure it out for me that they could make money by raising nothing but cotton and by buying their hay, corn and other feeds" said Dr, Butler.
 They proved this to their own sat isfaction but it won't work out. The extra charges in shipping the feed, if it is shipped any great distance, mount up alarmingly. If car of hay is shiped a considerable distance, the freight charges will double the origin al cost of the hay On corn, the freight and other costs of handling will amount to 25 to 30 cents bushel, The Arkansas farmer cannot afford to pay those prices, no matter how hi gh the price of cotton
 But this is only one phase. If we produce big crop of cotton it must be marketed slowly. If the South puts all it's cotton crop on to the mar ket as soon as it is gathered, the pro- ducers are at the buyers mercy. The Southern cotton producers cannot control the marketing of their cotton unless they are provided with their own food and feed stuffs.
 Then there is the feature of rob- ping the soil, which is one of the greatest evils of the one-crop system. The one crop system has been a fail ure wherever it has been tried and tHlS IS true Ol Oluor crops as well as cotton.
 Danger Greater Than This,
 Dr. Butler said that there is greater danger than ever before that the South will return to the one-crop sys- tenn, because of the fact that the price of cotton is relatively higher than that of her products. But even with this condition it does not pay to raise nothing but cotton and buy food, he declared. However, he said that if the farmers will raise their own food and feed there need be no fear of pro ducing too much cotton.
 He told of farmer whom he knew who. 15 years ago, produced 166 bales of cotton on $50 acres Last year he produced 1SS bales fom 250 acres. He had raised P more bales of cotton on 400 acles less.
 In the intervening 15 years the man had worked on the basic idea of build ing up his soil with live stock. Dr. Butler said, He had made his land vastly more fertile and at the same time increased his cotton production and his profits. In addition to his cotton this farmer last year sold $12,- 900 worth of live stock from his farm
 DeplOreS Attack in Farm Prices.
 pr. Butler deplored the efforts to bring down the price of farm pro- ducts. He declared that this is con trary to the interests of 90 per cent of the people. He said that 90 per cent are making more money and are more prosperous than ever before. Labor, he said, is getting from three to four times as much as it ever re- ceived before, while itsliving cost has been no more than doubled Busi- ness men in general he said are more prosperous than ever before and he declared that these conditions largely are due to the good prices the farmer is receiving for his products. The only class that has suffered greatly he said, is the relatively small class of sallaried men who receive from $100C to $3,000 a year He declared that every effort to bring down prices al ways hit the farmer first and that this is an injustice.
 Business Men and Farmers,
 pr. Butler said that the business men can best aid the farmer by help ing in organizing and in developing leaders among the farmers. He said that the business man has nothing tc, fear from organization of the farmers because the tendency of farmers or EanizatiOns now is toward cOnserva- tism and getting away from radical leadership. The most important and powerful farmers organizations he said have cooperative marketing as their principal object, They have gotten away from the idea of trying