The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1920-04-22
TO OVERCOME SHORTAGE
Better Cropping Systems And Inn
proved Implements To Solve Labor
Problem

1t Is stated that the 10000 farm
ers who replied to the questionair
sent out by the Post Office Depart
ment were practically unanimous a
to the scarcity of farm labor and it!
effects on agricultural production.
The South probably still has more
labor than any other section of thi
country, in proportion to the acre.
cultivated and the value of our farm
products. But there is no denying tn,
fact that the South has a shortag,
of farm labor, compared with tn,
past, and of cultivating our crop,
by the methods now in use.
There is much complaint amonf
farmers Of this shortage of labor
and yet this complaint does not tenc
to correct the trouble. There alway.
will be a shortage of farm labor ir
this country, at least so long as pro.
tective tariffs protect other indus
tries, and these industries are able
to pay better wages than the farme,
or farm laboer can make on the
farm. This shortage of farm labo,
will also continue to exist so long rs
better educational facilities, better
living conditiins and more of the
other things which are attractive to
men and women, as well as better
wages, and supplied by the other in
dustries in towns and cities.
Therefore, this shortage of labor
must be met in some other way. 1t
seems almost certain that it can onlv
be met by change in our system of
farming and by different methods of
doing farm work. 1t is true that if is
difficult method of solving the prob
lem, but the getting of more labor is
more than difficult; it is simply i'm
possible under present conditions or
those which can be brought about in
the near future.
Our farming system must be re-
organized and cropping system adop-
ted which will not only require less
man labor, but which will better dis
tribute the labor which we already
have throughout> the entire year. in
stead of over a few months, as is al
ways the case in any one-crop system
OF farming. Moreover, we shah prob
ably be compelled to devote more
land to grazing, especially the less
productive lands; for with labor
scarce it must remain high-priced,
and the cultivation of non-productive
lands with high-priced labor cannot
continue.
But perhaps the best means Of i'm
mediately meeting this shortage of
labor, to some extent at least. is
through the use of better and larger
implements for preparing the lands
and cultivating the crops. This meth
cd has been often pointed out and its
suggestion is easy, but it is not an
easy solution of the problem, how
ever. Our fields are small and irregu-
lar and filled with stumps, drainage
bitches, hillside ditches, clumps of
trees and brush, and other obstruc-
tions to the use of larger labor-saving
implements. But by all odds greater
obstacles to the use of labor-saving
implements are our long-used methods
of cultivation and our well fixed hab-
its, which are always hard to break.
But perhaps the greatest obstacle of
all is that those who direct farm la
Dor in the South are not only them
selves bound down by the same old
habits, but are also unable to teach
the laborers how to use these modern
implements because they have them
selves never operated them. No one
can teach an ignorant man or a ne
gro how to operate an implement
unless he himself konws how to op-
erte 1t. Such laborers cannot be told,
they must be shown.
But the problem must be met and,
as We see it, there is no prospect of
a solution except through rearrange-
ment of our coping system and the
making of conditions such that the
u.s. of lager, labor-saving implements
Will be Practicable There is no use
complaining of labor shortage or
sitting that our cropping system and
methods Of cultivation, particularly
of preparing the land cannot be
changed. More labor will not be avail.
able, and the only possible means of
meeting The shortage is to enable "A
man to do more through better dis
tribution of his labor throughout the
Whole year, and through the use of
larger implements and more power.
The high price of farm labor must
be met and ovccome in exactly the