The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1920-03-18


wagons in every direction are walt
ing (often in the rain) chance to
unload on the warehouse floors. IN
side weighers, warehousemen, auc-
tioneers, buyers, statement carriers
and bookkeepers are working nara
all day to clear the floors and tor
hours nothing can be heard but the
monotonous jargon of the auctloheei
as he cries each pile separately ana
the quick, jerky response of the sue
cessful buyer as he blurts out Malh
it B." And this condition OF Things
is repeated from day to day till the
warehouses close and the buyers
leave. :.
How can we remedy these condl-
tions? First, l would be in favor OF a
regulation among warehousemen or
law, ON our statute books requiring
every warehouse to remain closeo
until at least one month after curing
becomes general, say about the tirst
week in August. This would enaDle
farmers to bulk down their tobacco
so as to get same in the best possible
condition for marketing, and then II
the BUYERS insist on leaving us before
the crop is sold let the farmers hold
their tobacco bulked down in the pack
houses, and when convenient, snip 10
Rocky Mount or Danville and get the
fancy prices now being Iaid on those
markets. Farmers, as 2 rule, can cas-
ily ao this for with the high prices
of cotton and tobacco of the past few
wears most farmers are out OF dept
and are now riding in automobiles
instead Of buggies and ox-carts as in
the olden days Of AGENT cotton, ana
at the mercy of a commission mer-
chant at the ports. And then, why
cannot we have our own native tobac-
c., buyers just as we have cotton buy
ers on every market, who stay with
us from year to year are making a
good living and are On the JOB from
January to January?
1t has always been source OF
wonder to me that so rev OF our
young men have gone into the TO-
bacco buying business in the past
thirty years. They readily become
expert cotton buyers and why they
don't combine the two can't under
stand. They supplement each other
and make a year-round business. 1t
is lust as easy and more convenient
for the farmer to drive his wagon
loads of cotton on the street in front
of the tobacco warehouses as it is TO
drive up Main street, crowded as 1t
usually is with passing automobiles
wagons and motor trucks. The ware
houses are usually near and conven-
lent to the freight stations, and when
tho cotton is sampled and sold to
buyers it is easily delivered ana
weighed at the depot. Both cotton
and tobacco are paid for by check on
a bank. The young men who come
from North Carolina, Virginia and
Kentucky to buy our tobacco are US
ually a splendid set Of men, affable
pleasant and agreeable, with plenty
of "pep and get up" about them, and
I have no prejudices against them
and really like them, but they are
birds of passage and don't stay long
enough with us to prove their real
worth or to inspire our complete con-
fidence. Let us encourage our young
men to learn the tobacco buying bus
mess and then our warehouses can
be kept open till the last pound is
sold without a great rush and hurry.
The early and persistent advocacy
of the crop by the lamented Dawson
put the biggest kind of feather in
the cap of The News and Courier. 1t
surely has been a godsend to this Pee
Dee section. Looking back to the
gloomy days of cent cotton 1 don't
see how we ever could have pulled
through had it not have been for The
News and Courier crop. And then the
'soming and settling among us of such
men as Mr.. Cothran, Geo. Marlborough
the Dickson brothers, Edwards and
Clark, of Mullins; Winn, Of Marion;
Watkins of Dillon and many others
throughout the tobacco belt have add
ed much to the splendid citiz aship
Of our state. Geo. Yarborough&ame
to Mullins many years ago as a young
tobacco buyer He and his boys are
now leading ;warehousemen and sue
|cessful farmers. He has reared and
educated large family, graduating
his children in the colleges of the
State and one of his boys, Lieut..
Geo. H. Marlborough, Jr., a graduate
.of the Citadel, made the supreme
sacrifice on the battlefields of France.
think multiplication of warehouses
is not to the best interests of the to-
bocco business. Most of our ambi-
Itious little towns as soon as they are
incorporated seeing what tobacco has
done for Mullins, Timmonsville and
Lake City, which forty years ago were
barely wide places in the road" and
are now flourishing young cities,
erect warehouses that cannot serve
the farmers as efficiently as the lar
ger markets. 1t would be much better
if all the warehouses in county
could be, concentrated in few cen
tiers in each county and thus the sea-
son for selling could be much length
ened and the foreign buyers kept
with us till all the tobacco could be
sold gradually and without the rush
q rNd hurrv oc OOw In fhie dav of