Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1919-12-25
AGRICULTURE TO
AID MISSIONARY
LAND WOULD NOT BRING EIGHT
CENTS AN AcRE-NoW
VALUABLE.
IMPROVED COTTON OUTPUT.
Sturdy Variety Of Cotton Produces
Four Bales Where Only One
Produced by Natives.
chrIstianizing India by Solving Farm
Problems.


Sam Higginbottom is back from In
dia ON years furlough. The noted
missionary arrived only a few days
ago and is already on the job IN this
country getting himself and other peo-
pie ready so that he can return to his
charge at the mission farm, Ewing
Christian College, Allahabad, India, 4
year from now with very good chance
of pushing his great work still further
along the road TO success.
Higginbottom-he SHES at the appel
lation Of professor or other honorary
title-is WeIshman By birth, and an
American by education, with terms at
Amherst, Princeton, and Ohio State
University to establish his claim to
the latter distinction. He is also a
missionary of the Presbyterian For
eigll Board. His work in India has
been of the greatest Importance. for Il
has proved TO India and to the world
that one of the ways to reach the
heart and soul of that great country
Is by helping it in the solution of its
most difficult problem, a problem not
only economic but spiritual and social
as well--how to make agriculture
which IS the mainstay of the country,
more sure and more easy for the III
habitants
Their Daily Bread.
Before several New York congrega-
tions last Sunday, Higgineottom told
of his attempts TO make the churches
of India self-supporting de said:
1--WE discovered that we must supple
lnent eur teaching in that land Of
famine to extend beyond the reciting
of the Lords prayer in which occurs
the petition Give us this day our
daily bread" When we say that the
natives by their primitive methods of
farming were only getting six or eight
bushels of wheat and only one bale OF
poor grade cotton an acre we decided
that the permanent success of our mis-
sonary projects In that country de-
pended upon our ability in helping this
Lord answer the daily bread prayer
of the people. This we have IN a
measure done but not to the extent
that some of my friends have report
ed Some of these have come to our
demonstration farm and looked at the
things with rose-colored glasses and
reported as accomplished the things
we hoped to accomplish"
Mr.. Higginbottom said that in Sc
lecting farm for demonstration pur--
poses he purposely picked land for
which the natives would not pay rental
of eight cent per acre per year. By
the use of scientific farming methods
and equipment he demonstrated that
twenty bushels of wheat could be rails
ed on that land where native farmers
on better land were raising crop Of
only six to eight bushels
improved Cotton Output.
BY Introducing sturdy variety of
farmers how to get four bales of cotton
per acre which has a market value of
double that of the old variety of which
the farmers could get only one bale
per acre. He is now working ON the
problem of substituting some valuable
crop to be grown on the land which
formerly was used TO produce opium,
now prohibited by the government.
He said that he expected to be able
to demonstrate that sugar cane or
some other valuable produce could
be raised on this land
While in this country he will also
study the water systems and deep
drilling machinery so that the drinking
water supply of India may be increas-
ed and conserved. One attempt to gee
deep drilling machinery during the war
resulted in it's being Communicated by
the government to help win the war.
The rajah who paid for it was enthu-
siastic in his support of the British
government and expressed his pleas
ure that the machinery was used in
that way.
In all this program of practical mis-
sionary work the gospel of Christ Is
regularly preached andssBible classes
are conducted for all the students
daily