The Parisian. (Paris, Tenn.) 1907-1962, 1919-06-13
M'REE ADDRESSES
FELLOW FARMERS
New Commissioner of Agriculture
Calls To Tennesseans; Work
And Cooperation.

'HlS$IoHeI VI agriculture, has losuSu
he following stirring address:
ITO the Farmers of Tennessee:
81 am addressing this letter as the
new commissioner to the agricultu
raj interests of our great state.
"A state or nation tina. has di-
yeraified and intelligently conducted
agricultural system is prosperous.
Prosperity and rappine,s Of ma..kind
are based upon what conca from the
soil.
"Now, my fellow farmers. at the
close Of this great world war we
realize as never before the tremen-
dous value of agriculture, While
food may not have won the war, yet
food was vital factor.
Tennessee is Il state of infinite
variety in its agricultural pcsslbili-
ties. 1t is a state that can produce
wheat, corn, grasses, tobacco ard
cotton.
There is not a county in Tennes-
see where live stock may not be sue
cessfully and proftably grown. Our
soil is productive and yet it is so
varied that treatment which might
be useful TO one section is useless for
another. Some of our lands are
rich in certain elements of plant food
and deficient in others.
within the last generation our
people have felt that agricultural ed
ucation has been neglected. A re-
spouse to this feeling is determine
ton to bring behind the pillow and
into the granary and into the home
intelligent action. Hitherto land
has been farmed in may cases where
its fertility decreased each succeed
ing year. Land must be farmed so
that it is richer in one generation
than it was in the preceding. One
is never too old or too young to
learn something new about the pro-
ducing qualities of our soil.
81 wish to call the attention of
the great farming masses of our state
at the close of the great war to the
Importance of closer cooperation and
better system of organization. We
must work for better markets and
cheaper transportation, that we may
get results not only for ourselves,
but for all who are connected with
our farming interests. The demands
upon the American farmer are great
err than ever before. Our big broth
ers across the water are not only
looking to US, but are depending up
on the farmers of these United Sta
ties for bread and for meat. With
such conditions it behooves you as
farmers to produce more bushels of
wheat and corn and larger amount
Of live stock than you have ever pro-
duced before, and in order to do that
we must have cooperation, and with
the help of the federal and state
governments we can not only dou-
BILE, but, in my opinion, treble our
production. l am of the opinion
that every county should have an ag-
ricultural association or a county a.
gent, and be in touch with the ex-
periencc furnished by the general
government and by the state univer-
sity. Our agricultural experiment
stations should draw people from the
entire district that they may be loca-
ted in
There is great era ahead for
the farmers of Tennessee if they go
forward along the lines of progress
towards more intelligent and clos
err appreciation of the needs of the
soil and of those things that must be
done in order to reward them fully
for their labor.
"Now, before closing this letter, l
wish to appeal to the farmers espe-
cially to organize, so that in our CO.
operation we can have perfect team
work in an united effort to produce
the greatest wealth and equitable dis
triEution of the same so that the
great body of consumers who are I'M
organized may reap the greatest ben
efits. In our efforts to give the
great democratic masses of our pop
ulation square deal we invite the
bankers, merchants and all classes of
business men to join US in a set pur-
pose to make the people of Tonnes
see the happiest and most prosperous
of any state in the Union.
LAS your servant and commission
er Of agriculture it is my desire and
my intention to visit every county in
the state and to give you my entire
time as your servant, and whatever
practical experience or information
that | may have you shall have the
benefit of it, want to go into your
homes, on your farms, and aid and
assist you in every way possible.
Command me. | am,
Yours truly,
"F. NJ. McRee, Commissioner.