The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-11
GREATER ACREAGE IS NOT THE METHOD
 ID INCREASE CROPS
w. w. Morrison Discusses Conditions As He Finds Them in Cotton
 Section

W W. Morrison of New orleans, the well-known authority on cotton eco- monies spent yesterday in NBirmingham 1 What the world needs is a steady in.
 crease in quantity production said MT.
 Morrison yesterday afternoon There is
 great difference between value produc- ton and quantity production. In fact.
 value production rarely ever measures
 the4real wealth of nation. while a na- tion's economic power is almost entirely
 dependent on the volume produced by it's factories and its fields
 We have a striking illustration of how
 deceptive value production can be in pres ent-day conditions. Thes price of labor i and value production have been going up lwhile quantity production has been going down It is clear that this process must ultimately lead to economic ruin. "As the south produces something more than one-third of the food of the nation,
 all the cotton and the greater part of the
 wool. it easily occupies a place of the first importance in it's relation to this ur- gent need of the world for an increase
 in the output of all the prime necessities of life.
 This responsibility rests almost entirely
 upon the agricultural interest How is the responsibility to be adequately met
 under existing labor conditions? That is the problem which the agricultural in terest is called upon Co solve. Its solu- ton vitally concerns, not only the peo- pie of the south. but practically the peo- pie of every country in the world An increase in the output can not be secured by increasing the average Fifty years of experience has proven that to
 be an absolute fallacy. As a ma tier of fact insufficient labor and an increase
 in acreage means reduced production, This is logical and it has been uniforI.ly sustained by the records covering very many years.
 .The only way the south can hope to secure this increase in her agricultural output is to sharply reduce the acreage in all crops and bend every energy to- wards increasing the output per acre In other words. it is through intensive ctl- tivation alone that we can reasonably ex- pect increased production to be brought about
 Tt is well to remember that the call of the world for steady increase in quan- tity production applies to all the other crops grown in the south. as we'll as to cotton. Through intensive farming there is sufficient laborSin the south to pro duce all the food and all the cotton the world needs that is the south's propor- tion of it. But there is not sufficient if this labor is spread out over a vastly extended area and the crops are subject to the indifferent cultivation which such system entails,
 1T have just completed a rather inti- mate investigation as to how the land lord and the laborer were regarding these most important questions. To adequately estimate the situation it is necessary to. sharply differentiate between this atti- tude of the landlord and of the labo~er. This was not necessary in the past but, the independence of the laborer makes it essentially so today.
 'As it relates, particularly, to cotton. found the disposition among the land lords to increase the acreage this year not nearly so marked as it was sixty days ago. Most of them realize that curing sufficient labor to cultivate and Harvest a. crop is far more uncertain now than it appeared to be at the time stated.
 There is a growing reluctance on The part of the planters to pay the his-- wages which cotton labor is commanGsag and take the chance of having the crop drastically mnimized by insects. partic- ularly by the boil weevil. Many of them knew from experience that double the current prices would not really pay the cost of production under such a reduced yield. It is certainly the biggest kind of a risk.
 q found everywhere a quiet but grow ing apprehension that the pink bollw.~m may spread further. Many already have it in their minds to permanently abandon the growing of cotton on this accc;fnt. Should the worm appear at several points t6Hhe eastward. as it has done in Texas and Louisiana, it would immediately De- come a tremendous factor. and it is ob- vious that the worlds supply of cotton wOlld be in peffl -