The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-09
For the Good of
 the Community

CCIENTIFIC farming in Alabama is O on the upgrade Improved machin- cry is being employed in greater and greater quantities and the effect of it is being felt throughout the state.
 This week a school of instruction in the use of tractors is being conducted at Chil-, dersburg by the Alabama Extension Serv- ice Several manufacturers of tractors have loaned vehicles and experts for dem onstration and instruction purposes, and the farmers of Talladega and several ad- joining counties have been invited and urged to attend the school.
 It is reported that large numbers of farmers are taking advantage of this great opportunity to learn the uses and the operation of tractors and when they have learned the lesson there is no doubt many of them will provide themselves, with this labor and time saving imple- I ment
 Alabama farmers have not always been keen about applying improved methods in their operations, a fact that has retarded the growth of the state in its agricultural development as well as in other lines.
 It is said that one person in every seven in the state of Iowa owns an automobile, and as Iowa is purely an agricultural state, this ratio probably applies to the farmers as well as to the business men. sTheratio in Alabama is about one in 40. The Iowa farmers years ago began agrl- cultural-operations on a scientific basis; Alabama did not. That explains the diff ference.
 Alabama farmers, until the boil weevil forced a change, gave their attention to cotton at 10 to 12 cents pound, following the same methods used by their fathers and their grandfathers the mule, the negro and other slow and expensive ways of planting, cutivating and gathering.
 A good hand and one mule, with neces- sary blows, hoes and similar implements, could raise about five bales of cotton on from 12 to 15 acres of land. Five bales would bring, at 10 cents a pound, S25O. The seed from five bales, valued in those days at around S35 to $40 ton, would net about S100 more, or a total of $350 income for years work.
 Charged against this total income would be the cost of the seed, fertilizers, implements, the feed of the mule, the negro's wages, or his feed and wages, as was more. often the case, the aggregate probably amounting to over S30O leaving DOU or I0SS CO CIl0 ldUQ OWIlCI dS pIOllI Oll his investment in land, mule and imple- mentS.
 In most instances the farmers net profits were nearer zero than $50. That was the old way.
 Then came the boil weevil and put an end to the all-cotton crop Demand for the staple, now greater than the supply, boosted the price, but other conditions also boosted the cost of production and living so that the margin of profit, if any, did not materially increase.
 But Alabama farmers found way te keep their heads above the water line. They went into grain, live stock, poultry and other lines of agricultural endeavor and now, while the value of cotton still is greater than that of any other single crop, it is less than one-third of the total value of all farm products in the state, and that ratio is being rapidly narrowed.
 The introduction of the tractor on Ala bama farms, it is claimed, will increase production per man several times elim- IL. IL q I. N / IL